What does the Bible say about the "sinners prayer"? Do you need to pray the sinners prayer to be saved? Over 150 videos teaching a biblical worldview! / mikewingerbiblethinker / mikewingerii www.hosannachapel.org/ biblethinker.tv/
Mi Les something that you might see at the end of a tract: "Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that you love me and that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I repent of my sin. Please come into my heart, forgive my sin and give me eternal life. In Jesus' name. Amen". That's usually how "the sinner's prayer goes. Something like that. There is nothing about these words that saves anyone. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) not through prayer, not even a sincere one.
McG58 and @Ghost_Party , That "Have mercy on me, a sinner" was a great prayer, but it did not evolve and was not adopted by the apostles into a getting saved prayer post ascenscion, as they never practiced it on anyone. That prayer, the way Jesus stated it, did not even mention Jesus. The purpose of that lesson was taught in Luke 18:9,14 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
I have high respect for Mike Winger and Ive watched so many of his knowledgable videos. But I gotta say I was disappointed on this one when he tried to summarize Acts 2.. Because when the people in Acts chapter 2 were convicted in their hearts and they asked Peter what to do, he didnt just say "repent" and pretty much just left.. He said "repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receieve the Holy Ghost".. I know why Mike chose not to quote the whole verse due to his doctrinal beliefs, but still, Acts 2 was the first church sermon ever preached by the early church, and I believe that this is what churches nowadays should be telling their people when teaching salvation.
If we read the preceding verses, 41"those who accepted his message were baptized". So, Repenting is on changing your mind to the message of the Gospel and the result of repentance is being baptized. We can read a lot of instances like 3:19, when Peter only told his fellow Israelites just to repent and turn to God. So, being baptized in the spirit is the result of repentance.
I think it had more to do with what portion of the verse is relevant to the point he's making, since he wants people to know that you don't need a special prayer to repent
When I first came to Jesus, I didn't get led in prayer. I just wanted a relationship with Him and had a love for Him. I have prayed it with the church, but that was after being saved.
Here's my personal experience with the "sinner's prayer" At 34 yrs old, I was new to the whole church thing. I became intrigued enough by the sermons to attend a Bible study. At the study, the preacher kept using the word "saved". I really wanted to understand what he was teaching, so I finally raised my hand and asked what he meant by "saved". The preacher said, "we'll talk about it later". But I insisted, "I cant follow what you are talking about without knowing what the word means". He said, "we'll take care of that in a little bit". So..... after another 45 minutes of him teaching... He & another person sat down with me, and I asked again, what does "saved" mean. He said, "we're gonna take care of that right now". By this time, I was getting frustrated. He says, "we are going to talk to God about it, and I want you to repeat what I say, as we talk to God" .... They both reached across the table to hold my hands, but I resisted ... they asked "what's wrong" .... I said, "I still don't know what the word means" .... They again repeat "We are about to take care of that right now". They took my hands and I instantly started to cry & tremble.... so they asked me again, "what is wrong". I cried, "I don't know if I want to do this" and the preacher responded, "why not?". "Because I didn't want to do THIS (cry)", I barked. I was confused, nervous, & scared. I was looking all around the room for an escape route. They squeezed my hands and instructed me to repeat their words as they helped me talk to God. I was shaking terribly. After he had me say, "God, I know that I am a sinner, and I want my sins to be forgiven", I started crying even harder... I could hardly get the words out to finish what he wanted me to repeat. After the 'repeat-after-me prayer' was over, the preacher had a little bit of a disappointed (or skeptical) look on his face. I'm quite sure it was because he could tell that I wasn't sincere about what I had repeated after him. I repeated it very robotically, just to get it over with & get out of there..... because I just didn't understand what was happening. I was still confused, & embarrassed about crying so hard. And I didn't even *know why* I was crying!! I cried all the way home, trying to figure out what just happened. I never got an answer to what the preacher meant by "saved" LOL. So, I was determined to find out. So I got out my only Bible... one of those big, white, wedding gift, decorative, Bibles. LOL. And I looked up everything that had the word "saved" and "salvation". After a week or so of searching & reading, I felt like I was starting to get close to figuring it out. I reread & reread the verses about salvation, and then read the context, and one day it hit me between the eyes... and hit me in the heart. I cried and thanked God for finally showing me what this word meant. The next day, I just so happened to notice a Christian tv show as I flipped channels. The host of the show explained how ANYONE who wants to come to God for forgiveness and have a relationship with Him, can do so if that's what they really want. He proceeded to do one of those repeat-after-me prayers..... And I repeated that "sinner's prayer" and this time *I meant it.* I had learned what the word meant, and then I learned that the word was meant *for me.* That was the beginning of an incredible earth-shaking journey, now 13 years in the making. Halleluia! ** 2 weeks later that preacher baptized me. Before getting dunked, I professed to the congregation that I had accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord & Savior!! I looked over at the preacher and he had tears in his eyes! He knew that I meant what I just professed. :-)
In Acts 2:38 Peter actually said "REPENT and BE BAPTIZED" when the people asked "Brothers, what should we do?" Both are important! We need to be careful not to subtract from the Word.
