The Joy of Conversion
New life in Christ is exciting and fulfilling. Below, there is a link to early testimonies of conversion gathered by Charles Wesley in the early 1740s. They are fascinating to read. Yet, how many know what conversion is? To answer this question, here is some background.
New Testament
The word ‘evangelical’ comes from a transliteration of the Greek noun euangelion, and in the New Testament refers to the ‘good news of God’s saving act in Jesus Christ’. For evangelicals the focal point of this saving act is the cross of Christ and its benefits. They take seriously the biblical truths of human sinfulness and final judgment, and the biblical injunctions to repent and believe in Christ for an assurance of forgiveness and salvation. Central to evangelical conversion was faith in the cross of Christ as the atonement for sin, both original and actual.
Reformation
During the sixteenth century the term ‘evangelical’ became associated with the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther proclaimed an ‘evangelical doctrine’ of justification by faith alone. Justification by faith became a core tenet of the Reformation and was considered by many Protestants as the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae—the article on which the church stands or falls.
English Puritans
Building on the Reformed order of salvation, William Perkins described the order of conversion in The Golden Chain. Like links in a chain, the stages of conversion begin with spiritual awakening from God’s law revealing one’s sins and sinfulness. This awakening produces fear of divine retribution and despair over one’s salvation. The good news of forgiveness and new life in Christ kindles in the heart sparks of saving faith. Now justified, the new convert’s faith is further tested with doubts producing repentance and obedience in the Christian until a firm assurance of final salvation is attained.
Pietists
August Hermann Francke left an indelible mark on what constitutes evangelical conversion. Drawing upon his own conversion, Francke taught the necessity of a penitential struggle followed by a sudden breakthrough to an assurance of faith and new birth. An important difference between Francke and the Puritans was the timing of assurance. Whereas in Puritan theology assurance normally took years to attain, Francke considered assurance as central to the crisis experience of conversion.
Evangelicals
From the above sketch a basic definition of evangelical conversion can be given. For starters, conversion does not mean becoming religious or being baptized. Instead, conversion signifies the new birth, received by faith in Christ as an atonement for sin, bringing a new sense of peace and joy from having one’s sins forgiven. Early evangelicals understood conversion to be preceded by a season of deep conviction over one’s salvation, culminating in a breakthrough to an assurance of saving faith, followed by a new life of devotion and obedience.
In short, evangelical conversion follows a pattern of confliction—crisis—comfort. Confliction over sin leads to a crisis of surrender and trust followed by the comfort of peace, joy, and new life in Christ.
Early Methodist Conversion Testimonies
In 1739 Charles Wesley began to collect testimonies of those converted under his ministry. These narratives are part of a larger collection known as the Early Methodist Volume, which is housed at John Rylands Library in Manchester, UK. In total there are 64 conversion testimonies with most of them dating from 1738 through the 1740s. The stories recorded in this collection are fascinating to read. They reveal so much about the religious climate of the 18th century and the spiritual hunger these people felt and what conversion meant to them personally. The collection of testimonies attached here was transcribed by Tom Albin.
These testimonies were written first-hand and include the pattern of confliction—crisis—comfort. Here is the link: Early Methodist Conversion Accounts
Resources
D. Bruce Hindmarsh, The Evangelical Conversion Narative (2005).
Sean McGever, Born Again: Conversion Theologies of Wesley & Whitefield (2020).
[This post was taken with permission from the Featured Monthly Resources Page on Mark K. Olson’s website.]
