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A
Prayer of
Salvation:
Is There Any Such Thing?
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At the end of nearly every bible tract, the
end of nearly every christian book, the end of
nearly every evangelistic message, and in the
commentary at the end of the Giddeons bible, you
will read or hear these words...
"If you want to be
saved, repeat this
sinner's
prayer."
What's
wrong
with that, you ask?
Well, for starters, it is
completely
unbiblical!
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That's right, you will
never find a sinner's
prayer in the
bible!
You are already
upset with me, right? Okay, if you can find a sinner's
prayer
anywhere
in the New testament, send it to me. I will post it on this
website. I am confident that it will never
happen though, because it
does not
exist!
Now you are even more upset with me, right? Okay, if
you can find one example of the apostles being asked, "What
must I do to be saved?" And their answer was "Repeat this
prayer!" or any prayer of salvation --- by all means send it
to me. I am confident that it will never happen though,
because it does not
exist!
The whole purpose of this
website is to find out
what the bible
"really" says, so I will tell
you what it says.
For starters, I can assure you,
the bible does not tell you to say a "sinner's
prayer." Here is an example that I copied from a christian
website...
Please pray this
prayer with me:
Father I believe that I am a sinner. I believe also that
Jesus Christ came to earth as a babe, that he suffered on
the cross of Calvary for my sins, that he was buried and
three days later he was raised from the dead. I confess
that I am a sinner and I need the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Holy Lamb to cleanse me from all
unrighteousness.
I pray Lord that you would forgive me of my sins and set
me apart from this world and its darkness. That you will
teach me your will for my life, and that you will
instruct me in your ways through your Holy Word and your
Spirit. I thank you Lord for your forgiveness!
In Jesus Name, Amen.
The rational for the above
non-biblical prayer is the following scripture...
Romans 10: 9 + 13 says "If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt
believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead
you shalt be saved... For whosoever shall
call upon the name
of the Lord shall be
saved.
That makes allot of sense now.
Right? But, don't jump to any conclusions just yet, because
I can show you
biblical examples of
people calling on the name of the Lord.
How
did people in the
bible call on the name of the
Lord?
and When did they call
on the name of the Lord?
The Answer:
Acts 22:16 And now why
tarriest thou? (in other
words why do you wait? It is urgent. Do not wait - arise,
do it now) arise, and
be
baptized, and
wash away
thy sins, calling
on the name of the Lord.
...and That my
friend, is what the bible "really" says.
...be
baptized, and wash away thy sins,
calling on the
name of the Lord.
Go ahead and look it up for
yourself. In every example of conversions as recorded in the
book of conversions, (the book of Acts) it shows that people
who believed were baptized.
Never
once were they told to say a
prayer, or to invite Jesus into their heart! No not once!
They called on the name of the Lord when they were
baptized!
Another
version of the very popular "sinners prayer" is to
invite
Jesus
into your
HEART.
What is wrong with that
you ask?
For starters, it is
not
in the bible
either! No, you cannot show me a prayer, any
prayer, in which Peter, Paul or any apostle told
anyone, at any time, to invite Jesus into their
heart!!!!
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Here is an example of such a prayer:
Is there any
reason why you couldn't invite Jesus into your
heart right now? If you would like to accept Jesus as
your Lord and Savior then Romans 10:9,13 asks you to do
three things:
Believe that Jesus is
alive and has been raised from the dead.
Confess to God--confession means to agree with God and
say to Him;
I have sinned. Jesus is my only hope of eternal life.
Invite Him into your life. Here is a sample prayer that
you can say at this time.
Dear Father, I know
that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is alive today
after dying for my sins on the cross. Please forgive me
of my sins and come into my heart and be my
savior. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Why doesn't that prayer have quotes
around it and a scriptural reference cited after
it? Because it did
not come out
of the bible, that's why!
To assert that you invite Jesus
into
your heart to become a
member of his body, his church, is completely
bass
ackward!
The truth is that the bible instructs
you
how to get into
Jesus, not how to have
Jesus get into you.
Romans 6:3
Know ye not, that so many of
us as were
baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death?
That fact is, there is no
mention of him getting into your
heart.
No, the truth is that you get into Him by
baptism.
The closest thing that I can find is an analogy, but it is
just that --- an analogy. It is not a directive, and it uses
the imagery of a
door
rather than a heart: Behold, I
stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and
open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
with him, and he with me.
Revelations 3:20. The context
of this scripture is Jesus telling the Christians to repent!
This was analogy was not used as a directive for the
unsaved person to come into Christ. It was said to people
who were already Christians and they were continuing to sin
- Jesus was telling them to repent! If this is the
scriptural reference that the "invite Jesus into your heart
group" wants to use to support a "come into my heart
prayer", then they need to change their prayer to something
like this.... Dear
Jesus, I open my door and invite you to come
in.
It should be called the Open the Door Prayer.
One of the biggest arguments against biblical baptism, a
baptism for the forgiveness of sins, calling on the name of
the Lord, is "Baptism
is a "work" and we are saved by grace and not by works!"
When I was baptized, I called
upon the name of the Lord and
I never considered
that work!
I had my sins forgiven, for goodness sakes. That was not my
working, but God's working.
Baptism is no more a
work than saying the sinners prayer is a
work! Furthermore, who says
baptism is an outward sign of an inward work?
You did!
The bible does not say so
at all. It says allot of things (which will be discussed in
the next study) but it never says that baptism is an
outward sign of an inward work. Who made that one up? What
preacher told you that? As for me, I will rely on what the
bible tells me.
There is
no prayer of
salvation,
so what exactly should
you do to be saved? The
answer is in the next study on What
Must I do to be Saved? The Best Kept
Secret.
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