What on Earth does "saying the sinner's prayer" have to do with being a follower of Christ?
Holiness or sinner
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What on Earth does "saying the sinner's prayer" have to do with being a follower of Christ?
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coby
Guest
If you mean it you become a follower of Him. Ian McCormack prayed the Lord's prayer. If you just repeat the words without having a clue what you do and keep on living like you always did it's not of much use.
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
[SUP]9 [/SUP] that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
[SUP]10 [/SUP] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:13 (KJV)
[SUP]13 [/SUP] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:17 (NASB)
[SUP]17 [/SUP] So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
[SUP]9 [/SUP] that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
[SUP]10 [/SUP] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:13 (KJV)
[SUP]13 [/SUP] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:17 (NASB)
[SUP]17 [/SUP] So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
E
eternally-gratefull
Guest
Can you name one person in here who believes a person is saved by saying the sinners prayer?
It should be fairly obvious if you still choose to sin, that you never meant whatever ritualistic chant you parroted. Saying some words you are told to repeat is hardly any basis for ANYTHING.
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coby
Guest
C
coby
Guest
As if sinning is a choice when nobody sets you free from those demons or prays for inner healing and nobody tells you who you are in Christ. Romans 7 wasn't really a choice.
Dear reader, EG loves to tell everyone what we are saying and doing. But this is not true.
If I preach salvation by faith alone in Christ, I am preaching that. It is a lie to say I am saying anything else.
If I say the fruit or consequence of that faith is obedience to what Christ commands and righteousness, that is what I am saying. Now if you believe that is preaching works, then say this. But in reality this appears to be what we all believe.
So there must be something else to generate this lying, slander, desire to upset. It is a conviction. The evil legalists are hidden and need to smoked out. And the key sign is no Eternal Security. Once pinned down, push wind them up, and out pours the reality of their hearts, except when you pick the wrong mark. How does anyone think this is how the Lord works in any theology or reality? If you do, in the end it is just about labels and not the Lord.
And the great insults are just saying what you think of theological ideas. This is worse than being with a bunch of lunatic muslims. At least I know they are nuts. I suppose if they behave in the same way, dedicated to these types of labels and believing slander and lying, the Lord truth and love are far from their hearts. I am not responding to their ideas just their behaviour which speaks what is inside and the level of grace that has been planted there. Jesus was always careful to find the truth and the behaviour of people before conclusions where drawn. Not true with these people. I have already been called possessed, anti-christ for what? Not showing enough enthusiasm for someones perspective. Now imagine if Jesus judged believers like this. No one would be saved. Where is the grace or sense of proportion or love? Well I have been told I do not know Jesus, love or anything spiritual. I would ask is anything sacred. Not for this guy. It is an attempt on total personality destruction. Sounds the nature of a psychopath, aimed, targeting and dedicated at destruction.
Does that sound like the Spirit of Jesus or the Holy Spirit at work here? Not a chance, even for a second.
If I preach salvation by faith alone in Christ, I am preaching that. It is a lie to say I am saying anything else.
If I say the fruit or consequence of that faith is obedience to what Christ commands and righteousness, that is what I am saying. Now if you believe that is preaching works, then say this. But in reality this appears to be what we all believe.
So there must be something else to generate this lying, slander, desire to upset. It is a conviction. The evil legalists are hidden and need to smoked out. And the key sign is no Eternal Security. Once pinned down, push wind them up, and out pours the reality of their hearts, except when you pick the wrong mark. How does anyone think this is how the Lord works in any theology or reality? If you do, in the end it is just about labels and not the Lord.
And the great insults are just saying what you think of theological ideas. This is worse than being with a bunch of lunatic muslims. At least I know they are nuts. I suppose if they behave in the same way, dedicated to these types of labels and believing slander and lying, the Lord truth and love are far from their hearts. I am not responding to their ideas just their behaviour which speaks what is inside and the level of grace that has been planted there. Jesus was always careful to find the truth and the behaviour of people before conclusions where drawn. Not true with these people. I have already been called possessed, anti-christ for what? Not showing enough enthusiasm for someones perspective. Now imagine if Jesus judged believers like this. No one would be saved. Where is the grace or sense of proportion or love? Well I have been told I do not know Jesus, love or anything spiritual. I would ask is anything sacred. Not for this guy. It is an attempt on total personality destruction. Sounds the nature of a psychopath, aimed, targeting and dedicated at destruction.
Does that sound like the Spirit of Jesus or the Holy Spirit at work here? Not a chance, even for a second.
