Article - Millions Remain Lost Due to “The Sinner’s Prayer”
In 1978 Jim Jones led a religious group of 638 adults and 276 children to their deaths due to his false views. As tragic as that seems, even more tragic is the fact that millions of souls have remained spiritually dead and outside of the cleansing blood of Jesus because they have been taught a perverted gospel known as “The Sinner’s Prayer” (Galatians 1:6-10). Popularized by Billy Graham, “The Sinner’s Prayer” goes something like this: “Father, I have sinned and am lost. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus and accept Him as my personal Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” The Bible nowhere teaches that the way to get into Christ is through prayer. In fact, it teaches that God does NOT hear the prayer of a sinner (John 9:31; Isaiah 59:1-2; Proverbs 28:9). Instead of confessing his sins, the non-Christian is commanded to confess Jesus as Lord, the Son of God (Acts 8:37; Romans 10:9-10). To “call upon the name of the Lord” is not “The Sinner’s Prayer”, but is clearly shown in Acts 22:16 to be acts of obedience to the gospel, namely, hearing the word of God, believing Jesus as God’s Son, repenting of sins, confessing Jesus as Lord and being baptized in order to wash away one’s sins through Jesus’ blood (Acts 2:21, 38; Romans 10:8-17; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 1:5; compare Genesis 4:25-26).
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