"If you want to be born again, say these words..."

“If you want to be born again, say these words to the Lord in sincerity from your heart, right now:

Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God. I am a sinner who deserves hell. Thank You for loving me and dying for my sins on the cross. I believe You rose from the dead and are living today. I want to turn from my sinful life right now. Please forgive me all my sins and give me a hatred for sin. I forgive everyone who has harmed me in any way. Come into my life Lord Jesus, and be the Lord of my life from today onwards. Make me a child of God right now.”

God’s Word says, “As many as received Christ, to them He gave the right to become the children of God” (John 1:12). The Lord Jesus says, I will never reject anyone who comes to Me” (John 6:37). ”

So you can be certain that He has accepted you.

Then you can thank Him saying, “Thank you Lord Jesus, for forgiving me and receiving me. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me power to live for You. I want to please You alone from today onwards.”

Is the above Biblical?

Would this be good to place on one's website?

Any thoughts?

I remember saying a similar prayer a while back myself. What was even worse was after that i was asked if i wanted the Holy Spirit (obviously rhetorical as you are expected to say yes) and then some guy prayed for me and tells me to start speaking in tongues. I didn't have a clue what was going on just that this bloke kept on yelling at me and my wife "common let it out, speak" after a very long time i was speaking in tongues but something in me told me that something was wrong i could speak in tongues had other gifts but i was being led away from Christ not to him i was more selfish than selfless. Whatever was the source of these gifts were i dont know i just felt a deep cry in me for Jesus and a baptism of the Holy Spirit as i didnt think any of the gifts were authentic. Later i doubted whether any of the Gifts manifested in that church was authentic either it pointed to self more than Jesus.

Anyway i thank God that he took me in the messed up horrible state the church had left me and cleaned and fixed me up(he still works on me daily). Now i dont question who lives with in me anymore just always want more of the same(like the song says fill me till i want no more).

Can one be saved and filled with the spirit and not be totally in love with Jesus?

Prayers like the one you mentioned have been said by millions and led millions like myself into a false security. When God does a genuine work its is lasting. But when we try to do Gods work with psychosomatic induced emotionalism and mind control we produce believers with no real root within themselves that will only wither away

my 2c

Living this prayer is more biblical than the actual prayer, my only problem with the sinner's prayer is it doesn't necessarily lead to repentance or relationship with Christ Jesus which is really what saves us not this prayer. I would also be leary of putting it on a website because discipleship or making sure people understand what a relationship with the Lord is all about is near impossible. Many will pray this prayer and it all ends there, the person tries a live a good life for Jesus in their own strength and power and then are placed under heavy condemnation when it doesn't work because they aren't quite sure what a relationship with the Lord is about.

Jesus never gives us the sinner's prayer for leading people to Christ but simply says Follow Me. I believe with Christ and having a relationship Action Speak Louder than words by far, and many pray this prayer to be "saved from hell" while not realizing our salvation isn't from hell but from sin that is killing us daily.

I apologize if my words seem strong or harsh but I lived 21 years of hypocrisy because of the sinner's prayer. I will say that if one doesn't stop with the sinner's prayer and continues in a relationship with the Lord by follow Christ Jesus, then there is no harm done, But for most I know these are just magical words that save them from hell. If I had a website I wouldn't put this on there for fear of leading others down a bunny trail of sin as I was. I would however put contact information for those interested in having a relationship with the Lord that they could contact me and I can counsel them with the help of the Holy Spirit. :)

God Bless,
Matthew

Hope the below helps.

Paul Washer says this is the type of prayer that leads people to hell.

Leonard Ravenhill also mentioned that these words will not save people as there is no genuine repentance/brokeness. He said something like these words take shorter than a car wash, less than 5 minutes and are we really going to be saved, to know God in such a short time.

John MacArthur mentioned that this confession is worth nothing.

The point that all these preachers (and I agree with them) are trying to make is that being born again/saved is a supernatural work of God and is not made by some human manipulation such as mouthing some words. The proof as others have mentioned are the many people that have said these words and are not saved, do not follow God, do not have an understanding of sin or repentance. Also, how many people have said this prayer or a variation of it many times and still know they are not saved. How many times have we ourselves when we are in doubt of our salvation in our walk with God, start praying this prayer again and know deep down that it doesn't mean that by saying such things, we are automatically saved.Plenty.

There are certainly times when saying this type of prayer does result in a person truly saved. But to imply or say that people are certainly saved by saying these words is false. There has to be a genuine work by the Holy Spirit and this at times can be witnessed by some brokeness in people during this prayer but the real proof is a changed life after they are saved.

If you are really in doubt, I would suggest you see Paul Washer's sermons in youtube. Paul Washer love to touch on this subject.

Below is a clip from Paul Washer on this.

