Why The "Prayer For Salvation" Doctrine is Unbiblical.

Steven Anderson

 The NIFB in general teaches that one must both believe and ask God to be saved, and that true faith always leads into a confession. In my view, this fundamentally attacks faith alone and is doing the same hermeneutic as baptismal regenerationists use. Both the advocates of this doctrine and baptismal regenerationists use a few ambigious texts which have good alternative explanations, while ignoring the massive amounts of verses which say the opposite.

The advocates of this doctrine focus mainly on two verses, Romans 10:10 and John 4:10. Both of these verses will be clearly explained.

John 4:10

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

First, the mistake of the NIFB person is assuming that "living water" in John 4:10 is eternal life, which it is not. The living water is the message of life which leads to eternal life and not eternal life itself, this is clear from John 4:14:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Eternal life springs up to eternal life? Doesn't make sense. So Jesus is telling the woman that she should have asked for the gospel message. Bob Wilkin writes:

Jesus spoke of asking Him for living water, not for the gift of salvation. 

Thus, Jesus is not speaking about the universal way of salvation.

Romans 10:10 

The NIFB more often however use Romans 10:10, which reads:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

However, the problem for the NIFB is what does "save" mean? The context clearly defines this as a physical salvation, as Paul quotes Joel 2:32 in the same context at Romans 10:13, which in Joel clearly references a physical deliverance for those who call in God's name. Zane Hodges comments:

While the Jew is granted righteousness on the basis of faith in his heart, God will not grant him deliverance on the basis of that faith alone. He must also confess with his mouth.

Thus, there are no texts in the bible which teach this doctrine, and we are saved by faith alone, not by faith + confession, faith + baptism or faith + anything.