[Editor’s Note: Not all Calvinists oppose the concept and practice of a sinner’s prayer, and the article eventually acknowledges that though it can often sound like it is talking about Calvinists generally. It is also important to not that there may be Arminians who disagree with the concept and practice of a sinner’s prayer, though certain distinctively Calvinistic doctrines would not play into their disagreement. Inclusion of material on this website does not necessarily imply agreement with the material posted or approval of the author’s theology. We allow for a variety of Arminian viewpoints to be expressed by individual authors and do not seek to present only one Arminian voice, but to serve as a resource library that houses an abundance of materials from Arminian authors, who represent their own views.]
An additional manifestation of Calvinism upon evangelism is a Calvinist’s steadfast rejection of a “Gospel Invitation” or “Altar Call.” In fact, Calvinists can become quite hostile toward a non-Calvinist’s method of evangelism, particularly in the way that it presumes human free-will.
The ministerial practice of extending invitations through what is commonly referred to as an “Altar Call,” invites the unsaved to publicly pray to receive Jesus Christ into their heart and become saved. From the Calvinist perspective, though, such a practice necessarily results in a theology of “decisional regeneration,” whereby a decision for Christ results in salvation, thus placing the matter of salvation within the power of human choice, when yet in Calvinism, elect people are total haters of God until regenerated by an Irresistible Grace. Therefore, Calvinists have a theological pre-commitment to reject giving a gospel invitation.
Whereas sanctification is a process over time, whereby the Holy Spirit develops the believer into greater spiritual growth through a deeper relationship with God, salvation is instantaneous, representing a point in time when a person goes from lost to saved, and judged to redeemed, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (1st Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:13)
Ephesians 1:13-14: “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
What do Calvinists believe?
R.C. Sproul: “Birth is a one-time experience. It may be celebrated but not repeated. It is a decisive moment of transition. A person is either born or not yet born. So it is with spiritual rebirth.”535
R.C. Sproul: “Our sanctification begins the moment we have faith and are justified. We must remember that a justified person is a changed person. One who has real faith is regenerate and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.”536
Our reply:
So, in as much as there is a moment in time when a person becomes sealed in Christ, regenerated and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, there is a moment in time when a person goes from lost to saved, and then on the path to sanctification. (Legalism results when there is a conflation of salvation with sanctification, so that a certain standard of “works” defines salvation.) The role of an evangelist is essentially, then, a middle-man, placing two parties together—the lost sinner and a willing God who stands ready, willing and able to forgive them and bestow eternal life. The Bible verses cited in support of a gospel invitation are as follows:
Matthew 11:28: “‘Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’”
John 14:23: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.’”
Acts 2:37-38: “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
Revelation 3:20: “‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.’”
This confirms that the destination of God is within the believer:
1st Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
What do Calvinists believe?
Jeff Noblit: “The work of praying a ‘sinner’s prayer’ is not salvation. It can become a silly superstition and nothing more than a sacrament in Baptist clothes.”537
Our reply:
So, Calvinists typically hold that the notion of “praying to receive Christ” is not an authentic act resulting in salvation. Ironically, though, some Calvinists consider one’s decision to convert to Calvinistic theology as a form of “salvation within salvation.”538 So, in Calvinism, salvation is generally not something you do to receive, such as, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31), but something you passively receive, in terms of a secret regeneration, resulting in faith and repentance, occurring at a time when you are unaware, then commencing a process of sanctification which helps to convince the Calvinist that they were secretly drafted into an election from eternity past. Therefore, salvation in Calvinism is a matter of self-discovery, in terms of coming to discover one’s place within divine providence as one of Calvinism’s “elect.”
An important thing to remember is that while salvation is free, discipleship is costly. Salvation is a gift for the guilty, simply at the asking, that is, God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ in terms of what He did for each of us at Calvary so that anyone can come to Jesus and be saved. So, while salvation involves Christ’s sacrifice, discipleship involves our own sacrifice, and when salvation is conflated with discipleship, Legalism necessarily follows.539
What do Calvinists believe?
J.I. Packer: “…the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message.…we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence ‘at the door of our hearts’ for us to let them in.”540
James White: “Jesus does not seek to ‘woo’ them to a ‘freewill decision,’ nor does He strike up a lengthy invitation hymn and try to overcome their stubborn rejection of truth through an emotional appeal.”541
Our reply:
Although gospel invitations are opposed by many Calvinists, it does not reflect the views of all Calvinists. Ironically, though, Calvinists who claim that Calvinists are evangelists, by citing certain famous Calvinists, nonetheless sometimes criticize the evangelistic methods of those same evangelical Calvinists when giving invitations to the unsaved:
Charles Spurgeon: “Some of my Brethren are greatly scandalized by the general invitations which I am in the habit of giving to sinners, as sinners. Some of them go the length of asserting that there are no universal invitations in the Word of God.”542
Charles Spurgeon: “I further believe, although certain persons deny it, that the ‘influence of fear’ is to be exercised over the minds of men, and that it ought to operate upon the mind of the preacher himself.”543
Charles Spurgeon: “I know the Lord has blessed my appeals to all sorts of sinners and none shall stop me in giving free invitations as long as I find them in this Book. And I do cry with Peter this morning to this vast assembly, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus. For the promise is unto you and to your children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.’”544
Perhaps the reason why many Calvinists reject an “Altar Call,” “Gospel Invitation” and “Sinner’s Prayer” is because they do not believe God wants everyone to be saved. In other words, why give someone a choice to be saved when God hasn’t given everyone that same opportunity? Remember that a Limited Atonement, as per Calvinism, guarantees that only a select few have any opportunity for salvation.
