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I grew up at a Bible church where the sinner's prayer was not employed in the main church service. There was no end-of-service invitation. In fact, it wasn't common to hear about salvation at all. Though, during kid's Sunday school the flannel board wielding childcare volunteers were not afraid to lead us through the sinner's prayer and often did.
Often the person being lead through the prayer is asked to repeat the prayer line by line — the content of the prayer changes depending on who's leading the prayer. There seems to be no consensus on what should be included in the sinner's prayer. When I was young, I noticed the multiple variations and wondered why it wasn't more consistent.
It would be nearly impossible for you to have never heard some version of the fabled sinner’s prayer. From televangelists to Gospel tracts, it's become a modern phenomenon. I know that Billy Graham and Campus Crusade for Christ are both revered and loved by Christians throughout the world. They are two of the leading proponents who made the practice popular. Here is an example of the sinners' prayer taken from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.1
This prayer, badly confuses the requirements for discipleship as the requirement of salvation.2 What's maddening, is this version, which comes from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is only one of about a billion versions of this prayer. As a kid, I wondered why the sinner’s prayers I heard were always different. Why didn't they just memorize the version of the sinner's prayer that appears in the Bible. All you’d have to do to get a finalized version of the sinner’s prayer is turn to the page on which it appears in Scripture. The only problem is that you can't because it's not there. In fact, it's nowhere in the Bible. Actually, it's not even present in history until pretty late.
Did you catch what I just said? The Bible DOES NOT tell anyone to pray the sinner’s prayer. Let me repeat that. The sinner’s prayer is not in the Bible. The sinner’s prayer is not the way a person gets saved. There is no example of a person getting eternally saved by praying a prayer anywhere in the Bible. The sinner’s prayer has no place in what the Bible presents as the requirements for salvation.
Though some have claimed that the sinner's prayer came much earlier, Paul Harrison Chitwood, in his doctoral dissertation,3 gave a good defense that the sinner's prayer didn't even arrive on the scene until the 1900s. As the tradition of evangelists, Billy Graham being the most well known, snowballed into a massively popular movement, the sinner's prayer became a standard fixture. Campus Crusade for Christ has also contributed to making the sinner's prayer a common practice.
The Bible never mentions anything like a sinner's prayer. In addition, there are lots of examples of people getting saved without praying a prayer or even saying anything at all. The sinful woman in Luke chapter seven is a good example. She washes Jesus feet with the jar of perfume but says nothing at all. She makes no proclamation or confession about Jesus. She doesn't pray a sinners prayer. She's completely silent. Jesus then tells her:
“Your sins are forgiven…Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Luke 7:48–50)
She spoke no words but got saved by her faith. No sinner's prayer required. Matthew chapter nine has the story of the sick man. This character is a quiet example as well. Before Jesus healed him, it says,
“When Jesus saw their faith He said, “your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)
The sick man is healed a moment later, but through the story, the sick man doesn't say anything until after his sins had already been forgiven, and he'd been healed. He prays no prayer but becomes saved nonetheless. No sinner's prayer required. Another example comes in John's Gospel. Jesus is in the middle of a speech the text tells us:
As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. (John 8:30)
Believed in Him, is the phrase that John uses to show that these people just got saved. Not only did they not pray a prayer aloud, but they also couldn't have been praying silently because they were busy listening. The moment they believed, they received eternal life according to Jesus. (John 6:47)
Another example of spontaneous belief comes from the Book of Acts. Peter is preaching in the house of Cornelious to a bunch of gentiles. Luke then tells the reader:
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. (Acts 10:44)
The Spirit would only be given to those who believe. They were not believers when Peter began his sermon; they became believers during the sermon as Peter was speaking. There was absolute proof that they had become believers because the Spirit came in an undeniable way. We know that because of what happens next.
As many as came with Peter… were astonished… because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. (Acts 10:45–46)
Not only did those listeners become believers but there was proof that they had become believers. They spoke other languages and glorified God. This was highly unexpected. Though it was all the proof that Peter needed to believe that salvation could come to the Gentiles. And all this happened without the use of a sinner’s prayer.