I think the sinners prayer is just a verbal confession or demonstration of your in belief in Christ and choice to follow Him. It is not the prayer itself that saves you, however it serves as the turning point for some individuals and helps the sinner understand their relation to Christ. Others just silently choose to believe and follow. I think Christ can address each individual in a personal manner that will draw them to a Him.
@@maxsmith3335 I agree. Technically they can’t. However, I believe the pastor should provide the opportunity for those who desire to come to Christ. In the end, as you mentioned, only God knows the heart.
@@maxsmith3335 interesting. I haven’t. I suppose that depends on the pastor. The point is that it’s NOT the prayer itself that saves people. Most people I know acknowledges this. It’s their acceptance of Christ in their lives. Most pastors I know have never claimed the sinners prayer is what saves people. It’s a tool in leading people to Christ. The individual has to make that decision to accept Christ as their saviour on their own. It sounds like many people who are extremely opposed to the sinners Prayer have a lack of understanding and misrepresent what it actually is and over think it perhaps.
I know this comment is old, but that’s exactly what I have been thinking. It’s a confession that you acknowledge Him as Lord, and want to pursue a relationship with. Simply declaring it once or however many times will not change anything unless you have relationship.
To be fair, it doesn't record when Nicodemus believed at all, although he apparently did. I wish though that they'd call this the "coerced prayer", or the "repeat-after-me prayer", and then I'd have no problem saying it was wrong. But when massive numbers of Christians condemn "the sinners prayer", it sounds like they are condemning the prayer of the publican in Luke, who wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and cried "God, have mercy upon me, a sinner", or the thief on the cross. You wouldn't want to condemn those, if you have come to Jesus as a sinner.
While I would take a more strict position on the sinners prayer as I was very much left in the wilderness for years thinking I was ok because I said a little prayer and wasn't discipled and I've seen many people given a false sense of assurance over saying a prayer... It's equivalent to the Lutherans baptizing infants and pronouncing salvation upon them as well.. I've asked my church why they are so adamant about the sinners prayer and no one has responded to my email yet about it .
Mike Winger said 1:14 "Now, it's possible they did this, but never once is it recorded." I submit that it is not possible they did any variation or incarnation of this prayer since it is not recorded. Even if it was done as the norm, and not always, it could not have hidden entirely from the scriptures. Whether in instruction or occurrence, it would have been mentioned.
The doctrine espoused in the sinners prayer places faith in a decision and reciting of prayer for salvation rather than repentance, faith and trust in Jesus Christ. How can we estimate our sincerity in a decision and a prayer when our hearts are deceitfully wicked?
I agree until he says at the end "you can mess up that's better than doing nothing" Really Mike? You should said you don't want a false conversion. Does anyone want their child to have a false conversion?
Acts 2:38-41 (ESV): 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Brought up in a very religious Roman Catholic family, I later drifted away from those beliefs into agnosticism. I was in my early forties when it happened, when I had started reading the Bible for selfish reasons. And said "Hey. This is truth". I cannot pinpoint the exact moment it happened when I started believing. Studying the Bible regularly became exciting. An evangelical Church fellowship & Audio messages from a "Back to the Bible International Ministries' also helped me get sound in God's word. Interestingly I had said the Sinner's prayer a year or two before I came to faith through the Bible. A pastor was visiting our place from The Church fellowship of my brother's already a believer. He got me reading Nicodemus in John 3 and explained the need to be born again. The Sinner's prayer ensued and I said it out of respect, but later told my brother that I was already saved since I believed in Jesus. In my case the sinner's prayer was not the life changing moment when I became a child of God. Reading the Bible brought me to Faith, to an unshakeable conviction that could be tested just a year later.
Faith is a gift from God. And it is what we do with that gift that determines if we are saved or not. So salvation is by faith AND works. The sinners prayer is not, therefore, scriptural. (notice that I said scriptural as opposed to biblical, as there is a big big difference) Christ said there is a great cost involved if someone wants to be his disciple. Well, that does not fit with the false doctrine of salvation being by faith alone, which also refutes the notion of a sinner's prayer.. The sinner's prayer that is taught today came out of Paulineism.
@@saynotohookups You are believing the same lie that the devil deceived Eve with in the garden. And that lie is that you can sin and not die. Lip service and confession of faith alone will not save anyone.
