The Potential Heresy of the Standard Sinner's Prayer Pt. 1

This is a discussion of the futility of the sinner's prayer in saving people.

Sinner’s Prayer: We believe prayer is an important part of the believer’s life (1 Thessalonians 5:17); that it is as natural as breath for a believer (Romans 8:15-16), and that the will of God is accomplished through prayer (James 4:1-3). However, we reject the teaching that salvation is gained by one’s “asking God to save” them or by their “asking Jesus into their hearts.” We furthermore reject the notion that any particular prayer works like a sort of incantation or that there is a particular group of right words to get one saved. We believe salvation is given to men and women because of their repentant faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ upon the cross without praying a prayer (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:25; Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 John 5:13), and that saved people consequently profess this saving faith in Christ both to God (Luke 23:42; John 9:35-39; Romans 10:9-14) and to man (Matthew 10:32-33) through baptism (Acts 2:38) and verbal witness (1 Corinthian 12:3). Although praying eventually results from true belief in the person and work of Christ, and many that are converted will, of their own initiative, express this repentance and faith in prayer, we believe that faith in prayer is still a work of man and is therefore not effective to save one’s soul. Finally, we believe it is unbiblical for tracts, websites, or people to communicate that one can be assured of salvation if a prayer is voiced sincerely.