By: Fred Shewmaker

Years ago, in a home Bible study, the couple we were studying with complained that the words I was using were too complex. Being somewhat inexperienced in leading home Bible studies, I was surprised by their complaint. The words they found challenging were all found in the Bible. I offered to explain any word I had used that they did not understand. One of the words they asked me to define was “conversion.”

That very week, the local newspaper had reported that a sea-water conversion facility was set to begin construction near San Diego, California. I asked if they had read that article, and they had. They understood that the facility was meant to remove impurities from the sea water entering it and produce pure water. Building on this understanding, I pointed out that the facility was called a conversion facility because it converted impure water into pure water. Returning to the biblical use of the word, we noted that conversion involves removing the impurities of sin from one’s life, thereby leaving one’s life pure in the sight of God.

By comparing the parallel between Acts 2:38 – “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,…” and Acts 3:19 – “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,…” it is easy to see that through baptism, God removes the impurities of sin from one’s life and converts a sinner into a saint.

Experience and observation have led me to conclude that many people who are baptized are not truly converted. Certainly, this is not God’s fault. He has not lost His power to convert through baptism. It is not the fault of Christ; His blood has not lost its strength to cleanse the sinner. The fault cannot be laid on the preacher who has preached the truth. The fault lies with the one who is baptized but not converted.

There are many reasons why some who are baptized are not truly converted. We wish to examine a few of these reasons.

One reason some are baptized but not converted is their desire to please people rather than to obey God. Children have requested baptism to please their parents, and parents have sometimes been baptized to please their children. Husbands, desiring to please their wives, sometimes request baptism, and wives are sometimes baptized to please their husbands. Boyfriends have been baptized to please a girlfriend, and girlfriends have been baptized to please a boyfriend. In some communities where the church is large in number, merchants have been baptized to please their customers. This list could go on, but it is already long enough to make the point: those who have been baptized for such reasons have been baptized, but not converted.

One day, my telephone rang, and when I answered, a sister asked me to baptize her neighbor. I was acquainted with her neighbor, and this request made me wonder if she was truly being converted. I agreed to baptize her upon her confession of faith in Jesus as the Son of God. As it turned out, after her baptism, my concerns were confirmed. She had merely been convinced that only immersion is baptism. She had not abandoned her false religion to accept immersion. Her false religion allowed for sprinkling, pouring, or immersion but did not typically practice immersion. Some of the preachers of that persuasion refuse to administer immersion. She simply did not bother a preacher of her false religion with her desire to be immersed. When the sister kindly volunteered my services, she was glad to accept. She was baptized, but not converted.

A few years ago, my wife and I engaged in a rather lengthy home Bible study with a lady. She had a quick mind and was able to grasp and articulate biblical truths quite easily. Because we wanted her to understand what the Bible teaches about the uniqueness of the church, we conducted an extensive study of Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:4-6, 12, showing that the church is the body of Christ (“His body”), that “there is one body,” and that the “one body” has only “one faith.” During the study, she indicated that she understood these things. We expected such a willing and capable student to desire baptism, and true to our expectations, when asked the question Ananias asked Saul of Tarsus, she was ready to be baptized. With joy and great expectations, I baptized her. However, my expectations were short-lived. She never attended another service of the church. When we asked her about this, she informed us that she did not accept the teaching that God approves of only one church. She had been baptized, but not converted.

This article was first posted on La Vista Church of Christ on January 3, 2019