A Sinners Pray!

Yes and no. I don't believe that a simple prayer is the Gospel call, but it is to repent and believe the Gospel. On the other hand when you repent of your sinful lifestyle and trust in Christ you will surely be praying for mercy and all sorts of things.

Christ gave us a model, but there is no magical prayer. I believe God simply wants us to pray. It is according to His will we pray as a converted heart would desire.

I would word this a little differently. Come as you are is exactly how we come when God illuminates our sin in our hearts. We come to Jesus and lay down our sinful blind flesh for mercy. The very work of God's Spirit within us makes us willing, humble to desire to do God's will, and to hate sin and our old way of life. Therefore, we do come as we are with nothing. If we have to clean ourselves out first then that would be saying we must do something to please God in our own flesh. I think that God's Spirit does a work within us and it changes a lot of things when we come to Christ. The very word repent means to turn. To turn from what?> sin... What sin?> everything that is before God in our hearts... Then where do we go?> we go wholeheartedly to Christ by the grace of God.

 

Bro. Charles,

Being an ORB like you, you know I agree with you 100%!!! That being said, we can't do enough to "clean the platter". I do believe we have to withdraw from sin, meaning we can't continue doing the things we once did. I prayed, begged, and pleaded to God to save my soul, but as long as I tried to "save myself" I got absolutely nowhere. When I gave it all over to Him, He saved me!! There was none of this "repeat after me" junk, either. God needs no one's help; just a broken heart and an humble spirit.

i am I am's!!

Willis


WW

 

No.

It is not biblical to leader unbeliever's in some sort of prayer to be saved. This horrific practice has filled the church with false converts. I believe it also belittles the gospel.

 

The sinners prayer is about 60 years old. It is found nowhere in the bible, though you can point to a few scriptures as the source. We are not "saved" to get to heaven, but to be brought back to a relationship with the Father through the Son. Yes, heaven is the end destination, but if that is all it is, we wouldn't even have to know God til we get there. Repent(change your mind) and be baptized(the old man dies, you are a new creation), for the remission of sin(all sin and the effects are now taken away). Jesus said go and make disciples, not get a person to say a misguided prayer with the wrong objective.

 

No prayer leads to salvation. That would be saved by works, not saved by grace.

To my understanding, that is a model prayer not something to be spoken word for word. We are instructed to not pray with meaningless repetitions just a few verses before this in Mathew 6:7

Why do we need another prayer? Are you saying we should simply repeat that same prayer over and over, for all occasions? Did the tax collector and the Pharisee recite this prayer in Luke 18:11-13?

We are instructed to pray at all times (Luke 18:1) and in everything (Php 4:6) with faith (Math 21:22) and without doubting or wrath (1Tim 2:8). Romans 8:26 also tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes our prayers so that we pray as we should. Jude 20 refers to the same thing.

 

None of the 3,000 saved on the day of Pentecost were told to pray a prayer.

The Ethiopian eunuch was not told to pray a prayer

Cornelius and his household were not told to pray a prayer.

Paul did not tell the philosophers on Mars Hill to pray a prayer.

My pastor did not tell me to pray a prayer.

That said, I'm confident that God saves one who cries out for mercy in repentance and faith.

The problem with the "Sinner's Prayer" is that it has degenerated in many cases into some magic words. How many times have you heard the soul-winner say to the lost person, "Pray something like this." Or, "repeat after me." How is that different from "say these words"? And after they say them, we declare them saved, and "don't let anybody tell you differently."

I get nervous when I hear someone testify that their hope of heaven is "I said the prayer." Or "I walked the aisle."

 

:thumbs::jesus::thumbs: