Making 'A' Decision & the 'Sinners Prayer'
A friend wrote a good article on his blog about 'viral church' (see link above). I agreed with virtually all of it .... but one line seemed worthy of further discussion.
He said “the goal of a (there was a misisng word here) is to encourage every person on this planet to advance in some way in their search and discovery of Jesus.” (that bit was fine) then “Don’t get me wrong, bringing a person to a point of decision and praying the sinners prayer with them is an important part of the process” ….
So .... I stepped into dangerous ground for an evangelical (or someone with a baptist, evangelical & pentecostal background) ….
In the NT I don’t see Jesus bringing anyone to a ‘point of decision’ & praying/saying anything like a sinners prayer …. Although individuals did clearly respond to him in different ways at different times (eg Nicodemus, Zaccheus, rich young ruler) ….
Interestingly, there is only a record of the ‘born again’ thing being said … & it was only to one person on one occasion (to Nicodemus in John 3) … the same frequency as the ‘sell all your possession’ thing (to the rich young ruler) hmmm ... we build a doctrine around the 'be born again' passage, but ignore or minimise the 'sell your possessions' passage by saying "that was just him" or "he obviously had a problem with his possessions". I'm not convinced this is consistent.
I don’t see the (single) point of decision / sinners prayer thing anywhere in the NT (either JC or Paul) .... I say 'single point of decision' because there are indications of individuals like the disciples making a number of decisions which have practical & spiritual effects in their lives .... but I haven't been able to discover where any of the disciples made the BIG point-of-decision (? when exactly did they become 'christians'?). Also, the example of Paul (Saul)'s conversion isn't exactly the norm these days .... although you do find bright lights & loud voices in some big churches :-)
Historically “personal conversion” is a relatively new construct - it came with the great awakening & evangelical revivals from the 17th century onwards. The earliest notion of a sinners prayer is less than 500 years old. It wasn't formalized as a theology until around the time of Billy Graham – in the 1950s Bill Bright (working with Billy Graham) came up with the Four Spiritual Laws (which ends with the Sinners prayer). Some of this theological shoft was based on misuse of Rev 3:20 (which is written to lukewarm churches, not pre-christians) & the inaccurate Living Bible translation of Jn 1:11-13 (which adds “All they needed to do was to trust him to save them. All those who believe this are reborn!” …. which has no basis in the greek text)
So .. I think we all face a multitude of decision points in our lives … where we have choices relating to choosing for or against God, Jesus, & his kingdom. We do need to be spiritually renewed … probably many times. This spiritual renewal should reveal itself in our lives & actions, as is nicely pointed out in Matt 25:31ff
That’s my quick thoughts …
He said “the goal of a (there was a misisng word here) is to encourage every person on this planet to advance in some way in their search and discovery of Jesus.” (that bit was fine) then “Don’t get me wrong, bringing a person to a point of decision and praying the sinners prayer with them is an important part of the process” ….
So .... I stepped into dangerous ground for an evangelical (or someone with a baptist, evangelical & pentecostal background) ….
In the NT I don’t see Jesus bringing anyone to a ‘point of decision’ & praying/saying anything like a sinners prayer …. Although individuals did clearly respond to him in different ways at different times (eg Nicodemus, Zaccheus, rich young ruler) ….
Interestingly, there is only a record of the ‘born again’ thing being said … & it was only to one person on one occasion (to Nicodemus in John 3) … the same frequency as the ‘sell all your possession’ thing (to the rich young ruler) hmmm ... we build a doctrine around the 'be born again' passage, but ignore or minimise the 'sell your possessions' passage by saying "that was just him" or "he obviously had a problem with his possessions". I'm not convinced this is consistent.
I don’t see the (single) point of decision / sinners prayer thing anywhere in the NT (either JC or Paul) .... I say 'single point of decision' because there are indications of individuals like the disciples making a number of decisions which have practical & spiritual effects in their lives .... but I haven't been able to discover where any of the disciples made the BIG point-of-decision (? when exactly did they become 'christians'?). Also, the example of Paul (Saul)'s conversion isn't exactly the norm these days .... although you do find bright lights & loud voices in some big churches :-)
Historically “personal conversion” is a relatively new construct - it came with the great awakening & evangelical revivals from the 17th century onwards. The earliest notion of a sinners prayer is less than 500 years old. It wasn't formalized as a theology until around the time of Billy Graham – in the 1950s Bill Bright (working with Billy Graham) came up with the Four Spiritual Laws (which ends with the Sinners prayer). Some of this theological shoft was based on misuse of Rev 3:20 (which is written to lukewarm churches, not pre-christians) & the inaccurate Living Bible translation of Jn 1:11-13 (which adds “All they needed to do was to trust him to save them. All those who believe this are reborn!” …. which has no basis in the greek text)
So .. I think we all face a multitude of decision points in our lives … where we have choices relating to choosing for or against God, Jesus, & his kingdom. We do need to be spiritually renewed … probably many times. This spiritual renewal should reveal itself in our lives & actions, as is nicely pointed out in Matt 25:31ff
That’s my quick thoughts …
Labels: David Allis, general
posted by David Allis @ 8:43 AM
1 Comments:
At January 12, 2008 9:17 AM ,
René Sjardin said...
