repentance

Heart, Mouth, and the Sinner’s Prayer

Posted on:

September 16, 2024

Modified on:

September 23, 2024

I’ve been very busy on other things for the last couple months. What little time I’ve had for my blog, I’ve been concentrating mostly on something most of you would consider non-controversial. But I ran into something on Facebook recently that I can’t resist responding to.

An arbiter of truth?

A friend, who I really like, recently suggested that I’m setting myself up as the arbiter of truth. Honestly, that’s not my purpose.

I was saved at a very young age. I’m now 77, and for most of those years, I have been, and still am, a convinced Baptist. Not that I agree with every tenet of the Baptist Church, and in reality, Baptist sub-denominations are not in anything close to agreement on a great many doctrinal issues. For example:

Most are premillennial (so am I), but many aren’t.
Most are “pretrib” (so am I), but many aren’t.
Many are Calvinist (so am I), but most probably aren’t.
Most are Dispensational (I’m not, but I’m closer to that than the main alternative), but many aren’t.
Most are young earth creationists (I’m not), but many aren’t.

There are many more examples. For many of my first 30 years, I was a member of churches in the Baptist Bible Fellowship, a split from the Southern Baptists, but they shared Landmark Baptist ideas that I eventually rejected.

Well, maybe I do consider myself to have a gift of discernment. I try not to write stuff without caveat that I’m not personally convinced about.

Yes, most of you will probably be offended, but what I consider to be God’s will for my last years is (a) expanding on or correcting what I think is bad exegesis, and (b) spawning discussion of Christian tradition that I don’t think is supported by Scripture. Little if any of what I decide to write against would I consider heresy, and whether you agree with me or not doesn’t make either of us a “bad Christian.” I just don’t think that bad interpretation or bad tradition are good for the Church. And there is a lot of it.

Here’s the meme that got my attention:

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? For most of my life I would have agreed with it completely. But now, I’ve come to see some problems. If any of this sounds familiar, I’ve approached the same subject before, from a different perspective.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to discuss why I’m personally skeptical about asking someone to repeat a “Sinner’s Prayer”, and I don’t think we’re interpreting Romans 10:9 the way Paul wrote it in Greek.

The Sinner’s Prayer

Most people who think that a Sinner’s Prayer is mandatory believe it simply because they’ve always been told that it is.

Arguments for

I’m aware of absolutely no Scripture that explicitly mentions a Sinner’s Prayer. I am aware of two passages that are used by some to support the concept:

One is Romans 10:9, mentioned on the photo shown above. The assumption is that to “confess with your mouth” is to verbally recite a Sinner’s Prayer. I’ll have much more to say about this below.

The other is David’s prayer of contrition:

Psalms 51:1–19 (ESV)
Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
[51:1] Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
[2] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
[3] For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
[4] Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
[5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
[6] Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
[7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
[8] Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
[9] Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
[11] Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
[12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
[13] Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
[14] Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
[15] O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
[16] For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
[17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
[18] Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
[19] then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

This could easily be taken as an example of a sinner’s prayer, except it doesn’t mention Jesus by name or in any other obvious fashion (e.g., Messiah, anointed one, or even Daniel’s “Son of Man”).

David is not asking for salvation here—for all his faults, he was already “a man after God’s own heart”! He was just expressing his guilt and his sorrow.

Arguments against

As a child and for most of my life I was taught that “God doesn’t even hear the prayers of the wicked, except for the Sinner’s Prayer, which is a prerequisite for salvation.”

I don’t believe that such a prerequisite exists, though of course any God-honoring prayer by a Godly person is always a good thing. However, I believe that God never honors the prayers of the wicked! No exceptions.

The Prayers of the wicked

Here is a sampling of texts mentioning God’s disdain for the prayers of the unsaved, and neither here, nor anywhere else that I’m aware of, is a sinner’s prayer loophole mentioned. I’m using King James, because the tradition that one needs to say a Sinner’s Prayer” to be saved began no later than the KJV age. Underlined phrases are my own emphasis.

Psalms 66:18
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Proverbs 15:29
The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

1 Peter 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

James 5:16
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

John 9:31 (KJV)
Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

My conclusion from these is that you are free to ask God’s forgiveness and declare your devotion to Messiah Jesus any time you want—after you have been granted Salvation. Not before.

