Sinner's Prayer...

Can someone please show me the "sinner's prayer" in the Bible. I thought the purpose of the reformation was to stick with Scripture? Why do we still promote this tradition?

Please, if you know you can't be objective with this topic then pass.

hi, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.jimp

Romans 10:9-10 is a favorite verse that is twisted by those who promote that ritual.

This is a video that deals with the real meaning of that scripture...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s19TU7F6QfI

"God be merciful to me a sinner."

Lk 18:13

Nowhere in the Bible will we find any example of a "repeat this prayer after me" kind of prayer.

Every God-honoring prayer recorded in God's Word is seen as coming from the heart of the person/s praying, without any repeating of any words after someone else.

hi, this place sometimes drives me crazy...no place in the bible will you find a repeat after me. and Jesus said "when you pray, say Our Father etc." the sinners prayer has been used to lead millions and millions of people to Jesus.do you think Jesus rejected these peoples plea as they recognized the grace provided by His death on the cross?He said that He came not to condemn the world but to save it.Jesus put the cookies on the bottom shelf so that even a child could be saved.those who come to Jesus ,He will not cast out. i am glad you are not the Lord so i would have to follow your formula.i have seen thousands saved in my life time and i weep every time one gets saved and cannot understand the hardness of hearts here.jimp

Jimp is right. I used to be this way. I saw the flaw in the form and failed to see the heart of the matter. I went on a crusade against altar calls and sinner's prayers...etc. but I didn't know what spirit I was in. When I became honest with myself, I realized that I was only trying to replace what I saw as flawed with yet another form!

I understand the frustrations with the 'church-in-a-box' approach. But what is accomplished by proving my point on an internet forum? or even winning an argument with a brother who disagrees with me about this?

Serve the Lord in Spirit and in Truth and love the brethren, even the messed up and weak ones...Our love for them will be more effective than our correctness will be.

Let me be specific... After the Gospel is preached, the preacher will usually ask if anyone wants to be saved. Those who do will repeat the sinner's prayer, at which point the preacher will usually tell everyone to rejoice because all these people got saved... Are all those people who sayed the prayer saved?

jimp wrote:

"Jesus put the cookies on the bottom shelf so that even a child could be saved"

I love this-- might have to copy it some time!

Steve--

to your question, i would say they are saved if they were truly seeking to be saved, and not just doing it because everyone else was, out out of some other motive.

Think about it- if a person is being convicted by the HS during a message, or whatever, they may need some guidance as to what to do. The Phillipian jailer asked Paul and Silas what he had to do to be saved-- and they told him simply to believe on the Lord Jesus.

All that being said, a true convert will begin to evidence fruit. I think your concern is that having a person say a sinner's prayer may produce false converts and this is true. It is the Church's responsibility to follow up with and disciple these people. I believe there is a lot of failure by the Church to do this. But it is not necessarily the fault of a "sinner's prayer." This is because a person has to start somewhere.

To be honest, in the NT at least, it seems that baptism was a huge if not essential part of the "formula." I am not saying that baptism is required for salvation, but in the NT converts were baptized so soon that they really were intertwined.

I, and untold thousands, have entered salvation by saying some version of a sinner's prayer. I do not think that everyone who says a sinner's prayer is saved, but nor would I say that no one who says one is saved.

steve, are you a whosoever?whosoever that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. what shall i do to be saved ? believe on Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. you tell me. this is where almost everyone drops the ball. so now you have a baby and we ususally send them on their way to live or die, to fail or to succeed... you wouldnot do that to a baby... the great commision says to make disciples of these believers... they need baby sitters who can lead them step by step. they need a bible and someone trained to guide them and answer their questions.personnal follow up from the start is what we do.jimp

THK,
thanks for your reply. I've been thinking a lot about salvation in regards to regeneration. I myself have said a sinners prayer(more than once), but was that prayer the start, or a result? You said, "I would say they are saved if they were truly seeking to be saved". One who isn't saved, would they seek to be saved? Or are you saying one gets saved which initiates the seeking resulting in the experience?

hi, just my two cents again. The Lord's prayer is meant to be an example of what Christians should be praying about, not a word for word formula ritual prayer.

