As we begin thinking about the question of doing evangelism biblically, I want to ask you guys what you think about leading someone in a prayer for salvation. In the book of Acts, whenever people ask how to be saved, they are always told to either "believe", "repent", or "be baptized", but never to "pray" (though note Acts 8:22). Yet prayer seems like it must be an important aspect of conversion, since Paul said "Everyone that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." So what is the role of prayer in conversion?One reason I ask this questions is this: it seems to me that one of the things that has gone wrong with modern evangelism is that there is more emphasis on getting someone to "pray a prayer" than on getting them to "believe the gospel." Yet many thousands have "prayed a prayer" without being saved - unregenerate people can do that. But no once can truly believe the Gospel and not be saved - only those who have born again can believe.
So would you agree that while prayer is important in conversion, our focus ought to be on calling people to "believe the Gospel" rather than to "pray this prayer"?
3 comments:
I would absolutely agree with that Justin. while calling on the name of the Lord may be through prayer, it may not as well. The emphasis is on repentance and faith. The emphasis on praying a prayer has led to many false professions of faith because genuine faith and repentance were not there.
I think we will all agree on this issue. Treasuring Jesus is the only means of salvation.
However, one must pray in order to be a Christian. It is impossible to repent without praying. In our zeal to stamp out "praying the prayer," lets make sure we don't stamp out communication with God. God delights when sinners bow and say, "God, I have messed up big time. Please forgive me for dishonoring you so many times. I trust Christ alone for my right standing with you."
Yes. I like JC's comment. Our need is to be careful not to go overboard. I don't see anything necessarily wrong with "the prayer." But we should be very careful that we don't manipulate people or convince them they are saved by saying certain things.
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