Originally posted by Tom Butler:
Thanks for the replies so far. My personal testimony is posted under the thread "Testimonies."
Some of you said unequivocally that one need not pray a prayer to be saved.
Put me in that crowd!! With a double order of the "unequivocally" part! As I have before stated, in acordance with Scripture, I believe, 'believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved' is not only is the only thing one HAS to do to be saved, it is the only thing one CAN do to be saved.
While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the so-called "sinner's prayer" as Luke 18:13b is rendered in the KJV (NO! We are NOT going there, for those who SO look forward to making THAT trip!) as "God be merciful to me a sinner", this does miss the point of the Greek "`ilas'komai" rendered merciful. A more accurate reading, IMO, would render this as "God, (You) be 'propitiated' for me, the sinner."
Hilaskomai refers to the mercy-seat, and the blood covering, which is what is rendered as propitiation- the atoning sacrifice at the 'place of God' on our behalf. The publican was actually asking for God to provide himself the Lamb, as Abraham said to Isaac, on Mt. Moriah. This prayer was looking forward to the once and for all-time Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, not yet made, on the Cross at Mt. Moriah. It was inded a prayer of faith.
That same prayer, offered today, is just the oposite, a prayer of dis-belief. For the Lamb was slain, the covering on the mercy-seat was made, once and for all time, the debt was paid with the blood of the Lord Jesus, and He arose from the grave, for our justification. Read Hebrews!
To ask for this to be done again time and time over (Are some of you listening, here?) is to put one's self under the condemnation of Hebrews 10:29, by 'trodding under foot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant with which he was (once, for all time) sanctified an unholy thing, and doing so over the protests of the Holy Spirit!' Hebrews 10:26 says there is no "other" sacrifice for sins.
One now has the knowledge of the truth (Certainly not bragging, but if one didn't know this before, he or she does now!). There's nowhere else to go! All the doors are now shut and padlocked, here, save one. Atonement as a word derives from "at one moment". That one (and only) 'moment' was the one-time death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. All the 'mini-moments' of rams, bulls, and goats looked to here, all the way back to Adam.
At this time, the Son cried, "Finished!"; The Sun had already refused to give her light; the earth shook to the point of opening graves; some of the dead were raised; The veil of the temple was "rent in twain". The access was now open for all. The one door, the door of Noah's Ark, symbolic of the true door, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:9) is now open to the Ark of the Covenant, topped by that blood-covered mercy-seat, which had been hidden for 1600 years, but is now visible and available to any and all who "call upon the Lord", not in anticipation, but exhilaration. For God, the Father, who literally forsook God, the Son, at the cross, and the Holy Spirit, who did as well now all pronounced a one word decree at this time.
The Father thundered, "Satisfied!";
The Son cried, "Finished!";
The Holy Spirit whispered, "Come!".
What now? In the language of today, "Believe it!" That is the whole sum and substance! That is why you will find this some 200 times in the NT. John uses 'believe' 99 times in his Gospel, alone. It is the only book said to have been given "that you might have life", by believing. (John 20:30-31)
Bapmom said just telling people to "pray the prayer" is not a true sinners prayer. .."
We just covered this above. In a way, the Holy Spirit does the "praying and the inviting" part; We are to just 'do' the "believing" part! (NO! We are not going down THAT road today, either, on this bus route!)
Thankfully, nobody yet has declared me a lost sinner (whew!), but maybe it's early yet.
BTW, we just Romans 10:13..."call upon the name of the Lord..." as a basis for praying for salvation. But the verse does not say call on the Lord, but whoever calls on the NAME of the Lord. Anybody want to interpret that as other than prayer?
Tom