Why I Think Some People Get Truly Saved in Spite of Having a Sinner's Prayer Evangelism
It's a common problem that today, many people just have a watered down presentation of the Gospel. Since the Gospel can't be destroyed so Satan seeks to distort it like adding works to it or destroying the marks of any genuine convert. What I could start to emphasize now is why do some people get saved in spite of a sinner's prayer evangelism.
Allow me to take some words by Dr. John F. MacArthur from page 56 of "Hard to Believe" as he "lends me a hand" in this matter:
There's nothing wrong with raising our hands or saying a little prayer, but those things do not bring true salvation apart from authentic faith in Christ. Jesus called for a narrow, difficult, radical, dramatic admission of sinfulness; an acknowledgement that we are nothing and have nothing with which to commend ourselves to God. Faith begins when we throw ourselves on His mercy for forgiveness.
So why are some people getting saved in spite of the raising of hands and saying a little prayer is added into the evangelism? I can agree with what Paul David Washer and Timothy Conway have to say that the sinner's prayer type of evangelism has led people to false conversions. But why do some people get saved in spite of having the "add ons" like the altar calls, the raising your hands and saying a little prayer to "ask Jesus Christ into your heart" type of evangelism? It's all because we have a pastor who's truly dedicated to preaching against sin and the Gospel isn't watered down a bit.
The issue is that some pastors who have the sinner's prayer evangelism with them still warn of the possibility of a false conversion. This pastor may tell them that you can pray this prayer all you want but if your heart isn't right with God, if it isn't humbled then Jesus isn't going to come into your heart when it's proud and rebellious. That's a very different message from people who tell them that they just need to pray a prayer then they're born again - and many live like devils. Some people who got saved and prayed the sinner's prayer may testify that the pastor wasn't compromising, they may say that they prayed the prayer in repentance and that they're looking mightily unto Jesus and that He changed their lives. That's quite different from the Once Prayed Assuming Saved Crowd.
Some of these pastors who use altar calls and sinner's prayer evangelism dares to challenge false converts and makes the message more than hot enough for sin lovers to accept. This pastor keeps challenging the idea of carnal Christianity as bogus testimonies. They emphasize that if you're truly Once Saved Always Saved then your life ought to show it. Today, that idea is rejected by the Once Prayed Assuming Saved crowd to be "works salvation". No, it's not works salvation because true conversion results to good works! Those people can't show me even one verse in the Bible you can be saved and still be as wicked as before!
Many misquote Revelation 3:20 today to justify Once Prayed Assuming Saved. But some of these pastors who use the sinner's prayer as part of their evangelsim don't only confront false converts but tell you there's more than meets the eye with what it means. The pastor might emphasize and preach these kinds of words which I just made up to illustrate my point:
Look! Revelation 3:20 says that He will come and dine with whoever opens the door of your heart. But as long as your heart is hardened in sin, you will not open it to the true Savior and Lord. You may open it to a Jesus who lets you sin all you want or justifies you by your works, you have another Jesus. But if you're humble and you open that door to Him, there's a change.
I want you to emphasize on what it says. It says that Jesus will dine with that person. What does dining mean? It means fellowship with Jesus. Jesus dined with repentant sinners. When Zaccheus invited Jesus to dine with Him, when Jesus accepted that invitation... it changed his life forever. Zaccheus the dirty publican was now a changed man. The moment you really have Jesus in your heart, the moment your repentant heart asks Him to enter it... it's because you're fed up with sin and you want Him and not sin to dwell in it. You can't have both sin and Jesus reigning in your heart.
Truth needs to be told that getting saved is not just getting saved from Hell but also from sin. He saves from both Hell and sin. You can't be saved from just Hell or just sin but it's both. What did Jesus come to save people from? Matthew 1:21 says that Jesus came to save people from their sins and not in their sins. True salvation means a deliverance from the power of sin. Any idea that you can get saved and still remain the same is just as false as anybody can get saved or stay saved by their own good works.
So am I really against the sinner's prayer as part of evangelism? The answer is both yes and no. I'm not against it and I think it's okay for a preacher to lead a repentant sinner in a sinner's prayer. I think it's okay for pastors to use it if they preach an uncompromised Gospel. I'm against it when the sinner's prayer has become a flu shot or an insurance from Hell for unrepentant sinners. Then the difference lies when one who got converted after the sinner's prayer doesn't put his or her trust in that prayer but in Jesus Christ. The other one simply thinks they're converted but they're not. Salvation is not in reciting some words but in receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.