I acknowledge that by God's grace and mercy there have been some who have been saved through this unbiblical formula of the sinner's prayer. Likewise there may be people who are saved under the ministry of people like Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, etc. God is rich in mercy and will save anyone who's heart is turned toward Him in sincere repentance and faith in Christ. That doesn't give anyone an excuse to continue harmful practices and teachings.

On the other hand, there have been millions more who have been deceived and harmed by the sinner's prayer. They have been deceived into thinking all they need to do is repeat a prayer and that's it, their in; that they can continue as things were before they said the prayer; that the prayer is their fire insurance.

These are just of few testimonies of people who were harmed by the sinner's prayer....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQsGlS0sQ4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvDAygfVVX0

This is a clip from Paul Washer on this topic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4axy22oTkA&feature=fvwrel

Oracio,
My intent with this thread is to be objective, please don't try to target and discredit.

steve83, I'm not sure what you meant in your last comment there.

I agree with Oracio that many people have been deceived by the sinner's prayer. But that is not the fault of the "sinner's prayer." It is the fault of a Church which in many cases drops the ball once a person "goes forward" or raises their hand in a meeting while everyone's heads are bowed and eyes are closed. (if we dont know who raised their hand, how can we disciple them?)

I believe public declarations are important, which is why I believe baptism is important. The NT evidence seems to be that actions speak louder than words.

But in all honesty, I dont see how we get around some sort of a "sinner's prayer" if someone is ready to repent and submit to the rule of Jesus Christ. From a purely theoretical standpoint, I believe that a person can be legitimately and fully "saved" w/o uttering a word, if they repent and submit themselves to Christ and begin evidencing fruits of the Spirit. However, from a practical standpoint, I believe that it is important for a person to make some sort of statement of faith, need and commitment.

Think about it, if we are sharing the gospel with someone and lo and behold they are convicted and want to turn their lives over to Jesus, what should we do? I think we should of course tell them what that means (count the cost)but I think ultimately they should say some sort of a prayer. What exactly form that prayer may take will vary, but God knows the intent and the heart.

I see it differently. If a "convert" doesn't produce fruit, it's because he wasn't regenerated/made alive in the first place. There is no prayer or act of will that can make someone a new creation in Christ. If I'm regenerated, fruit is a natural result. Jesus said, make the tree good and it will produce good fruit. He who began a good work in you will complete it

hi, it is not genuine to think some one walks out on a platform and says repeat after me...the preaching of the gospel of the bloody death of Jesus Christ. the knowlege that He is risen. the knowlege that He took the wrath meant for us upon Himself...the knowlege that He did this because He loves us and wants us to be saved.the Holy
Spirit then woos the lost and makes the lost realize that today is their day of salvation... the obedience to the wooing of the Holy Spirit by coming forward and professing publickly Jesus as their LOrd and saviour.dont tell me millions of these folks are lost.jimp as i stated earlier, this is when the church comes in to disciple this person by making sure they have a bible, felloowship,direction(beginner classes). the true meaning of repentance.etc

hi, yes, the vast majority of the people going forward at these kinds of events, crusades, services, etc. are absolutely lost. An old friend of mine used to do follow-up work for a huge well-known crusade where thousands came forward over a weekend. They would collect many "decision" cards and call these folk up to do "follow-up".

If my memory serves me right he said out of the many follow-ups he did he never got in contact with one single person who seemed interested in following Christ afterward. He said he was discouraged and confused because so many of the people that came forward wanted absolutely nothing to do with Christ, His Word, or church afterward. He then realized it was mostly a sham, the whole crusade. The people going forward had many alterior motives for going forward.

Some went forward just to get a close look at the baseball field, some because of an emotional high, etc. Very few actually got saved out of the thousands. I am convinced that this whole sinner's prayer business is one of the reasons there are so many false converts today.