Romans 10:9 heart and mouth

The photo above presents two verses that introduce the prayer. John 3:16 is familiar to everyone and speaks of what God has done for mankind. Differences of opinion about that verse are scarce and irrelevant to this conversation, so I’ll leave it alone here.

As noted above, “confess with your mouth” in Romans 10:9 has been interpreted by some denominations and/or local churches as praying a Sinner’s Prayer—confessing one’s sins and verbally asking Jesus to “come into his heart.” For reasons explained above, I don’t think that view is tenable.

Confession as profession

Others interpret the phrase as a necessary public profession of faith to be made at some time after salvation. This is the view I grew up with.

Verses 9 and 10 are usually quoted together, because 10 continues the thought expressed in 9. Because so many Evangelicals use the English Standard Version now, I’ll quote that here:

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV) emphasis mine
[9] because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Unfortunately, as much as I like ESV, the underlined portion is a bad translation. Here is what verse 10 looks like in a Greek New Testament, with a word-for-word translation underneath:

Romans 10:10 (SBLGNT)
[10] καρδίᾳ γὰρ πιστεύεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην, στόματι δὲ ὁμολογεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν·
In the heart/for/is belief/unto/righteousness/in the mouth/now/is confession/unto/salvation

The word translated twice here as “unto” indicates a purpose or result being sought. In the first case it is righteousness (imputed sinlessness and right-standing before God) being sought. In the second case it is salvation (from some besetting condition or enemy) that is being sought.

With the above in mind, I’ll requote the verses in another translation:

Romans 10:9 (NKJV)
[9] that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

A formula for salvation?

It is common to interpret these verses as the definitive formula for salvation, often as part of a walk through the “Romans Road of Salvation” (see Roads to Salvation).

For those using this method of personal evangelism, there is a defined order of presentation that should be followed:

Show them that all humans sin and fall short of God’s glory.
Show them that this means they are sinners.
Show them that the wage for sin is death.
Show them that the gift of God is eternal life.
Show them that Jesus loved them and died for them.
Now read them Romans 10:9, usually with verses 10 and 13.
Next is the Sinner’s Prayer, never in their own words, but as guided by you or written in a script.
Finally explain, as if you really know the state of their spirit, that they are now saved!

The first six of those things are of course absolutely true statements of fact. The seventh is problematic for me, because as stated above and discussed at length below, I can find no Scriptural support for the concept. The eighth is, in my opinion, forcing a false sense of security on them.

This is basically a scavenger hunt through one of 66 books of the Bible to find hidden clues leading to the most valuable prize we could ever obtain. It is artificial and fragmented, and way more complicated than it needs to be. And neither Paul nor anyone else we read about in the Bible had access to any of the New Testament books, including Romans, when NT evangelization work commenced.

In my opinion, folks who have latched onto Romans 10:9–10 as the ultimate endpoint for leading someone to faith are probably themselves saved, but don’t really understand how they, themselves, got there. As I’ll show below, I don’t think Paul’s purpose in the chapter was to tell us how to be saved, but rather to explain why his countrymen, the Jews, had not been evangelized fully. He later extended the idea to the gentiles.

Although a case can perhaps be made for the public profession point of view, it seems to me that there are an infinite number of ways to accomplish that in a New Testament context without standing in front of a Church congregation and proclaiming, “I hereby profess that I have just put my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.” For example:

James 2:18 (NKJV) emphasis mine
[18] But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

What about me? When I was a child in Albuquerque, my parents were deists, my father a Scottish Presbyterian and my mother a Danish Lutheran, going to separate churches. God drew my mom to a Billy Graham meeting in a building about the size of a Walgreen’s drug store, and she then insisted that all of us go to church together. She found us a non-denomination church that did a good job of teaching my sister and me all the Gospel Bible stories. I recall that my belief and trust in Jesus was fully implanted by the time I was around eight years old, lying in bed at night and thinking about what I had been learning.

I never heard any of those 8 points of the Romans Road back then, but my belief has never wavered over the next nearly 70 years. My public profession didn’t come until months later, standing in a baptistry in front of a full congregation. What if I’d died in the interim, as I fully expected when my swimming instructor forced me to dive off the high board at the Albuquerque “A-Pool”, before I made that first profession?

But is that even what Paul had in mind here?

