The Sinner’s Prayer. I repeated that many years ago. I’ve also led others in that prayer as well. It was ingrained in me so long ago that it was the thing to do. Now, I see that it is not right. I read your article about What Must I Do to Be Saved? I am really turned upside down right now, not knowing if I am truly saved! Yes, I have repented of my sins and asked for forgiveness, as part of a sinner’s prayer, because I believe in a triune God. I believe that Jesus walked this earth as fully God and fully man. I know that God is always in control of all things at all times. I believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. I say I trust in God for all my needs, but do I really? I pray, but still worry. Please help me! I don’t want to be told, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.“
I am so sorry you’re going through such anguish about this. You’re not alone – most genuine Christians, including yours truly, have moments when they wonder, and even agonize over, whether or not they’re genuinely saved.
I think the part of my gospel presentation page that caught your attention was this paragraph under the section heading, “What are some of those false gospels?”:
If, at some point in your life you repeated the words of a “sinner’s prayer,” “accepted Jesus,” or “asked Jesus into your heart,” (even if you didn’t know what you were doing, and without true repentance and faith) you’ve been born again.
I’ve highlighted the key words and phrases we need to take a look at, because I think you may have misunderstood what I meant in this paragraph. The term “sinner’s prayer,” used in evangelical common parlance has a specific meaning. It does not mean “any sinner praying any prayer that leads to salvation”. We are all sinners. We all have to talk to God (prayer) to tell Him we repent of our sins and wish to place our faith in Christ. If all such prayers were wrong, none of us would be saved.
Typically, what evangelicals mean when we use the term “sinner’s prayer” is an altar call type of scenario following a sermon at church, a Christian camp, concert, rally, revival, etc., where someone is attempting to get attendees to “make a decision for Christ”. Often – with heartstring-tugging music in the background – whoever is leading the altar call time will say something to the effect of, “I’d like every head bowed and every eye closed. If you’re here today, and you want Jesus to save you and take you to Heaven when you die, raise your hand. … I see that hand. Thank you, sir, I see your hand. … Now, if you just raised your hand, repeat this prayer -either out loud or in your heart- to God: Lord, I admit that I’m a sinner (Lord, I admit that I’m a sinner.)…” And it goes on from there with the leader leading these people phrase by phrase through a prayer of (hopefully biblical) confession, repentance, and faith in Christ. Sometimes he’ll even say something like, “Repeating the words of this prayer won’t save you unless you really mean it in your heart.” When he’s finished he will usually say something like, “If you just prayed that prayer, you’re saved! Welcome to the family of God.”
A fairly typical altar call and sinner’s prayer.
(If you don’t have a lot of time, you can fast forward through the song. It’s around 1:17-5:39.)
(There are some biblical issues with the prayer, but there are far greater problems with the church and its pastors, and it’s not one I’d recommend.)
That’s what evangelicals mean when they say “sinner’s prayer”. The wording and order of the altar call and the prayer itself can vary greatly, from the completely biblical all the way to the blasphemously heretical, and it can be done in a corporate setting or one on one, but this is the gist of it.
But you need to understand why, in recent years (and on my gospel presentation page) there’s been pushback against this kind of scenario.
It creates false converts.
Granted, God has used this formula to create true converts as well, but the numbers of false converts (people who think they’re saved, but have never been genuinely born again) this little exercise has created are overwhelming. Why? Generally speaking1…
◇The foundational reason the sinner’s prayer scenario creates false converts is that it’s pragmatic Finneyism, an “always be closing” technique designed to seal the deal. It’s more concerned with getting people to say they’ve been saved than whether or not they actually are saved.
◇Many (not all) of the churches that use this technique are not doctrinally sound to begin with, so the “sinner’s prayer” they have people repeat is based on a false gospel. Usually, the more doctrinally sound a church or Christian organization is, the less likely it is to employ an altar call and sinner’s prayer.
