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One of the most POPULAR antics of every television evangelist is THE ALTAR call...that moment of LIFE (if you leave now) and spiritual death (if I stay I'll die) decision making.
We have all seen them,maybe a few of us were blessed enough to have witnessed an honest to goodness fall-flat-lie-prostrate-and-crawl the 100 yards to the altar while whining I AM NOTHING BUT A DYING COCKROACH--actually there was a teacher in my middle school back in the 1970s who offered a few whacks with his technologically advanced aluminum paddle or rolling around on the floor proclaiming you were a dying cockroach unworthy of the teacher's grace--I typically chose the cockroach play, but gotta admit that aluminium paddle was a blast...
Anyways, resisting that temptation to digress....the ALTAR CALL is one of mankind's all time GREATEST shtick.
I actually knew an altar call junkie. It is true, she just could help herself and felt compelled to respond to continuously affirm her faith in that softly spoken magic spell.
Do you feel better now mocking those who believe differently than you?
Well, I ain't really thought about it much. I am on my way to Oregon to commandeer a Bird Sanctuary...
But if it makes others feel better about themselves mocking others who are are confident in their beliefs, then I have done my job and my day can be tallied in the column of success when the son sets on the horizon and tranquility is restored to this crazy sphere we call earth..
On a side, you did not appreciate my honest to goodness ACTUAL story about the altar call junkie?
You got me hooked..exactly how do I believe?
Did it occur to some that QUESTIONING the belief is NOT mocking the believer?
I don't understand why the refer to it as an "alter" in the first place. They are not offering sacrifices and if they did they are not acceptable at that location. As if we were under the law. Any Christian knows there is no need for any sacrifices because Jesus was that final and perfect sacrifice.
I believe they do it for the emotional effect and to make these people feel like they have done something to make themselves holy and worthy of God's love. All of which is unnecessary.
I have a friend who grew up in a very rural community. They had a small church building but relied on travelling preachers. He said they got one about once a month and whoever it was always preached a hell fire and damnation sermon then told all the sinners to come up and be saved. So, because no one wanted to disappoint the preacher-of-the-month, everyone would line up to be saved.
I have a friend who grew up in a very rural community. They had a small church building but relied on travelling preachers. He said they got one about once a month and whoever it was always preached a hell fire and damnation sermon then told all the sinners to come up and be saved. So, because no one wanted to disappoint the preacher-of-the-month, everyone would line up to be saved.
He figured he'd been saved at least 20 times.
Lol!
There is a serious side to this however.
For whatever reason, some people are quite distraught in that altar calls do not give them the promised emotional release or resolution of subjective guilt. Instead the go into a downward spiral of getting saved, not feeling saved, feeling guilty or fraudulent, rinse and repeat. Whereas most people in my experience feel that "getting saved" checks something off on a list, and sort of ignore the fact that over the long run nothing actually happens or changes, others get zero closure from salvation and/or figure the lack of results (no "new creation", no besetting sins eradicated, no sense of connection with god, etc) is their fault somehow.
The counsel that such folks got in my denomination (which believed "once saved always saved") was that they just had to claim it by faith and not go by feeling so much. But like moths to a flame, they would just keep coming back. They were truly some of the most angst-ridden people I ever met.
For whatever reason, some people are quite distraught in that altar calls do not give them the promised emotional release or resolution of subjective guilt. Instead the go into a downward spiral of getting saved, not feeling saved, feeling guilty or fraudulent, rinse and repeat. Whereas most people in my experience feel that "getting saved" checks something off on a list, and sort of ignore the fact that over the long run nothing actually happens or changes, others get zero closure from salvation and/or figure the lack of results (no "new creation", no besetting sins eradicated, no sense of connection with god, etc) is their fault somehow.
The counsel that such folks got in my denomination (which believed "once saved always saved") was that they just had to claim it by faith and not go by feeling so much. But like moths to a flame, they would just keep coming back. They were truly some of the most angst-ridden people I ever met.
lol! I got "saved" when I was about 6. I was scared that I was going to burn in hell. The preacher would stand there shouting, "turn or burn, sinner!". And these people (my parents included) thought that unless you walked down an aisle and "got saved", for sure you'd burn in hell for eternity.
It's all a sick head game. And then the preacher could show his worth by advertising on a big sign how many "souls he saved" that year.
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