The Sinner's Prayer is a term used for the prayer of faith made by the person who wishes to make a confession of faith to become a believer of Jesus Christ. Although the wording of that prayer varies, the Sinner's Prayer basically consists of:
- The person's confession of their sinful state before God.
- The person's confession of Jesus being Lord and Savior, and the only One who is capable and sufficient enough to pay for that person's sins on the cross.
The subject of this prayer is hotly debated among Christians as far as its validity in its Scriptural basis and its effectivenss in making a person a true believer. For those who believe in the effective use of the Sinner's Prayer, Romans 10:9-10 states
- ...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Another likely place of the prayer's origin is from the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from the gospel of Luke, where the tax collector humbly says, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner", and Jesus says that the tax collector went home "justified before God" rather than the Pharisee.
The Sinner's Prayer appears a few times in the LEFT BEHIND book series, first in Vernon Billings' video for those who have been left behind in the Rapture, and later by Chaim Rosenzweig to the people of Jerusalem following Nicolae Carpathia's desecration of the Jewish Temple. In The Beast Arises, after Westin Jakes prayed the sinner's prayer while Lionel Washington was leading him, it is said that he went from death to life, from Carpathia's kingdom to the kingdom of God.
During the Millennial Kingdom, the naturals often come to salvation by praying the sinner's prayer. Qasim Marid said that he "prayed the prayer" while he was trying to present himself as a saved person to be a member of the Millennium Force. The unbelievers who worked for Children of the Tribulation, Cendrillon Jospin and Qasim Marid, appeared to be devoted and diligent to the cause, but on closer inspection, they did not lead anyone under their care to Christ. Qasim affirmed that he knows all the prayers, presumably including the sinner's prayer. Qasim said that he cannot recall someone who prayed with him or in front of him.
External links[]
- Sinner's prayer at Wikipedia.