The Sinner's Prayer is nonsense!

“Revelation 3:20 says,

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.

Ah, the sinner’s prayer. Such a beautiful thing. You basically confess that you are a sinner and that you “invite Jesus into your heart,” and, if you really mean it, He will enter into the “door of your heart” and “reside” within you. Here’s a sample:

“Dear Lord Jesus, I know and declare before You now that I am a sinner. I firmly believe you died for my sins. Right now, I repent from my sins and open the door of my heart that You are knocking on. I receive you as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”

(Source: just about any Christian church website)

So beautiful. So heartfelt and emotional. Soo unscriptural. Contrary to popular belief nowadays, Revelation 3:20 was written to and was meant for the Church of Laodicea. But wait – it says in the Book of Acts...nothing! It’s not in there, and that is a book that is all about evangelism (hell doesn’t show up either, by the way, but I digress). In no instance when someone was “saved” did they do it by saying a sinner’s prayer in Acts. In fact, I found nothing about a so-called “salvation prayer” or “confessional prayer” anywhere in the entire Bible!

In any case, Revelation 3, read in context, reads:

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:

15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Rev 3:14-22, NASB, underline mine)

This piece of Scripture most assuredly wasn’t written so that people can piggyback off of it and make their little pet doctrines. How easy would it be for a radio pastor or a televangelist to feel good about himself (or herself¹), by telling people that all that they had to do to “get saved” and avoid hell was to pray a 30-second prayer? It’s very enticing – and for this lackadaisical, “drive-thru” culture, I can see why a lot of today’s pastors would opt for it. But, this wasn’t the way that people came to Christ in the time of the apostles. Remember – Salvation = Jesus + nothing. Man likes to think he can save himself, but the truth is, he can’t. He is incapable of doing anything to contribute to Christ’s finished work on the Cross! Humanity wants to put in their “two cents.” Keep it. Jesus is enough. If you try to save yourself, even by a little bit, it doesn’t work. Rely 100% on Him and Him alone! Remember what Christ said, as he told the crowd this parable,

“And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a (highly-esteemed) Pharisee and the other a (despised) tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:9-14, NASB, italics, underline and paranthesis mine).

It doesn’t matter what other people think of you, it only matters what Christ thinks of you. When you stand in the throne room of Christ (and we all will one day), I pray that you and I will not be like this Pharisee and start rambling off all of our “accomplishments” that we did for God. Like it says in Isa 64:6, “all our righteousnesses [sic] are as filthy rags²” (KJV). I pray that we will be like this tax collector, feeling completely unworthy to even fully enter, but falling on our face and crying, “Have mercy on me – a sinner!!” Like I said, rely on Christ alone for your salvation. Everything else will flow from that. Take from that what you will.

Also, I personally believe that the Church of Laodicea represents the church of the end times. It is the last church that was written to, and it describes pretty perfectly the condition of the churches now. They are lazy, flabby, needing to be entertained as if they were in some kind of rock concert. This is the richest church in history, and yet, more and more people are leaving the pews and Christianity is now, by far, the fastest declining religion³. Did you notice that Jesus has nothing good to say about this wicked generation? Wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, indeed. Shameful. Absolutely shameful. I believe we are in the midst of the great apostasy as Paul describes in 2Thes 2:3 or the great falling away. This needs to happen before the end comes, when God will judge the world and will bring about His Kingdom to the earth.

 

 

1 another unscriptural thing that exists in the last days – women are not qualified to teach men. Read 1Tim 2:12.

2 The image of “filthy rags” here is literally that of “the rag” – used tampons!

3 https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/