Another example that the sinner’s prayer is not an appropriate evangelism tool comes later in the book of Acts. A man asks Paul and his companion a simple and direct question:
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)
If the sinner’s prayer was a useful tool for getting the man saved, then Paul would have employed it. However, Paul goes a different direction completely. Paul says simply:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)
If there was a need to pray a sinners prayer, surely one of the above situations would have included it. I want to reiterate; there is no example of a person getting eternally saved by praying a prayer in the entire Bible. We need to stop using the sinner's prayer. It's not biblical, and it confuses the message and method of salvation.
1 From the Billy Graham Institute. Which can be found at peacewithgod.net. Accessed March of 2019.
2 If you’re not sure what the difference is between salvation and discipleship, I’d highly suggest you get a copy of my book, Salvation And Discipleship: Is There A Difference?
3 The Sinner's Prayer: A Historical and Theological Analysis, Paul Harrison Chitwood. (Ph. D. Diss, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001)
While I agree that the sinner's prayer is a concept that has gone wrong, it isn't because it isn't biblical.
The concept of the sinner's prayer comes from the prayer of the publican in Luke 18:13-14: "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The problem is when people are told that this is the beginning and end of the disciple's journey towards salvation that establishes a once saved, always saved status in the mind. It becomes a Luciferian incantation of salvation in the spirit of Isaiah 14:14 in which you say the magic words and presto chango you walk away from the altar call a Christian for all time.
It is the concept of salvation as an event rather than the continuing process as you pick up and carry your cross on a daily basis (Matthew 16:24-26) that is the problem.
Lucas,
You are right that there is no example of a "sinner's prayer" in the New Testament. You are also very likely right that the "sinnner's prayer" in it's current form is fairly modern. However, Jesus never taught that "believing" some things about him apart from obedience was the path to eternal life. And you have not carefully considered the example you use from John chapter 8. It appears that you either have not read the context of John 8:30 or are trying very hard to make that passage fit your theology. Consider what this passage says:
> 30 As he spoke these things, many believed in him. 31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
So Jesus told these people *after* they believed in him that they would be his disciples and be made free *IF* they remain in his word. We can just keep reading that passage to see if they did:
> They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.” They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.” Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me. Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”
(John 8:33-47)
So we can see from this passage that the Jews here that originally believed in Jesus did not remain in his word and Jesus told them in this very same conversation both that they were children of the devil and that they were not of God. How you come away from this passage thinking that these people are right with God is a mystery to me. Their initial believing never led to the action required to be set free and therefore they remained slaves of the devil.
I encourage you and anyone reading this to throw away all the theology men have ever taught you and just go back to Jesus's words and learn from him what he requires. His words are simple if we have the faith to hear them.
Acts 2:38, Romans ch 6, Gal 3: 26 and 27, Acts Ch 22, Acts ch 9 and 10. 2 Ptr 3:21. In Acts ch 2 It says that those who were baptized were added to the church by the Lord. Denominations say you join the church by consent of the local church. Preach 2 ptr 3:21 to your congregation this Sunday and you will turn some heads but more importantly you will be preaching what Peter said not what was added by Billy Sunday and Billy Graham in the 1930's.
Then how can someone receive Salvation in Jesus christ? What are your suggestions.
We receive salvation by faith in Jesus, apart from works such as saying prayers:
https://freegrace.in/55-verses-that-teach-salvation-by-faith-alone/
No I need to get the sinners prayer to get saved
Yes, it does say that you have to say with your mouth that you believe Jesus is Lord. It’s in Romans 10:9:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord“ and believe in your heart that God rose Jesus from the dead, then you will be saved.
NIV version
Question: Does baptism in the name of Jesus Crist for the forgiveness of sins have anything to do with salvation?
Thanks for the insights I see the difference between the freegrace and faith in regard to salvation.
Thank you for this article! In salvation we are going form death to life and this has nothing to do with our prayer, our confession of sins, our promise to do anything! It is by FAITH IN CHRIST and HIS death for our required death for sins and resurrection. Rom. 10:8-10 clearly shows justification is by faith in the heart (not inviting in) in the Lord, and the tongue makes the good confession from faith that Yeshua is Lord! Of the wonderful works of God! THEN.....we learn to pray, to confess sins, to keep a good conscience toward God, as you say DISCIPLESHIP....GROW...
Excellent article about the Sinner's Prayer and convincing examples from Scripture. Thanks for sharing these biblical insights. I sent it to Adam's Road Ministries, as they are making a movie about how the Wilder family came to Christ out of Mormonism. I urged them to keep their salvation message clear and simple and based on John (not Romans 10).