What does the Bible say about the “Sinner’s Prayer”?
Introduction
What is termed the “sinner’s prayer is usually framed something like this:
Lord Jesus Christ, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. I ask for Your forgiveness and now turn from everything which I know is wrong. Thank You for dying on the cross for me to cleanse me from my sins. Please come into my life and fill me with Your Holy Spirit and be with me forever. Thank you Lord Jesus for saving me. Amen.
Although widely adopted today the sinner’s prayer did not always enjoy such favour. When first introduced in the early 19th century, this practice provoked great controversy and debate. However, as evangelistic rallies seemed to bring in thousands of new converts, it became increasingly difficult to argue with success. The large numbers of converts were pointed to as undeniable proof of God’s blessing upon this “new method” (as it was called at the time). Those who opposed the idea were labelled as “working against the Spirit.” The sinner’s prayer did not win the day because of some new theological insight but on the pragmatic basis of success. Why would you want to oppose something that seems to work?
Since the sinner’s prayer was defended on the basis of success, one might think that if it proved to be unsuccessful, then people would stop using it. Not so. As Charles Finney and other “new methods” revival preachers went back to visit the areas where they had led large numbers of people to Christ in previous years, they found little change. Very few so-called converts of these revivals had gone on to join churches or were continuing in the Christian faith.
Looking back at the results of his ministry, Finney had this to say:
I was often instrumental in bringing Christians under great conviction, and into a state of temporary repentance and faith . . . . But they would soon relapse into their former state.
One might think that this grim fact would cause Finney and others to reassess their new method but they did not. Finney simply thought that he hadn’t done a good enough job of convincing people to stick to their decisions. Successors to Finney such as D.L. Moody and Billy Graham have made the sinner’s prayer into an essential component of their evangelistic method. Although Billy Graham has acknowledged that not everyone who “prays the prayer” gets saved, his successors still press on with the same method.
But the fact that many who pray the sinner’s prayer at evangelistic meetings do not actually become Christians is accepted as just par for the course. In order to get at least some saved – the reasoning goes – we must consign ourselves to the fact that many decisions will amount to nothing in the end.
While it is often lamented that so many fall away after initial decisions for Christ, we hear very little about what becomes of those people who made decisions without actually becoming Christians. Where are they now? Have they merely melted back into society, nothing gained, nothing lost? Or might there another side of the story?
We need to take a look at four negative side effects that come from using the sinner’s prayer in evangelism.
- Inoculated against the gospel
When people pray the sinner’s prayer, they usually think that they have become a Christian. When someone truly becomes a Christian, it means that the Holy Spirit has regenerated them which results in saving faith and evangelical repentance. Their primary allegiance is no longer to self, but to God. To be sure they have a lot of growing in faith to do, but a fundamental change has occurred in them. When the Holy Spirit enters into a person’s life, changes begin to happen. Sins that they didn’t feel bad about before seem much more serious and look less appealing. There is a hunger for God’s word, prayer and the means of grace. Selfishness begins to become undone. The desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ emerges. It doesn’t happen in the same way or at the same speed for every new Christian but a process of sanctification is begun by the Holy Spirit. This is the Christian life.
However, when someone thinks that they are a Christian when they are really not, the Holy Spirit is not producing that indwelling change in their life. The power of the gospel is absent. They prayed the sinner’s prayer with the expectation that something would be different after they became a Christian. But nothing is different. After a while they begin to think:
Is that all there is to Christianity?
And the vaccine of a weakened gospel substitute begins to inoculate them against real Christianity. Although they have the name “Christian”, they do not have an interest in spiritual things, there is no real desire to pray and study the Bible or the motivation to live a holy life. They become estranged from the Christian community because they are not interested in the things that Christians are interested in. The Christian faith that offered such hope and promise before they prayed to receive Christ now looks like a big hoax.
They start to think: I’ve been there. I’ve tried that. There’s nothing special about being a Christian.
People who pray the sinner’s prayer without really being converted and then “fall away” do not merely return to the same place that they were before praying to receive Christ. They are in a worse place. A place that is hardened and numbed against the gospel message. They have been effectively inoculated against the gospel.
- False assurance
False assurance is probably the most dangerous side effect of the sinner’s prayer. Those who appear to pray the sinner’s prayer often end up thinking that because of this prayer, they are guaranteed a place in heaven regardless of whether there is any change in their life. It is not uncommon for people who are not living anything remotely close to a Christian life to point back to a “decision” that they made many years earlier as evidence of being a Christian.
Evangelists can often set people up for this kind of thinking by telling them that praying to receive Christ as Saviour is like signing a fire insurance policy. In case something happens, you’ll be covered. Well, what do you do with a life insurance policy after you’ve signed it? You put it in a drawer and don’t think about it until you need it. The danger of mistaking some external factor, such as repeating the sinner’s prayer with truly meaning it from the heart, as sure evidence of inward transformation and reconciliation to God is illustrated clearly by the following passage of Scripture.
The Lord Jesus warned His listeners that not everyone who calls Him Lord will be saved: Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name and done many wonders in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. (Matthew 7:21-23)
True conversion is an inward change as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit that it is evidenced by faith and repentance and an outward transformation of life. Many people pass into eternity with false assurance of salvation because they once prayed the sinner’s prayer but they did not have a real change of heart.
- Turning others away from the gospel
It may be that you have shared the gospel with someone. Then you discover that this person was led to pray the sinner’s prayer a couple years before but never knew the power of the gospel in his or her life and never began to regularly attend church. This person’s response is:
Oh, I tried Christianity but there is nothing special about it.
This person had been led to believe that he or she was a Christian because he or she had prayed the sinner’s prayer. However, this person was subsequently under-impressed by the power of the gospel. In fact, it seems that he or she thinks Christianity is a waste of time because it does not really work.
Now God can certainly overcome such negative testimony if He is truly calling a person to Himself, but it certainly doesn’t help matters. Even more than being unhelpful, negative testimony is a blasphemous accusation against the goodness, power, and sovereignty of God.
If this person had not been unwisely led to pray the sinner’s prayer and then been told:
You’re a Christian now, then he or she would not now be able to offer this negative testimony against the gospel.
Those who appear to receive Christ but are not truly converted and then fall away, don’t just return to the same opinion of the gospel that they had before they prayed the sinner’s prayer. They are out in the world dissuading people from taking an interest in the gospel.
- Demoralizing follow-up
When people are led to pray the sinner’s prayer, those who have led them in the prayer are filled with great excitement about their new life in Christ. These new so-called believers may initially come to church but unless they were truly converted, they soon stop coming. Or they come very infrequently.
Sometimes it does not occur to real Christians that perhaps the reason why these new apparent “believers” are not that interested in God or church is because they were never truly converted to begin with.
Some years ago I was sent the details of about twenty people who had prayed the sinner’s prayer during street evangelism. None of them were interested in studying the Bible, attending church or exploring what the Bible says about believer’s baptism.
Using the sinner’s prayer has devastating side effects upon not only the person who prays to receive Christ, but is not truly converted, but also on those who try to follow them up but hear their negative testimony about the gospel.
God effectively convicted and converted sinners by the power of His saving grace for thousands of years before the introduction of the sinner’s prayer in the early 19th century. Therefore, in the light of the teaching of the Bible and the weight of evidence against the practice, we must come to the conclusion to this is not a reliable practice for the church of Jesus Christ.
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