Today, hundreds of millions hold to a belief system and salvation practice that no one had ever held until relatively recently. The sinners prayer is a invention that changes God's plan of salvation. The Sinner's Prayer is a modern apostasy and false teaching that prevents people from being saved. The earliest idea of sinners prayer is less than 500 years old. The prayer itself dates to the Billy Sunday era; however, the basis for talking in prayer for salvation goes back a few hundred years. It wasn't formalized as a theology until around the time of Billy Graham.
No one in the word of God ever prayed for their initial salvation. They did however believe, repent, confess Jesus and be immersed in his name in water for the forgiveness of their sins. So if you prayed the "sinners prayer" for your salvation, you are still lost in your sins, because it is not what God said to do.
How did the Sinner's Prayer evolve into what it is today? Although everyone was not following exactly what the Apostles taught after the Reformation, for the first time in over a thousand years the general populace was reading the Scriptures. Thanks in part to the invention of the printing press. Many still held to the importance of water baptism in the New Birth process, but because of Catholicism, it was not in the name of Jesus, as it changed in 325 AD to the titles father, son and Holy Ghost and was done three times for the newly formed trinity teaching. Also it was done by sprinkling on infants, because of a Catholics agreeing upon this in 1311.
The majority still held to the validity of infant baptism even though they disagreed on it's significance. The influence of the preachers eventually led to the popular notion that one was forgiven at infant baptism but not yet reborn. Most Protestants were confused or ambivalent about the connection between rebirth and forgiveness.
The Great Awakening of the 1700's changed all of that. Though Protestants were lukewarm on the practice of baptism, Great Awakening preachers created an environment that made man aware of his need for an adult confession experience. The experiences that people sought were varied. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and John Wesley furthered ideas of radical repentance and revival. Although there is much to be learned from their messages, they did not solve the problems of the practices associated with baptism and conversion.
