A Baptist Reflection on Baptism
Part 2 - Conversions in Acts, Baptism, and The Sinner's Prayer

Irby Wallace

April 13,2025

The birth of the Church begins in Acts 2 with Peter’s great profession of the Gospel at Pentecost. When they heard the Gospel, they were “cut to the heart” and their response was to ask Peter and the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37, ESV). Peter answered them saying, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Peter’s answer to this question is not an answer you would hear had it been asked in most Southern Baptist churches. Not only would such an answer be rare, but some are uncomfortable with Peter’s language as they are even hesitant to accept this language into our confession.[1]

Regardless of your view of Peter’s connection of repentance and baptism to forgiveness, Peter directly connects their conversion to their baptism. This is not the only time we see this response to converting sinners. If we survey the book of Acts, in every single conversion account, the individual expressing belief was pointed directly toward baptism (Acts 2:37-41, 8:12-24, 8:35-38, 9:17-18, 10:44-48, 16:14-15, 16:30-34, 18:5-8, 19:1-7, 22:12-16). One might point out that the above listed scriptures are not the only passages in Acts dealing with the salvation of sinners, which is true. In Acts 4:4, 9:42, 13:48-49, 17:4, 17:12, 17:34, we do not see any mentions of baptism but only of belief in which someone might argue that Luke does not see baptism as connected with their conversion. In each of these passages, however, Luke is not describing the conversion accounts of individuals; rather, he is giving a record of the events that were taking place. These relevant details were observances of the growth of the early Church as many were coming into faith.

In each detailed conversion account, a pattern is set forth by the apostles of what to do when someone comes to the faith. There are obvious inconsistencies within each conversion account around the reception of the Holy Spirit. In some instances, we are not told when the Spirit was received. Sometimes the Spirit came upon them before they were baptized without the laying on of hands. In other accounts, the Spirit fell upon the believers after their baptism with the laying on of hands. With this exception of the reception of the Holy Spirit, a pattern for conversion was given as follows: the Word of God was preached, the convert believed the Word of God, the convert was repentant, and the convert was baptized.[2] There is not a single conversion story that did not follow this pattern. Their baptism was connected to their salvation.

An interesting thing to note as we look at this pattern is that we never see anyone repent through prayer. While we do see examples of prayers of confession in scripture (e.g. Psalm 51), I have not found any scripture where the repentance involved in conversion is accomplished through a prayer. That is not to say that there wasn’t anyone who prayed in their repentance, but the New Testament idea of repentance is a change of mindset and a turning away from sin. This is a work of the Spirit of God within us and not something produced by a prayer. Repentance is tied directly to baptism in scripture, we see this both in John’s Baptism and Peter’s instructions at Pentecost (Matthew 3:11; Acts 2:38;19:4; 22:16). While there is debate in the Church on whether John’s baptism and the baptismal ordinance of Christ are the same, both baptisms seem to be directly tied to repentance. One could even argue that our repentance is expressed in our baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21) which would explain why the Apostles always directed the new converts from belief immediately into baptism.

In Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch in encountered Philip who explained to him the Gospel. The man believed Philip and asked if anything was preventing himself from being baptized as they passed by a body of water. Consider also the conversion of the Philippian jailer who was about to end his own life when Paul spoke to him, and the man asked how he could be saved. Paul told him to believe in Jesus and the man was baptized in the same hour (Acts 16:30-33). Let us also consider Paul’s own conversion. The Lord left him blind for three days and sent him to Ananias. By Paul’s own account of his conversion, he says that Ananias proclaimed to him God’s Word and concluded by saying, “Why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16, ESV). Every account displays conversion directly tied to their baptism. The Holy Spirit illuminated them, giving them the ability to understand the Word being preached,[3] and they believed. With a repentant heart, that faith was then expressed in their baptism. Their baptism was their initiation into the Christian faith.

There is a major barrier in Southern Baptist churches that prevents us from a greater understanding of baptism because the way we lead people through conversion does not follow the pattern set forth in Acts. We have separated baptism from salvation by replacing it with something else. Our services typically have an element in them called the “invitation,” or “altar call.” This is the time for those who “feel” the Holy Spirit working on their heart to come to the “altar” and lay it all before God. If someone comes forward to ask “What should I do?”, the pastor will lead them into a “sinner’s prayer.” There is no one version of the sinner’s prayer. It is an idea intended to move the convert to admit they are a sinner, believe that Christ can save them, and confess their sins to be saved. This is often called the “ABCs of the Gospel.” A sinner’s prayer may look something like, “God, I am a sinner. I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that Jesus is Your Son, and that He died on the Cross for my sins and rose again on the third day. I am asking you to forgive me of my sins and to change my life and to save my soul.” At the completion of this prayer, the convert is announced to the congregation as a Christian. The convert will eventually be baptized, the time of which depends on the church, but this baptism is a secondary thing done out of obedience to Christ which only portrays what God did during that altar call. In that Baptism, God is not doing anything, and the new convert is not receiving anything.

