Inviting Jesus into your heart

[Jon_S_1]

Now, the way I have been given to understand justification by faith was a free gift given by God through his grace.

But the way I hear some people talk about the “sinners’ prayer” it sounds like the easiest day of works salvation I’ve ever heard. That you the sinner invite Jesus into your heart and are then “saved” by this initiative action. This is certainly not the doctrine of the Westminster Confession, the Augsberg Confessions, or the Church of England’s Thirty Nine Articles and corresponding homily on the salvation of mankind. And doesn’t seem to me to be the doctrine of St Paul or S Augustine.

So where does it come from? Am I right in the way I have interpreted it? Is this a phenomenon only of the non-denominational denominations?

In my Evangelical Free Church, as best as I could tell it came from the American Great Awakening of the late 1800’s. At that time there were a tremendous amount of traveling preachers and they would stop from town to town. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism commented on this practice a lot since he was trying to go from tent to tent and preacher to preacher to find the truth. He finally realized he could create his own religion since no one had any more authority than the next.

I am sure it really gained momentum though, with the big 20th century revivals of Billy Graham, and was carried on into the TV evangelist age as a way for them to “save” people by TV.

People like Greg LAurie of Harvest Crusade still use this formula.

I was clearly taught that saying this prayer is what saves you. Even my parents, after I told them of my conversion to CAtholicism, wanted to double check that I had said this prayer before to make sure I am saved in their eyes.

 

[CB_Catholic]

No. There is no one “sinner’s prayer.” It is a general term for any initiatory expression of faith in and confession to God. It is common for the one praying with the new convert to lead him in this prayer, but there is no “script.” The one leading the new convert in prayer will often come up with a prayer on the spot that contains the following elements:

Affirmation that Jesus died for our sins and rose again,
Confession of sin and asking for forgiveness,
Commitment to turn from sin,
Asking God for full consecration and total surrender of one’s life.

It is usually emphasized that the prayer must proceed out of sincere faith and actual repentance must follow for any true conversion to have occurred.

I found what I was referring to:

billygrahamlibrary.org/PGView.aspx?pid=13

Now what you may have experienced and what I did may not be the same. I am telling you my experiences in this type of church, and what was said and done and taught. The problem is, there is often no consistency in these teachings. They vary from denomination to denomination. But that is not the subject of this thread.

 

[Isaiah45_9]

Now what you may have experienced and what I did may not be the same.

That’s what I thought as well, lol.

 

[ltwin]

I found what I was referring to:

billygrahamlibrary.org/PGView.aspx?pid=13

This is the Billy Graham ministry’s particular style and method, but its not much different than that used by countless other ministries and churches. Billy Graham is certainly a giant in evangelism, but the truth is that the sinner’s prayer and similar types of prayers were already being performed in evangelical Protestant churches longe before this.

All the elements I mentioned in post 19 are included:

Here is how you can receive Christ:
Admit your need (I am a sinner).
Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior.)​

Note that you must be “willing to turn from your sins (repent).” So, its not just saying the words that count, but following through with the words.

It also explicitly states that there is more to this relationship than saying a sinner’s prayer:

This is just the beginning of a wonderful new life in Christ. To deepen this relationship you should:
Read your Bible everyday to know Christ better.
Talk to God in prayer every day.
Tell others about Christ.
Worship, fellowship, and serve with other Christians in a church where Christ is preached.
As Christ’s representative in a needy world, demonstrate your new life by your love and concern for others.​

I’m not sure if Billy Graham believes in OSAS, but it doesn’t really matter. This is the general pattern taught in evangelical churches whether the church teaches OSAS or not.

 

[AbideWithMe]

This may be what some are taught. (I know there are some Southern Baptists who seem to believe this and the Southern Baptist Convention has been forced to issue correction about it, see AN AFFIRMATION OF A “SINNER’S PRAYER” AS A BIBLICAL EXPRESSION OF REPENTANCE AND FAITH (June 2012), and note this passage, “RESOLVED, That a “sinner’s prayer” is not an incantation that results in salvation merely by its recitation and should never be manipulatively employed or utilized apart from a clear articulation of the Gospel (Matthew 6:7; 15:7–9)”)

However, not everyone who speaks of “a sinner’s prayer” or “inviting Jesus into my heart” is speaking of works salvation, OSAS, or treating such prayer as an empty ritual or magic incantation.

Not sure. If I had to take an educated guess, I’d say it didn’t start taking its current form until the 1800s, which is the same time the “altar call” began to emerge in a recognizable form.

