On "Invitations"

Yesterday I enjoyed eating lunch with a brother in Christ who does not describe himself as a Calvinist. In our pleasant conversation, the issue of altar calls came up. I recently sent the following to him in an email and thought it worth putting on the blog as well. I said:

Tonight I was reflecting on the issue of "invitations" that came up just after our lunch conversation. I wanted to mention that the term "invitation" need not connote "altar call." I have no complaints against altar calls as such. I only have the exact same concerns that you have regarding manipulative altar calls. However, I do think issuing altar calls should be optional for each preacher or church leader. While they should never hesitate to give hearty invitations for the listeners to come to Christ, this need not always issue in a plea to come forward. In other words, preachers should not be under any legalistic obligation to give altar calls. Neither should anyone be smeared or besmirched for giving altar calls.

Calvinists who complain against altar calls should only be concerned about the manipulative sort. Or, they might legitimately complain against others who wish to mandate that they give altar calls. Whether one gives an altar call or not, there should be strong pleas and invitations to come to Christ throughout a scriptural exposition, and not merely at the end as a sort of homiletical punctuation mark. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly makes that point in his book on preaching (see Preaching & Preachers [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972], p. 282.).

My concern about fellow Calvinists is not so much their rejection of altar calls. I am more concerned about their failure to give miserable and despairing sinners assurance that God truly wills their salvation, and that by the death and universal grant of an all-sufficient Saviour. I am concerned that they may hesitate to give passionate pleas and hearty invitations because they may not be sure themselves that God really wishes to save all of their hearers. If that is in the back of their minds, then they have a distorted vision of God as a result of their warped perception of Calvinism. That's a sure sign that the revealed will of God in the gospel has been diminished or entirely eclipsed by a speculative decretal emphasis in their theology.