@@TrustinJC I don't know how you got that from what I said. Maybe you are thinking about where the Bible says faith without works is dead. That doesn't mean that you are saved by works. It means that when you are really saved that the works are going to be evidence of that salvation. Good works are produced after salvation. If you think that works righteousness are needed to save your soul from God's wrath and to have eternal life the New Testament is clear that it cannot save you.
I think CHRISTIANS should be praying a sinners prayer daily........ or at least regularly. "For ALL have sinned..... Yes our sins are under the blood but repentance is a life long commitment and we should be humble and contrite as a way of being. The biggest deception was the idea of "one and done". And Jesus did give us a template for the sinners prayer..... is is the Lords Prayer.
Actually Peter called them to repent from not believing in Jesus not being who He claim to be, in other words, God in the flesh. Receiving Jesus Christ for who He is should lead you to repenting from your sins, but it is possible to believe who Jesus is and still reject Him as Lord in your lives, just like the devil, he believes in who Jesus is but doesn't receiving as his God, therefore he's against Him and lost in his sins. God bless .
With or without preaching the gospel, pastors lead attendees who are even not willing to pray sinner's prayer to do such.. They even force them when they refuse. I remember a muslim who was just invited by her friend on a christian gathering was also forced by the Christians to go to the pastor infront to say the sinner's prayer. Oh no! Sinner's prayer is obviously unbiblical.
Totally aggree. When I see the pastors asking people to come to the front, people are force or intimidated, not of their own sicerity. It should be a sincere one on one with GOD. Sinners prayer became hypocretical show about numbers.
Notice Saul who became the apostle Paul was told Acts 22:16 (KJV) 16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. I will be doing a video on this topic. Do people use it the wrong way. Absolutely just like marriage but the sinner's prayer is in the book of Romans Romans 10:8-10 (KJV) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Why are you using Romans out-of-context as a proof-text for your pre-existing belief. You need proper exegesis. First, understand that the letter to the Romans, as is it called, was written to the followers of Jesus in Rome(see Romans 1:7). So, this is not meant to be instructions on how to get “saved”. Look at the context of that selected passage and continue reading through verse 13. Paul is addressing the division that was existing within the church in Rome. He was saying that the good news of Jesus as the Christ was for all peoples. There was no distinction between ethnic or social group status. All who call on the name “shall be saved.” That’s the good news.
Repent and be baptized EVERYONE of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the GIFT of the Holy Ghost ACTS 2:38 aligns with John 3:5 water and Spirit mandate
Saying you only get the holy Ghost after being baptized is a misunderstanding of s specific verse. its talking about the gifts FROM the holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (1 Corinthians 12:8-11) For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (Acts 10:44) While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. (Romans 10:17) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. you get the Holy Ghost through faith, and faith through hearing. the gifts FROM the Holy Ghost you get through baptism. (btw the biblical meaning of repent means to change your mind) (Jonah 3:10) And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. God is perfect and cannot sin, so when the bible talks about repenting it means changing your mind
@@melodie8315 acts 2:38 is the water & Spirit birth birth mandated by Jesus in John 3:5 adhered to after Pentecost in acts 8:12-18 acts 10:44-48 acts 19:2-6
@@Caterpillar2Butterfly when they talk about being born of water they’re talking about when a woman’s water breaks before childbirth lol you can tell by john 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. it’s explaining that being born of water and flesh is the same thing because it creates a parallel between the two. being born of water is being born of flesh. you don’t get born again through baptism hahaha
What Peter said was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This was God's prescription, not the sinners prayer. Mike you should at least quote the whole scripture, not just say "And other stuff."
What happened to Bible alone? Oops !!! Bible alone and the sinners prayer aren't in the Bible. Neither was the Rapture believed before the 1800's....People wake up!!!
@@bryanlovesjesus2204 great question the Bible says what must I do to be saved but leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved last time I checked God knows English she knows every language and he could have very well just said repent of your sins to be saved
@@ramirlj have you ever read the Old Testament my friend? How about Ezekiel 18 and 33? Please tell me God isn’t telling people to repent and turn from their wicked ways…
@@bryanlovesjesus2204 and that's why it's called the OLD testament, think about it. Why did the book of Hebrews call the NEW covenant a BETTER covenant established on better promises? 😌 The old covenant was perfect but we are not and we broke it over and over so God decided to make a covenant with..... HIMSELF! That's why the bible says He reconciled the world unto HIMSELF. Jesus fulfilled the old covenant law and nailed it to cross along with our sins. That's why all we do to be saved (just like it says) is believe Jesus actually did it. Repenting or turning ie stopping your sinning is impossible and found nowhere in the new covenant soteriological verses. Go look....
