What Is The Sinner's Prayer?

What Is The Sinner's Prayer?

1) Introduction:

The Sinner's Prayer refers to a prayer often recited by new Christian converts. The prayer is a kind of gateway, marking the moment a person 1) confesses their sinfulness, 2) calls on Christ as their Savior from sin, 3) acknowledges that Christ died for that person's sins (and was resurrected), and often 4) invites Jesus to enter the new Christian's heart.

A few more introductory background remarks, compliments of Wikipedia:

The Sinner's Prayer (also called the Consecration Prayer and Salvation Prayer) is an evangelical Christian term referring to any prayer of repentance, prayed by individuals who feel convicted of the presence of sin in their lives and have the desire to form or renew a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is a popular phenomenon in evangelical circles.^[1] It is not intended as liturgical like a creed or a confiteor, but rather, is intended to be an act of initial conversion to Christianity. While some Christians see reciting the sinner's prayer as the moment defining one's salvation, others see it as a beginning step of one's lifelong faith journey.^[2][3]

It also may be prayed as an act of "re-commitment" for those who are already believers in the faith. Often, at the end of a worship service, in what is known as an altar call, a minister or other worship leader will invite those desiring to receive Christ (thus becoming born again) to repeat with him or her the words of some form of a sinner's prayer. It also is frequently found on printed gospel tracts, urging people to "repeat these words from the bottom of your heart".^[4]

The "Sinner’s Prayer" takes various forms, all of which have the same general thrust.^[5] Since it is considered a matter of one's personal will, it can be prayed silently, aloud, read from a suggested model, or repeated after someone modeling the prayer role. There is no formula of specific words considered essential, although it usually contains an admission of sin and a petition asking that Jesus enter into the person's heart (that is to say, the center of their life). The use of the sinner's prayer is common within some Protestant denominations, such as Baptist Churches and Methodist Churches, as well as in movements that span several denominations, including evangelical, fundamental, and charismatic Christianity. It has also been used, though not as widely, by some Anglicans,^[6][7] Lutherans,^[8][9] and Roman Catholics.^[10][11] It is sometimes uttered by Christians seeking redemption or reaffirming their faith in Christ during a crisis or disaster, when death may be imminent.

The "Sinner’s Prayer" is not without its critics. Because no such prayer or conversion is found in the Bible, some biblical scholars have even labeled the sinner's prayer a "cataract of nonsense" and an "apostasy".^[12] David Platt has raised questions over the authenticity of the conversions of people using the sinner's prayer based on research by George Barna.^[13]

2) Anatomy of The Sinner's Prayer:

While reference is made to "the" Sinner's Prayer, there's no "pat" set of words that "count" as a sinner's prayer. A Sinner's Prayer can be as short as 50 words (as illustrated by this version I found in a random Christian tract):

Dear Lord, I now realize that I am a sinner and that you died for me. I repent of my sin, and ask You to now come into my heart, save me, and take me to heaven when I die. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Or the prayer can be more detailed, as illustrated by Ray Pritchard's 121-word version (in his book, An Anchor for the Soul):

Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior. Amen.

Or here's an intermediate 82-word version, compliments of Cary Schmidt (in his book, Done):

Dear Jesus,

I believe in my heart that you are God. I

believe that you died for all of my sins and rose

again. I confess to you that I am a sinner, and I

ask you to be my personal Saviour right now. I

place 100% of my trust in you to come into my

life and take me to Heaven someday. I accept

your free gift of eternal life.

Thank you for keeping your promise and

answering this prayer.

Amen.

In any event, I find it interesting to break down the Sinner's Prayer into its "basic elements," which I list as follows:

Parts of a Sinner's Prayer:

1. Sinner: "I am a sinner..."
2. Deity: "You are [the Son of] Godj..."
3. Sacrifice: "You died for my sins [on the cross]..."
4. Resurrection: "You were raised from the dead [three days later]..."
5. Repentance: "I repent of my sins..."
6. Invitation: "Come into my heart..."
7. Eternal Life: "Grant me eternal life [in Heaven]..."

We also often find words such as "faith" or "gift" or "trust" or "grace".

Examples of the Parts in Action: 

With these "parts" or "benchmarks" in mind, we find that versions of the Sinner's Prayer often vary by how many of the above 7 elements the prayer contains. 

Billy Graham's famous version of the Sinner's Prayer hits many of the bases:

Example One: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.

Graham's prayer doesn't explicitly says that Jesus is a Deity, but I imagine that acknowledgement is implicit: after all, why would you pray to Jesus if He weren't divine? But, clearly, Graham's prayer makes no reference to Eternal Life. 

On the other hand, Graham's prayer notes something extra which would seem to be important:

      8. Forgive: "Forgive my sins..."

By way of another example, here's Campus Crusade for Christ's 60-word version (with parts highlighted):

Example Two: Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.

(I've taken the "receive You..." as an Invitation.) There's no explicit reference to Repentance, but I imagine that part's implicit in another "part" I'll highlight:

     9. Surrender: "Take control of my life (heart)..."

(Then again, we could count this as another version of the Invitation part, already listed. Does inviting Jesus into my heart necessarily entail that I've surrendered my life to him?)

Lastly, here's a detailed 133-word Sinner's Prayer (the St. Paul Street Evangelization version):

Example Three: God our Father, I believe that out of Your infinite love You have created me. In a thousand ways I have shunned Your love. I repent of each and every one of my sins. Please forgive me. Thank You for sending Your Son to die for me, to save me from eternal death. I choose this day to enter into (renew my) covenant with You and to place Jesus at the center of my heart. I surrender to Him as Lord over my whole life. I ask You now to flood my soul with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that my life may be transformed. Give me the grace and courage to live as a disciple in Your Church for the rest of my days. In Jesus name I pray Amen.

