One of the most damnable heresies you’ll ever hear is that if you ask God to come into your heart and save you, He definitely will. Let me repeat myself: that God will save you just because you say the sinner’s prayer is a lie.

Do I have your attention now? Good. Now please, bear with me as I explain myself.

The teaching of heresy is a problem that is becoming more and more prevalent in Christianity (or what calls itself Christianity) today, both here in America and also throughout the rest of the world. A heretical teaching is basically anything proclaimed that directly contradicts what God’s word teaches. This is not to be confused with opinion. An example of opinion would be whether or not to use pews or chairs, or whether or not to wear a suit to church. To preach these things is to preach one’s opinion, as the Bible does not directly address these issues. Conversely, teaching that Jesus didn’t die on the cross is heresy, as the Bible very clearly states that He did indeed die there.

Biblical doctrine can be classified into two categories: essentials and non-essentials. By essential, it’s generally understood to be essential to the doctrine of salvation. Essential-attacking heresies include the teaching of multiple gods (Mormonism), that baptism is a requirement for salvation (Church of Christ), that salvation is not through faith alone (Roman Catholicism), or that salvation is available apart from Jesus Christ (Islam).

Heresy of non-essential Biblical doctrines would include whether or not to allow women to hold positions as pastors or deacons, infant baptism, the use of charismatic gifts, etc. These doctrines have no bearing on a person’s salvation; they are more a matter of poor or faulty interpretation. Therefore, while certainly questionable, I don’t think that to teach these things are heretical in the sense that it affects one’s salvation.

Please bear in mind that I’m not defining “heresy” to be set in stone. Protestantism views Catholicism as heretical, and vice-verse. Heresy in and of itself is “going contrary to teaching”. Thus, every denomination is “heretical” in the eyes of another. I’m merely trying to give heresy a working definition in light of what the Bible teaches regarding this issue. For the purpose of this article, we’ll define heresy as being any teaching that goes against the doctrine of salvation as taught in the Bible. I’ve already given several examples of various groups that hold beliefs that directly contradict what is clearly taught in God’s Word concerning salvation.

I want to talk today about one of the biggest heresies that has ever been taught, one that is found common in evangelical Christianity, sadly enough. That heresy is this:

“If you pray a prayer and ask God to come into your heart, He will definitely save you.”

You may be asking yourself why I keep calling this teaching heresy. Well, simple….it’s not true.

I was writing my last blog and finally got around to the part where you “pray the sinner’s prayer” and seal the deal. The funny thing was…I just couldn’t find it in my Bible. This shocked me. I mean, after all…isn’t that what we all hear in church? “Repeat these simple words. Dear God, I realize that I’m a sinner, etc. etc.”

Well, naturally I wanted to include it in my blog, that way if someone was convicted of their need for salvation they would know what to do. As I said, though…you’ll not find any of the apostles, other Christians, or Christ Himself telling anyone to pray a prayer and accept Him into their heart. Right now I imagine some of you might be itching to look up Romans 10:13 and smack me over the head with it. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

To that, I ask that you read also the next sentence: “how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” In other words, if you were saved when you said the sinner’s prayer (and there’s a good chance you were not), it was because you believed the Gospel, not because you said the magic words. Think about it this way…if you were talking to your friends about their salvation, and one of them said “I know I’m going to Heaven because I got baptized”, you’d look at them oddly. Your look would further intensify as another friend said “I know I’m going to Heaven because I joined a church”, or “I’m going because I pay my tithe!”, or “I keep the sacraments”.

See, you know how mistaken they are in their beliefs that getting wet, tossing money in the plate, or joining a church will save their soul…yet when they ask us how we know we’re saved, too many of us evangelical believers reply with: “Oh, I’m going to Heaven because I prayed a prayer!”