E
eternally-gratefull
Guest
I know Paul never got saved saying the "sinner's prayer" when he got saved...he just said "Lord" to Jesus ( of course he would have believed Jesus rose from the dead as he saw Him..so he believed in his heart )
...nor did Peter or Paul preach the "sinner's prayer" when they preached the gospel.
Look at Acts 10: 34-44 for Peter preaching the gospel...here is the verses that changed things for Cornelius and his household. All responses were from the heart of those listening to the message.
Acts 10:43-44 (NASB)
[SUP]43 [/SUP] "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
[SUP]44 [/SUP] While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
Here is Paul preaching the gospel..again..no sinner's prayer used..in Acts 13:16-41...with these verses being the crux of the gospel..
Acts 13:38 (NASB)
[SUP]38 [/SUP] "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
...nor did Peter or Paul preach the "sinner's prayer" when they preached the gospel.
Look at Acts 10: 34-44 for Peter preaching the gospel...here is the verses that changed things for Cornelius and his household. All responses were from the heart of those listening to the message.
Acts 10:43-44 (NASB)
[SUP]43 [/SUP] "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
[SUP]44 [/SUP] While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
Here is Paul preaching the gospel..again..no sinner's prayer used..in Acts 13:16-41...with these verses being the crux of the gospel..
Acts 13:38 (NASB)
[SUP]38 [/SUP] "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
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coby
Guest
No true faith. I immediately noticed that I loved all those people that I first hated. I was an atheist and I got convinced He existed. Then in church they told me I had to accept Him in my heart and after a few months I understood it and prayed the sinner's prayer.
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coby
Guest
One guy got saved, went to his friend who was just feeding his rabbits. Hey you changed! How do I get saved? Read Matthew 19 or something and yell: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! he said. Lol he did and got saved. Think it was Larry Lea.
Grace vs works. AGAIN!! No thanks to PJ! Otherwise known as legalism vs antinominianism.
Except equating being against the law (i.e. not obeying Christ) with grace seems a bit bizarre to me. Because by grace we are saved, through faith, lest anyone should boast.
Well, for all you boasters, who think they are obeying God by doing works, and that is the basis of salvation, there is hope for you. I was also wrongly taught in my first 15 years as a Christian. I began to see the lie of works based salvation, simply by reading the entire Bible through over and over.
God will speak to you, I hope. Unless you "choose" to continue to be legalists and think you have to work to maintain your salvation. And then I feel very sorry for you.
So good to follow Christ with all my heart, mind and soul, and strength, because of what he has done for me, not what I did for myself.
Except equating being against the law (i.e. not obeying Christ) with grace seems a bit bizarre to me. Because by grace we are saved, through faith, lest anyone should boast.
Well, for all you boasters, who think they are obeying God by doing works, and that is the basis of salvation, there is hope for you. I was also wrongly taught in my first 15 years as a Christian. I began to see the lie of works based salvation, simply by reading the entire Bible through over and over.
God will speak to you, I hope. Unless you "choose" to continue to be legalists and think you have to work to maintain your salvation. And then I feel very sorry for you.
So good to follow Christ with all my heart, mind and soul, and strength, because of what he has done for me, not what I did for myself.
Amen. I lead someone to the Lord this way as well. The thief on the cross was lead to faith by just asking Jesus to remember Him. I am always amazed at Christs love and desire to reach out to those who humble themselves repent and believe.
To hear people questioning these steps of faith, speaks so much of not knowing how to reach out and find the Lord.
A lot of people know nothing about simple 4 spiritual laws and leading people to Christ. So much theology so little real evangelistic experience.
PeterJens....
I personally thank you for your post today. I like how you explained and used terminology that was easy to understand, particularly "My feeling in the Lord is we are never stationary but always learning and going from one position to another." You ended on a HIGH NOTE: "WHAT A KING!!!!!" Love it!
I personally thank you for your post today. I like how you explained and used terminology that was easy to understand, particularly "My feeling in the Lord is we are never stationary but always learning and going from one position to another." You ended on a HIGH NOTE: "WHAT A KING!!!!!" Love it!
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psalm6819
Guest
4 spiritual laws never saved anyone.
The goodness of God draws us to repentence.
Faith in Jesus Christ's redemption of us and the sealing of the Holy Spirit keeps us. Not any spiritual laws.
I agree the 4 spiritual laws is about symbolic or picture language that helps identify a core issue in life.