Confession as proclamation

I see confession, as discussed here, as not profession of faith, but rather as a proclamation of faith with a view to winning the lost. To explain my thinking on this, I need to present the verse in its context. Romans 10:9 has contextual ties throughout the Old and New Testaments, but most directly, it ties to Paul’s discussion of Jewish salvation, in Romans 10–11. The first of the two chapters is most relevant to the discussion.

The Romans 10 context

Romans 10:1–21 (NKJV)

Israel Needs the Gospel
[10:1] Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. [2] For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. [3] For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. [4] For Christ is the end [goal] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. [5] For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall [attain life] by them.” [6] But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring [Messiah] down from above) [7] or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring [Messiah] up from the dead). [8] But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): [9] that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [11] For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” [12] For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. [13] For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

Israel Rejects the Gospel
[14] How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? [15] And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
[16] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “LORD, who has believed our report?” [17] So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. [18] But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:
“Their sound has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”
[19] But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:
“I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”
[20] But Isaiah is very bold and says:
“I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
[21] But to Israel he says:
“All day long I have stretched out My hands
To a disobedient and contrary people.”

Romans 10 begins with Paul discussing the legalistic box-checking that had become for many Jews in Rome and elsewhere the way of achieving righteousness before God. These people were certainly zealous for God, and given the Jewish emphasis on Torah education, they were very knowledgeable—up to a point.

But in ignoring the teachings and miracles, and most importantly the prophetic signs, of the Man claiming to be their Messiah, they also rejected His sacrifice on their behalf. The righteous God, through Jesus’ sinless death, was able to do what their sacrifices could not. The sacrifices stipulated under Torah could only sweep sin under the rug (atonement), not forever cancel it (expiation—for more on this important topic, see Atonement vs Expiation).

In verse 5, Paul quotes a passage from Torah which his hearers would all be familiar with and understand completely:

[5] You are to observe my laws and rulings; if a person does them, he will have life through them; I am ADONAI.
—Leviticus 18:5 (CJB)

He then paraphrases another familiar passage:

[11] For this mitzvah [commandment] which I am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach. [12] It isn’t in the sky, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will go up into the sky for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ [13] Likewise, it isn’t beyond the sea, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ [14] On the contrary, the word is very close to you—in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, you can do it!
Deuteronomy 30:11–14 (CJB)

The point of the Deuteronomy passage is that Torah observance, the ritual obedience required for atonement, is not hard to understand or difficult to obey. They know it in their hearts and can speak it with their mouths. Likewise, Paul says, the “word of faith” that he is preaching is as simple as believing the truth of Jesus’ miraculous virgin birth and resurrection: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

But, if “confess” means either to “profess” or “proclaim”, doesn’t the order seem odd here? How can you make the profession before you believe? How can you proclaim that which you haven’t experienced? Let’s not be slavish here. Paul merely wants to maintain the order of the Deuteronomy 30:14 text. He corrects the Romans 10:9 order in 10:10—“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Moving forward in Romans 10, the conversation in verses 14–21 is about Israel having been given the Gospel and having rejected it. How was it given to them? Through the evangelism of Jesus, the apostles, others like the deacons Stephen and Philip, and in the Diaspora, the preaching of Paul, Barnabas and others like them who have been sent into the world as missionaries. The progression of Paul’s message in Romans 10 leads me to the inescapable conclusion that confession with the mouth, as he described it, is nothing other than spreading the faith—believe, then pass it on.

Romans 10:10 is thus saying, in my opinion, that you are righteous (in modern terms, “saved”) if and only if you are personally convinced that Jesus was miraculously sent by God (whether or not you thoroughly understand concepts like His sonship and are doctrinally sound in all of His teachings). Only then are you expected to proclaim that salvation to others.

The Greek translated above as “confess” is ὁμολογέω (homologeó), which literally means to agree with, or say the same thing as, someone else. It is used in Scripture to denote confessing as opposed to denying, admitting to, declaring a belief, promising with an oath, acknowledging, assuring, professing, or even giving thanks for something. None of those meanings necessarily requires vocalization.

Adding to the confusion, we move on to the next three verses in Romans 10 and see, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame” and “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” The first statement says nothing about confession, but in so many words promises salvation. The second is used by some to support the Sinner’s Prayer.