You are right that there is a possibility and a reality that people can fall into this belief, that the sinner’s prayer is “instantaneous salvation” and nothing else is required of us. However, that is certainly not what most people believe.

This type of prayer is a response to the grace of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. As we hear the gospel message and we learn who Jesus is and what he did for us, the power of God moves upon our lives in such a way that we are moved to Godly sorrow for our sins and drawn to prayer.

In prayer we confess to God that we are sinners and ask for forgiveness for our sins with the intention to truly repent from them. It will also be the first time that many express faith in Christ as God, Lord, and Savior, and ask that he would consecrate them, make his home in them, and make them his.

Such prayer is a response to the power of God already working within the person, convicting them of sin and moving them to repentance. This gift of faith rising up within the individual is vocalized and expressed in a moment of “crisis” that can be very significant for the individual and which many mark as the moment they became a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word.

Well said.

As an Evangelical Christian, I’ve done all the things a good “sinner’s prayer” would lead a person to do, but I’ve never said a “sinner’s prayer”, though I did have an intense conversion experience which I remember to this day, more than thirty years later.

 

[CB_Catholic]

This is the Billy Graham ministry’s particular style and method, but its not much different than that used by countless other ministries and churches. Billy Graham is certainly a giant in evangelism, but the truth is that the sinner’s prayer and similar types of prayers were already being performed in evangelical Protestant churches longe before this.

All the elements I mentioned are included:

Here is how you can receive Christ:
Admit your need (I am a sinner).
Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior.)​

Note that you must be “willing to turn from your sins (repent).” So, its not just saying the words that count, but following through with the words.

It also explicitly states that there is more to this relationship than saying a sinner’s prayer:

This is just the beginning of a wonderful new life in Christ. To deepen this relationship you should:
Read your Bible everyday to know Christ better.
Talk to God in prayer every day.
Tell others about Christ.
Worship, fellowship, and serve with other Christians in a church where Christ is preached.
As Christ’s representative in a needy world, demonstrate your new life by your love and concern for others.​

I’m not sure if Billy Graham believes in OSAS, but it doesn’t really matter. This is the general pattern taught in evangelical churches whether the church teaches OSAS or not.

Really, I was not arguing the point about Billy Graham. I had heard about it and then found that site on the internet. I don’t really care who composed it, and there is nothing wrong with the prayer. But I don’t believe that is the end of it, as is taught in some churches I visited. I went up to an altar call and never even had to give my name, just had to “give my heart to Jesus” and say the prayer and I was saved.

For some reason I did not buy into that, although I was a fallen away Catholic at the time and seeking answers.

 

[AbideWithMe]

It comes from reading the Scriptures outside of the lens of the Church which gave us these Scriptures.

All manner of innovative practices have developed over the years, once people divorced themselves from the idea that it is the Catholic Church which guides us into all Truth.

Please don’t derail this topic.

It can only be derailed to the degree that others derail it.

One post does not a de-railing make.

At any rate, do you have a response?

The practice of inviting Jesus into one’s heart and thereby achieving one’s salvation is an innovation that is borne out of reading the Bible without the guidance of the guardian of Truth: the Catholic Church.

yawn

I agree with the literal grammatical sense of your post. It is the Church which interprets scripture.

PRmerger, you’re a thread de-railing temptress! Thankfully, Indifferently stood firm!

 

[ltwin]

Really, I was not arguing the point about Billy Graham. I had heard about it and then found that site on the internet. I don’t really care who composed it, and there is nothing wrong with the prayer. But I don’t believe that is the end of it, as is taught in some churches I visited. I went up to an altar call and never even had to give my name, just had to “give my heart to Jesus” and say the prayer and I was saved.

For some reason I did not buy into that, although I was a fallen away Catholic at the time and seeking answers.

I know some are taught this, but this is bad theology and hopefully the exception rather than the rule. It has certainly never been portrayed as a ritualistic incantation effective outside of faith and true repentance in any church I’ve belonged. For people who have been told this, that is very unfortunate and not evangelical in any sense of the word.

 

[ltwin]

Well said.

As an Evangelical Christian, I’ve done all the things a good “sinner’s prayer” would lead a person to do, but I’ve never said a “sinner’s prayer”, though I did have an intense conversion experience which I remember to this day, more than thirty years later.

This is a really good point AbideWithMe. I know of very few if any evangelical Christians who say, “you must say a sinner’s prayer to be saved.” However, you must confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, and repent of sin. Evangelicals believe a “sinner’s prayer” is an appropriate way to express that, but its not the only way.

