Rev.

Jibu Ninan

A study on the Indian Pentecostal Theology of “Conversion as a

Spiritual Experience”

Introduction

Pentecostalism has become a leading force in universal Christianity and the fastest-growing
religious movement in the world today.1 Pentecostals are developing rapidly in India as in many
parts of the world and researchers think about it as the fourth wave of Christianity.2 Stanley Burgess
sees that Indian Pentecostalism is the fifth biggest division of Global Charismatic Christianity.3
Evangelical Christians, especially the Pentecostals in India are always on the receiving end
when the rhetoric against conversion is raised. More often, non-evangelical Christians too join the
Hindu fundamentalists in these attacks against Pentecostals. The accusations and the subsequent
attacks on missionaries have increased in recent times. A call to a nation-wide ban on conversion is
demanded recently by Hindu extremists.
Down through the centuries, the term ‘conversion’ has become one of the most sensitive
issues in the legislative public talks in India. It is the Hindu nationalist elements that have raised the
issue in the first place. This created a range of debates and discussions about the legality of religious
conversion in India. Moreover, these discussions unearthed the complications of the semantics
involved in the term conversion like that of “freedom” proposed in the Indian constitution, Article
25.4 The majority of the Hindu nationalist forces view religious conversion, especially of Dalits,
Tribals and Hindus, as political as well as a process of proselytization program. Therefore, the Hindu
nationalists are growing religious intolerance towards Christianity, particularly aiming at Pentecostal
in India, which has resulted in the growing anti-Christian violence and anti-conversion laws.
In this context, this research aims to deal with the questions, as such do Pentecostals have a
theology of conversion? If so, how it fits the Indian context where Hindus understand it in a
differently? Does India need a formulated theology of conversion to dialogue with social forces?
Whether Indian Pentecostals view conversion purely in terms of its spirituality? Did they develop a
social theory of conversion? This study intends to prove that Pentecostals do have a theology that
delineates conversion experience and that theology is invariably spiritual rather than political.

1Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), 14.
2 See Stanley M. Burgess, et al., Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 818.
3 Stanley M. Burgess, “Pentecostalism in India: An Overview,” AJPS 4, no 1 (2001): 86,

https://members.tripod.com/sharon_america/files/pentindia.pdf (accessed November 12, 2020).

4
“The Indian Constitution”, https://theindianconstitution.com/article-25-religious-conscience-freedom/ (accessed
November 15, 2020).

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Although religious conversion has been a topic of debate even before Indian independence,
materials that directly deal with the topic were limited. One might find different descriptions in the
early missionary narratives as well as in the early writings of Hindutva ideologues.
Albeit Pentecostal Christianity is making significant presence in various parts of India,
however, almost no exploration is done on their theology of conversion. Thus, this paper aims to
make a Pentecostal comprehension of religious conversion in the Indian context.
Despite the Pentecostals usually explain their conversion experience in terms of doctrine
and theology, Pentecostals have, yet, to decide how they formulate their particular contributions in
a language that is both true to Pentecostal experience and intelligible for those who are willing to
learn about conversion.
1. Definition of Key Terms
Pentecost: The term “Pentecostal’ has been originated from the Greek word “pentekoste”
which literally means “fifty”. It is the Old Testament Jewish festival, celebrated the fiftieth day after
Passover is known as the “feast of weeks”.5 In the New Testament, as Jesus promised, the Holy
Spirit descended upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost.6 “Pentecostals” are people who believe
in the possibilities of receiving the same experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit as in the days of
apostles, on the day of Pentecost7
Conversion: The word ‘conversion’8 is derived from “the Latin convertere which means ‘to
revolve, turn around’ or ‘head in a different direction.”9 This basic meaning also holds for the
biblical Hebrew word shub (‘to turn, return) and the Greek terms strepho and epistrepho. Two other
Greek words in the New Testament connected with the phenomenon of conversion convey
overtones of repentance and regret. The first metamelomai (‘to be anxious, regretful’) describes the
state of the subject undergoing a conversion experience. The second metanoia (‘change of mind’)

5 Ipe Kochupallikunnel, Pentecostal Churches in Kerala and Indienous Leadership (Delhi: ISPCK, 2011), Xiii.
6 Acts of the Apostles 1:8 and 2:1-4.
7 Stanley M. Burgress and Gray B. McGee, eds., Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, revised. (Michigan:

Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 688.

8 Conversion is an extremely complex phenomenon. It is both event and process. It is a state and a dialectical

movement. That dialectic can be broken down into three moments: 1) a turning away or separation 2) a state of
suspension; and 3) a turning toward.
Frank K. Flinn, “Conversion: up from evangelicalism or the Pentecostal and charismatic experience”, Religious Conversion:
Contemporary Practices and Controversies, eds. Christopher Lamb, M. Darrol Bryant (New York: CASSELL, 1999), 56.
9 Ibid., 51.

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describes the positive state or attitude of one who has undergone a conversion.10 The conversion
process is very difficult to describe. It is an instantaneous event.11

2. An Analysis of the Religious Conversion and Anti-Conversion Laws in India

The subject of religious conversion is a very sensitive issue in India. Hindus contemplate
conversion to Christianity as a socio-political issue and worried about the protection of Hindu
society. Therefore, they used Hindu notions of tolerance to suppress the freedom of individuals.
Hindus pressured society with Hindu ideology.12Though Article 25 (1) of the Constitution
guarantees equality of religious freedom to everyone, the issues relating to conversion have been a
dispute between the Hindu and Christian societies in the history of current India.13
Religiously, the “Conversion” phenomenon created a lot of issues and persecution against
Christianity over many decades. Political parties and organization like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrangdal, and other Hindu
religious party raise conversion issues and threaten Pentecostal churches. Pentecostals, however,
argue for the right of conversion was not only the core of the Christian faith but also a key issue in
the matter of religious freedom, which Christians viewed as an indispensable part of fundamental
human rights. Yet the underlying Christian emphasis on the option to ‘proliferate’ one’s faith in a
way that included the conversion of the other, demonstrated progressively in recent years.14
The Hindu organizations in India, in general, are against conversions and some affirm that
whatever social welfare activities that Christians do, their solitary intention is religious conversion.
But Pentecostals suggests that they are working for the transformation of the people rather than
conversing them which be a natural consequence of their work.
2.1. Religious Conversion
It is believed that the word ‘conversion’ is as old as religion itself, so the study of religion still
falls short of researching religious conversions. From a religious point of view, the word ‘conversion’
is interpreted as a transformation of faith, character and community.15 From an anthropological

10 Ibid., 51-52.
11 Ibid., 58.
12 Sebastian C. H. Kim, “Religious Freedom, Minorities and the Concept of Religious: Critical Issues in Legislation on

Conversion in India”, Religious Freedom and Conversion in India: Papers from the 4th SAIACS Academic Consultation, edited by
Aruthuckal Varughese John, Atola Longkumer, Nigel Ajay Kumar (Bengaluru: SAIACS Press, 2017), 29.
13Ibid., 11.
14 See the discussion of Sebastian C.H. Kim, “Religious Freedom, Minorities and the Concept of Religious: Critical

Issues in Legislation on Conversion in India”, Ibid., 12-15.

15 Y. Anthony Raj, Social Impact of Conversion (Delhi: ISPCK, 2001), 23.

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viewpoint, ‘Conversion’ is a re-conceptualizing of a person’s social identity as one lives in a

