Dear reader, I am happy that you and I are living in the same times and seasons, according to the plan of God Almighty. I am particularly happy that you are reading this article that God has led me to write on the Born Again doctrine of the Christian faith.
My prayer for you is that, before the generations after us come to benefit by some rare teachings on salvation that God has led me to render to humanity, you my precious contemporary, would have been blessed ahead of them.
If you are serious about the Christian faith, as I am, and are an ardent listener to radio broadcasts or a viewer of television programmes of teachings by some pastors, general overseers, apostles, archbishops, etc., you might have observed something I am about to bring to your attention as an error to the Christian faith.
This error has persisted for a very long time, centuries in fact, and has therefore gained acceptance as genuine that, it passes as being able to deliver on its promises when in fact it cannot.
Did you hear the preacher-man on radio, or watch him on television this past week? Did you hear him at the end of his preaching ask you to do something if you wanted to be Born Again into God’s Kingdom? Did you hear him instruct you to place your hand on the radio or television set, and to pray a prayer after him, if you were repentant of your sinful-life, and wanted Jesus to take control of your life or get to be Born Again?
As for me I hear these every day. If you do not, begin to listen to preachers (Men of God?) on radio and television.
The prayer they ask their listeners to recite after them, when these preachers are ending their programmes on radio or television, is known by many as the “Sinners’ Prayer” or the “Prayer for Salvation”.
This is a prayer of confession of sins by repentant sinners who want to enter the Born Again experience, or start life all-over, after the power of sin has messed-up their lives. It is also a denunciation of the devil, request for God’s forgiveness, and the profession of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Master.
The faith of the proponents of this doctrine is that, if any sinner repents of his sins, recites this prayer after the preachers of it, in sincerity and all seriousness of heart, they are instantly Born Again! Their claim is that, they are instantly passed from death to life and have had their names written into the Lamb’s Book of Life, if they were sincere in saying that prayer!
Dear reader, I would let you know that, if you ever did that, trusting the word of pious- and or sanctimonious-looking persons, who seemed worthy of your trust, then you were deceived. Nobody can get Born Again by and of prayer: be it known as the Sinners’ Prayer or the Prayer for Salvation.
Maybe, the peddlers of this doctrine are themselves ignorant that prayer cannot make one Born Again. In fact, that is the sad aspect of this doctrine – many of its proponents do not know they are in error.
Could it be that after-all, the preachers of this wrong doctrine are simply being mischievous, and cashing-in on the ignorance and gullibility of their listeners and therefore deliberately teach falsehood? I do not want to think so, even though at times one is tempted to.
What did Jesus say to Nicodemus about how anybody can ever enter into the Kingdom of God? Did Jesus say to Nicodemus to pray to enter into His salvation? Did Peter, on his very first assignment to lead people into the Born Again experience on the Day of Pentecost, instruct his listeners to pray some special prayer to be saved?
From all the Bible accounts, nobody ever said a prayer to be saved, or get Born Again. Why is it then so popular a practice for salvation-seekers to be told by so-called Men of God to recite special prayers after them so as to become Born Again?
Simply put, the practice of Sinners’ Prayer recitals for salvation is a deception of the devil. This all men should be aware of and denounce the instructions of so-called Men of God to pray special prayers for salvation.
So what must one do to be saved? The answer is to do what a jailor in the city of Philippi did in the early days of the Christian faith (Acts 16:25-34). Was this jailor not the first from the Bible accounts to ask this same question?
To answer the question of this jailor in Philippi, Paul and Silas at midnight, taught him to believe in Jesus if he wanted to be saved. They did not stop there. They went further to explain themselves.
At the end of it all, this jailor rushed to obey the word of Paul and Silas, so he could be saved. At an odd, inconvenient, discomforting, midnight-hour, this jailor rushed out of his home to be baptized in the river on whose bank the city of Philippi was built (Acts 16:12-13, 30-33) in his quest to be saved.
This jailor did nothing like reciting a so-called Sinners’ Prayer or a Prayer for Salvation to enter God’s salvation. He was properly led into the salvation of God by people who were truly sent by God.
This jailor was saved in the ministry of God-called, God-taught, God-anointed, and God-sent, obedient, loyal, and well-informed disciples of Jesus Christ. Sadly, ministers of such glorious credentials are hard to come-by in our world today.
Anybody today, who does not teach the doctrine that Jesus taught Nicodemus (John 3:3-5), or Peter did on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-41), or by Philip to an Ethiopian in the desert of Gaza (Acts 8:26-40), or by Ananias in his ministration of salvation to Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:10-18), has deviated from the genuine way of teaching God’s salvation.
All who follow such a one, are also off-course, in as-much-as getting into God’s Kingdom is their ambition. I hope I can bless your life with this truth: a truth I am charged by God to warn my generation in. [—the concluding part of this article is in Part Two: soon to be published].
Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].



