There are some Biblical questions that I would like to respectfully request that you might earnestly ask some of your most ardent religious friends and neighbors who are denominational “church-goers” or church leaders to consider the next time you interact with them…
First off: Do they believe the Bible is the absolute and inerrant, eternal and exclusive truth of almighty God, and that it therefore contains everything we need to know in order to be saved (Ps. 119; 2 Tim. 3:14-4:4; 2 Ptr. 1:2-11)?
Secondly: do they subsequently and relatedly believe therefore, that the same process which the Bible repeatedly chronicles as having saved people in the 1st century is the same process by which people are still saved today?
And then, if they answer those two questions “yes,” then please ask them to very carefully consider this… If they believe that they were saved when they said the so-called “sinner’s prayer,” ask them where exactly is that found in the Scripture – book, chapter, and verse, please? Again; of the thousands of conversions to Christ that are Biblically chronicled since the establishment of Christ’s New Testament (Hebrews 9:15-17; Luke 22:17-20) church in Acts 2 (3,000 in Acts 2:14-47; 2,000 in Acts 3:13-4:4; Samaritans of Acts 8:5-13; the eunuch in Acts 8:25-39; Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:3-19 and as again reported in Acts 22:1-16; Cornelius and his household in Acts 10:34-43; the people of Antioch in Acts 13:14-48; Lydia in Acts 16:14-15; and the jailor and his household in Acts 16:30-34), where was even one of those thousands of people ever taught to be saved/converted by saying that prayer and “receiving Jesus into their heart?” They weren’t were they? They can’t find it can they? It’s not there is it? (No it isn’t. And that’s why on the back of every tract that the Baptist and other man-made protestant denominations pass out, they list no Scripture whatsoever after they feature that prayer: It’s not in the Bible!)
And yet, those first century folks were absolutely saved according to the Scriptures… weren’t they? And so the question quickly becomes: “Where they say they believe that the Bible is the ultimate God-given authority, can they really, truly, honestly then turn completely around and trust their eternal salvation to something completely foreign to the Scripture?” You see, that prayer did not even come into religion until the mid 1600’s – some 1500 + years after Christ’s apostles began converting people to Christ His way in 33 A.D. without any hit of such an element. So; do they really, truly trust Jesus… or uninspired men of the mid-1600’s with their eternal soul? THAT is the question! And they answer it far more honestly with their actions at that point, than they do with their words… Hmmm… didn’t Jesus say something about exactly that in Mark 7:6-13? Yeah, He said a whole lot… and folks better listen. God bless!