The Sinner’s Prayer

The sinner’s prayer is one of the most-accepted facets of evangelism in America.  But where did it originate?

In the 1730’s or 1740’s, a man named Eleazar Whitlock used a technique called the “mourner’s seat” where he targeted sinners and had them sit in the front row.  He found that they were more open to counseling after sitting through his sermon.  

Then a man named Charles Finney took Whitlock’s “mourner’s seat” and changed it to the “anxious seat” practice, once again targeting sinners, putting them on the front row while he preached, and he developed his own personal theology around it, saying it was a “public manifestation of their determination to be Christians,” similar to how most people view baptism being an outward sign of an inward conversion.

Dwight Moody took this system in the 1860’s and modified it so that instead of a seat, there was a room where people were counseled.  They were shown the Bible and prayer was the end of the process, and it was loosely associated with conversion.

Then a man named R. A. Torrey changed Moody’s system to include immediate conversions for street witnessing, a no-strings-attached salvation.

Billy Sunday was “saved” in a Moody-style crusade.  He became an evangelist, encouraging people to either pray a prayer to be saved or just walk up the “sawdust aisle” and grab his hand.

Billy Graham was “saved” at a Billy Sunday-style crusade in 1936.   During the 1950’s, the  “four spiritual laws” were invented, based on Billy Sunday’s “four things God wants you to know.”  Of course , the four spiritual laws ended in a sinners prayer.

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Let’s square this teaching up with the Bible:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.   John 6:44

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.  Acts 13:48

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  John 6:37

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”  Romans 9:10-13

 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  Ezekiel 36:22-27

It’s so important to conform our theology to the Bible, and not the other way around.