 

[AbideWithMe]

This is a really good point AbideWithMe. I know of very few if any evangelical Christians who say, “you must say a sinner’s prayer to be saved.” However, you must confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, and repent of sin. Evangelicals believe a “sinner’s prayer” is an appropriate way to express that, but its not the only way.

Right. A “sinner’s prayer” can serve as an appropriate guide to someone who is truly unfamiliar with prayer and who doesn’t know where to start in how to turn to God.

Because the SBC saw a need for a statement of correction, I believe there are some people and some churches that have misunderstood what a sinner’s prayer is for, but that deviation serves to highlight that there is a correct use of it.

 

[PRmerger]

yawn

That is rude.

I would never be chatting with someone and respond in that manner, unless I actually had a physiologic need to yawn.

Be careful with these types of responses, Indifferently. Many have been banned or suspended for such.

 

[PRmerger]

PRmerger, you’re a thread de-railing temptress!

If you are talking about my posting history, it’s true that
I rather like the natural progression/evolution that threads take.

However, that objection as applied to this thread was an odd one, as it was 100% on topic.

 

[Indifferently]

This is a really good point AbideWithMe. I know of very few if any evangelical Christians who say, “you must say a sinner’s prayer to be saved.” However, you must confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, and repent of sin. Evangelicals believe a “sinner’s prayer” is an appropriate way to express that, but its not the only way.

I think the Anglican Reformers retained auricular confession partially for this purpose too:

“And because it is requisite, that no man should come to the holy Communion, but with a full trust in God’s mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned Minister of God’s Word, and open his grief; that by the ministry of God’s holy Word he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.”

I’m still convinced it fulfils that purpose to me. It’s quite something to list all my awful sins to a priest and be told that Jesus still loves me despite it all, and will never leave me.

 

[PRmerger]

When I was in my “church-shopping days” it most certainly was common for the “Sinner’s Prayer” (which, I have heard was composed in it’s present form by the Rev. Billy Graham), to be presented as a sort of magic incantation leading to salvation. You had to say the words exactly as the minister said them. I always thought that these people had no business talking about Catholic “rituals” when this was a ritual of the first degree, every Sunday without fail.

However, I do believe that one needs to have a loving and heart-to-heart relationship with our Creator, and it needs to be on a conscious level with a conscious turning away from sin and repentance. However, one is not actually “saved” until one’s death. There is always the possibility that one can choose, of his own free will, to turn away from God and be lost. What we ARE is CONVERTED, which is a continual process, a continual turning away from sin and turning toward God. OSAS takes the free will of man to turn away from God out of the equation.

However, God is merciful and just, and our salvation comes from HIM, it is a free gift, and He can save anyone He chooses. He knows His sheep. He knows the hearts of His children. He is not subject to what we sometimes want to impose on Him. He is Sovereign Lord of the whole thing. We do not know all of His ways. Thus, we cannot ever judge one another in this matter, even if it seems obvious to our puny intellects. This is not to say that doctrine and truth are not important–they are. However, we don’t understand all of God’s ways, and should not presume to. There is much we cannot and do not understand.

This ^^

 

[mackbrislawn]

Here is how you can receive Christ:
Admit your need (I am a sinner).
Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior.)​

Note that you must be “willing to turn from your sins (repent).” So, its not just saying the words that count, but following through with the words.

Following through with the words…is this what Catholics mean by works?

 

[ltwin]

Following through with the words…is this what Catholics mean by works?

Faith without works is dead. As an evangelical, I have no problem with acknowledging that someone who truly has been converted will display the Fruit of the Spirit and will grow in grace as they mature in the knowledge of holy things and fellowship with Christ and the Church.

The problem I have is when some well meaning but misled persons say, “I said a prayer and now I’m born again.” Nope, sorry. If you did not have faith and truly repent, then all you’ve participated in is a religious ritual which is antithetical to what Evangelicalism is all about. The heart of Evangelical Christianity is the fundamental principle that conversion is not an option but a necessity.

The whole phrase “Invite Jesus into your heart” means to allow Christ to come in and radically renovate all of you. He comes in to clean out all the mess, fill up all the emptiness with the depth of his love, and heals the wounds and scars of our hearts. He makes us fit dwelling places in which to house his glory. And as he fills us, what is freely given to us we freely give away, as vessels overflowing in his love, mercy, and power.

This isn’t work on our part, but the work of Christ manifested upon a sanctified life. But it clearly means there will be evidence of our faith at work. There will be a true change in us.