See the silliness? Your utterance of a sentence or two has no more saving power than hopping in the baptistry or chucking quarters in the plate. Your profession of faith is meaningless without an underlying faith to give it any credence with the Father. It’s not in what you say; it’s about why you said it in the first place. Let me illustrate: let’s say that you know of a prominent atheist in the area, and you con him into repeating the sinner’s prayer. For the sake of the argument, let’s say that you offer to pay him $1000 to repeat your every word. After he agrees to do so, you have him say “dear God, I know I’m a sinner. Please forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. In Jesus’ name, amen.” You should know as well as I do that the mere repetition of this prayer will in no way alter the condition of this man’s soul if he has no belief behind it. Do you understand what I’m saying? Prayer doesn’t save: faith in God saves.

We see in Acts 10:44 that the Holy Spirit indwelt those that believed, right smack in the middle of Peter’s sermon. There was no sinner’s prayer, there was no baptism (of any type), and there was nothing but the simple hearing and believing of the Gospel.

Some Calvinist friends of mine have said that the cognitive act of believing and accepting also requires work on behalf of the sinner and therefore you’re not truly saved. Not so. Think of it this way: if you walk outside and its 10 degrees below zero, your body will shiver, your teeth will chatter, you’ll no doubt be miserable. Does this happen only because you believe it’s cold? Does this require action on your part? No! The truth is, it’s cold and it takes no effort or decision to respond to it. Likewise, the truth is, we’re all sinners and we’re all deserving of Hell. The truth is that Jesus died in our place, that He suffered the wrath of God so that we wouldn’t have to. It requires no cognitive action on our part to make this true; it’s true regardless of what we think. In fact, it’s the active denial of this truth that condemns a person to Hell. So no…no action is involved with salvation. Salvation comes from faith, and faith requires no action.

I was talking to a friend who shared her salvation experience with me. She was at church, convicted by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, and went to the front of the church during the invitation. However, she knows that she was saved right there in her seat before she ever walked to talk with the pastor in the front. Likewise, all salvation is granted at the moment of belief. The sinner’s prayer in and of itself is harmless if said with a convicted heart, but it’s essential to know that the prayer is meaningless without that conviction. I would go as far as to state it like this: You’re not saved because you say the sinner’s prayer…if anything, you say the sinner’s prayer because you’re saved.

I realize that I’m repetitiously beating a dead horse, and for that I apologize. However, there’s a pandemic of weak theology floating around this country that has probably millions of people wrongly believing that they’re saved because they said the magic prayer. For proof of this, one has but to turn to www.barna.org. I gave some stats a few months ago; let me recap.

Barna, through self-reports and questionnaires, defines a born-again Christian as a person answering ‘yes’ to the following two questions: “have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today?” and “when I die, I will go to Heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.”

On the surface, these questions and answers certainly seem to be valid criterion on which to base the authenticity of a person’s confession of faith. However, of the 101 million Americans that are identified as being born-again Christians, there are 33% that believe that if a person is good enough, they can earn a place in Heaven. Surveys show that 28% of born-again Christians believe that while Jesus lived on this earth, He committed sins just like everyone else.

I believe that a belief in either of these two statements is indicative of a false-conversion. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is through faith and faith only. To put trust in works is to say that Jesus’ death was not enough to satisfy God. To put faith in our works is to believe that if we do enough, God will be indebted to us and must therefore allow us into Heaven.

Likewise, to believe that Jesus was a sinner is to show a lack of understanding (or a lack of acceptance) of the true gospel. Our sin separated us from God, and therefore God demanded the sacrifice of a sinless human. The only way in which this was possible was for God Himself to satisfy this requirement and therefore sent His own Son to live that sinless life, to be that perfect sacrifice. This was the only way in which our sins could be forgiven. The perfection of Jesus Christ was essential to the plan of God. To believe that Jesus was a sinner reveals, in my opinion, that the person holding this belief doesn’t

truly understand their need for salvation or how Christ’s death would have made it possible.

