Question:  Hi,

            I was wondering if there is anywhere in the Bible that says you (or someone else) would go to hell if you don’t say the “sinners’ prayer” before you die?  If there is not, then why do many evangelical churches preach that this is the case?  What is the basis for the argument that it is so important to evangelize so that your friends do not go to hell?

            Deb

Answer:  Dear Deb,

            The sinners’ prayer is a human innovation, and like so many other traditions of human origin, even those (and especially those!) that are based upon the Bible often rise to the level of divine inspiration.

There is no place in the Bible that gives us a copy of the sinners’ prayer.  If one, for example, considers the thief on the cross, it does not seem that he uttered the sinners’ prayer yet Christ saved him.  Of course there were a number of other “things” the thief did not do that can upset some Christians—he didn’t go to church, he didn’t give to the church and its missions, he wasn’t politically active, supporting candidates that are considered to be Christians, etc., etc.  We can become upset thinking that the thief “got away” with less effort than we are “supposed to” give (of course there is a question there: efforts we are supposed to give according to whom?).

            Why do some churches preach that it is necessary to get everyone “saved”?  They teach that if someone is not “saved” it may be our fault for not supporting our mission as we should have, for not evangelizing to others the way we should have, for not saying just the right thing at the right time, the way we should have.

            At times our zeal to do God’s work gets ahead of God and can begin to add items to the agenda that God doesn’t necessarily sponsor, endorse and certainly not insist upon.  The salvation of sinners, let’s not forget, is first and foremost, God’s work.  He, by his grace, includes us, letting us reflect the light of Christ we have been mercifully given, so that others may see what God is doing in our lives.  But never does God give us the idea that the work of salvation depends upon us.  It doesn’t.  Not our own salvation, and not anyone else’s.

            There are churches that blur this line a little, or a lot, in an effort to get congregations excited about reaching the world with the gospel.  We should be excited about reaching the world—we should realize it is an important work God gives us to do—but never should Christians labor under the unbiblical idea that the salvation of others completely depends on us.

            God is able to work in many ways we don’t know about.  Consider the example of Elijah—God had just given him a great victory over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18).  But then Elijah had to run for his life because the wicked queen Jezebel wanted to kill him.  Elijah was feeling, for good reason, depressed and discouraged, a little bit of a “woe is me” martyr complex, a little bit of “how will God’s work be done if I’m not doing it?” attitude.  And he expressed that to God.  God told him (1 Kings 19:14-18) that Elijah was not the only one doing God’s work, that there were 7000 others that Elijah did not know about.

            Yes, we should be zealous to share the gospel of the kingdom of God.  But we should also realize that God does not give us the right to condemn all that we do not reach, or all that do not hear about our denomination’s version of the gospel, or all that do not get baptized “the right way”, etc., etc.--to hell.  We do not have the right to condemn people to hell—God is the judge.  He gives us the opportunity to share his love and the gospel, but he does not ask our help in assigning people to hell.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht