Gospel people always have a desire to see lost souls coming to faith in Christ, and rightly so. Sinners are saved, our hearts are gladdened, the church is encouraged, and – most importantly – God is glorified. But in our eagerness to see true converts, we must always watch out for false converts.
Jesus told us as much in the Parable of the Sower, in which our Lord describes a man planting seeds into four types of soil. Some of the seed appeared to spring into life, only for the fledgling plant to wither away and die because it had no genuine roots. So then, we should not be surprised when false conversions happen.
But how can we spot them? It is difficult, and sometimes we have to accept that the green shoots of a false convert look very much like the green shoots of a true convert. In other words, only time will tell whether the plant will bear genuine fruit. In the meantime, we should seek to cultivate all signs of spiritual life, and not beat ourselves up if it all comes to nothing.
But there are two types of false conversions that, I think, we are likely to see more of in our present culture. And it would be wise for us to be on our guard. The first is the therapeutic conversion and the second is the ideological conversion. Let me explain what I mean.