Is a person saved once they say the sinners prayer ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBTSGDn2bt0&feature=related

I was trying to google for a Paul Washer clip that addresses this and I found this by another preacher ie
The Prayer that Damns Many to Hell by James Malachi Jennings
(have not seen this video before though so not sure what it says here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXYu6x9ywLU&feature=PlayList&p=BE9AD515793ED313&playnext=1&index=6

We need to ask ourselves: If we cannot find this methodology used in the Bible, then where did it come from?

BelievingGod, see the videos I posted and you shall have your answer.

I think the nearest we come to a sinner's prayer in the Bible is in Luke 18v13, '...God be merciful to me a sinner.'

As it is, this was no vain mantra, or hail mary, uttered out parrot fashion.

It was a sinner who knew he needed the mercy of God, and why. And if God could or would not be merciful to him, then all was lost.

God bless.

no doubt such a prayer saved many souls, i am sure of that, i am also sure such a prayer deceived millions in our world believing they are saved. Myself was saved from something similar.... but not in a church meeting or altar call, but through a telephone call, but i had reached the point where the only way for me was to either die or be saved, the "master artist" had for some long time been painting a portrait of repentance, in every detail and aspect of my life, and when he works it is not like with computers you can use the edit button, no the Lord paints a perfect picture of repentence for us, and when the time comes for the finishing touch it may be a prayer like that is what is needed to open the kingdom of God for us, but if that picture has not been drawn and human manipulative methods are used to "push" people to do this and no picture or work of God has been done, its a counterfeit picture....

so we need to know something about the people we ask to pray this, do we know they are very close to the kingdom we might lead them in such a prayer, but if we by the spirit get a sense they are far away we might need to sit down for three or four hours leading them through scriptures, show them they are guilty sinners, verse to verse to verse show them and when they KNOW they are sinners and without hope we can show them what God has done.

It all depends on one thing, if we are anointed by the Lord and his spirit leads us, i am sure sometimes one word can be an instrument to save someone, sometimes years of "work" , sometimes may be a sinners prayer and altar call.... anyhow, i think we need to most important be filled with the spirit and lead by him and we will do right.

I believe the best treatment of this answer is found in John chapter 3, Jesus' discourse with Nicodemus.

Nicodemus asked how he can be born again, Jesus later replied "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Jesus didn't tell him repeat this prayer and you will be saved, His words are clear: Nicodemus, salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit; it is effectual at His time.

Hope this helps...

Savannah,

I think that it would be better to put something along these lines. This is just a very rough copy.

The evidence that we are saved is when we desire Him, when we learn to walk in obedience to His will, when we have a relationship with Him, when we love reading His words, when we love to pray etc. The bible states that we know that we are saved when we have the fruits of the spirit and when the Spirit witness to our spirit.

Does this mean all this comes immediately--no. There are times when certain fruits eg: longsuffering will exhibit faster than the others, while some will take much longer. There are times, certain of our faults eg: taking drugs will vanish immediately while others will disappear through much struggle.

Read the bible dilligently to show yourself approve of God, to know God, to know God's will and to know whether one is really saved. The bible mentioned that 'my people perish because of lack of knowledge'--that's a clear warning here. Being saved is not a bandaid where by some magic words we are automaticaly saved. Being saved is continously walking with God.

While at times, people by saying a prayer do indeed get saved and start exhibiting a changed life, there are times too that people can say a prayer and not be saved yet. Why is that so? That's because human manipulations and/or certain words do not save us. Saving us is a supernatural work of God. So don't try to do a bandaid stuff on getting God to save you. It doesn't work that way.

Rather, seek to know Him, His words,obey Him. When you do that, you do not have to worry what type of words you need to mouth to be saved. God will save you and He will guide you on what you need to pray if any.

Remember, God is no fool. A person will know that you do not love him/her (even though you may mouth the most perfect love speech) because she is able to see your actions. What more of God who knows everything.

Edit to include:
I don't agree with everything on Campus Crusade, but I do like 1 thing which may be good to attach. In their booklets before coming to Christ, there's 2 pictures ie 1 picture where you are sitting on the throne and the next picture is where Christ is sitting on the throne and directing your life. I know that in several of the sinners prayer, there are words stating this ie repent, turn from your sins, let God be Lord and Saviour--but sometimes, words do not impact us so greatly as the visual. The visual that Campus Crusade used is very good and will get people to think whether they will let God direct every part of their life before simply mouthing off a sinners prayer.

I'm not totally opposed to putting words such as 'If you confess with your mouth that ...." but the thing is we need to be clear that mouthing such words do not automatically mean we are saved. The evidence that we are saved is walking continously with Him, the fruits of the spirit and witness of the spirit. That's something that people need to understand.

Savanah, I would urge any Christian brother or sister NOT to use this method in their evangelism! It does more harm than good. Sometimes some people get saved through this, but far more are deceived and damned throuth it. They think that salvation is gained through this "formula", and they do not consider their sin and depravity and the desperate need to repent in full surrender to Jesus. No where in the entire Bible do we have any examples of this method being used. The Bible commands us to preach repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, the apostles and disciples all urged people to repent and believe the gospel. It is much more biblical to do likewise, and to endeavor to explain what that means or looks like in terms of a change of heart and life, not what to say with ones mouth. Blessings.
Oracio

I was going watching some videos and came across this. I think it will be good for new converts.

Don't Expect a Perfect Repentance - Paul Washer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzMId-VgdAM

If you want some historical background as to where the Sinner's prayer came from, try this video:

"The Graham formula":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oi5PR96Efs

In short, the lineage can be traced back to:
Charles Finney > Billy Sunday > Billy Graham

If anything, the underlying premise I notice both within the methodology as well as the theology held by those who advocate it is that [i]Man, of his own choice and power, has within himself the ability to initiate his own salvation[/i]. That is, within the Order of Salvation, the first step is not with the Holy spirit regenerating an individual to become born again as is the case with the aforementioned John 3, but rather our free-will choice compels the providence of God to move in favor of the one reciting the prayer.

Let me be upfront in saying that I do hold to a Reformed/Calvinistic soteriology, though I attend a church that is an AoG offshoot where the predominant view is the oppisite Wesleyen/Arminian/Semi-Pelagian viewpoint.
I recently had a debate with a brother who held to the latter and simply refused to believe in the idea of God being the initiator of salvation and that man was totally depraved to the point of not being able to seek God unassisted. In short, this person was boasting that because of all the "salvations" he had led people to, his theology had to be right (despite the obvious backslide rate evident to all). I tried to reason with him as to whether he saw "saving Faith as a WORK [something we do from our own ability] or a GRACE [something that God freely gives according to his own pleasure]."
This person simply refused to answer.
I probed a bit deeper by taking his view to it's logical conclusion:
"If you honestly believe that saving faith is something that man initiates from his own choice and free-will, then is any means - emotionalism, peer-pressure, coercion, promises of prosperity, even 'hell-fire preaching' - of bringing a person to that point of decision justifiable?"
Predictably, no answer.

So the underlying problem is not just one of methodology; it's worldview issue.

I have had periods when I wrestled with this very question. On the one hand I have seen people marvelously born again when they repeated a prayer such as this, and on the other hand I have seen countless people repeat such a prayer and continue to live with no fruit of rebirth evident in their lives. I would have to say that the prayer is Biblical. The determining factor is the unseen heart of the person praying that prayer.

I have always had a fundamental problem with the prayers for salvation en mass so to speak where tens or ten thousands of people are led in a prayer for this reason. Many may think they are OK because they repeated words without understanding and without rebirth. But I cannot deny that many are born again in that manner. I think it better, however, to go and make disciples. It seems to me superior to lead people personally to a saving knowledge of Christ. But what of evangelists who cannot do that because of the constraints of time and personnel? I guess there is a certain trusting in God that He can deal with people and sort it out much better than we ever can.

I believe that if the website explains to a person what it means to be born again and then shows them how they can pray to be born again, then I would be all for it.

Thanks so much to all who contributed to this thread thus far with their reply.

You may or may not have noticed the quotation marks in my original post. The reason for the quotation marks being that it is a quote taken from a website.

The website it was taken from is the website of the speaker of the present featured sermon here on sermonindex.

The article it was taken from is entitled, "A Clear Gospel Message."

Also at the bottom of the website is the following:

" © Copyright -

This article has been copyrighted to prevent misuse. It should not be reprinted or translated without written permission from the author. Permission is however given for this article to be downloaded and printed , provided it is for FREE distribution, provided NO ALTERATIONS are made, provided the AUTHOR'S NAME AND ADDRESS are mentioned and provided this COPYRIGHT notice ["Copyright by Zac Poonen"] is included in each printout."

Again, I thank you all for your contribution to this thread by replying as you have. It is much appreciated.

"Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said to him, Why speakest thou to them in parables? He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." (Matthew 13:9-16)

"And he said to them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that were about him, with the twelve, asked of him the parable. And he said to them, To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but to them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them." (Mark 4:9-12)

I think the whole article needs to be quoted here to give the context to the portion extracted from it.

hi, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart thou shall be saved....nothing that you can brag on has anything to do with getting you saved...if the Holy Spirit does not birth you from above you are not saved no matter what formulae you follow.jimp

I was provoked by this kind of 'prayer' some years ago and wrote this article on the topic...

http://mp3.biblebase.com/download_118.html

it is entitled "Receiving Christ".

Ron,

This article was inspiring and timely for this discussion. Prayerfully, I will meditate on the Scriptures mentioned, as it reveals even more of the Glory of God and His work of salvation.

Very few pastors I have heard mention the verses after John 3:16. This was something my Bible study group dived into awhile ago.

Thank you for this exposition of the Word.

God Bless you.