I love getting questions, they are like candy to me.  I guess it is just the way God chose to wire me.  In any case I received this particular question early this week.  I thought I would share both the question and my answer with you today.  I am a bit long winded, so if you can’t handle the entire post feel free to jump to the last paragraph of my response to get the answer to their question.

Q:  A few weeks ago, a guest speaker did an altar call after his message. He asked for people that don’t  know Jesus to come forward but also people that are backslidden.  As born-again believers our heart is good, our sins are forgiven and we can’t ask Jesus to come in our lives again.  My question is: Is it biblical correct to ask” backslidden” people to come forward in an altar call?

A:

Let me start off by addressing the idea or concept of an Altar Call.  Fair warning, but I am about to mess with your traditions.  You will not find the idea of an altar call anywhere in the Bible.  The altar call, as you and I would think of it, really didn’t come into practice until the beginning of the 19^th century.  Up until that point preachers would simply preach the Word and make a call to repentance (Acts 2 style).  Conversion would take place in the hearts of those in the audience who repented and believed the preached Word of God.  Eventually the congregation could identify those who were ‘truly converted’ simply by the objective fruits in the believer’s life (i.e. a confession of faith, seeking baptism, a growing love for God and the brethren, increasing in obedience to God’s Word, et cetera).

As the 19^th century rolled in popular preachers wanted some method of determining whom, and how many of their listeners had been converted.  This would be the beginning of what we would understand as the ‘Altar Call’.  In the 1830s the altar call gained mainstream popularity with the preaching of Charles Finney, who used the tactic as part of his “new measures” techniques.  These were practices designed to elicit a response from his listeners.  According to Finney, the idea was to have the listener make one step that would identify him with the people of God.  Finney’s methods have since gained such widespread acceptance and popularity that they are all but universally practiced in the evangelical world.

One of the problems that arose from Finney’s teachings and methods was the overemphasis on the individual’s response, such that it ended up redefining salvation as simply a choice one makes.  Thus the individual’s assurance of salvation tended to be based on their decision as opposed to being founded on repentance and faith in Christ’s completed work.  Salvation merely became walking an aisle, making a decision, and saying a prayer.  In other words the steps they took, whether a prayer or walking the aisle, as opposed to faith in God’s grace, became the thing that identified them with the people of God.  You can still see the results of Finney’s philosophy today.  If you have ever inquired if someone was a Christian and they responded, “Sure, when I was younger I (Pick one or more -> walked the aisle, said the prayer, made a decision)” you have witnessed this problem first hand.  A decision apart from a transformed life does not characterize a Christian, but rather a false convert (Matt 7:16-20).

I share all this with you simply because it leads nicely into the concept of a backslidden Christian.  Since backsliding is a word only found in the Old Testament it would be advisable to define what one means when they refer to a New Testament Christian as backslidden.  Some define a backslidden Christian as a believer living in a season of spiritual recession, dullness, and disobedience.  Others refer to a person as backslidden whom has professed faith in Christ, yet is indifferent to the fact they continue to live in perpetual disobedience and willful rebellion.  The former, I believe, is a biblical description of a true believer that is backsliding, the latter is a description of a false convert.

All believers go through times when they lack evidences of spiritual growth and are set back because of their sin.  However, the Christian life should ultimately be a changed one and the trajectory of a believer should be, over time, towards holiness and spiritual growth.  We would have every reason to question a person who claims to be a believer yet chooses to live a lifestyle that says otherwise.  Yes, a true Christian who falls back into sin is still saved, but at the same time a person who willfully lives a life controlled and dominated by sin is not truly a Christian.  The Bible tells us there will be some who will discover too late that they had deceived themselves into believing they were something they were not (Matt 7:21-23).

This leads to what I believe is the heart of your question.  What should our response be to fellow believers who are backslidden?  When it comes to unbelievers (and I lump false converts in here as well) we already understand our obligation is to call them to repentance of their unbelief and sin, and to put their faith in Christ.  In like fashion, with a backslidden Christian, we are to call them to repentance and faith.  For the unbeliever, theirs is a repentance that leads to salvation (2 Cor 7:10) and a faith in Christ’s completed work (Rom 10:8-10).  For the backslidden, theirs is a repentance in keeping with salvation (Rev 2:5) and a faith in God’s promise to forgive them and cleans them of their sins (1 John 1:8-9).  The “coming forward” in an altar call, in and of its self, is neither scriptural nor unscriptural.  Where it would become unscriptural is if the individual making the call gave the impression that forgiveness and salvation were contingent on anything other than God’s magnificent mercy and grace.  I hope this answers your question.