Your Conversion

The English word "convert" originated from a compound Latin word, con, meaning to, and verto, meaning turn (verto is found in other English words, such as inverse, which means to turn inward, and reverse, which means to turn back). Convert means to turn in another direction, and, or, and then, to change form.

"Covert" (as a noun or adjective) or "converted" are used to translate a number of Hebrew and Greek words. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word pronounced shoob means to turn (i.e. the same meaning as the English word), but more specifically, to turn from a wrong direction back to the right direction. The other Hebrew word is pronounced haw-fawk; it means to turn over (similar in meaning to the English expression "to turn over a new leaf").

In the New Testament, the Greek word pronounced ep-ee-stref-oh means to come back (similar in meaning to the above Hebrew word that means to turn from a wrong direction back to the right direction). The other Greek word (the one most-used in the New Testament) is pronounced stref-oh; it means to turn around, and in doing so, to be strengthened at the base, or to have a stronger place to stand.

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out"

Many people think of conversion as a "New Testament" act, but it's also found far back in Bible History (e.g. Abraham was converted from a family of idol worshippers to an obedient man of the LORD - see Circumcision). The statement "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee" is found in the "Old" Testament.

"^51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ^51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. ^51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. ^51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me [see The Cure For The Carnal Mind]. ^51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. ^51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

^51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. ^51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. ^51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." (Psalm 51:7-15 KJV)

Conversion begins (after and with the coming of the Holy Spirit - again, see The Cure For The Carnal Mind) with the turning away from human arrogance, which is in fact Satanic arrogance (if you want to know what Satan looks and sounds like, just glance at any arrogant, loud-mouth human hypocrite).

"^18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

^18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, ^18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. ^18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-4 KJV)

Without repentance, there is no conversion.

"^3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; ^3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: ^3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:19-21 KJV)

And then, without conversion, there is no salvation, "he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death."

"^5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. ^5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: ^5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. ^5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

^5:17 Elias [i.e. Elijah; see The Prophets: Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. ^5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

^5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; ^5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:13-20 KJV)

Fact Finder: What is the "soul"? Is the soul physical or spirit?
See Dead Souls

This Day In History, October 23

1086: Almoravid armies defeated Alfonso of Castile near Badajoz, thereby establishing a Muslim foothold in Spain.

1641: Over 50,000 people were massacred when Catholics rebelled against Protestants in Ireland (What would the world be like if the Church of Rome and her "Protestant" daughters truly obeyed the Word of God? See Is The Holy Bible 'Hate Literature'?).

1642: The Battle of Edgehill was fought. It was the first major conflict of the English Civil War between royalists under King Charles I and the Parliamentarians. Both sides claimed victory.

1679: The "Meal Tub Plot" against James II of England.

1694: British (82 years before the rebellion of the New England colonies that Britain established in the wilderness over a century earlier, and decades before the English of "New England" took control of "New France") colonial forces led by Sir William Phipps failed in their attempt to seize Quebec from France. After a battle in which Phipps lost over 400 men, he sailed back to Boston.

1707: The first Parliament of Britain began.

1942: During the Second World War, British and Canadian tanks and mechanized infantry under Bernard Montgomery launched a major offensive against Adolf Hitler's Nazi army (see Presidential Quotes On War, Terrorism, Religion) under Erwin Rommel at El Alamein in Egypt. It was one of the major tank battles of human history (listen also to our Sermon The European World Wars).

1944: The Soviet Union invaded Hungary.

1946: The second part of the first assembly of the United Nations began in New York. The first part had been held in London in January and February.

1954: Allied control permitted occupied West Germany to become a sovereign state. It was then allowed to rebuild its military and join NATO (see Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Euro!).

1956: The Hungarian Revolution against their communist leaders and the Soviet presence began with a large demonstration in Budapest. In the days that followed, the Stalinist leader Erno Gero resigned, and reformer communist Imre Nagy stepped in to form a new government that included several non-communists; he also announced the restoration of a multi-party system, that Hungary would withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, and declared the country's neutrality. The Soviet army invaded and put down the revolution less than 2 weeks later.

1973: U.S. President Richard Nixon agreed to release Oval Office tape recordings to Watergate Investigators.

1973: A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire officially ended the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Syria.

1983: 237 U.S. Marines were killed when a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into the barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Another bomber attacked the French military installation and killed 58 troops there.

1996: Pope John Paul II released a statement saying that Darwin's theory of evolution is "more than a hypothesis." The statement was considered the Vatican's clearest and most comprehensive in support of the un-Biblical theory of a Godless "creation." The supposed logic of Darwin's "clear and overwhelming" evidence (despite the "missing link" never having been found, because it never existed, although a number of later-proven fakes have been assembled and displayed over the years by supposed men of science who were determined, at all costs, to "prove" their hypothesis - and the fact that Darwin himself never taught evolution in the way that people today say that he did - listen to our Sermon Darwin's Theory of Evolution) is very similar to when humans, including "great men of science," believed that the sun orbited the earth. Despite the "overwhelming evidence" that the sun moved across the sky, it was an illusion that millions of intelligent people were wrong about - the apparent movement of the sun across the sky is caused by the rotation of the earth (a reality that Bible-believers were well aware of thousands of years before "science" realized that the earth was a spinning globe - see No 'Flat Earth' In The Bible).