society.16The conversion includes not simplest a brand new religious identification calls for
internalization of the new belief system.17 Conversion happens as a result of the divine action in a
person’s life where a radical change marks individual behavior or a cultural change in a
community.18The word ‘conversion’ in a broader sense denotes ‘turn,’ ‘return,’ ‘turn back,’ ‘turn
again.’ Subsequently, conversion alike is turning. The turning may be in a literal or in a figurative,
ethical, or religious sense, both from God or, more often, to God.
Mahatma Gandhi contended against conversion by applying the standard of Swadeshi, taking
into account that religion was typified in the strict legacy of one’s forefathers-thus a person is born
into it. Since it is one’s very identity, one needs to reform it alternatively than resign it. Therefore,
conversion to another religion was strict abandonment but also a denial of the self and
comprehended as a rebuke to Hindu society.19 Religious conversion, in any case, is the
acknowledgement to the exclusion of others of an assortment of ideologies acknowledged by one
specific religious faith. It is comprehended as embracing another religious belief which stands out
from the earlier religious belief of a convert. Hindus, therefore, argue that religious conversion is ill-
assorted with the pursuit of secular India, where all the religious communities ‘respect’ one another’s
religious traditions and tolerate them.20 Hindu radicals claim that Hinduism is the religion of the
majority of Indians, in a democratic setting; the majority’s interests should be respected and should
determine the direction when it comes to a conflict of opinion with religious minorities.21
Religious conversion from a Christian perspective is more than an individual’s personal
acceptance of Christ; rather than an individual’s appearance into the church’s social periphery, the
other social structure separated from Hinduism. It therefore rightly refers to embracing an entirely
different lifestyle. S. J. Samartha, an Indian Christian theologian understood conversion “as cutting
oneself from the root of one’s family, society and culture…a break in an age-old relationship.”22
‘Conversion’ is an indispensable issue for Pentecostal Christianity as they are blamed of being a
16 Sebastian C. H. Kim, “Understanding Religious Conversion: A Study of Theological, Anthropological and
Psychological Perspectives,” Missiology for the 21st Century: South Asian Perspectives, edited by Roger E. Hedlund and Paul
Joshua Bhakiaraj, (Delhi: ISPCK, 2004), 558.
17 Henri Gooren, “Religious Conversion,” https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-

9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0146.xml (accessed on 10 November 2019).

18 Selvister Ponnumuthan and Shaji Jerman. Mission and Conversion: Towards a New Ecclesiology (Bangalore: Asia Trading

Corporation, 2008), 189.

19 Sebastian C.H. Kim, “Religious Freedom, Minorities and the Concept of Religious: Critical Issues in Legislation on

Conversion in India”, Religious Freedom and Conversion in India: Papers from the 4th SAIACS Academic Consultation, 15.
20Ibid., 17.
21Ibid.
22 S. J. Samartha, One Christ Many Religions: Towards a Revised Christology (Bangalore: SATHRI, 2000), 133.

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proselytizing group, even by other Christians. With the introduction of the Law against conversion,
the issue has become stronger as it may affect the existence and progress of the movement. Due to
the nexus between religion and politics, Pentecostals fear that they will endure misfortune over the
long run under the BJP government.23
2.2. Anti-Conversion Laws

India is an independent, democratic, socialist republic state, and the Indian Constitution
gives religious fundamentalism and religious conversion plenty of scopes. Before independence,
state governments passed anti-conversion laws, but the number increased more after
independence, especially in recent decades, in order to curb religious conversion.24 During the
British colonial era, the religious conversion law was introduced by the princely states governed by
princely state rulers who were Hindus, preferably in the latter half of the 1930s and 1940s. Faced
with the British Christian missionaries, the religious conversion law was introduced in a bid to
preserve the Hindu culture and identity.
Some of the laws from that period included the 1936 Raigarh State Conversion Act; the
1942 Surguja State Apostasy Act; and the 1946 Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act.25Anti-
Conversion Bill was announced in India in 1954 which pursued to enforce missionary licensing
and conversion registration with government officials. This bill failed to gather majority support in
Parliament’s lower house, and its members rejected it. Another bill was introduced in the year 1960
to check the conversion of Hindus to ‘non-Indian religions’ which, as described in the Bill,
“included Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, and the 1979 Freedom of Religion Bill
which sought “official curbs on inter-religious conversion.”26 The parliament also failed to pass
these bills because of a lack of parliamentary support. Ministers of the current government of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have expressed their support for the adoption at the national level of
an anti-conversion bill, which some opponents see as an assault on the secular values of the
Constitution.
In 2015, “high-ranking members of the ruling BJP party, including the party’s president

23 Wessly Lukose, “A Contextual Missiology of the Spirit: A Study of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India” (PhD diss., University of
Birmingham, March 2009), 255. https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/294/1/Lukose09PhD_A1a.pdf (accessed April
26, 2020).
24 L.P. Sharma, History of India (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing house, 1987),10.
25 Romila Thapar, “Syndicated Hinduism,” Hinduism Reconsidered, edited by Gunther Dietz Sontheimer, and Hermann

Kulke (New Delhi: Manohar, 1997), 45.