If Calvinists refuse to give gospel invitations to the lost on the grounds that the lost may not really mean it, then consider an analogy of wedding vows. While the Bible may not provide explicit instructions on wedding vows, we nonetheless still do take wedding vows, and we could argue that since 50% of all marriages end in divorce, 50% of the people aren’t keeping their wedding vows so let’s stop doing wedding vows altogether because some obviously don’t mean it and are not keeping it. Of course, that is simply an example of the proverbial “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” Has anyone ever heard a preacher say, “Well, I just don’t know if I ought to lead them in their wedding vows because I don’t know if they really mean it”? So, if pastors are still willing to lead couples in their wedding vows, not knowing whether they will ultimately keep it, why should pastors be reluctant to lead a lost sinner in a gospel invitation, not knowing whether they will ultimately keep it?
What do Calvinists believe?
Paul Washer: “One convention that I know of came to the conclusion that 60% of all its converts never attended church and their answer for the malady was we have to do a better job in discipleship. No, Jesus—His sheep—they hear His voice and they follow Him, whether you disciple them or not.”545
Our reply:
In other words, discipleship isn’t going to make any difference to change the outcome since what’s really needed is an Irresistible Grace for the ones who are secretly elect. The Calvinist opposition to a gospel invitation or “Altar Call” is to just let Irresistible Grace take its course.
What do Calvinists believe?
Paul Washer: “We deal five minutes with a person on their conversion and then spend fifty years trying to disciple a goat into a sheep. I’m not saying this because I’m an angry person; I’m saying this because I’m angry because countless people are deceived.”546
Our reply:
How does Paul Washer know who is an alleged non-elect “goat” since Calvinists claim they don’t know the identities of the secret elect and non-elect? Also, if according to Calvinism, the elect will be saved, no matter what, and the non-elect are going to Hell, no matter what, then why is he so concerned—and even “angry”—about whether the alleged non-elect are temporarily deceived into thinking they have the hope of believing in Christ? The real source of anger appears to be against a competing Christian theology (“Arminianism”) that teaches that Jesus died for everyone so that anyone can believe in Him and become saved. Calvinism tries to put a restriction on all of that, and then justifies it by saying they are just concerned about the eternity of the non-elect, which cannot be changed anyway—at least according to their theology.
What do Calvinists believe?
Paul Washer: “Now I want to give you a biblical alternative to ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.’ What about, instead, this modern mantra should be replaced by a proclamation of who God is.”547
Our reply:
In other words, Calvinists don’t believe that God loves everyone and has a wonderful plan and purpose for their life. So, Calvinists end up replacing a loving God with an angry God, and then when Calvinists try to emulate their angry God, they themselves become angry. Life follows doctrine, as we tend to become more like the type of God that we believe.
What do Calvinists believe?
Paul Washer: “It is not this flu shot mentality of an invitation of the gospel. We call men to repent and believe, and if they repent and believe, truly, in that moment, they are saved, in that moment, but the evidence is more than just the sincerity of a prayer. It is the continuation of the working of God in their life through sanctification.”548
Paul Washer: “In other words, the evidence of justification by faith is the ongoing work of sanctification through the Holy Spirit.”549
Our reply:
Calvinists are upset that people would look to a “decision for Christ”—and its sincerity—as a basis for security (which Calvinists deem “decisional regeneration”), insisting that a heart which is “deceitfully wicked cannot define a degree of sincerity,” but then Calvinists simply replace that formula with trusting in something else: “Do you hate sin?” “Is there any fruit in your life?” “Is there a new desire to seek Him”? But, using the Calvinist’s own logic, how can a heart which is “deceitfully wicked” determine the sincerity of those “evidences,” either? In the end, Calvinism is prone to Legalism because Calvinists look to the evidences of “works” to convince themselves that they are correct to pretend to be secretly elect.
In Calvinism, salvation is about presuming and convincing themselves, by the evidence of their works, that they have been secretly drafted from eternity. But, the Bible never states that we are to presume upon being secretly chosen, but instead place our trust in Christ, and frankly, that’s what the “Sinner’s Prayer” does, as it’s a confession and profession of faith in God. Indeed, in non-Calvinism, salvation is about believing in the promises of God, whereas in Calvinism, salvation is about presuming to having been secretly chosen—and having enough works to warrant the presumption, or in other words, looking to “evidences” of sanctification that might support a presumption of special election.
