This post contains a 30 minute video that reveals the sinner’s prayer to be a false way of conversion; the true way of salvation is given in the process.
The history of the sinner’s prayer indicates that it is the product of hasty, sloppy, man-centered evangelism. Its evolution is catalogued herein, so that you can see that it is the chief tool in the dumbing-down and diluting of the true gospel presentation.
The sinner’s prayer is another of satan’s masks, of satan’s tools; a short-cut, not the old path, God’s true way of salvation.
For example, about half way through the video, you will learn that Jonathan Edwards, who lived through the great awakening of 1740, began to analyze conversion experiences to discern the genuine from counterfeit, because so many fell away after claiming conversion.
Edwards established a 5 stage process which he termed, the struggle of faith: 1) horror of being eternally lost; 2), the sinner’s attempt to stop sinning via his will power [it cannot be done independently of God’s Spirit]; 3), realization that only God can save him from sin; 4), conviction, the sinner beginning to see that God’s judgment is just; 5), awakening to God with genuine religious affections.
The following prominent Christians spent many years between stages 1 and 5 of Edwards standard of assessment for genuine conversion:
John Calvin, 12 years; Wesley, 23 years; Whitefield, 10 years; Fox, 12 years; Edwards, 5 years; Brainerd, 9 years; Newton, 6 years; Spurgeon, 4 years….
I am left thinking, “Where am I on this scale?” The criteria of stages 3 and 4 are very familiar to me; not so with 5. I must examine myself more carefully.
At what stage are you?
Paul Washer’s wife, Charo, was converted 12 years after beginning missionary work with him. For her testimony, see: categories, conversion testimonies. I am citing her story because it agrees with Jonathan Edwards criteria above, indicating that there was a period of time wherein a “struggle of faith” occurred before conversion.
One last point before you listen, the information herein is shown in 8 videos in the series on the Modern Gospel Message, which provides more information about each of the perversions of the gospel during the past 200 years. Viewing each of them could be very helpful to anyone in ministry or anyone who entered into Christianity via the sinner’s prayer.
[Note, this video is very poor quality, but the content is wonderful in that it may lead those lost, nominal Christians out of their lifeless form of faith.]
Note: the stages that Edwards established certainly demand that preachers confront sin via their messages, and encourage congregants to identify, own and confess sin to God and in their lesser relationships; because if one does not clearly understand his depravity and see it operating in his daily life, then he will not be able to enter into the struggle of faith.
Therefore, he will unknowingly be stuck in some false frame!
Furthermore, if believer’s gloss over their sin (because they don’t hear it preached; don’t know how to identify and confess it; don’t read the word; don’t abide in the means of grace, etc.) then their sins cannot be forgiven and the guilt of those sins remains: God does not forgive the guilty; those who do not confess their sins:
Exo 34:6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, Exo 34:7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
That is, how could a sinner ever fear the eternal wrath of God for punishment against his sin if he doesn’t believe he is a sinner? Or, how could one ever seek God’s enabling grace to deliver him from sin if he hasn’t exhausted all of his efforts / resources and discovered he is helplessly stuck in his sin if he is on his own in the fight against it? And so on…through the 5 points Edwards established.
I recognized a similar process as I spent a few years studying the beatitudes: the first beatitude is poverty of spirit. That means that one comes to see himself as spiritually bankrupt and begins to mourn his condition because he is helplessly stuck there without Christ.
A person cannot come to the point of seeing his spiritual bankruptcy unless he knows he is a sinner and has unsuccessfully attempted to save himself many times, such that he sees it is not possible.
It is at that point, one begins to mourn his sin and moves to stage 3 of Edwards’ 5 stage process.
Jesus presented the beatitudes as a description of His kingdom citizens; therefore, poverty of spirit is an actual state that must be experienced by true believers, as are the other beatitudes which will manifest themselves thereafter as the Spirit works them into a believers life.
Subsequent to my study of the beatitudes, when I examined myself, I looked for evidence that God the Holy Spirit was humbling me, that He was working poverty of spirit in my life; and that I was mourning my sinfulness (see, categories, Beatitude Life for my series on the beatitudes in narrative form; see, True Kingdom Citizen, for the beatitudes in video form).
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
For information about other false, man-centered, modern perversions of the biblical gospel, see: Categories, Man-centered Spirituality (modern false gospel, etc.). Several perversions of the gospel are catalogued in 8 posts on the Modern Gospel, How it Morphed; those posts go back 200 years in the history of evangelism.
For more information about the sinner’s prayer, see: Archives, May 2019, Decisionism vs the Doctrines of Regeneration and Faith — that post contains several videos that succinctly explain biblical salvation and the sinner’s prayer.
I found the above video on the YouTube site: theologynerd1.
I previously posted the above video in October, 2019, but since it was only viewed 5 times, I believed it necessary to rewrite and repost it.