These 33-odd millions of Americans professing to be saved are anything but. I believe them to be representative of the ‘believers’ described by Jesus in Matthew 7: 21-23: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Yes, that’s right. There will be people on the Day of Judgment arguing with God, professing to be saved. And they will be told “No…you’re not. I never knew you.” Do you not realize the significance of this? And these are people that cast out demons and worked miracles! If they’re not saved, who is?? “Not everyone that says ‘Lord, Lord’…” Or perhaps, “Not everyone that said ‘Dear God, I know I’m a sinner’…” I wonder how many of you might fall into this group of people believing yourselves saved because of a prayer you said once in your life. Do you know that you’re truly saved? How do you know you’re not one of those Matthew 7 people that are damned, even though you believe that you believe? How do you know???

“Well Rick, I know in my heart of hearts that”- stop right there. Jeremiah 17:9 teaches us that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. You ought not trust your heart for the basis of your salvation. “Well Rick, I asked God into my heart”…my friend, we have already covered this one. “I know I’m saved because the pastor told me!” And since when does a person have the authority to declare you saved? The question remains…How do you know that you’re really saved? How do you know that you got saved when you think you did? Can we know?

Yes…we can. And that is the point of this blog. I’m going to tell you how the Bible says we can know we’re saved, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we said a prayer sometime. I apologize for the length of this article, as well as for the circles I’m running. I felt it necessary though, to lay out the fact that praying a prayer, knowing in your heart, or being told that you’re saved really has no credibility as far as assurance of salvation goes. You can’t know that you’re truly a child of God merely because you prayed a prayer. Everyone prays a prayer. You can’t know that you’re saved because you wrote a date down in the back of your Bible. How do you know if you were really saved that day? You can’t know you’re saved because you know that you know that you know in your heart that you’re saved. The heart is wicked, remember? So how do you know you really believe? Everyone believes. Remember Barna?

Let me draw you to a comment that Paul makes in his second recorded epistle to the church at Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, he makes a seemingly offhanded suggestion: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Or, as the HCSB translates it, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? –unless you fail the test.”

To get a better understanding of the tests that we can take to see if we truly know Him, let me direct you to the book of I John. This book of the Bible wasn’t directed to a particular person or church; it was intended to be read and followed by all believers. Within its five short chapters are multiple indicators by which a believer can determine whether or not they are truly saved. Each one is in itself a sermon, but I’ll do what I can for the sake of brevity to present each test in a clear and concise manner.

Before I start, I want to point out something. So many times throughout this letter we see the words “if we say”. Think about it. This is John’s way of saying, “Alright, for all of you that claim to be Christians”…John really doesn’t care that the reader thinks they’re saved. He puts no stock in their profession of faith. As I said, the entire point of these tests is to reveal to the reader whether or not they’re truly saved, irregardless of “if we say”. Bear that in mind as we continue. I would also like to add that I may change the capitalization and punctuation of the KJV in order to facilitate easier comprehension.

Test #1 (I John 1:6-7): “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Do you, as a way of life, walk around in darkness, or are you walking in the light? Does your lifestyle consistently contradict what the Bible teaches about God’s desire for our lives? When peoples see you, to they see a constant reflection of Christ, or do they see a reflection of the un-saved? Is your life any different from your un-saved friends.

Test #2 (I John 1:8-10): “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

True Christians will be aware of and convicted of their sin. How’s your sensitivity to sin? Is your heart responsive to it? Has it ever been? Let me ask you a scary question…when is the last time you cried over your sin? Have you ever in your life been acutely aware of the sinfulness of your life and been broken over it?

Test #3 (I John 2:3-4): “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith ‘I know Him’, and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

Let me ask you, how much do you care about the commandments of God? As a style of life, do you keep them? I’m not talking about going out of your way trying to figure out the right thing to do. What I mean is, do you naturally follow the instructions of God, or is your life consumed by doing what you want, rather than what He wants? Who do your actions reflect? God…or yourself?

Test #4 (I John 2:6): “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.”

