** first read part 1
Jesus is our buddy, and God is our friend. Christ is hip, and church is cool. This sentiment is alive and well in today’s American Christianity, along with: God has a special plan for your life. You are very special to Him.
The problem with the Church today is that we are using God. Like Aladdin, we depend on our genie to help us live a meaningful and happy life. Afraid of hell, or guilty over sin? Pray a prayer, and Jesus takes care of it. Worry on the job, stress in your family situation? The Bible has the answer, its God’s guidebook for life. Longing for true acceptance and love? No one loves you like Jesus does! In the church we all love each other and look out for one another.
It takes a trained eye, but do you see how the above concerns all center around self and self-esteem? Perhaps its no wonder, then, that Jesus is also offered among evangelicals today, as one who can guarantee that you will get what you want, that you will get rich, that you will prosper, or that you will be healed.
How did we get here? Man-Centered Methodology including the Sinner’s Prayer
I suppose that there have always been such errors in the Church, after all we are human. But with the rise of the revivalist movement in the 1800s, an emphasis was placed on crafting evangelistic appeals tailored to the likes and dislikes of the audience. Charles Finney invented the altar call, and appealed to the human free will to come forward and make a commitment to Christ. Later evangelists continued to employ pragmatic methods in a largely parachurch context as they drew ever larger crowds together in large mass meetings around the country, and the world.
The pledge a new convert would make eventually was replaced by a prayer. And under Billy Sunday, the prayer was changed into the modern “sinner’s prayer”. Never before in the history of the church had such a method been used. Now sinners were directed to pray for personal salvation, rather than given counsel and encouraged to believe and thereafter commit/pledge to follow Christ with all their being. This subtle change in methodology, like the many that preceded, became a new tradition that bound countless evangelists and ministers for generations to follow.
From a personal prayer for salvation, the “sinner’s prayer” became employed en masse. Crowds were instructed to repeat this prayer if they wanted to be saved. And then came the religious tracts, which today overwhelmingly call for a prayer to be repeated. These prayers have given assurance to thousands, and have transformed our modern view of salvation.
While Scripture speaks of those who are “being saved”, most evangelicals view salvation in the past tense. While past evangelists exhorted converts to continue steadfastly in the faith, modern-day converts are promised that even the most damaging sins will not result in the loss of your salvation — the salvation they “received” upon their just completed recitation of the “sinner’s prayer”. Today, multitudes struggle over whether they “said the right words”, or truly “meant it”. And assurance is often given based on Rom. 10:13 and whether the person remembers a “time and a place” when they accepted Christ.
Whereas before converts would often come from churches where they had heard countless Scriptural sermons, and been given personal Scriptural counseling, before finally coming to repentance, today’s converts are given a few (often very few) verses, ripped from their context and strung together in the form of a “Roman’s Road”, or “The Four Spiritual Laws”. Earnest and biblical preaching has sometimes been turned into a well-crafted psychological appeal. Often times seekers are manipulated into just “trying” the prayer, or giving Jesus “a test drive”. In some fundamentalist circles, almost any means is employed to get people to repeat the magical, soul-saving, prayer — including putting a foot in people’s doors so they can’t shut it and so they have to hear the soul-winner’s quick appeal to pray this prayer.
Hold on a second, Bob! Where’s your proof, and aren’t you exaggerating a bit here? I knew someone was thinking that. You were, weren’t you?
In the next few days I will be reviewing a book which offers some historical background and proof for many of my assertions here. I’ll even be having a book give away (so stay tuned!). But at this point, I should insert a caveat. I do not think, that a “sinner’s prayer” experience is necessarily void of any merit. I think countless believers started believing in Christ right around the time they prayed that first prayer. The prayer didn’t save them, faith did; and the prayer was merely a vehicle by which to express their faith.
Problems with the “Sinner’s Prayer”
But at the same time I see some serious problems with this methodology. The “sinner’s prayer” can lead people to trust in an act they did as a means of salvation. They are saved because they prayed and did their part of Rom. 10:13 — they “called”, so God has to “save”. But salvation is not a mere transaction. And often the prayer is merely a recognition that you believe certain facts — the Gospel facts. No one is saved by believing facts, people must repent and trust Jesus alone for salvation.
Further, a “sinner’s prayer” gives people a false hope. Assurance is tied to the act, not to faith. And beyond that, it fosters a point-in-time prevailing view of salvation. It does not encourage people to take seriously the many Biblical warnings for those who do not persevere in faith.
And lastly, the “sinner’s prayer” fosters a self-orientation and a man-centered view of Christianity. Because God died to save people, people are important. I am important. My needs were met by God, so I should thank him and live for him. But still everything centers around me, even God is bowing down to serve me, having done all He could to save my soul.
Looks like these posts are turning into a series. Next time, I will discuss the theology of the “sinner’s prayer”, and Bible arguments against it. Then I will get into a Biblical view of eternal security/perseverance. And finally, Lord willing, I will explain what a God-centered Christianity looks like.
Good thoughts.
Thanks
the problem with these androids, is they’re so androcentric
empathy is always a mental simulation of other.
Basically, by virtue of having selves, we are created with self interest… its simply dishonest to pretend we are capable of being truly God centered. All we can do is hope that remembering our selfishness in humility, and attempting to put aside here and now in favour of a better tomorrow is sufficient, by grace, and through faith, to count as righteousness. The idea of treasure stored up in heaven as a reason to compliment faith with good works, and right living is no less selfish… its just a different manifestation of the same.