I presume that being saved from "eternal death" amounts to receiving Eternal Life. Notably, this prayer makes mention of the further element not found in the briefer versions of the Sinner's Prayer:

     10. Holy Spirit: "Let the Holy Spirit enter my heart..."

In any event, the variety of Sinner's Prayers is (to me) of religious and theological interest. I think I might devote some attention, from time to time, to further theological and Biblical aspects of the Sinner's Prayer and its history. 

"The Best Picture of Human Consciousness I Have Encountered"

"Saul Steinberg's marvelous New Yorker cover from October 8, 1969 (see Figure 1), provides the best picture of human consciousness I have encountered" Daniel Dennett wrote in an article called "Consciousness: More Like Fame than Television"

Here's a picture of that cover...and of Dennett discussing the cover...

 

What Is Philosophy? Three Answers

Three visions of philosophy:

1) The aim of philosophy is to understand the world:

• People are “first led to study philosophy…by wonder. Now, he [or she] who is perplexed and wonders believes himself to be ignorant ... they took to philosophy to escape ignorance” (Aristotle, Metaphysics 982b)
• “Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs” (Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy)

2) The aim of philosophy is to change the world:

• “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it” (Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach #11).

3) The aim of philosophy is to change oneself:

• “The religious life…does not depend on the dogma that the world is eternal…Whether the dogma obtain…that the world is eternal, or that the world is not eternal, there still remain birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair, for the extinction of which in the present life I am prescribing” (Buddha, Questions Which Tend Not to Edification)
• “[One] who, having cast off likes and dislikes, has become tranquil, is…[one] I call...holy” (Buddha, Dhammapada)
• “By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered….How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility….Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations)

Parable of the Sower

Normally, when I think of the Parable of the Sower, I think of Matthew 13. Today's devotional draws upon the Luke 8 version... https://odb.org/2019/07/12/son-followers

What Is Faith? Paranoia in reverse

"I came up with a new definition of faith: paranoia in reverse. A truly paranoid person organizes his or her life around a common perspective of fear. Anything that happens feeds that fear. Faith works in reverse. A faithful person organizes his or her life around a common perspective of trust, not fear." (Daily Bread, 11 July 2014)

"I Want You To Want To Do The Dishes!"

Classic Scene from The Break-Up (2006)

Brooke: Let's just do them now. It'll take 15 minutes.

Gary: Honey, I am so exhausted. I just honestly want to relax for a little bit. If I could just sit here, let my food digest, and just try to enjoy the quiet for a little bit....You know, we can clean the dishes tomorrow.

 
Brooke: Gary, you know I don't like waking up to a dirty kitchen.

Gary: Who cares?

Brooke: I care! All right? I care! I busted my ass all day cleaning this house and then cooking that meal. And I worked today. It would be nice if you said thank you and helped me with the dishes.

Gary: Fine. I'll help you do the damn dishes...

Brooke: That's not what I want.

Gary: You just said that you want me to help you do the dishes.

Brooke: I want you to want to do the dishes.

Gary: Why would I want to do dishes?

Brooke: See, that's my whole point.

Gary: Let me see if I'm following this, okay? Are you telling me that you're upset because I don't have a strong desire|to clean dishes?

Brooke: No. I'm upset because you don't have a strong desire to offer to do the dishes.

Gary: I just did.

Brooke: After I asked you!
***
For some reason, I was reminded of this scene during a reading from the Big Book ("Physician, Heal Thyself"). In particular, this passage (pages 399-400):

And then a silly, simple thought came to me. I didn't know anything about being a father; I don't know how to come home and work week-ends like other husbands; I don't know how to entertain my family. But I remembered that every night after dinner my wife would get up and do the dishes. Well, I could do the dishes. So I went to her and said, "There's only one thing I want in my whole life, and I don't want any commendation; I don't want any credit; I don't want anything from you or Janey for the rest of your life except one thing; and that is, the opportunity to do anything you want always, and I would like to start off by doing the dishes." And now I am doing the darn dishes every night! 

Not sure if it completely connects with Brooke's anger in the movie; but it's in the neighborhood. And worth keeping in mind.

What is the New Freedom and New Happiness?

The Promises listed in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, begin with promises of "a new freedom and a new happiness."

OK, I wondered, what are those? How to spell out these ideas?

My first step in understanding the "new freedom" and "new happiness" was to remember "what it was like": what were my ideas of the old freedom and the old happiness?

If I'm rigorously honest, I think back and my life whose that the old freedom and old happiness were simple equations:

Old Freedom = Do what I feel like
Old Happiness = Get what I want

I later realized these equations are part and parcel of a spiritually fatal condition: "Self-centeredness," writes Timothy Keller, "makes everything else a means to an end. And that end, that nonnegotiable, is whatever I want and whatever I like, my interests over [other people's]. I'll have fun with people, I'll talk with people, but in the end everything orbits around me [my feelings and wants]." (Of course, the Big Book has a lot more to say about self-centeredness in Chapter Five...)

It was only when my pursuits of (the old) happness and (the old) freedom led to rock-bottom misery that I started seeking a better way.

What, then, are the "new freedom and new happiness"? The latter, it seems, highlights gratitude:

New Happiness = Being grateful for what I have

For the new freedom, I found a nice equation in the Big Book (page 552):

New Freedom = "Doing what you ought to do because you want to do it"

(Strangely enough, the same phrase appears in a 1901 issue of The American Florist(!).)

The writer of that story ("Freedom From Bondage") adds that sometimes she doesn't naturally want to do what she knows she ought to do--rather, "[s]ometimes I have to ask [my Higher Power] first for the willingness, but it too always comes."

The same, I found, it true with gratitude: On paper, I know I should be grateful for all I have--but I often need to ask God for the conviction to know it.