The Sinner's Trap?

WARNING: This may offend some people.

Well for the past few months now I have been exposed to many teachings that I have not ever heard. Teachings that get me aggravated and make me wonder about things and commence prayer...

I have fought tooth and nail with this one particular teaching, but have now come to agreement with it. The Sinner's Prayer...

Now... for some that know me, this is how I (thought) I became saved. I said the words that someone else prayed over me and bam, salvation. There is one tiny little flaw that... in some deep thought... I realize took place... it was not until later I really repented and followed Jesus. It wasn't until later that I started acknowledging radical changes in me and my thinking. "What's your point?"
you ask... my point is: The Sinner's Prayer did not save me.

Being in the Christian recovery program I was in, we had devotionals every morning and evening, plus the Biblical teachings on recovery from sin infested lifestyles.
After the prayer that I prayed with my beloved counselor, i did indeed have more interest in Christ, but that interest was already growing before that. The more I learned and heard and read Scripture (faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17), the more I felt drawn to Him. Eventually (weeks after I said the Sinner's Prayer) convictions came and true repentance came (turning from). Today I know and am completely convinced of my salvation and that I am a child of God. Nothing can change that.

Eventually, the following biblical passage written to and inspired for lukewarm Christians became a popular tool for the conversion of non-Christians:

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. ....Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:14-20)

This passage was written explicitly for lukewarm Christians. Now consider how a lecturer named John Webb misused this passage in the mid 1700s as a basis of evangelizing non-Christians:

"Here is a promise of Union to Christ; in these words, I will come in to him. i.e. If any Sinner will but hear my Voice and open the Door, and receive me by Faith, I will come into his Soul, and unite him to me, and make him a living member of that my mystical body of which I am the Head." (Christ's Suit to the Sinner, 14)

Preachers heavily relied on Revelation 3:20. By using the first-person tense while looking into the sinner's eyes, preachers began to speak for Jesus as they exhorted, "If you would just let me come in and dine with you, I would accept you." Even heathens who had never been baptized responded with the same or even greater sorrow than churchgoers. As a result, more and more preachers of Christendom concluded that baptism was merely an external matter--only an outward sign of an inward grace. In fact, Huldreich Zwingli put this idea forth for the very first time. Nowhere in church history was such a belief recorded. It only appears in Scripture when one begins with a great cataract of nonsense. In other words, it only appears in the New Testament through the imagination of readers influenced by this phenomenon.

The Interactive Bible

My concern is for the sinners who aren't in an environment like I was in, who say the Sinner's Prayer and believe it to be all they need. Now... I realize that after the Sinner's Prayer, true repentance can and just might come, but in my opinion... that's like a 40/60 chance with the way this world is these days. Some might come to know God in an intimate way and have their lives changed, but others will think "OK well I am saved, awesome" and continue in sin forgetting about what just happened until someone else asks if they are saved.

It is clear in Acts chapter 2:37-38 that as Peter was preaching an awesome little sermon to the men of Judea and Israel that, "when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Where has this gone in the modern day church?