Good day everyone and I pray this devotion finds its way to even ONE who needs to hear its contents. God bless as you read and study further.
As we begin, I share this lesson with the deepest concern for many who may have been deceived by false teaching; that is, by any teaching not found in God's Word.
We must ask ourselves one question here;
Is The Bible, as it is written, the only document by which we gain salvation as God determined? If you answered 'No', therein lies a grave problem and another lesson.
If, however, you said 'YES', then why are so many who agree with this premise accepting the man-made doctrine or theology of the sinner's prayer?
This modern apostasy and false teaching is preventing mankind from being saved as God has already so simply laid out in His Word.
Looking at the Bible alone as The Word of God, not one individual in the Bible ever 'prayed only' for their initial salvation. There is not one example in New Testament scripture of this ever taking place.
Of all those who were taught by The Holy Spirit Inspired Apostles in the scriptures, NOT ONE can be found who 'prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into their heart'.
They did, however, first believe on the testimony of The Apostle's as given by God's Holy Spirit. This is where we must begin as well. Through study accept His Word as The Truth it is. After all, "Faith comes by hearing...The Word of God." (Romans 10:17)
They went from believing to the point of obeying God in repentance of their sin and accepting of God's terms of salvation.
From repentance they went on to confess Jesus as THE ONLY begotten of The Father. Peter did this in Matthew 16:18.
At this point they were NOT YET in a saved state as their sin had not been removed BY GOD, as He is the only ONE who can remove sin from the soul.
But from believing and repenting (or turning from sin), and confessing Christ as The Only Begotten Son of God, they were immersed in water, by faith in the power of God (Colossians 2:12), for the forgiveness of their sins and to receive the indwelling of The Holy Spirit.
This is what Peter preached in the first Gospel sermon and this is the standard set by God Himself.
Why are so many accepting any other standard?
The sinners prayer is an innovation of man that thwarts God's plan of salvation. Man is not saved when man decides or feels he is saved, but rather when God decides. We can only have a clear conscience before God as we compare God's Word against what we have done to please Him. (1 Peter 3:21-22)
First, our own recent history tells us they replaced believers baptism by immersion with infant baptism by sprinkling.
Second, they later replaced baptism altogether with the "sinners prayer" so that baptism is no longer even part of the plan of salvation.
If you prayed the "sinners prayer" for your salvation, according to God's Holy Word, you are still lost in your sins, because it is not what God said to do. DO NOT take my word for it, study THE WORD and find God's answer on this matter.
The earliest notion of the sinners prayer is actually less than 500 years old.
It was not formalized as a theology until around the time of Billy Graham.
C.S. Lewis used the term "a great cataract of nonsense" to describe how people use a modern idea to construe Bible theology. One such example, perhaps the best example, is this conversion method called the Sinner's Prayer.
If you want a 'New Age' theology you have many from which to choose THAT SAVE NO ONE, but if you want that old time religion God initiated through His Son Jesus Christ, there is only one place to go;
"Study (The Word of God) to show yourself approved unto God...".
Go back to the Word and see what God says and not man. Give up any and all practices of doctrine not found in His Word. After all, we will be judged by The Word and not by what we 'thought' was O.K.
God's Word is The Truth, can you handle The Truth?
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