26 Manimugdha S Sharma, “Explained History of Anti-conversion Laws in India”,

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/explained-history-of-anti-conversion-laws-in-
india/articleshow/79472537.cms (accessed January 20, 2021).

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Amit Shah, called for a nationwide anti-conversion law.”27 Two members of the BJP, including
Amit Shah, have announced the introduction of anti-conversion bills in both houses of Parliament
‘to criminalize religious conversion without the consent of the Government.’ However, the BJP
government’s plan to implement national legislation allegedly ‘hit a roadblock’ with the Ministry of
Law and Justice, which advised against the move, stating that it is ‘nontaxable’ as it is ‘strictly a
state subject”-that is, a topic that lies purely within the constitutional jurisdiction of states under
the State List in Schedule Seven of the Constitution.
The issue of religious conversion is not new in the Indian milieu. However, in recent
years, it has become a complex issue, and with the coming of the current BJP government into
power, the issue has drawn the serious attention of the global community. The Hindu militant
groups have been vociferously raising their voice for a debate on conversion. Very recently while
inaugurating the tenth Annual Conference of State Minorities Commissions, Rajnath Singh, the
Union Minister of India, called for a national debate on the issue of conversion and the need for
an anti-conversion law.28 Historically, religious violence in India has targeted always major faith
communities. But in recent times, Christians have suffered from a disproportionate level of
religious persecution, which has only intensified after the coming to power of the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014.29
In various parts of India, Christian families and Christian workers were intimidated,
harassed, and beaten by the police, Hindu fanatics and village Panchayat leaders who accused
them of carrying out forceful religious conversions. Hindu extremists raised slogans against
Christians alleging them of conversions. Therefore, the Christians had to run in many occasions
for protecting their lives as Hindu extremists attacked them. Pentecostal Christians were attacked
and beaten up in various parts of North Indian states after they refused to renounce Christianity
and accept Hinduism. Recently, Religious attackers vandalized many Pentecostal church premises,
raised anti-Christian slogans by accusing the Pastor/s of carrying out forcible religious
conversions. Local villagers led by Hindu groups raised objections in different places to the

27 USCIRF Annual Report 2015-Tier 2: India, “National Anti-conversion Law Not Tenable: Law Ministry”, Deccan
Chronicle (Jharkhand), April 15, 2015, https://www.refworld.org/docid/554b355c11.html (accessed January 25, 2021).
28 Bharti Jain, “Rajnath Calls for a National Debate on Anti-conversion Law”, The Times of India, March 23, 2015, http://

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/inida/Rajnath-calls-for-a-national-debate-on-anti-conversion-
law/articleshow/46666362.cms (accessed April 15, 2020).
29 See Sarbeswar Sahoo, Pentecostalism and Politics of Conversion in India (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.) 127.

Sarbeswar Sahoo, “Pentecostalism and Politics of Conversion in India”, Journal of Church and State 61, no 4, (Autumn
2019): 709-710,
https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article-abstract/61/4/709/5571496?redirectedFrom=fulltext (accessed December 27,
2020).

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renovation carried out for the existing local Churches.

