| By Ray Baumann Email: Ray.baumann@mac.com Click here for bio and archived articles |  |
Attention all churches! This is an information recall on the sinner's prayer that has been repeated over and over again for the last 100 years. This recall is an effort to repent before God for negligence in evangelism and to prevent more damage by producing more false converts. For years churches thought that all a person had to do was repeat a prayer to be saved. The "sinners prayer" is not found anywhere in the New Testament, nor is there a single instance of any sinner directed to pray for their salvation. In churches of all denominations, it is rare for people to mourn their sin. Instead, churchgoers are encouraged to just believe and repeat a prayer, which is meant to signify that they've accepted Christ as their personal savior.
The sinners prayer goes a little like this:
"Repeat after me, Jesus I now confess to you all of the wrong and sinful things that I have ever done in my life. I ask that you please forgive me and wash away all of my sins by the blood that you have personally shed for me on the cross. I am now ready to accept you as my personal Lord and Savior. I now ask that you come into my life and live with me for all of eternity. I now believe that I am truly saved and born again."
Just believing in Jesus doesn't make you a Christian, just like believing in Osama Bin Ladin doesn't make you a terrorist. It is not a belief that recognizes someone�s existence in history either, because even the devil believes in Christ. "You believe that God is one, You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder," James 2:19. It's a belief that changes who you are from the inside out.
This recall is exposing churches that make light of repentance and claim it is the same as faith, or redefine it so that it has nothing to do with sin. The sinners prayer is not the Biblical pattern for evangelism. Churches that use this technique are following a man made formula. Throughout history, Bible preachers and prophets have always proclaimed repentance.
After extensive study and research it has been discovered that repeating a prayer does nothing. As a result, this recall will affect millions of churchgoers that have a false sense of eternal security because they have been affirmed by the local church for taking this action. We have found that repeating a sinners prayer has no link to salvation in Jesus Christ. People affected by this recall include anyone who has ever attended church, a camp meeting and crusades and/or repeated the sinners prayer.
As of Aug 31, 2007 there is an unofficial moratorium of the sinners prayer.
Studies are showing that repeating the sinners prayer has no saving power, no matter if it was repeated in front of one person or 10,000. No matter who led you in the prayer, whether it was Billy Graham or Bill Clinton, a signed pledge card will not save you. Salvation can not be found through repeating a prayer. Action must be taken for those who trust their eternity to a repeated prayer to save them from the judgment to come.
Effective immediately, every person must examine themselves as instructed in 2 Corinthians 13:5. "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves; that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test?"
Has there been a change in your life?
This recall will be very costly for the church and they may or may not embrace this message. It will be too embarrassing for many churches to find out that the majority of their attendees are unsaved. There will be a clear, defining line between believers and make-believers. Many will continue in cheapening the gospel message that makes a mockery out of Christianity.
There is a big difference between thinking you are saved and being born again. Someone who is truly born again identifies with the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for their sin. The debt that they could not pay and an eternal gratitude exists that reprioritizes ones life.
True saving faith (belief) is followed by obedience to the Word of God. It's a dying to self and to sin to protect the new relationship with an Almighty God. A believers testimony is more than recalling a prayer that was recited. It must recall the events that brought them to the realization of the sin in their life and that their greatest need is to be forgiven by repenting and turning from their old life and walking with Christ.
For further self examinations please see 1 John 5.
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