An Argument for Altar Calls: Part 5

Acts 2:40 “And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation!’” (NASU)

Here are the several different ways parakaleo is translated in Acts 2:40: “offering” (them salvation) (BBE), “exhort(ing/ed)” (ESV, KJV, NKJV, NASU, NASB, NET, NRSV, RSV, YLT), “pleaded” (NIV), and “urg(ed/ing)” (NJB, NLT).

Any argument from this verse must be based upon the context, that is, Acts 2:41. However, it is stretching credulity and naïve to assume that every translation of Acts 2:40 translated parakaleo incorrectly. Rather, just because Acts 2:41 portrays what some might call an altar call or invitation, that does not justify stretching the semantic range of parakaleo to include “invitation.” Nothing demands parakaleo in Acts 2:40 to mean “invitation” and all these translation did a fine job (not too sure about the BBE, though) translating the word appropriately.