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CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD
The Bible says,
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved,” (Romans 10:13). We believe
that. But in a mistaken zeal to get sinners to bring about their own new birth,
people have been told that all they need do is pray a one-time prayer.
Supposedly this will result in their new birth. We reject the idea that there is
something that a lost sinner can do to bring about his own spiritual birth. Why?
Because the Bible nowhere tells us what a sinner can do to cause God to birth
him into His family. Search God's Book! You will not find instructions anywhere
in the Bible telling you what to do in order to be born again! Why? Because the
new birth is not brought to pass by human action.
If going forward in a religious service and
praying a one-time prayer asking for salvation constitutes calling on the name
of the Lord, everyone who ever prayed such a prayer is saved. It must be so. God
said those who call upon Him will be saved. If praying “the sinner's prayer” is
what He meant in Romans 10:13, everyone who ever prayed such a prayer is saved.
Are you ready to say that? Are you really ready to claim that everybody who ever
went forward in a church service and repeated a prayer for salvation is truly
saved? Where are they all? Some who prayed such prayers can be found in bars,
drug dens, houses of prostitution, etc. Others are corrupt business men,
politicians, murderers and thieves of various sorts. Some are apostates and
heretics of the worst sort: themselves deceived and deceiving others. Honesty
demands that everyone admit this: not everyone who ever went forward and prayed
in a church house is
saved. So is God a liar? Or have religious
people equated praying a one-time “sinner's prayer” with calling on the name of
the Lord when they are not the same thing?
Paul wrote:
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with
them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart,”
(2 Timothy 2:22). Ah! Here is the answer! There is always a first time when born
again sinners call upon the Lord, but those that are saved continue to call upon
Him. It is not a one-time thing! Notice in this last verse it says
“with them that call”
- they continue to call! It does not say they called one time – once upon a
time. There is the first time a sinner repents, but it is only the beginning of
a lifetime of repenting – of calling on the Lord. When the Spirit of God births
a sinner into God's family thus giving them “a
pure heart” they begin a life-time of calling
upon the Lord! That is the truth of the matter.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,”
(Philippians 1:6).
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