Both are quotes from the Prophets:

[16] Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Isaiah 28:16 (NKJV)

[32] And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.
Joel 2:32a (ESV)

Peter has also previously quoted the same verse from Joel:

[21] And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Acts 2:21 (ESV)

Proclamation as prerequisite

So, still digging away at it, is proclamation then a prerequisite for salvation?

If so, isn’t this still just more box-checking?

🗹 Believe
🗹 Confess

Perhaps it is!

We all agree that salvation is “by grace, through faith”, and I assume that many of you would agree with me that it is God who implants that faith. Those of you who reject the doctrine of Total Depravity and think that your faith was of your own volition, without God previously drawing you to Himself, then for the purpose of this post we’ll have to agree to disagree. It doesn’t impact the theme of this post.

Verses 9 and 10 may look like they are requiring a verbal statement, with open mouth and audible words. Are they?

Diligently Seeking God

What does it mean to “call on the name of the Lord”?

I don’t think that there is a cookbook approach to answering this question. As a Calvinist, I believe that God invites everyone, without exception, to His salvation, but because we are all sinful and rebellious, not a single person accepts that invitation on his own. Yet God, in His wisdom and sovereignty, chooses whosoever He wills for salvation and draws them to Himself. We can guess, but He doesn’t reveal His selection criteria.

I have come to think that the best verse to describe my own salvation and the model that I would hold up for anyone is found in the great “Hall of Faith” chapter:

[6] But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

If this is a prayer, it comes from the heart and not from a script! And I think it requires no verbalization.

Response AFTER Salvation

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

When the Almighty, Loving God draws a sinful human to Himself, then the only response possible is faith. The faith described in Scripture is always active, meaning that the one so called, though he or she may resist in part, is compelled to action of some sort. That action doesn’t bring salvation, it only demonstrates it.

What might that action be? In addition to evangelism, I will mention several others that might at first appear to be mandatory, but need further analysis to understand better.

There are so many verses in the Bible that speak of repentance that I’m pretty sure it must be a part of the same call from God that leads you to reach out or call to Him for salvation.

The Hebrew תְּשׁוּבָה, teshubah, means to “return” or “answer.” As stated by myjewishlearning.com:

According to Jewish tradition, only sins against God can be atoned for through confession, regret and promising not to repeat the action. Sins against other people can be atoned for only once the wrong has been made right — restitution has been paid for a financial crime, for example, and forgiveness received from the victim.

The online Jewish library, sefaria.org, quotes the sage, Rambam:

What constitutes Teshuvah? That a sinner should abandon his sins and remove them from his thoughts, resolving in his heart, never to commit them again as [Isaiah 55:7] states “May the wicked abandon his ways….” Similarly, he must regret the past as [Jeremiah 31:18] states: “After I returned, I regretted.”
[He must reach the level where] He who knows the hidden will testify concerning him that he will never return to this sin again as [Hoshea 14:4] states: “We will no longer say to the work of our hands: `You are our gods…

The Greek μετανοέω, metanoeó, is defined by Strong’s as “to change one’s mind or purpose.” Vine’s, which I consider to be generally more accurate, specifies that metanoeó more precisely means a change of mind after the fact, in contrast to pronoeó meaning to change one’s mind before, in this case, committing a sin.

Baptism

The following verse seems to require baptism for salvation, but as evidenced by the immediately following clause, omitting to do so does not result in condemnation:

Mark 16:16 (NKJV) emphasis mine
[16] “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

At the close of his sermon in Acts 2, Peter instructs his hearers to repent and be baptized:

Acts 2:38 (NKJV)
[38] Then Peter said to them, [Repent [turn from sin and return to God, CJB], and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

There are few “non-sacramental” denominations aside from Church of Christ that would say you’re lost if you haven’t been baptized. This is another instance where context is vital to understanding. Immediately after delivering his sermon, the baptisms began.

Acts 2:40–41 (NKJV)
[40] And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” [41] Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

What did baptism mean to the people hearing Peter’s sermon? The time frame is shortly after Jesus’ ascension, before the dust had settled, before Paul’s enlightenment and his letters establishing Church customs. Peter’s audience was Jewish, used to Jewish customs. Baptism and table fellowship were important to them. Paul would incorporate both of those into Church custom as what we call “ordinances”.

To the Jewish faithful, baptism was required for ritual purity after almost any infraction of Torah observance, in order to make one again acceptable for worship or fellowship. By totally immersing oneself in one of the many mikvoth in Judea or Galilee, he or she would be symbolically washing away the sin or defilement. But immersion had no effect for the unrepentant.

