Have you heard from a preacher on your radio or in person bringing the message of salvation to you and after doing so the person makes the statement: “If you want to be saved say this prayer after me:..”? After this, you say a prayer known as the Sinner’s prayer which says that you’re a sinner and you want Christ to come into your heart to be saved. Or have you been taught that you are to make a verbal appeal to God in order to be saved. It is most likely that at one point in our lives we have come across this, but the question to ask is that, is there any Biblical authority behind the fact that we are to pray to God for our salvation as alien sinners? When people who push this idea are asked of their authority, you would be referred to Romans 10:13 or Acts 2:21, stating that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Friends, is Acts 2:21 or Romans 10:13 teaching that we should pray that Christ should come into our hearts to be saved?

To answer this question correctly, we would need to look at what it means to call upon the name of the Lord. Throughout the Bible the phrase “calling on the name of the Lord” is used a few times. In Joel 2:32 where Joel the minor prophet had prophesied through the inspiration of God about the church, we see him making this statement. Also in Acts 2, the apostle Peter reiterates the same prophecy from Joel to the people that came to Jerusalem that by doing so they would be saved, and then tells them that now is the time.When we look at Paul as he tells of his conversion to Christianity in the presence of the Jewish mob in Acts 22, Ananias had told him to arise and be baptized to wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Also in Romans 10:13, we see Paul making the same statement as Peter and Joel made that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (for there is no distinction among Jews and Gentiles in the Christian age). Some other passages include (Genesis 4:26, Zephaniah 3:9 and 1 Corinthians 1:2)

Moving from knowing the passages where the phrase could be found in the Bible, let’s look at the earlier ideas that you must say a prayer or make a verbal appeal to God to be saved. It may surprise some to learn that the Bible never in any way teaches this concept of being saved. Also, as many have been led astray by this interpretation of Scripture (as far as their salvation is concerned). This has given skeptics enough grounds to say that the Bible has contradictions in it and then use what our Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:21 to support their claim. They would be right in their claim if calling on the name of the Lord is simply making an verbal appeal to God. Now, about the view of “calling the name of the Lord being prayer”: if this view is correct, then you must agree to the fact that it would make sense to get at least one conversion story where one was saved through prayer. When you take time to examine the conversion stories in the Bible you would not find one conversion example supporting this claim. What you would find is that, there was someone – Saul (who later became Paul)- praying and fasting for three days. However, when Jesus had sent Ananias to Paul, he was said to be in his sins. This event thus rules out prayer being a legitimate way by which an alien sinner could be saved from his or her sins.

What then does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? From the secular perspective, to call on someone meant more than just making a mere request. An example is when a doctor goes to the hospital to call on some of his patients. This did not mean that the doctor came to call the name of the patients but rather he came to examine the patient, listen any concerns the patient may have, prescribe medications and then further give instructions regarding the patient’s recovery. Also in the mid-twentieth century, it was common for young men to call on young ladies. This did not mean that the guy was going to call the ladies’ name from time to time but for a young guy to call upon a young lady was to ask her out on a date.

Biblically, the phrase “calling on” meant more than making a request. A classic example is in Acts 25:11. Paul said: “I appeal to Caesar”. Note that the Greek word for the word appeal (epikaloumai) is used in Acts 2:21, Acts 22:16 and Romans 10:13 for the word “call”. In that context, Paul appealing to Caesar meant that he was claiming the right of a Roman citizen to have his case heard and judged by Caesar. It also involved Paul submitting to whatever procedure was necessary to have his case brought before Caesar. In a nutshell, it could be said that calling on the Caesar involves obedience.

Now let’s zoom into Acts 2:21 where this phrase was phrase used in the New Testament. In this chapter, Peter had said to the people at Jerusalem “… whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. Evidently , they did not understand this to mean that they were to pray to God or to make a verbal appeal to God since none of them did that to be saved. When you read further from the verse 21–37, you get to realize that they did not understand clearly what it meant to call on the Lord’s name. By that, they pose the question “What do we do?” Peter then explains to them what it meant to call on the name of Lord by saying repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Interestingly there is a parallel between Acts 2:21 and then Acts 2:38.

From this, we see that Peter’s non-Christian audience learned that calling on the Lord’s name for salvation meant that they were to obey the Gospel which involves repenting and baptizing in the name of Christ , which when you read in verses 38 – 41 of the same Acts 2, you would see that 3000 people did that and were added to the body of Christ . Also, when you read further conversion accounts in the book of Acts you would realize that rather than praying, everyone who was converted to Christianity had to believe, repent and then get baptized as well.

In conclusion, calling on the name of the Lord does not mean that one should pray to God for his or her salvation but rather obedience to the gospel from the lens of Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13. From what has been outlined it is clear that the phrase calling on the name of the Lord is not used in the same sense in Matthew 7:21 and hence it cannot be regarded as a contradiction. This means that when one teaches that we would be saved by saying the Sinner’s prayer or making a verbal appeal to God, the fellow is in error.

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