The world is a broken place, with hurts, rejection, lostness, depression, sin. People try different things to escape, drugs, pornography, work, books, hobbies, money.
Gods plan is a place of love and acceptance where what you have is good enough. We are given gifts to use as best we can before us.
Man chose to go his own way, reject any guidance or fellowship with God and make his own choices. He went from Gods plan to a broken world and death.
Jesus came to show Gods love and reconciliation, taking all the sin and brokenness and forgiving it. God can heal and make whole anyone who believes in Jesus and accepts the forgiveness of their sins through the death on the cross.
Where are you today, in Gods plan or in a broken world?
Where would you like to be?
What is stopping you from going there today?
Dear Lord Jesus, forgive me for the many sins I have commited. I repent of them and desire to do the right things for now on. I believe in you and the forgiveness given to me through your death on the cross, and I ask you to come into my life and teach me your ways, lead me in your paths and make me a child of the Kingdom of Heaven, In the name of Jesus the Nazarene, Amen.
Passing from darkness into light matters, and giving people the opportunity to take this step is everything. It is God who makes the difference, but by preaching we can open the door of opportunity. Many millions of people have done this, it is the beginning of the power of the Kingdom, transformed hearts and minds.
Being born again matters, it is the start of the walk in eternity, as a child of the King.
My friends. In evangelism you condense down the gospel to its simplest parts. Read Acts 3.
At the end the opportunity is to take people from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light.
I have been told here many times being born again matters before anything else, to which I say Amen.
A this is a simple tool to help people make that step. It is obvious that you guys are neither evangelists or brought to Christ through evangelists.
It is a sorry state when christians do not recognise one of the ministries given by God. Who taught you and failed to show you one of the important aspects of faith.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Rom 10:14-15
Preaching is the giving of life. It matters, it changes things, it is how the Kingdom spreads.
At the end the opportunity is to take people from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light.
I have been told here many times being born again matters before anything else, to which I say Amen.
A this is a simple tool to help people make that step. It is obvious that you guys are neither evangelists or brought to Christ through evangelists.
It is a sorry state when christians do not recognise one of the ministries given by God. Who taught you and failed to show you one of the important aspects of faith.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Rom 10:14-15
Preaching is the giving of life. It matters, it changes things, it is how the Kingdom spreads.
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coby
Guest
Yes it's the evangelists who teach holiness and repentance. If someone calls it legalistic I wonder if they have been in a powerless legalistic church all their life without a relationship with God and then got so happy when they finally met Him through grace teaching. My mom is quick to say: oh please stop, all that legalism. Grace!! Then I tell her: yes but you don't go around sinning because you already have a good foundation. Since childhood she went to a Dutch reformed church and wasn't born again, had no relationship with God, but the 10 commandments were taught. Don't throw the foundation out. If you don't tell a blatant unbelieving sinner what sin is and only: it doesn't matter what you do, you're eternally secure then you get what you see in Holland: they don't go to church, they always watch porn without even feeling guilty, live in fornication, use drugs and don't even want to go for prayer to get set free and believe it's okay and God loves them.
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If you think about it, it is not surprising how things go.
The world is driven by feelings unbounded in peoples lives. In their families they learn to better or less how to deal with different feelings and cope with the pressures of life. When things collapse or start showing signs of failure they call out to God. The Lord brings structure and discipline, but people shut out the emotional side thinking it is this that caused the problems. Now their children and those who grow up with this know the discipline but often miss God completely.
Then they meet Christ. Love, acceptance, reality. It blows their mind, and everything from the past is then evil and wrong, legalism and bad. The reason why the gospel is failed is then because of the legalism.
The problem all along is being real from the heart, learning what emotions are, how neutral they are, just signals of what is going on, it is how we choose to sow and use them to balance out our experience guided by Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Now those who let the emotions rule without knowledge of what they are, go off into more extreme expressions and lostness is subtle but deceptive sin. The repressed groups then point at the extreme expressions and then say, look how evil they all are, it just shows how wrong that way is.
The truth is we need discipline but also a clean heart, and know emotions are neutral, and we choose what to sow and reap. Jesus gives us the authority to conquer sin and set us free in love. The fact it is our choice is a recurring denial of the super spiritual people, and the super disciplined and emotionally repressed conformists. In my house group it has taken 5 years to slowly get them to wake up to who they are and how they feel is not scary, it is how we experience existance but it is not static or even something to avoid. God gives us great joy, real joy, real peace, real love, real resolution.
A discovery of the person within is scary, if Jesus's love and protection was not there.