The Sinners Prayer / Rick Warren Says Obama is Saved / The Problem of Easy-Believism

The Sinner’s Prayer and the Risk of Easy-Believism

I would like to take a few minutes and talk about the subject of evangelism and what people call the sinner's prayer. We looked at this subject at Morris Corner Church last Sunday in Sunday School. And I've thought about this, it comes up from time to time.

And I remember years ago, maybe around 2006, 2008, somewhere around there, I read the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. And in the book, Rick Warren leads the reader in the sinner's prayer.

Rick Warren gives you the words to say, and he says something to the effect that if you prayed that prayer, welcome to God's family, you are now saved. And this is what I was told as a child, I forget by who, but probably multiple people.

I grew up with this idea that if you just say the sinner's prayer, usually you're repeating words that someone else told you to say. As long as you say those words, you are saved. Nothing can ever change that.

You have eternal security. It's once saved, always saved. So basically, you can grow up and abandon your faith, live like the devil, do whatever.

You want.

But as long as you said the sinner's prayer, all those years back, you are saved and you have your ticket punched, you are going to heaven no matter what. So that was the mindset that I had, and that's the mindset that plenty of other people had.

I've heard this testimony from many, many people, that we thought we had a guaranteed place in heaven because maybe it was someone like Rick Warren telling you the words to say, say this prayer and you're saved.

And I want to be clear, I believe someone can say the sinner's prayer and be saved. Don't get me wrong, because the Bible says we are to call upon the name of the Lord, so we can say a prayer and be saved.

And I'm not against somebody saying the sinner's prayer, but when somebody gives another person the words, when you're putting words in someone's mouth and especially when you give them the assurance of eternal security, okay, even if you abandon the faith, even if you grow up and become a serial killer or something, of course, no one's going to say that, but you know, you can grow up and do whatever you want and you're saved no matter what, because you said these words that I told you to say.

I think that is very, very dangerous. I can tell you so many people I know who sincerely came to Christ later on in life. They grew up with that mindset that, hey, I was five years old. I said the sinner's prayer, so I was saved when I was five.

And yeah, I think someone could be saved by saying the sinner's prayer. But going back to what Rick Warren had said and that same mindset, as long as you say the right words, Rick Warren, it was around 2008, 2009, when Rick Warren hosted a debate or a discussion between John McCain and Barack Obama.

At the time, people were calling Rick Warren America's pastor. And this is, it was around that time where I first started to realize, hey, wait a second.

Wait a minute.

This does not seem biblical. So that was an eye-opening period in my life when Rick Warren, the same guy who said the purpose-driven life, say the sinner's prayer and you're saved. He went on TV with Barack Obama and John McCain, and Rick Warren said that both of these men were Christians, that Barack Obama is a born-again Christian.

That's what Rick Warren said. Now, all these years later today, like you might laugh at that. I don't even think Barack Obama claims to be a born-again Christian. I don't even think he says that about himself.

But Rick Warren said it, why? And I'm not trying to make a political point, but this has relevance to Bible doctrine. How could Rick Warren say that Barack Obama was a saved, spirit-filled, born-again Christian?

Because at one moment in time, Obama told Rick Warren the right words. He gave him a satisfactory answer, so because he said the right words once, he is in the kingdom of God. And of course, if you believe in eternal security, you can never lose it.

So I think you see the issue that the New Testament does not teach that the gospel or being saved is about saying the right words one time. It's about following Christ. Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commandments.

I mean, there's that verse, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If somebody wanted to bring up about, well, you know, how you live actually does matter.

Well, that's work salvation, you know. Of course, if you keep reading, verse 10 of Ephesians 2, it talks about how we are his workmanship, that we were created in Christ for good works, which God foreordained that we should walk in them, but that sometimes gets left out.

So again, can a person be saved saying something like a sinner's prayer? Well, yes, of course. Romans 10, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.

If you do this, the Bible says you will be saved. So a prayer can save a person, but we have to understand nobody is saved by a profession.

Of faith.

We are saved by possessing saving faith. So the point is, it has to be real. If you say the prayer, you have to mean it. You have to understand what you're saying. That's why I think it's so dangerous to do what Rick Warren did, to like put words in someone else's mouth, to give someone the words to say.

And you know, maybe I could even understand like somebody, they're just having a hard time expressing, like they do believe you've spent a little time with them. You know, they do believe that Jesus died for their sin and rose again.

I could even understand that maybe helping someone with the words because they can't.

Express it.

Okay, fine. That's legitimate. But I just can't abide. I can't go along with this idea that after somebody says the words, you then give them, especially a little child, you then give them the assurance of eternal security once saved.

Always saved. That no matter what you do, because you said these words, you can grow up. No matter what you do, you're saved.

No matter what.

I just don't see Jesus ever doing that a single time. I don't ever see the apostles doing this in Israel. In the Old Testament, the Jews were told to teach and raise up their children and the way they should go.

It was a consistent walk, learning day by day, teaching them what it meant to be in the covenant, walking with God. But in the New Testament, when did the apostles lead anyone in the sinner's prayer and then give them the assurance of once saved, always saved?

I don't see that anywhere. Just like the apostles never preached. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. What did they do? They used words like repent. They told people to be baptized. That was the thing that people look back to in time past.

That's what people look back to as far as when they started following Christ. They look back to their baptism. That was the public testimony. That was the profession of faith. And then they were exhorted to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

Apostolic Warnings Against Self-Deception

Nowhere in the New Testament are people given a blank check. In fact, the opposite is true. There are all sorts of warnings given to believers. 2 Peter 1 .10,. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call in election.

Sure.

For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, Paul says to church members, he says, examine yourselves as to whether or not you are in the faith. Test yourselves. If Paul is going to say that to church members, certainly I think he would say it to someone who said the sinner's prayer but hasn't stepped foot in a church in a long, long time.

And then Jesus in John chapter 15 talks about I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. He says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Jesus says, abide in the vine. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered.

And they gather them and throw them in the fire and they are burned. Now, some people interpret those verses that you can lose your salvation. I don't believe I actually do not believe a person can lose their salvation.

But people can be deceived. They can be self-deceived. They can fall away from the faith, obviously. So these warnings are given to believers so that no one ever falls into the mindset. If you're reading the New Testament for what it says, a person could never fall in the mindset of saying, well, I don't go to church.

I may or may not have been baptized. I'm not showing any spiritual fruit in my life. But I said the sinner's prayer 50 years ago, so I know I'm good. I know God is for me because I said the right words that one time when I was five.

My friends, that's not biblical. The New Testament command is to exhort people to continue in the faith. Acts chapter 2, what did Peter preach? He said, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And then he says, be saved from this perverse generation. I don't hear people like Rick Warren preaching that. And then it says that 3000 that day were added to the church. And then they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.