Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Friday August 7 2026
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Acts 2:21-AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.’
Acts 2:38-Then Peter said to them, “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.
Acts 22:16-And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
Many of our religious friends advocate the idea that a sinner may be saved simply by having faith in Jesus and calling out to Him for salvation, and He will immediately deliver them from sin and Hell. This is often known as the Sinner’s Prayer.
Yet those believers in Acts 2 who were told to call on the name of Lord to be saved (Acts 2:21) were then exhorted to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38). Likewise, the Apostle Paul believed in Jesus, repented of his sins, and then spent three days praying and fasting (Acts 9:1-11). Despite this, he had not called “on the name of the Lord” until he was baptized and washed away his sins in that act of obedience (Acts 22:16).
So, it raises the question: where did the idea of The Sinner’s Prayer come from?
It is clear from this study that a theology that could support the use of the Sinner’s Prayer emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century. This is evident in the teachings of Methodist preachers, such as James Caughey and, especially, William ‘California’ Taylor. It was a crucial component of D. L. Moody’s preaching from the mid-1870s. At the end of that century, it would also seem very likely that the use of spoken Sinner’s Prayers was being encouraged in Moody meetings by some counsellors and by officers in The Salvation Army. This practice seems to have become common in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in America, with printed forms certainly appearing in books in 1922 and 1945. Cards, booklets and tracts with Sinner’s Prayers were being used from the late 1940s and 1950s, and they became common in the 1960s. Billy Graham and Campus Crusades’ Four Spiritual Laws have done more than anything else to popularize this method of evangelism, taking it to most countries in the world. Sinner’s Prayer evangelism, therefore, can be regarded as first emerging in the late nineteenth century, developing in the first half of the twentieth, before becoming a major form of evangelism from about 1960. Yet it is not good evangelism. As we suggested in chapter 2, there are better and more biblical ways to evangelize. It is recommended that you read chapter 2 again to become more familiar with those practices. Jesus said, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28:19). This we must do and do it well. (David Malcolm Bennett, The Sinner’s Prayer: It’s Origins And Dangers, 4039-4050 (Kindle Edition); Capalaba Qld; Even Before Publishing a division of Wombat Books)
There is no Sinner’s Prayer salvation in the Bible.
KThe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.