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NASB | Romans 10:9 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; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 10:9 because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. |
Subject: Alter Calls? |
Bible Note: Hank: I don't like the "asking Jesus into our hearts" thing, either. There seems to be a huge divide between the emotional response of asking Jesus into our hearts (which could be done by a lot of people with not the slightest understanding of the Cross) and repenting and trusting in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins. I am not the biggest fan of altar calls, either, but that is usually because the gospel is not explained very well in a lot of cases. Too many "come to Jesus" calls without explaining that one should count the cost (Luke 14:28) and understand that Jesus is not merely some cosmic therapist who will get you self-actualized. Altar calls done sloppily (which is frequently the case) often lead to spurious conversions which don't lead to truly following Christ (not to mention the false assurance of salvation on the part of thousands upon thousands of people who think that they are "saved" without ever clearly hearing the gospel). Even the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association acknowledges that just a small percentage of those who come forward at crusades ever join a church. While God undoubtedly can and does use all kinds of methods in His grace and sovereignty to call people to Himself, I wonder whether altar calls (weekly ones, especially) are a good gauge at all of the Holy Spirit's work. And we both know that many denominations do indeed use it as a gauge and record "results." --Joe! |