Our approach to conversion is very different from what we see in scripture and there are many problems with altar calls and the sinner’s prayer. We have added the sinner’s prayer as an extra step in the conversion of sinners that is not found in scripture. The altar call and sinner’s prayer are modern methods that were developed in the Revivalism movement that was born in the Great Awakenings and solidified through the writings of Charles Finney and his revival tactics, or what he called “new measures”.[4] These “sacraments” of Revivalism were further developed in the evangelical crusades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by D.L. Moody and Billy Graham. Those converted in these altar calls have become known as “decisions” across evangelical groups being the metric by which the success of an evangelical event is measured. While in Finney’s methodology, the convert was asked to come forward and sit on the “anxious seat,” the altar call has evolved so that in many revivals the converts are not required to come forward to ask how to be saved. Instead, they are asked to remain in their seat, “bow their heads and close their eyes,” and merely repeat the sinner’s prayer after the pastor or evangelist. After this ritual is complete, the preacher asks anyone who repeated the prayer to raise their hands and declares them to be Christians without ever even speaking to them. Each one of those hands is counted as a “decision.” I am not saying that God has not worked through these tactics, but just because God has worked through them does not make them right. These tactics are dangerous. Many times, they depend on emotional manipulation that comes through music and passionate preaching. These methods have led to so many false conversions and people will go the rest of their life thinking they are saved because they repeated a prayer. Even more have doubted their own salvation because they question how much they “meant” their own prayer.

If we could only open our eyes to how damaging Revivalism has been to our theology and practice. Our services have ceased to be about the worship of God and are now focused on the evangelization of the lost and getting faithful Christians to constantly feel as if they are not good enough and live in constant need of revival. I have personally sat through altar calls that lasted an hour or more as the preacher will not dismiss anyone until someone “walks the aisle.” Charismatic evangelists and preachers have replaced the power of God’s Word. Instead of looking for pastors who faithfully preach God’s Word while trusting the Spirit to work through the Word, we look for passionate and effective evangelists who can stir the emotions of those in the pews. We look for pastor’s who have innovative strategies for drawing new people into the church instead of men who know how to exposit scripture. Our methodology has become our hope.

The Lord’s Supper has been replaced by the altar call. We no longer allow the Spirit to work through the table of the Lord as people search their hearts for sins in confession while taking the bread and the cup proclaiming the Gospel through the meal to all who are visiting and receiving the promise that they have had their sins forgiven. Instead, we put on ambient sound or sing a verse of “Just as I Am” (because there must be something musical to increase emotions) and do everything we can to draw the hearer to the altar. Baptism has also been replaced by the altar call and sinner’s prayer. We no longer lead the convert to water as they confess their belief in the Gospel where they would receive the promises God is giving them in the sign. We take them to a prayer that is all dependent upon the amount of remorse they feel in their heart which has often been created by the compelling speech and musical performances of the service, which we call the movement of the Spirit. We have replaced God’s ordinances with our own inventions. Charles Finny makes this claim himself in the following statement,

““The church has always felt it necessary to have something of the kind to answer this very purpose. In the days of the apostles baptism answered this purpose. The Gospel was preached to the people, and then all those who were willing to be on the side of Christ were called on to be baptized. It held the precise place that the anxious seat does now, as a public manifestation of their determination to be Christians.”[5]

How can Baptists so willingly abandon the patterns laid out for us in scripture to replace them with our own unclever devices? Is this not the very kind of thing we preach against in other churches and the sinful world?

We Southern Baptists proclaim that we are a Great Commission people. Let us not forget what Christ commanded us to do in his commission, “go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV). How are disciples made according to the Commission? He commanded us to go and baptize, not to lead people into a sinner’s prayer. Only in Acts do we see this commission carried out because there are no other conversion accounts after Christ’s resurrection in the New Testament. We have the pattern of Peter’s declaration in Acts 2:38 followed throughout the rest of Acts. When a sinner has heard the Word of God and the Holy Spirit has opened their eyes to the truth of Christ, a prayer is not what saves them. If they have believed what they have heard, Christ has saved them in their faith before any prayer is ever made. We should give them instruction to ensure they understand the gospel, repentance, and their baptism, but by the example set in scripture we are to lead them to the water as they profess their faith and appeal themselves to God for a clean conscience (1 Peter 3:21). Through this great sign of baptism, they are then united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection and joined into the faith and the Church, beginning their discipleship in Christ.

In later essays I will explain more on God’s working in baptism and begin looking at individual passages of scripture. Firstly, we Baptists must begin by understanding how we have erred in replacing the work of God in baptism. When we add the sinner’s prayer as an extra step of coming into the faith, we create a false dichotomy between our salvation and baptism. In our minds, our conversion is what happens in our prayer and then our baptism comes later to show what God did in that prayer. The scriptural witness is that baptism is an integral part of the conversion process through which God works in us. It is God who has given us baptism in His Word, not man. Our goal is not to undermine what God has given, but to understand how God has chosen to work through this wonderful gift of baptism.

[1] At the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention, motions were made to incorporate the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed into the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. There is a lot of resistance against adopting these creeds into our confession. Most of the resistance stems out of a “no creed but the Bible” view. Yet, there is still a large group who do not want to adopt the creed because of the line that says, “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.” They find this language uncomfortable because they are afraid of what it teaches. They teach that Peter is saying we are to be baptized because we have been forgiven of our sins as it is very common for Baptists to change the “for” in Peter’s response to “because of” as they claim a causal use of εἰς. Thus, Acts 2:38 would then read, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins.”

[2] There could be an argument made against the fact that faith is always preceded baptism in the cases of the household baptisms in Acts by saying that the infants who were present did not express faith before their baptism. There is no evidence in either direction on the ages of everyone involved in those baptisms. As a Baptist, I believe the whole household was converted; therefore, each baptism was preceded by belief in the Word. I have no intentions of arguing on the topic of infant baptism in this essay; however, I do believe these accounts of household baptisms are important to consider and will take up the topic in a later essay.

[3] See the Baptist Faith and Message, Article II, Section C.

[4] Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), 197-202.

[5] Finney, Lectures on Revivals, 202.