To stay home, speak to no one, and take no risks, that could have all the appearance of a righteous life. But someone like Bonhoeffer who lost his life, and risked his eternal soul for the good of others came close to transcending his selfish humanity.
Unless you are prepared to risk hell in the service of christ, are you truly prepared to surrender your selfish goals? Is the promotion of heaven afted death really an appropriate persuasion to salvation??? or are we just selling short trip tickets?
We are in fact saved, by faith through grace, and that a gift. Sinners prayer? Lord’s prayer? State of the heart?
I always liked the saying “your attitude determines you altitude” (and in aviation, its an important fact). We can never acheive true altruism… perhaps the point is living in gratitude for the grace we have received, and doing our best without being paranoid, to honour that grace. So much of life is not the freedom to avoid sin, but the opportunity to choose between a lesser and a greater sin… since the whole world is in sin, falling short of God’s full glory.
While the bible may indeed say “plan out your salvation with fear and trembling” it most certainly doesn’t say “all day every day, at the expense of any other activity”. At some point we have to trust, to put our faith in grace, and get on with the business of living.
So while I really like your assertion that the sinners prayer is selfish and innacurate… so often we jump to the other extreme. Is it even possible to teach the complexity of the whole, messy picture? Well its actually simple really, it just makes a mess of the oversimplified teaching of the 60′s throug 90′s. Faith in Grace.
Are you living with your faith in grace? Then I imagine you are probably saved. What if you continue to sin on purpose? Then you’re acting in contempt of grace… and your salvation might be compromised (but nobody is really sure). What if you sin out of compulsion, addiction, or emotion? Then you’re a human being… and if you don’t, you’re not one. (or you’re deluded)
It’s the whole grey area of people living in sin (or alleged sin) loosing or not loosing their salvation that causes controvesy… and I don’t believe there are any perfectly easy answers. As you suggest, its more the christian marketing junkies who want a two-step salvation plan that simplify these details… and its a bit like selling house insurance in bangladesh that doesn’t cover flooding… or crop insurance in Australia that doesn’t cover drought.
When will ministers learn to have the humility and honesty to say “we’re not entirely sure”. Anyone in their congregation with half a braincell knows when they aren’t entirely sure… its in the body language, the attitude, the tone of voice. How did we create these people that think they have to make up absolutes that don’t exist, to keep their congregation safe? How do we free them from this trap?
At one IFB church I attended, it was not unusual for people to be “saved” in parking lots during visitation. Some of these people had never heard the gospel before and in a few minutes they were lead to pray the sinner’s prayer. Then they were told they were saved; however, it was extremely rare to see one of these converts in church or for them to be baptized.
One night I went on a visit where two women were on the front porch and obviously engaged in other activities. In order to get them to listen, the man with me told them he could give them the gospel in five minutes, which he did (Romans Road).
At the end, one of the women was unsure how to respond and the other one was not interested at all. My visitation partner asked the first woman to pray the prayer and the other woman to repeat the prayer anyway. Both repeated the words and at the end of the prayer both were told that they were saved.
This approach is not Biblical; it leads to false conversions and makes it harder for someone later to come along and do a more thorough job of explaining the truth.
Timmeh,
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree we can be extreme with this. My goal is to just explore how the prevailing acceptance of this methodology affects how we think about Scripture.
Sure we are all going to be man-centered by nature. But hang in there, I hope to explain what I mean by God-centered.
Blessings from Jesus,
Bob
Ralph,
Thanks for verifying some of my claims!!
It is sad that such abuses of the Bible happen.
Blessings from Jesus,
Bob
Bob, you are right on with this series! I have serious problems with a call for “anyone in the audience who wants to be saved to repeat this prayer after me.” I personally had never felt comfortable with it, but over the past couple years have come to the conviction that it is wrong! A prayer of confessing present faith in Christ might be a good thing, but praying a prayer TO BE saved is unbiblical!
I can’t wait to read more, and I am definitely interested in this book, especially if I can get a free copy. Don’t you think you should give it to the person who had the 2000th comment?
Don,
I’m reserving a few of the copies for some close blog friends. You’re on the list.
YEAH!!!
[...] Security: Perseverance or Preservation? previously in this series–part 1, part 2, “The Sinner’s Prayer Problem” (part 3), part [...]
iN THIS ARTICLE ARE YOU SAYING THAT BILLY SUNDAY IS RESPONSIBLE AT SOME POINT FOR PROPOGATING THE SALVATION PRAYER IN AMERICAN AND IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
Lawrence,
While I am sure his motives are pure, I do believe Billy Sunday did much to propogate the use of a sinner’s prayer.
This book also makes the same contention.
Blessings,
Bob Hayton
Is there any historical documentation that varifies that billy sunday used the sinner’s prayer for conversion in his ministry/
Lawrence,
The link I provide above cites evidence. Stay tuned for a review of that book.
I found another good link with history on the subject. Click here. That article also points to Sunday as one who utilized this method.
[...] I’m getting ready to pick up my series on man-centered Christianity (see posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and I thought highlighting what my pastor, John Piper said in a recent message would [...]
Good word. Who are children of God? Those who prayed a prayer, or those who obey the Spirit?
Romans 8:14
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
1 John 3:10
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
1 John 5:2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.