Again, how much does your life reflect Christ? Do you look like Him, or do you act, walk, and talk like the un-saved world around you? I realize that none of us are perfect, and there are certainly times in each of our lives where we reflect not God. But as a way of life, do you resemble Him or Satan?

Test #5 (I John 2:9-11): “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goes because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”

The word “brother” here is taken to mean a fellow Christian. How much do you love the brethren? How much do you enjoy fellowshipping with other Believers, being in a group of Christians? Granted, there will always be people we might not necessarily get along with well, but do you overall enjoy being with Christians? Or do you find them to be annoying, over-bearing, goody-goodys that need to lighten up and get off your back? Do you love the brethren?

Test #6 (I John 2:15): “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Do you love and embrace the things of the world, more so than the things of God? Do you consistently feed your worldly desires, or is your focus on that which God would have of you? Yes, we all at times will struggle with yielding to our fleshly temptations, but are you constantly bogged down and controlled by them? Is your heart here on Earth, or do you live for the Kingdom?

Test #7 (I John 2:19): “They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

Do you seek the body of Christ? Do you find enjoyment in going to church, to gathering together with other Christians? Or is there no desire on your part to find a church to be in? Is church something you look forward to, or is it something you dread, an obligatory bi-yearly event? Is your church your family, or is it your Sunday morning party-pooper?

Test #8 (I John 2:22): “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”

This one speaks for itself. Do you believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, God himself? Or do you think that Jesus was just a good man, a prophet, or a healer? True salvation is impossible apart from recognizing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

Test #9 (I John 2:29): “If you know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him.”

Again, this is not reflective of a legalistic “what can I do to appear righteous” mentality. This means that you, as a style of life, will reflect righteous behavior. It goes back to the idea of a vine that bears good fruit. A true Christian will produce good works. An absence of these is indicative of a non-believer’s vain attempt at Christianity. How much do your actions glorify God? Does your lifestyle overall meet His approval, or does it merit His disappointment? Does your life reflect righteousness or unrighteousness?

Test #10 (I John 5:11-12): “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

This one is simple, guys. Salvation is impossible without Jesus. If you’re trusting in any other person, object, or ideology to save your soul, you are wrong. Confucius cannot save you, Buddha cannot save you, and Muhammad cannot save you. The only way by which we can be reconciled to the Father is by placing our trust in Jesus Christ. We cannot work our way to Heaven, we cannot sneak in through the back, and we cannot expect God to cut us slack because we thought there was another way. Jesus said in John 14:6 that no one comes to the Father but through Him. Are you trusting in Christ for your salvation? If not, you are wrong, my friend.

* * *

I hope that through these tests you have come to understand that the only assurance a person can have of their salvation is in their lifestyle. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20 that people will be known by their fruits, by their actions. Is your lifestyle indicative of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Has it ever been? Did your life ever change once you thought yourself to be a Christian? If not, be very afraid. God’s word very, very clearly teaches that a Christian’s life will change. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17- “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

I ask you again, when you believed that you got saved, did your life change? There are only three answers to this question. “Yes, it changed and it is still changed”, “Yes, it changed, but since then I have backslidden in a sinful lifestyle”, and “No…it never changed”. If it is still changed, praise God. If it’s not like it was, why not? Repent, and turn back to God. He’ll always be there, and He wants nothing more than for you to turn back to Him.

But if there’s never been a change in your life...do you really know Him? I cannot tell you that you’re saved or not saved; I can only tell you how to be saved, and God’s word reveals through your life whether or not you are saved. If you’re wondering how to get saved, that part is simple: believe that Gospel. Know that Jesus died to satisfy His Father’s requirement for a sinless sacrifice. Know that he was buried and rose again. Incredibly simple, I know. But God loves us too much to make us jump through hoops to be saved. If you have questions about this, I encourage you to read my previous blog, or talk to a pastor or a Christian.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

- John 3:16

What are you going to do?