The sinners prayer is biblical.

Let us read together Romans chapter 10, Brothers,^a my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.2For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.3For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.^bThe Message of Salvation to All

5For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.6But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)7or “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);9because, 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.10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

The gospel is summed up in 1 Corinthians 15, Now I would remind you, brothers,^a of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.9For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.11Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

 

 

Some will say that nowhere in the new testament or the old testament did people call upon the name of the Lord, but that it as their faith (not words) that justified them before God. One might use the reference to Abraham believing upon the name of the Lord as a perfect reference that all we have to do is believe, but this is incorrect.

 

Abraham was justified not only through his faith but also through his works, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.25And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

 

The works here described are belief in the son of God and faith in the finished work of the cross applied to his life through prayer. (more specifically an act of worship is what prayer is.) When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^a walk before me, and be blameless,2that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”3Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,4“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.5No longer shall your name be called Abram,^b but your name shall be Abraham,^c for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.7And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.8And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.11You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.12He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,13both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.14Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Isaac’s Birth Promised

15And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah^d shall be her name.16I will bless her, and moreover, I will give^e you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”17Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”18And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”19God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.^f I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.20As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.21But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

22When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.23Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.25And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.26That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.27And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

One last verse from Ephesians 2, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body^a and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.4But^b God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. It is quite clear that even though an act of worship is required for salvation, we need not disregard the sinners prayer as that act.