The whole question of what being 'saved' is, and when it occurs, the role and shape of the church, etc., is one of the things that has been exercising my mind of late, and it was in this context that I came across your refreshing and stimulating site.
The conclusion I have come to concerning salvation is as follows: the key reason Jesus came to Earth was to save sinners. Sinners became sinners through disobedience in the Garden of Eden and the remedy for disobedience is (1) Jesus' gracious death and the remission of the penalty of eternal punishment for everyone who trusts in Him and what He achieved, and (2) repentance on the part of the person who places his/her trust in Him and His finished work, i.e., a return to obedience.
In general terms, a believer's obedience is expressed in terms of a readiness to come under the authority of God. However, I believe that that the current Christian concept of what is termed obedience is limited in scope; emphasis is placed on 'right living' which involves keeping the Ten Commandments, being submissive to the various forms of authority that exist, etc. However, that emphasis has legalism and its core and assumes that, if you are behaving correctly in relation to the code (the letter of the law), you enjoy God's favour and will be blessed.
The message of Jesus and the New Testament writers, however, extends the concept of obedience. Obedience to the biblical norms of what is right, even in a legalistic framework, is not abrogated (Jesus, for example, did not suggest that the Pharisees stop tithing on their mint and rue), rather it has become the personal responsibility of each believer to respond to what God is saying to him/her personally. What the New Testament indicates is that we are each to listen for the voice of God and are then to respond with compliance to what is said by way of obedience when what is said comes by way of command.
In the Western church, particularly, we have lost the art of hearing God's voice for ourselves. I suspect that the theology of the Western church has been deeply infiltrated by the message of the Enlightenment (has there ever been a sadder ironic term?) that rationality is the only faculty we can trust, and, along with that emphasis on the rational, the possibility that God wants to relate to us through personally speaking to us has been lost as such activity is beyond the rational. But, to hark back to what was lost in the Garden of Eden, does God not also want to restore to us, in Jesus, the fellowship with Himself that Adam and Eve enjoyed before the Fall, which involved direct and personal communication as its main component?
It is in this context that Jesus' various commands to individuals in the New Testament accounts, with respect as to what they needed to do to be saved, begin to make sense. With the rich young ruler, Jesus went to the heart issue that prevented him from entering the Kingdom of God - his dependence on his wealth (note, too, however, that the young man's adherence to to the legal code, to right living, was also commended by Jesus). Jesus' command was made in the context of a personal encounter and related to the state of the man's heart. At that point, the man had a decision to make, to be obedient or not.
The New Testament pattern, I believe, is that each believer needs to become proficient at hearing the voice of God on a regular basis and to respond with obedience when what He says is a command. 'My sheep hear My voice' is not a statement that rings true for most Western Christians; mostly we are content to sit in a church and hear the pastor's voice.
In truth, most Christians would find the above concept troubling on many fronts. It raises such questions as: 'Does God still really speak as He did with people as recorded in the Bible?', 'If He does speak in this way, how can I be sure that what I am hearing is accurate?', and, most tellingly (as the deep issues of the heart cannot avoid being addressed), 'What if God were to ask me to do something that I didn't really want to do?'
What is attractive about the above concept, however, is that it would represent the ultimate adventure, each of us personally living out the fullness of the plan the Lord has for our lives. Prayer becomes meaningful - it becomes a true conversation rather than a religious duty to be fulfilled. The Bible comes alive as the Lord interprets it. Fellowship with like-minded believers becomes incredibly exciting as each person relates their personal adenture with God. And problems that have shackled believers for years, and which have presented real stumbling-blocks in their progress in the faith, dissolve as the Truth is imparted to the soul through the rhema voice of God.
This is also a paradigm that allows one to live outside of church-based systems (whatever form they take) while still being involved within it (although the potential for misunderstanding on the part of those in, and wedded to, the system increases).
Any further thoughts?
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