This was the spirit of John’s baptism:

Matthew 3:11a (CJB)
[11] It’s true that I am immersing you in water so that you might turn from sin to God;

We see later that Paul, under inspiration, added additional meaning to baptism by using it to picture Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

Almsgiving

Many would say that in Matthew 19:21, Jesus tells the “rich young ruler” that giving his riches to the poor is necessary for salvation, but what He’s really telling him is that if he wants to be perfect in obedience to Torah, then that is what he must do. If he were perfect, he never would have required salvation in the first place! But Jesus had anticipated the question, in verse 17, by stating that nobody but God is perfect.

Practical Soulwinning

Unfortunately, I have to admit that soulwinning is not, apparently, my strong suit. As an ex-Minister of Visitation and ex-Youth Pastor when I was a young man, I have a lot of experience going to the homes of visitors and known prospects and using the Romans Road method for evangelization. I led a number of people in the Sinner’s Prayer, and I assisted more experienced pastors do the same. A few that said the prayer came back to our church, but I can’t recall even a single one being baptized or sticking around for long, and our membership didn’t show any signs of growth over the years I was there.

As a church bus driver, though, I know that Theo, my then-girlfriend and now-wife, and I brought in a horde of kids whose parents had no interest in church. Some of those kids kept coming back on their own for years after we were long gone. That was a much more informal sort of evangelism, without pressure, and with a lot more sharing and ongoing personal interaction.

The Sinner’s Prayer concept was, I’m fairly certain, an innovation of Billy Graham. His “Crusades” brought in many thousands of “seekers” and curious folks who sat through great preaching, followed by an emotional invitation. Those who went forward were motivated in advance, and then “the deal was closed” using a Sinner’s Prayer. Whether or not it has Scriptural precedent, it was undoubtedly successful in those conditions. My entire family got their introduction to the Gospel from my mom’s visit to that Albuquerque Crusade back in the mid-20th century.

The Fall Feasts and the Rapture

Posted on:

January 19, 2013

Modified on:

September 11, 2024

This post was first published over 10 years ago but recently got a major overhaul. First, because my own style has changed a bit over the years; but also, because I’ve changed my mind about one related issue, which I’ll discuss below. This is a good time for an update because it is now the middle of the Hebrew month Elul, and that is the temporal setting of my main topic here, the Fall Feasts.

Fig. 1: The Seven Principal Feasts, as outlined in Leviticus 23, ©Ron Thompson

To Top

Dating Three Key Events in Jesus’ Life

I started this edit by setting a time frame for Jesus’ First Advent, which I date in the following short table. Here I have used the Gregorian calendar for the year, because that is more identifiable to most of us, but I’m taking the month and day from the Hebrew calendar, because annual events are Biblically fixed according to that standard and are different every year by the Gregorian and earlier Julian calendars.

Event	Age	Hebrew Date	Gregorian Year
Birth	–	Tishri 15	4 BC
Baptism	about 30 years	Elul 1	AD 26
Crucifixion	about 33 yrs., 6 mos.	Nisan 14	AD 30

Here are some of the factors I considered in composing this table:

The Biblical feast days commemorate important Jewish historical events, celebrate the annual agricultural cycle, and prophesy about Messiah’s life on earth, in both of His advents.

I am convinced that the Jewish principal feasts, as commanded in Leviticus 23, provide a totally reliable outline of important events in Jesus’ life, as shown in the last column of Figure 1, above. Events highlighted there in peach occurred during His first advent, on the actual feast days shown. Events highlighted in blue will occur during His second advent, again on the actual feast days shown.

I’m very confident that Jesus’ birth was on Tishri 15, the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkoth. Not in December, on a date with absolutely no Scriptural support (but with a pagan connotation!); but rather in a September/October timeframe corresponding to Jewish celebration of the time that God previously “tabernacled” with His people during their 40 years of wilderness wandering. With Jesus’ birth, once again God was living among His people.

The year of Jesus’ birth has been disputed during my entire lifetime. There are always unresolved arguments about when Herod died, when Quirinus was governor of Cilicia/Syria, and what year a lunar eclipse hit the region, all of which are applicable. The most commonly cited estimates that I’ve seen place Jesus’ birth in 4 BC, though dates ranging from 1 through 6 BC are also commonly mentioned. I’m sticking with 4 BC here, because it fits well with the other two dates in my table.

Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was “about thirty years of age” when He began His ministry. Fall of AD 26 is about thirty years after the autumn of 4 BC. In fact, if His ministry began on Yom Kippur (see below), and that was the last day of His 40-day “wilderness fast and temptation”, then He was just five days shy of 30 years old.

His baptism by John was 40 days before Tishri 10, which is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. I’ll explain the 40-day offset below, but it culminates with Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple, defying Satan, on Yom Kippur, in full view of many thousands of worshippers on the plaza below.

Fig. 2: The late Alec Garrard, facing “south”, posing in his backyard shed model of Herod’s Temple. The parapet in the lower right corner overlooks the Kidron Valley, and as the highest point on the Temple Mount walls, it is thought by many to be the “pinnacle” mentioned in Scripture. I personally suspect that the somewhat lower parapet to the left, more commonly known as the **Place of Trumpeting**, might be the actual pinnacle of Scripture, since it is far more visible from the streets below. Photo from *The Miniature Engineering Craftsmanship Museum*.

His crucifixion was on Nisan 15, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Yom ha-Bikkurim, not on Nisan 14, the day of the sacrifices.

Fig. 3: Jesus’ Crucifixion Timeline, showing in green what I consider to be the correct dates for each phase, on both the Jewish and Gregorian calendars. The vertical gray bars (not to scale) represent the evening twilight periods between Jewish dates (see Fig. 4). ©Ron Thompson

The year of Jesus’ crucifixion, shown here as AD 30, was calculated by me, using NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) New Moon Tables, which were prepared with historic ocean tides in mind. Every published Biblical chronology that I’m aware of puts the crucifixion in AD 33, but they are all based on an incorrect interpretation that insists He was crucified on Nisan 14. With a correct understanding of the timings of Passover Week which (thanks to my traditional presuppositions) it frankly took me many years to achieve, it is clear that Jesus was crucified on Nisan 15.

9/5/2023 addition – When I was working on my August update last week, I completely forgot to add one other crucial piece of evidence:

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
—Luke 3:1-2 ESV

Leaving Tiberias until last, here are the tenure years of the leaders mentioned (all are 1st Century AD): Pilate, 26–36; Herod (Antipas), 4–39; Philip, 4–34; Lysanius, unknown; and Caiaphas, 18–37. Annas was High Priest during the period 6–15 but was the real power in the Temple during the tenure of Caiaphas, his son-in-law, 18–37.

For the purpose of dating the text, only Tiberias‘ rule is useful. Many historians and Biblical commentators date Tiberias’ accession to the time of Augustus’ death. That puts the timing of Jesus’ baptism in the year AD 29, which would pose a problem for my proposed dating. I don’t think AD 29 is correct, because it was common for many, possibly most, ancient rulers and their chroniclers to ambitiously include years of coregency in citing tenure of rule. Tiberias was coregent with Augustus starting in either AD 11 or 12. AD 11 fits perfectly with my AD 26 date for Jesus’ baptism.

I find that I am not alone in recognizing this discrepancy. The well-respected commentary Jamieson, Faucett & Brown, for example, states that:

the fifteenth year of Tiberius — reckoning from the period when he was admitted, three years before Augustus’ death, to a share of the empire [results in a date for the events of Matthew 3:1 of] about the end of the year of Rome 779, or about four years before the usual reckoning.

“The usual reckoning” is AD 30. The traditional date for the founding of Rome was 753 BC, which makes “the year of Rome 779” equivalent to AD 26.

Fig. 4: Explanation of how Jewish days traditionally begin and end. ©Ron Thompson

Please refer to Figures 3 and 4, above. The Passover sacrifices were killed on Nisan 14, then consumed during the Seder, which began that evening at dusk. Jesus and His 12 apostles celebrated the Seder until late, as customary, then joined with the Hallel singing outside at midnight, and afterwards walked to Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested. His trials were conducted during the early morning of Nisan 15, and He was crucified and buried that day. That was on a Friday, and the only year within a reasonable range with a Friday on Nisan 15 was AD 30. I am very confident that this scenario is correct!