What do Calvinists believe?
Mark Kielar: “You can’t stand there stagnant in disputing your conversion or your election, if you’re sincere. Just get down to repenting and believing. Cry to God for converting grace. And stick to the things that God has revealed to you, because as Deuteronomy 29:29 puts it: ‘The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.’”550
- James Kennedy: “Are you tired of the emptiness and purposelessness of your life? Are you tired of the filthy rags of your own righteousness? Would you trust in someone else other than yourself? Then look to the cross of Christ. Place your trust in him. Ask him to come in and be born in you today. For Jesus came into the world from glory to give us second birth because we must—we MUST—be born again.”551
John MacArthur: “I walked over to his bed, and I took his hand, and he said to me, he said, ‘I don’t want to die, and I know if I do, I’m going to go to Hell. I am going to go to Hell. What can I do?’ I said, ‘Robert, you can’t do anything, but you can pound on your chest like the Publican in Luke 18, and say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” That’s all a sinner can do. He can’t pray a magic prayer. He can’t pray a magic formula. He can’t take these three steps. You plead for Heaven’s divine grace.”552
Our reply:
So, the irony is that Calvinists actually do believe in a “Sinner’s Prayer”, differing only in that Calvinists instruct people to pray for “Irresistible Grace” (termed as “converting grace” and “divine grace”), in which the sinner asks God to regenerate them as “Born Again.” Yet, how is that unlike what Calvinists deride as “Decisional Regeneration” since pounding one’s chest and pleading and praying for Irresistible Grace also similarly involves a lost sinner’s decision to do so?
R.C. Sproul: “The unregenerate person must be regenerated before he has any desire for God.”553
So, instead of telling the lost sinner to turn to Jesus in faith, like what Paul said at Acts 16:31, Calvinists instruct the lost sinner to beg God for Irresistible Grace, even though according to Calvinism, they can’t possess that desire unless they unknowingly, already were secretly regenerated with an Irresistible Grace. Also notice the contrast between what MacArthur suggests versus what the apostle Paul outlined:
Acts 16:29-34: “And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.”
Paul could have said everything John MacArthur said, but he didn’t. Why? That’s what Calvinists must explain. In other words, why didn’t Paul rant against “magic prayers,” ranting that man can’t positively respond to the gospel out of his own free-will (on the grounds that he is a “dead rebel sinner” and a “total hater of God”) and thus needs to pray for “Converting Grace” to first be made Born Again in order to believe in Christ?
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 10:8-17: “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’ However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
What’s wrong with telling a lost soul exactly what the apostle Paul just stated? Because Calvinists will say that any gospel which “dumbs down the depravity of man” is a “wicked gospel” that “dooms” men’s souls to Hell, as if the Calvinist doctrines of Unconditional Reprobation and a Limited Atonement wouldn’t already do that. Anyway, whenever anyone claims that Calvinism is harmless, and people should focus on other things, show them this. Calvinists don’t believe that God loves everyone, or that God gives everyone a choice to be saved, but rather that faith is the gift of Irresistible Grace so that salvation is not something you decide to choose but rather is passively and unconsciously given, if you are lucky to be “elect,” though Calvinists don’t use the word “luck.”
R.C. Sproul: “In his inscrutable, mysterious will, God chooses for reasons known only to himself.”554
So, in the end, Calvinists are left claiming that they do not have the answer but they know it’s not “luck,” and to tell lost sinners to pray for Irresistible Grace, even though they can’t possess such a desire without already secretly having Irresistible Grace.
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535 Chosen By God (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1986), 117.
536 What is Reformed Theology? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), 71.
537 A Southern Baptist Dialogue: Calvinism (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2008), 98, emphasis mine.
538 One Calvinist stated in a message forum at OldTruth.com: “A wonderful friend of our family once commented that coming to understand the Doctrines of Grace was akin to a type of salvation within salvation.”
539 There is a distinction between a “Lordship” doctrine in sanctification vs. “Lordship” doctrine in justification.
540 Introductory Essay to John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ,
http://www.all-of-grace.org/pub/others/deathofdeath.html.
541 Debating Calvinism (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2004), 121-122.
542 Charles Spurgeon, The Silver Trumpet, 1861.
543 Charles Spurgeon, How to Win Souls for Christ.
544 Ibid.
545 PAUL WASHER on Examining the Sinners Prayer, 5:14-5:36, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuNUXc2Hoao.
546 Ibid., 6:09-6:26.
547 Ibid., 9:03-9:19.
548 Ibid., 17:55-18:23.
549 Ibid., 24:00-24:07.
550 How Do I Know If I’m One of God’s Elect?, 8:27-8:59, emphasis mine.
551 Why I Believe (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1980), 140, emphasis mine.
552 John MacArthur: Does the Doctrine of the Divine Decrees Eliminate Human Will?, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2cIofN67U8&t=1562s, 25:19-25:54, emphasis mine.
553 What is Reformed Theology? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), 136, emphasis mine.
554 What is Reformed Theology? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), 147, emphasis mine.
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