◇The sinner’s prayer is often used on children. It is a standard feature of most Vacation Bible Schools, and many Sunday Schools, children’s church services, and other evangelical children’s events. Tragically, many a five year old who has raised his hand and repeated the prayer has been pronounced “saved,” and toddled through the waters of baptism, even though he had no idea what he was doing. The vast majority of young children lack the intellectual capacity to understand abstract concepts like sin, guilt, repentance, substitutionary atonement, faith, and eternity. But a 30 year old – who shows every sign of being lost as a goose in a hailstorm – will point back to that moment of ignorance when he was five, put his faith in the fact that he prayed a prayer, he walked the aisle and made a profession of faith, and he decided to be baptized (perhaps not even retaining memories of these things) and declare himself to be a Christian. And many a mother of such wayward adult children will comfort herself with this “decision” her child made. “He’s just backslidden, but he prayed the prayer, so I’m sure he’ll go to Heaven when he dies.”.
◇Even teens and adults can repeat a prayer without really understanding (possibly because they haven’t actually been told) the biblical gospel and without truly repenting of their sin. But they think they’re saved because they did something with Jesus’ name attached to it. They place their faith in the action they took – that they prayed a prayer – rather than placing their faith in the One they were (ostensibly) praying to. Their faith is in what they did rather than what Jesus did for them.
And how do we know the sinner’s prayer creates so many false converts? We see it when those false converts get genuinely saved and tell us, “I said a sinner’s prayer, but I wasn’t saved,” and we see it in the rotten fruit of the lives of professing Christians who parroted some sort of sinner’s prayer and went right on sinning, or eventually turned back to living in sin.
That’s where the rubber meets the road of whether or not you were genuinely saved by praying a “sinner’s prayer”. We all continue to sin. None of us will ever be perfect, but look back over the years since you prayed that prayer. Have you grown in your love for Christ? In your knowledge of and obedience to His Word? In your love for, and service to the church? Are you increasingly exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit? Do you pursue holiness? Wisdom? Are you sharing the gospel with the lost and discipling the saved? Are you on a general trajectory of becoming more like Christ because you love Him and you want to be like Him?
These are the sorts of things you can look to for reassurance that you’re saved, not that you once repeated a prayer, despite the fact that you now live like a rank pagan. Going back to the words in red in the quote above, what I was trying to say2 is, nobody gets saved by merely rattling off the words of a prayer. You must understand the biblical gospel, repent of your sin, and place your faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to save you.
Just a couple of lines down on that same page, I said this…
The Bible says we should examine ourselves to discover whether or not we are truly in the faith. Take some quiet, undistracted time alone with God today and search your heart. What do you really believe? Is it the true gospel of Scripture, or something else? Don’t put it off, it’s too important. If you need some help, try working through my study Am I Really Saved? A 1 John Check-Up.
The book of 1 John is an incredibly helpful measuring stick to assist you in determining whether or not you’re genuinely saved. I would encourage you (and anyone else reading this who struggles with assurance) to either study 1 John in depth on your own, making note of what is and isn’t true of genuine Christians, or use my study linked above to help you work through this amazing epistle.
Additionally, when working through an issue like this, it’s always best to set up an appointment with your (doctrinally sound) pastor for counsel.
1Please understand that there are churches all over the spectrum of sound/false doctrine who use this method, so these points may or may not apply to every church that uses altar calls and/or a repeated “sinner’s prayer”.
2After considering this sister’s confusion and re-reading the paragraph multiple times, I decided I needed to clarify the wording a bit.
Additional Resources:
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: How Charles Finney’s Theology Ravaged the Evangelical Movement by Phil Johnson
Altar Calls and the Sinner’s Prayer? | WWUTT | June 10, 2015
Should we lead someone in “the sinner’s prayer”? | Wretched | November 7, 2014
You’ll Stop Using the Sinner’s Prayer After Watching This | Living Waters | August 16, 2021
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
Discover more from Michelle Lesley
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
