The “Sinner’s Prayer” for Salvation Makes No Sense
Worse yet, it even contradicts direct statements that the Bible records Jesus as saying
Growing up in an evangelical family, I was taught that the Bible was God’s inspired Word. According to the message of Billy Graham and other fundamentalist preachers, it was the “sinner’s prayer” that was life’s most important event. Say it, and heaven was yours forever; do not say it, and you can go straight to hell. It is often referred to as the Roman Road to Salvation. There are other versions of similar prayers to earn salvation, but all have the same major flaws.
The two common threads in most of them are believing that Jesus’s death and resurrection are historical facts and confession of sin. The Roman Road way is to admit you are a sinner and deserve the death penalty for your sins. In addition to believing that it is a historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead, you must also believe that he died to pay the death penalty on your behalf. Then, just repent and turn from your life of sin, and through faith in Jesus, you will receive God’s free gift of salvation.
People would fly from all over the world to attend Billy Graham’s crusades in order to go forward and repeat a simple prayer. Most left believing that they just obtained the gift of eternal life, yet if asked, none would be able to explain any objective and sound basis for now declaring that they know exactly what factually occurred 2,000 years ago and why in fact it did.
Problems with the sinner’s prayers:
1. They contradict the very words attributed to Jesus himself:
Red ink in many Bibles is used to highlight the words it claims were spoken by Jesus. It is very clear how those words completely contradict what is generally taught in a “sinner’s prayer”: that salvation is obtained through simply believing that Jesus died and rose from the dead, and that you are sorry for being a sinner. Through believing that those are historical facts, the death penalty you said you deserve, has now been done for you by Jesus. BUT IS THAT WHAT HE SAID?
Matthew 19:16–17 And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Matthew 25:41–46 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
John 6:53–54 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Luke 16:19–31 has Jesus teaching the same thing in his account of the Rich Man and Lazarus. He taught if you are rich and do not help the poor, that you will burn forever, in complete contradiction to those simple “sinner’s prayers.”
2. They contradict dozens of other scriptures:
We see that other things such as good works, keeping the law, being baptized, not judging, obeying, and helping the poor and needy are specifically listed as requirements to avoid damnation.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Matthew 7:1–2 says we will be judged according to how we judge others.
Acts 10:34–35 Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
Matthew 25:34–46 teaches that heaven is obtained only by helping the poor and needy and without doing those things one is eternally condemned.
James 2:20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Mark 16:16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
Hebrews 10:26–27 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
If a perfect God inspired the Bible, is it possible for there to be any contradictions or confusion in it? If the most important thing possible is your eternal destiny, should not the requirement(s) for salvation be crystal clear so that everyone can understand it? How about in their own language too? How then, can 1 Corinthians 14:33 state that God is not the author of confusion?
3. They are absurd:
It rewards Hitler and Putin with eternal pleasures and bliss while damning good moral and ethical people like Gandhi and others, who were taught another religion, with eternal hell. A life of good works and ethical conduct means nothing and has no value. The only thing that does is being born in the right place and at the right time, which the vast majority of humanity were not. Hitler and Putin were taught what to believe, and they both said they do in fact believe. According to most versions of the sinner’s prayer, both are assured of heaven.
4. They are the cruelest thing possible:
Those simple prayers are said to be the only way to an eternal life of happiness. But with few exceptions, most people remain in the same religion that their parents taught them was the true one. There have been thousands of gods whose sincere and devoted followers built huge temples and shrines. Many of them sacrificed much, proving the sincerity of their faith that they were taught. Despite believing what their parents taught them, they would still burn in hell even after living moral and ethical lives. They were just unlucky to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shame on them. The fact is, there is absolutely nothing that anyone cannot believe if all that is required is faith. It very conveniently requires no evidence, nor even common sense. In fact, if there was evidence, it would no longer be faith.
5. They all require blind faith:
It is an easy thing for anyone to say they believe that Jesus rose from the dead. But the vast majority of “believers” admit that they have doubts at times. Most even admit that they cannot help but to question God’s very existence. All of that is very natural given the complete lack of evidence.
The faith that is required to believe in any god is the same for all of them. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all others, love their children no less than any other. Parents pass on to their children what they were taught is true, just as their parents before taught them.
A Christian in the United States would almost certainly be a Muslim if he or she were born in Saudi Arabia, and vice versa. Faith requires no need for evidence and will quickly dismiss it if seen. In fact, faith by definition requires just that.
If there was a good and all-powerful god that really wanted his creatures to know him, having to be born in the right family, at the right time, would not be the order of the day.
6. They are not rational:
Some will say that the Bible is ironclad evidence for their faith. But given its hundreds of ironclad contradictions and endorsements of immoral things like slavery, genocide, and rape, how can anyone accept its veracity regarding anything? When it states as fact that witches are real, that the sun stood still, that the earth is flat, and that humans were created before lesser animals; it is just not the type of source one should use in making life altering decisions.
Many gods, religions, cults, and denominations all teach that theirs is the true one. No evidence for any of them, yet all require the same kind of faith, blind faith. “Want to join our group? Just say you believe whatever we say is true, and you are in. You are now part of our family.”
7. They are not logical:
What makes the teachings of the Roman Road any more superior to the two dozen other ways the Bible says you must be saved by? The person who invented the Roman Road, could just as easily, using nothing but singling out other verses, invent another way, with entirely different requirements to obtain salvation. See numbers 1 and 2 above.
8. The “Roman Road” way is even contradicted in the book of Romans:
Here we see just how preachers and apologists carefully handpick selected verses and then obtain converts telling them that is the way to the pearly gates, regardless of what other scriptures teach just a few verses away.
Romans 9:15–16 makes it very clear that salvation is only the result of election and predestination by God, regardless of what anyone does. For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So, then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Romans 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
9. They are just plain dishonest:
I am being redundant, but it bears repeating. Preachers and apologists cherry-pick a few verses, while willingly concealing others that are in direct contradiction to them. The fact is, those simple “sinner’s prayers” may be good to obtain new members and to keep current members in place, but beyond that, they are entirely worthless and not sound doctrine. There is a simple reason so many gods and religions existed throughout history. It is the same reason today for so many denominations and cults. None require evidence. All one has to do to join the group is to say that they believe whatever they are told.
If you have been a victim of childhood indoctrination and or religious trauma, keep studying. There is a wealth of information available to assist you in fully understanding that what you were taught is just not so.
Several articles that highlight how most preachers and apologists are extremely selective in which parts of the Bible they discuss are:
Ten Reasons No One Should Believe the Bible
Ten Bible Stories Never Preached in Church, Part 1
Bible Stories Never Preached in Church, Part 2
Biblical Contradictions & the many ways to be saved.
