Christians and especially Evangelicals are well known for their zeal to see the conversion of sinners through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelical history is full of men and women who sought to see the church succeed in getting a personal response to the preaching of the gospel. However in many Evangelical circles, there is this notion which is considered almost as a biblically warranted truth, that conversions occur when people who have never responded to the gospel comes to the front. This commitment to walk to the front during an evangelistic service is equated by many to be synonymous with one’s personal saving faith in Christ. This method is often called “The Invitation System” in modern evangelism.
It could be shown that this method has its historical roots in Charles Finney’s method of “anxious seat”, where a sinner came forward to addressed individually in an evangelistic meeting. There also it was assumed if someone did come to the anxious seat or also known as mourner’s bench, then it would guarantee instant conversion. Modifications to this method would give us the invitation system or altar call system we see in many Evangelical churches. Coupled with the sub-biblical understanding of conversion through praying a simple prayer - the sinner’s prayer, churches have gone astray from the biblical model of evangelism.
Iain Murray offers a biblical criticism of this system of evangelism in his 1967 classic booklet “The Invitation System”. He analyzes the whole system in light of the teachings of the Scriptures. He shows how the theology of conversion as taught by the Bible is completely overthrown by this system. Murray offers the reader biblical reasons to consider this modern system as nothing but pragmatic evangelism where mere numbers are more important than authentic conversions wrought by the Holy Spirit of God. One of the things the reader cannot miss after reading this book is how intimately related theology and methodology are. It cannot be avoided, one’s theological convictions does spill over into forming one’s methodology. Thus every unbiblical methodology has at its root an unbiblical theology. Thus Murray's approach is one of proving the flaws of this system of modern mass evangelism by unmasking its faulty theological presuppositions. Murray thus sees the problem essentially as a theological issue and thus endeavors to show what the Bible’s theology of conversion is. Murray’s insights should alarm us to forsake man made techniques and depend on the efficacious means of evangelism prescribed in the Bible alone. May the Lord reform our evangelism for His own Name’s sake.
For those who have never read this booklet, it is possible to listen to its audio version in two mp3s of under 1 hour each.
