The Root For Decision, The Sinners Prayer, and Other Myths

Romans 10:9, 13 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (13.) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Most mythical ways of salvation has there roots right here in John Chapter 10. It is a fact that most take these passages of scripture out-of-context to make salvation the sinner’s choice, decision, or etc. In order to fulfill mythical ways of salvation that religionist teaches today, the word of God must be altered in two ways, (1.) the scriptures must be taken out-of-context and (2.) the scriptures must be contradicted. When I was a young preacher and believing most of what religionist believes today my mentor and Pastor Brother Harace Hammond told me in order to understand the scriptures two basic rules must be followed, (1.) all scriptures must be taken in context with the chapter or chapters in which the passage is located and (2.) no scripture or passage ever contradicts another because the entire bible is one single book and perfectly assembled together. With this being understood I began my studies with these two rules in mind and quickly discovered I had been sadly been taught myths instead of truth. I soon learned that that one central and root scripture of truth was Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” and I quickly thought “if salvation is not of ourselves but is of God and the gift from God then how is it that it is mans choice?” Then I began to see words like “elect”, “chosen”, and “predestination” and quickly realized I had a gross misunderstanding of God’s word. If one uses these two rules of thought as they study the scriptures and allows the scriptures to speak to them as they truly are written, then believing the truth’s of the bible are greater than not. However those that simply swallow what their Pastors tells them without studying the scriptures and fact checking then they will always be a “mind-num-robot” rather than a bible student which every believer should be.

In these two scriptures and even in the entire tenth chapter of Romans is Paul is not speaking about “choosing Christ”, “making a decision for Christ”, or “praying a prayer to be saved”. This is also not the “Romans road to salvation”. However taken in context with the rest of the tenth chapter they are scriptures about “how to be saved”. We must first notice in verse 10 “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…” which means the heart of man must be changed before one can believe because his natural heart is at enmity with God, in fact Jesus said in Matthew 15:18 “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.” So even in mans lost state his evil comes from his heart, meaning nothing good can come from it. Now we see Jesus referencing the difference between the natural heart and a heart changed by God Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” Therefore we conclude that the confessing here in John 10 is not a “sinner’s prayer” but rather a confession of their salvation because in verse 11 we see “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

As far as verse 13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It also is not a prayer but rather is a quote from Joel 2:32 “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” So whosoever does call shall be saved but only those whom the Lord God shall called first. “…and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” So without Gods Holy Spirit pricking mans heart first then man will never call upon the Lord. So we conclude with this fact; the lost cannot pray a prayer to be saved because God does not hear the prayers of the lost.