Fig. 5: An April 2024 calendar showing parallel Hebrew dates on the right. This clearly demonstrates that the 8-day Passover celebration (7 days in Israel) begins on Nisan 15. Jewish Time®, by Calendar Maven

Most scholars think that Jesus’ ministry lasted around 3½ years, based on the number of Passovers He seems to have attended during that time. I agree.

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The Fall Feasts

This month shall be to you the head of the months; to you it shall be the first of the months of the year.
—Exodus 12:2 (The Complete Jewish Tanach)

Nisan 1, in the Spring, is the Jewish religious New Year. Jews today, though, celebrate the civil new year, Rosh Hashanah, which is six months later, on Tishri 1.

Most of the modern world celebrates the new year with revelry. Not so among devout Jews in 1st Century Judea, because Tishri 1 is also the date of Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets. This important feast day heralds God’s judgment of His chosen people for their deeds, both good and bad, committed during the preceding year.

As such, the mood during the entire ten-day period through Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on Tishri 10, is somber and introspective. There is prayer, fasting, ritual immersion (baptism for purification), and general spiritual misery and mourning. No weddings or other celebrations are permitted.

Once Yom Kippur has passed, the mood shifts. There is spiritual relief, and a 5-day period of relaxed preparation, followed by the joyous eight-day celebration of Sukkoth, the Feast of Tabernacles.

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The Days of Awe

In the rest of this post, I will concentrate on two of the fall feasts in particular: The Day of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. These two feasts, and the 10-day span of time connecting them, is known as Yamim Noraim, the ten “Days of Awe”. This somber period, as described above, is devoted to sincere individual and national confession of sins, and to t’shuvah, or repentance.

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The Day of Trumpets

Rosh Hashanah, also known as Yom Teruah (The Day of Trumpets), is the Jewish day for regathering. Jews believed that, on this day every year, God divided His people into three groups according to their faithfulness over the preceding year. One group was the “wholly righteous”, whose names would certainly be written in the Book of Life. A second group was the “wholly wicked”, who would be written into the Book of Death. The final group was comprised of “those in between”, whose fate would be sealed by the quality of their t’shuvah over the next ten days, with their final judgment reserved until Yom Kippur.

Fig. 7: My Judaica wall. The small *shofar* is from a traditional ram’s horn, used mainly in mobile situations. The large one is Yemenite, a Kudu horn. Kudu is a species of antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. Large shofarim like this are favored for fixed locations, like the Temples of Israel, or modern synagogues. The lampstand is a hanukkiah, used ceremonially in Hanukah celebrations, which require 9 candles. If it had only 7 branches, it would be a menorah. Photo ©Ron Thompson

What prompted me to revise this post was that, in the original version, I said of the above viewpoint, “this doctrine is certainly not Biblical”; however, I have mostly changed my mind about the books, though I think that the Jewish perspective on them may be a bit skewed. I have recently been introduced to the works of Michael S. Heiser, and what he called the “Deuteronomy 32 worldview” (see Gods and Demons). He addressed this subject in ways that I had not previously considered.

There are, in fact, eight New Testament references, mostly in Revelation, to the “book of life“, and many Old Testament and intertestamental references to heavenly “books” and “tablets” that are clearly connected. I assume that these conceptual records are metaphorical, considering that God is God, and doesn’t need a physical database to remember what He needs to remember. Heiser makes sense when he suggests that our sins are recorded in one book, and our salvation in another. If (and only if) we are not listed in the second, then we will be judged by what is recorded in the first. There may be a “book of death“, too, that renders some ineligible for salvation. Regarding the latter, see, for example:

[31] Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
—Matthew 12:31 (ESV)

Whether or not the doctrine of these books is valid, the fact that the holiday recognizes a separation of people from people is very significant since it prophetically depicts the regathering of God’s people on the coming day of Rapture:

[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first…
—1 Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV)

In light of 1 Thes 4:16, the blowing of the trumpet (actually, a shofar, or ram’s horn) on Yom Teruah is particularly interesting. The shofar (accompanied by metallic trumpets in Temple days) was blown at mid-morning after the morning (Shacharit) prayers, in three series of four distinctive notes: tekia (“blast”); shevarim (“broken notes”); teruah (“shout”—thought of as “the shout of an archangel”); and tekia gedolah (the “great blast”). The first series is tekia, shevarim, teruah, tekia, repeated three times. The second is tekia, shevarim, tekia, repeated three times. The final series is tekia, teruah, tekia, repeated three times, followed immediately by tekia gedolah, referred to in 1 Cor 15:52 as “the last trumpet”.

