Many of us have and use a study Bible. Study Bibles include introductions to the books, historical and archaeological notes, and so forth. Some study Bibles have sections that apply biblical teaching to everyday life; some have sections that answer questions that contemporary people ask.
I do not use a study Bible but I have a pocket New Testament, including the books of Psalms and Proverbs. At the back, my pocket NT has a section called “Where to Find Help When…” (you are afraid, for example), a daily Bible reading schedule, Suggested Readings (including where to find passages on various aspects of the life of Jesus), Teachings of the Holy Scriptures (such as on adversity), Christian Virtues, Wisdom from the Word, the Ten Commandments, and a section called “Jesus Saves.”
The latter section purports to teach what to do to be saved. It includes sections called “God’s love and plan”, “Jesus Christ is alive today,” and “How to receive God’s love and plan.” According to this section, how do you receive God’s love? 1.) Acknowledge the problem; 2.) Admit to being a sinner; 3.) Recognize that Jesus died for your sins; 4.) Commit yourself to Jesus; 5.) Receive Jesus as your personal Savior. To receive Jesus as your personal Savior, the pocket NT gives a “Prayer to receive Jesus Christ.” This is otherwise known as the “Sinner’s Prayer.” The prayer is found in various forms including the famous “4 Spiritual Laws” used widely.
But even denominational preachers are recognizing that the sinner’s prayer is unbiblical. A former minister at the church where the famous writer John MacArthur preaches, Kurt Gebhards, wrote a chapter in MacArthur’s book Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully in which he criticizes the sinner’s prayer! “Contrary to popular belief, the language in most sinner’s prayers is simply not biblical. Beyond that, the result of using the sinner’s prayer is that churches are weakened, people are deceived, and false converts are encouraged” (pg. 133). Wow! Coming from a denominational preacher, that’s powerful!
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As an alternative, Mr. Gebhards suggests we teach/preach the great commission! Wow! What a concept! Unfortunately, Mr. Gebhards still tries to dehydrate the Gospel, as he says baptism is simply a “public declaration of understanding and belief in the gospel” (pg. 146). It is certainly much more than that. But he does go on to say, “But the scriptural version of this public profession is baptism, not a repeated prayer. By elevating the prayer to this level, the result is actually a minimization of baptism.” Without a doubt. So, Mr. Gebhards suggest preachers stop using the sinner’s prayer!
My point today is that we be very careful and hesitate to accept and believe what we read in our study Bibles. Just because it is printed along with God’s word and found between the same two covers does not mean it is God’s Word!
-Paul Holland
