March 2, 2012

• Sinner’s Prayer

  Nope, it’s not in the Scripture as presented, nor is the preamble in the Bible. By preamble (or what comes after it), I mean that when someone presents the sinner’s prayer, they essentially say “hey, if you say these words and mean it, then you’re saved”… That’s not right. There’s something distinctly wrong with it. It is, perhaps, the main issue I have with it. But there are other things of note.

  For one, it places man at the center of it: if you do X (and Y), then you get Z! … But Y can always be questioned (did I really mean it? what if I wasn’t genuine? I understand the gospel so much more now, did I really even get it enough at the time for it to count?)

  Likewise, God initiates and follows through with salvation. It isn’t ultimately all in your court. God never made the existential ultimatum so cut and dry and inorganic. It isn’t like God says, “It’s totally up to you: the ball’s in your court whether you’re saved or not.” God interacts with us and woo’s us. He changes our hearts according to his purpose. That said, our heart, soul, mind, and strength are all being brought in to God– our speech isn’t the first step in our relationship with God; it is God. He doesn’t start by giving us a vocabulary, but rather a heartbeat.

  Second, historically, a person wanting to become a Christian would come to his elder/bishop/whatever and give a credible profession of faith; not just with word, but showing repentance in their life. Only then would they be encouraged to get baptized (and then partake in communion!). But they had no right to be called a Christian until they were examined — and not just by what they said.

  Now, it is important to remember that whether someone is saved or not is not determined (in the sense of decision) by the elder, but by God. Instead, it was determined (in the sense of investigated) by the elder for the practicality of membership/entering into the community.

  This means, that while someone may be saved after saying that prayer, it is not as if the prayer were the cause, but (perhaps more importantly for this discussion) the elder/whoever-is-presenting-it does *not* have the authority or justification to tell someone that the person is saved on that sole basis.

  • 12:25 am
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