Can anyone show where in the New Testament "the invitation" was a part of the Gospel message?

-- Anonymous, September 21, 1999

Answers

The answer is.....it is not in the New Testament.

I really can't tell you where the practice started.

I do believe it probably started when we began to replace day to day evangelism with "bringing people to church."

Anyway.....for the last two or three years at Cocoa, I did not offer an invitation there. We were more into discipling people into Christ.....rather than "bringing 'em down the aisle."

I would like to get them to that place where I am serving now....but....I'm not going to make an issue of it. However, I do not offer an evening invitation if no one is there that needs to make a decision.

So, simply put....there is no N.T. precedant for the practice.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 1999

As I tried to instruct the leaders and folks at my last congregation, the invitation just ain't there. We have a tendency in many of our congregations to evangelize during the week, and ask the people to come forward on Sunday to be immersed. IMHO, this is wrong. If I help to lead a person to the Lord on Tuesday evening, I want to immerse them that night. If a young person makes a decision for Christ at camp, they should be immersed then.

I understand the pragmatic approach to this: young people being batpized when they get home. And I understand the idea that having the person(s) being immersed to come forward on Sunday to be baptized as a witness and example to others in the congregation. But ... why not immerse them at the time of their decision, then have them come forward at some point during the Sunday service to welcome them into the flock? Doesn't have to be the end of the service. It could be during announcements, or during praise time, or ???

-- Anonymous, September 23, 1999

In studying this, I found an interesting article, of which I will quote a few paragraphs. The original article can be found at:

http://www .rq.acu.edu/Volume_005/rq00501olbricht.htm

The awakening of individual consciousness characterized the beginning of the modern age. Among the religiously oriented this phenomenon resulted in a growing concern of the individual for a relationship with God which he himself had experienced, and therefore emphasis was again placed on conversion. Because of this climate, the Pietistic and Evangelical revivals arose, which, as they progressed, initiated new revivalistic techniques. One such innovation was the request at the close of the sermon for those anxious about their souls to come forward  a procedure which came to be known as the invitation. In America in the early part of the nineteenth century arose a practice which eventually affected the conservative evangelicals throughout the world. The precise reason for initiating the invitation is not clear, but it appears to have resulted from the desire for better organization in the sprawling and disruptive camp meetings of Kentucky. The practice arose out of the natural setting with evidently little awareness of the innovative nature of the procedure. After the technique came into vogue the preachers soon discovered the influence of the crowd upon the sinner if singled out, and the concrete manner in which the results of the preaching could be tallied and compared if public commitment was solicited.

The gathering together of those under conviction appears to have resulted from the desire to introduce some order In the sprawling camp meetings which attracted people from a radius of fifty miles. At Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801 the crowd numbered as high as twenty- five thousand according to some estimates. Peter Cartwright stated that from 4 to 7 preachers addressed the campers concurrently from stands erected in different quarters of the grounds. Mourners in the early camps were scattered throughout the fields and woods. Such an indiscriminate distribution of the participants resulted in charges of immorality against the camp meetings which the leaders themselves had to admit contained an element of truth. Measures were therefore introduced to guard against such opportunities and it seems likely that the collecting of the mourners in front of the crowd was one of them.

The new procedure of having the sinners come forward when the "invitation" was extended spread rapidly on the frontier. The emphasis in these meetings was "experimental religion," and it was hoped, and often occurred, that the sinner experienced conversion while at the front of the audience. The ones who came forward were often mourning, weeping, and praying, and the place designated for them in front of the assembly became known as the mourners bench, or with other arrangements, the mourners tent, the praying tent, the praying circle, the altar, and to scoffers, "the pen," because of its similarity to a hog enclosure. By the 1820s the title "anxious seat" also came into use. Jesse LeLe observed that as early as 1806 the ministers took great pains to report accurately the numbers who openly professed in this public manner.

Among the majority of the religious groups in the first half of the nineteenth century the invitation was employed either to encourage the conversion experience or to receive the report that conversion had taken place. Regardless of the purpose, the conversion itself was of an "experiential nature." In the early stages of the "New Light" movement in which Barton W. Stone emerged as the chief figure, the invitation was employed for the customary purpose of encouraging the mourners bench experience. In later years, however, it came to be employed for a new and unique purpose among his people, which was accepted also and given added impetus by the Campbell reformers. Rather than experiential conversion, these men became convinced that salvation was secured through believers baptism, and they therefore employed the invitation for a purpose without prior precedence, at least, in modern times, and probably in the history of the Christian religion. They invited men and women to come forward as an indication of their desire to be baptized.