[52] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
—1 Corinthians 15:52 (ESV) emphasis mine

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Extension of the Days of Awe

Since long before Jesus’ day, the Days of Awe have, in practice, begun thirty days before Yom Teruah, on the first day of the Jewish month Elul. T’shuvah (repentance) is much too important to put off until the last minute, so the Rabbis decided that forty full days should be devoted to it, rather than the ten required by Torah.

On Elul 1, Jews would flock to the mikvot (baptisteries) of the Temple and synagogues, and to the “living waters” of streams and rivers like the Yarden (Jordan), to immerse themselves for ritual purification. That would then be followed by forty days of prayer, fasting and introspection. In the years preceding AD 30, it seems that many had become preoccupied with the politics and woes of the Roman occupation, and such customs were being neglected. Into this scene stepped Yochanan, who we now call John the Baptizer, calling Jews to baptism and t’shuvah.

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The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus

[13] Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
—Matthew 3:13–17 (ESV)

I believe that the events of Mt 3:13-17, describing Jesus’ baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit, took place on Elul 1, conforming to the current tradition. As to the year, I lean towards AD 26, as stated above. If that year is off, I’m still 100 percent sure of the Hebrew month and day.

Fig. 8: The Jordan River today, due east of Jerico. Scripture places Jesus’ baptism at Bethany on Jordan, no doubt referring to the east bank of the oxbow, **close** to the village. From Google Earth.

Though of course He was sinless, His baptism, followed by forty days of prayer and fasting, were consistent with and required by the customs of the season.

More importantly, the temptation and His response were theologically vital. Jesus was “the Second Adam” (see The Two Adams). The first was created sinless, but when tempted by the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”, failed and brought sin to the world. The same tempter and same temptations came to Jesus in the wilderness: lust of the flesh (stones to bread); lust of the eyes (the kingdoms of the world); and pride of life (rescue by angels in the sight of all Israel). Jesus did not fail, and brought redemption to the world.

Matthew presents a different order for the temptation, which is not a problem because chronological order was not strictly important in the literature of the day, but I’m certain that “pride” was last in real time, as listed by Luke.

Interestingly, that placed Jesus on the Pinnacle of the Temple on Yom Kippur:

[9] Then he [the devil] took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point [Greek pterugion, literally, a “wing” or “turret”] of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! [10] For the Tanakh [Old Testament] says [Psalm 91:11–12],

‘He will order his angels
to be responsible for you and to protect you.
[11] They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”

[12] Yeshua [Jesus] answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put ADONAI your God to the test.’” [13] When the Adversary [Greek diabolos, literally, “accuser”] had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.
—Luke 4:9–13 (CJB)

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The Day of Atonement

While the Temple still stood, on Yom Kippur all the people gathered on the Temple Mount for the ritual sacrifices that would roll the sins of the truly repentant back for another year. Since there is no longer a Temple, and thus no legitimate place for blood sacrifices, the gatherings are now in the synagogues, and what is offered are “sacrifices of prayer.”

Most translations render pterugion as “pinnacle”, following the KJV. This is traditionally interpreted as the highest point on the Temple Mount or its surrounding walls, but I don’t think that this is warranted. It seems to me most likely that this is referring to the “place of trumpeting” (see Figure 2) which, by inference, was probably the parapet, or observation platform, from which the priests monitored the ritually vital sunrise and sunset every day. This high overlook was visible from the exterior streets below. If Jesus had accepted Satan’s temptation to throw Himself off and allow the angels to catch Him, all the Jewish world would have witnessed the destruction of His public ministry on the very day it began! Certainly, this was Satan’s plan!

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Conclusion

I am forever thrilled at the beauty of God’s timing! I believe that many of the events connected with Jesus’ First and Second Advents actually occurred or will occur on the precise day of the Feast that pictures the event. Could it be that He will return for his Church at the exact moment of the “Last Trump” on the Feast of Trumpets (as God indeed said He would!), which is prophetic of the Rapture? Is it possible that He will return in judgment at the end of Tribulation on the Day of Atonement, the very day when God is thought to seal His judgment of His people? I am convinced it is so!

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