THE PRAYER OF SALVATION – ASKING JESUS INTO YOUR HEART
“Just pray this prayer to be saved” a pamphlet said: “Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, and I ask 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.”
We ARE sinners. We would like Jesus to take over our lives and be our Lord and Savior. The only problem is – neither that prayer, or anything like it is anywhere in Scripture. There’s nothing in the Bible where anyone prayed a prayer even remotely like that. In fact, “the prayer of salvation didn’t exist” until sometime around the 1700s.
A little bit of history:
Revivalists of “The Great
Awakening” (in the 1700’s) frequently appealed to Revelation 3:20 which was
written to lukewarm Christians, misapplying the words of Jesus in order to
appeal to non-Christians for salvation: “Here I am! I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with
him and he with me.”
One of those
revivalists - John Webb - wrote: “Here is a promise of Union to Christ; in
these words, I will come in to him. I.e. If any Sinner will but hear my Voice
and open the Door, and receive me by Faith, I will come into his Soul, and
unite him to me, and make him a living member of that mystical body of which I
am the Head” (Christ's Suit to the Sinner).
THE MOURNER’S BENCH:
The typical method of responding to the gospel invitation in the mid-1700’s was
by coming to the front of the church to be seated on the “Mourner’s Bench” and
engaging in a period of prayer to seek for God’s salvation. The usual response
was a subjective feeling – a “strange warming of the heart” – or some mystical
experience that would be a sign of salvation. So much was this sought after
that those mourners who did not receive such an experience were sometimes
driven to commit suicide.
THE ANXIOUS SEAT: It
was about 1835 that Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) emerged to champion the basic
system still used by modern evangelical preachers today. He took the “Mourner’s
Bench” practice which he called the “Anxious Seat,” and developed a theological
system around it. Finney was straightforward about his purpose for offering
such an altar call and wrote the following comment in his book “Revivals of
Religion”, 1868:
“The church has always felt it necessary to
have something of this kind to answer this very purpose. In the days of the
apostles, baptism answered this purpose. The gospel preached to the people, and
then all those who were willing to be on the side of Christ were called out to
be baptized. It (baptism) held the precise place that the anxious seat does now
as a public manifestation of their determination to be Christians.”
(Russell E. Boatman “The Mourner’s Bench” The Kentucky Evangel, Glasgow KY)
THE INQUIRY ROOM:
Near the end of Finney’s career it became evident to everyone and himself that
the Anxious Bench approach led to a high fallout rate among converts. By the
1860’s Dwight Moody (1837-1899) was the new leader of American evangelicalism.
He took Finney’s system and modified it. Instead of calling for a public
decision, which tended to be a response under pressure, he asked people to join
him and his trained counselors in a room called the “Inquiry Room.”
In the Inquiry Room
the counselors asked the possible convert some questions, taught him from
Scripture and then prayed with him. The idea that prayer was at the end of the
process had been loosely associated with conversion from the 1700’s. By the
late 1800’s it was standard technique for “receiving Christ” as Moody’s
influence spread across both the United States and the United Kingdom. This was
where a systematic “Sinner’s Prayer” began, but was not called such until the
time of evangelist Billy Sunday.
THE SAWDUST TRAIL:
Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player first with the Chicago White
Stockings, had been converted in the Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago’s most
successful implementation of Moody’s scheme. Eventually, Sunday left baseball
to preach. He had great public charm and was on e of the first to mix
entertainment with ministry. By the early 1900’s he had become a well-known
evangelistic crusade leader. In his crusades he popularized the Finney-Moody
method and added the touch of showmanship. After fire and brimstone sermons
with political overtones and humorous, even outlandish behavior, an invitation
for salvation was offered. Most often it was associated with prayer, at other
times people were told they were saved simply because they had walked down the
tabernacle’s “sawdust trail” to the front to shake Sunday’s hand, acknowledging
that they would follow Christ.
From there, it was a
short step to “accepting Jesus into your heart” via the “Sinner’s Prayer” as a
man-made way to appeal to God for salvation. It’s all totally unbiblical, but
very satisfying to those who have embraced it. (Adapted from an article by Dan
Johnson in “The Restoration Herald” 9/05).
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