“Your understanding of being a Christian is… quite different than mine,” someone once said to me. I thought, “Yes--way different.”
Have you ever had conflicting thoughts when someone told you that they were a ‘Christian’? You hear them say, "YES! I am a Christian," but you never would have guessed it. By comparison of “apples with apples” something looks very different from their brand of “conversion” than yours.
For myself, I have had the thought that quite frequently people who say they are a converted Christian do not seem to have the whole picture of what it means to be a converted Christian. I believe many have been only been partially converted. This concerns me--like having my car only partially fixed. I would leave the garage with a bit of trepidation.
Perhaps these people have been persuaded in thought only--that Christianity is the right religion, or that Jesus Christ is a way to heaven, or going to church regularly is a good habit to have--maybe this is why they believe they have been ‘converted’. But is their ‘conversion’ complete—complete enough to warrant saying they are in the same bushel basket as other historical Christian apples?
After hearing several “conversion” testimonies, I left frankly concerned for their soul and thought, "Could I say anything, however well intentioned it may be, to help their conversion be more complete?" Perhaps this isn’t the right path to take. Maybe a better path would be to simply engage them in conversation and find out more why they think they are ‘converted’ and what that means to them and how it happened.