In 1807 or 1808 the place of baptism in conversion became a subject of discussion among Stones people. Prior to this period baptism, when administered by the New Lights, had followed at some convenient time the experiential salvation of the mourners bench. Stone now became convinced that baptism held a more vital position in the conversion of New Testament Christians. He later wrote of his thinking during that period:
I remember once about this time we had a great meeting at Concord. Mourners were invited every day to collect before the stand, in order for prayers (this being the custom of the times). The brethren were praying daily for the same people, and none seemed comforted. I was considering in my mind what could be the cause. The words of Peter, at Pentecost, rolled through my mind, "Repent and be baptized, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." I thought, were Peter here, he would thus address these mourners. I quickly arose, and addressed them in the same language, and urged them to comply.

As might be expected, Stones proposition received a cold reception. He therefore did not propose baptism again in an invitation until some twenty years later when a few of the New Light preachers and Walter Scott of the Campbell reformers had made the practice popular. Barton W. Stone was the first preacher in modern times to encourage men and women to signify their desire to be baptized for the remission of sins by "coming forward," but he did not have the courage and persistence to popularize the practice.

In 1825, B. F. Hall, a New Light preacher, was struck by the same inability of some to be comforted at the "anxious seat." A year later, in September, he preached baptism for the remission of sins and offered an invitation to that effect in Lauderdale County, Alabama. When the invitation was extended Tolbert Fanning came forward and was immersed the next morning. This was probably the first time that a response had resulted from a formal invitation to be baptized. Shortly afterwards, James E. Matthews "embraced the sentiment" and wrote articles on the subject which were published in Stones Christian Messenger. Even then, however, the practice did not become common until after Walter Scott of the Campbell reformers extended the invitation for the same purpose a little over a year later.

Thomas and Alexander Campbell commenced their reformation in earnest in 1810. They were little interested in evangelism, in contrast to Stone and his disciples, partly as the result of their Calvinistic presuppositions, and partly because their chief concern was reforming current religious practices rather than converting sinners. From the historical evidence it appears extremely unlikely that any of the Campbell reformers offered an invitation at the close of their sermons prior to 1827. It was about this time that Alexander perceived the ineffectiveness of the non-evangelical course of action, with the result that he encouraged the Mahoning Association in Ohio to appoint Walter Scott as its evangelist. Scott was the first to hold such a position among the followers of the Campbells. As the result of his own study and through his discussions with the Campbells, Scott had by this time come to the conclusion that sins were remitted through baptism. It was now up to him to work out a practical evangelistic technique for applying this conclusion. He therefore, in his first sermon for the association, proceeded to do what Barton W. Stone had done some twenty years earlier. He extended a formal invitation for any present to come forward and be baptized for the remission of sins. No one, however, came. Scott was not as easily discouraged as Stone and on November 18, 1827, he tried again, and this time a preacher named William Amend, came forward to be baptized. With this incentive, Scott now began to offer the invitation at the close of each sermon and with great success. In April of the next year Thomas Campbell visited Scott to observe his work. In a letter dated April 9, 1828, he wrote to Alexander: Mr. Scott has made a bold push to accomplish this object, by simply and boldly stating the ancient gospel and insisting upon it; . . . by putting the question generally and particularly to males and females, old and young  will you come to Christ and be baptised for the remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit? . . . This elicits personal conversational some confess faith in the testimony  beg time to think; others consentgive their hands to be baptised as soon as convenient; others debate the matter friendly; some go straight to the water, be it day or night and, upon the whole, none appear offended.

From this letter it is evident that the Campbells were unaccustomed to "extending an invitation." Whether Scott had read about the development among the New Lights or had simply taken over the mourners bench call and modified it to suit his own, purposes is not clear. Regardless, the approval of this practice by the Campbells assured its success.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 1999

approval of this practice by the Campbell's assured its success...

I can't begin to count the ways that this means of validation makes me nervous.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 1999

There are lots of thigns we do during a worship gathering that are not specifically outlined in detail in the New Testament. How many songs to sing.....whether to sing songs at all......what the order of events is......who passes out the Lords' Supper.......who is eligible to partake of the Lord's Supper........what kind of music we'll use........whether we'll use overheads or hymnals........when in the service the sermon occurs........and much, much more. I would put the idea of whether and when to offer a time to publicly respond to the call to salvation among those things, as something that is not spoken to in the Scriptures, and so something that we have the freedom to use our good sense about. If you and I disagree on whether or not to "issue an invitation", fine. It's not an important issue, and is not a matter of "What does the Scripture say," because the Scripture doesn't say.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 1999

it's me again, brothers. My thanks to the brother who provided the historical background. It was very helpful. My understanding of the invitation is pretty much the same. It grew out of the revivalistic era where you brought people to the meeting so that the high powered specialist could save them. I'm afraid our methods are much more revivalistic than Biblical sometimes.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 1999