(And by the way, the way I have heard Catholics talk about works in relation to faith, I don’t think the Protestant synergist position is that far apart from the Catholic position. It seems to be more of a problem with vocabulary or technical details.)

 

[Jon_S_1]

Faith without works is dead. As an evangelical, I have no problem with acknowledging that someone who truly has been converted will display the Fruit of the Spirit and will grow in grace as they mature in the knowledge of holy things and fellowship with Christ and the Church.

The problem I have is when some well meaning but misled persons say, “I said a prayer and now I’m born again.” Nope, sorry. If you did not have faith and truly repent, then all you’ve participated in is a religious ritual which is antithetical to what Evangelicalism is all about. The heart of Evangelical Christianity is the fundamental principle that conversion is not an option but a necessity.

The whole phrase “Invite Jesus into your heart” means to allow Christ to come in and radically renovate all of you. He comes in to clean out all the mess, fill up all the emptiness with the depth of his love, and heals the wounds and scars of our hearts. He makes us fit dwelling places in which to house his glory. And as he fills us, what is freely given to us we freely give away, as vessels overflowing in his love, mercy, and power.

This isn’t work on our part, but the work of Christ manifested upon a sanctified life. But it clearly means there will be evidence of our faith at work. There will be a true change in us.

(And by the way, the way I have heard Catholics talk about works in relation to faith, I don’t think the Protestant synergist position is that far apart from the Catholic position. It seems to be more of a problem with vocabulary or technical details.)

Preach it!!

 

[CB_Catholic]

Faith without works is dead. As an evangelical, I have no problem with acknowledging that someone who truly has been converted will display the Fruit of the Spirit and will grow in grace as they mature in the knowledge of holy things and fellowship with Christ and the Church.

The problem I have is when some well meaning but misled persons say, “I said a prayer and now I’m born again.” Nope, sorry. If you did not have faith and truly repent, then all you’ve participated in is a religious ritual which is antithetical to what Evangelicalism is all about. The heart of Evangelical Christianity is the fundamental principle that conversion is not an option but a necessity.

The whole phrase “Invite Jesus into your heart” means to allow Christ to come in and radically renovate all of you. He comes in to clean out all the mess, fill up all the emptiness with the depth of his love, and heals the wounds and scars of our hearts. He makes us fit dwelling places in which to house his glory. And as he fills us, what is freely given to us we freely give away, as vessels overflowing in his love, mercy, and power.

This isn’t work on our part, but the work of Christ manifested upon a sanctified life. But it clearly means there will be evidence of our faith at work. There will be a true change in us.

(And by the way, the way I have heard Catholics talk about works in relation to faith, I don’t think the Protestant synergist position is that far apart from the Catholic position. It seems to be more of a problem with vocabulary or technical details.)

Catholics and Evangelicals are not far apart on this as most believe. I do not know one single Catholic that would tell you that you are saved by your works, without Christ. It is Christ who saves. But, without works, our faith is dead, and a dead faith will not result in salvation.

However, our free-will response to God, although initiated by God, involves a choice on our part–and that “yes” to Jesus is a work on our part. If we did not have the choice to say “yes” or “no”, it would mean that God has overridden our free will. But now we are getting into the predestination argument, and I don’t think that is the subject of the thread.

 

[Jon_S_1]

Catholics and Evangelicals are not far apart on this as most believe. I do not know one single Catholic that would tell you that you are saved by your works, without Christ. It is Christ who saves. But, without works, our faith is dead, and a dead faith will not result in salvation.

However, our free-will response to God, although initiated by God, involves a choice on our part–and that “yes” to Jesus is a work on our part. If we did not have the choice to say “yes” or “no”, it would mean that God has overridden our free will. But now we are getting into the predestination argument, and I don’t think that is the subject of the thread.

Yes!!!

It sounds like perhaps smaller evangelical churches have this down. It was not at all my experience in large churches (over 3,000) members. Although I remember one courageous pastor give a talk on James 2, also incorporating Matt 25 and flat out saying we have to have a life that serves Christ. It was a great sermon… A few months later the church announced God called him elsewhere, which is evangelical code for he got fired.

I am encouraged to here a lot of evangelicals on here embracing the message of Christ calling us to true conversion.

 

[ltwin]

A few months later the church announced God called him elsewhere, which is evangelical code for he got fired.

That’s also evangelical code for, “I have a wife, 3 kids, and a mortgage and I need to pastor a church that can provide me a better living”