In a context in which emerging Christian communities were denied religious freedom and
were widely persecuted in various states and villages of India.30 Hindu radicals argue that
Missionaries are proselytizing in India by their power of money and mechanisms, alluring the
ignorant and weaker sections of Hindus, taking unlawful advantages of Article No.25 of the
constitution of India and thereby spoiling with a foreign faith the Indian culture and endangering
social tranquility and national solidarity.31 This due reason, the Hindu political party says that the
government is forced to create anti-conversion laws.
In recent years, religious intolerance and anti-Christian attitudes are spreading in India.
Anti-Christian violence has increased significantly, especially afflicting Pentecostals. Pentecostals,
however, see conversion as spiritual rather than socio-political aspects. Therefore, let’s look into
the theology of Pentecostal teaching of the nature and process of conversion.
3. Pentecostal Teaching on the Nature and Process of Conversion
The incompatible perspectives on conversion by Hindus and Christians are significant while
examining the issue of conversion. Hindus relate conversion ‘with the colonial power, church
expansion, political control’ and ‘social disturbance.’32 But Pentecostals see a spiritual dynamic in
conversion, as a result of their public mission like healing and exorcism.33 S. Kim argues that more
than a ‘socio-political’ explanation, a ‘spiritual’ dimension of conversion is required to deal with the
problem of the issues of conversion. Why do Hindu radicals fear conversion? According to him,
Hindu’s object to conversion mainly because it appears to them to be a ‘human undertaking and not
a spiritual conversion,’ and so despite the complex Indian socio-political situation, Hindus look for
‘genuine’ or ‘spiritual’ conversions, a clear demonstration of Spirituality in Christianity.34 Therefore,
Indian Pentecostals should deal theologically with the nature of Conversion and its process to clear
all doubts of a Hindu friend. It can help both Hindus and Christians to live together with a peaceful
mind and solidarity.
Pentecostals believe the Spirit as a missionary spirit, who convicts the sins of the human
being (Jn. 16:8) and leads to transformation. Thus, Pentecostal theology, Stephen Parker comments,

30 Recent opposition to Christian conversion is the hidden agenda of ethnic cleansing with the allegation of Conversion
in Khandhamal in Orissa and Karnataka.
31 Sunder Raj, The confusion Called Conversion (New Delhi: TRACI Publications, 1986), 1.
32 Sebastian C.H. Kim, In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India (New Delhi: Oxford, 2003),4-6.
33 Ibid.,140.
34Ibid.,197-200

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“arises from reflection on experience.”35 The Spirit experiences therefore have played a pivotal role
in the development of Pentecostal theology and practice. For Pentecostals, theology is not
acceptable without practice because of its inception.36 According to Jongeneel, “pneumatology
should not only be about the right message or doctrine on the Holy Spirit; but also, be about the
right experiences of the Spirit…The right experience, on the other hand, makes church and theology
go out into the world in mission.”37
A non-Christian religion, particularly Hinduism, condemns that conversion of a person to
Christianity (Pentecostals) is considered as “a new religious allegiance and a new outlook of the
world”38and forcefully convert people of other faith into their community of the church. Whereas,
Pentecostals argue that they preach the gospel of Christ and conversion is completely the work of
“the Holy Spirit, who sets people free from bondage and opens blinded eyes because the phantom-
worlds that people create themselves are inherently unstable.”39 Pentecostals therefore even from the
very beginning of the movement, give more significance to the propagation of the gospel40and
highlight the believer’s conversion involve a personal relationship with Jesus.
Pentecostalism strongly claims that it is the complete work of the Holy Spirit, the human
being has nothing to do with the conversion of an individual to Christ. So, let’s look into the process
of conversion and how does Pentecostalism see the conversion?
3.1. Conversion as an Anubhava or Experience
For Pentecostals, Jesus is personally present in the conversion experience of empowerment
as the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit (Mt. 3:11; Mk. 1:8; Lk. 3:16; In. 1:33).41 Pentecostals do suggest
that every Christians must have the anubhava of the living Christ. Dhavamony states that conversion
(anubhava) experience “is a fact of experience, a fact of self-realization (ãtmasãksãtkãra), an
experiment in truth, which is ever open but never closed.”42 Pentecostals emphasize Jesus Christ
should be the chief to the total of one’s life experience. Pentecostals consider that in Him, God and

35 Stephen E. Parker, led by the Spirit: Toward a Practical Theology of Pentecostal Discernment and Decision Making (JPTS Series, 7)
(Sheffield: SAP, 1996), 10.
36 Wessly Lukose, “A Contextual Missiology of the Spirit: A Study of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India”, 274.
37 J.A.B. Jongeneel, Experiences of the Spirit: Conference on Pentecostal and Charismatic Research in Europe at Utrecht University 1989

(Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1991), 5.

38 Benno van den Toren, “Challenges and Possibilities of Inter-religious and Cross-Cultural Apologetic Persuasion”,

Evangelical Quarterly 82, no 1 (2010): 42-43.

39Ibid., 44.
40 Ipe Kochupallikunnel, Pentecostal Churches in Kerala and Indigenous Leadership (Delhi: ISPCK, 2011), 90.
41 Stanley Howard Frodsham, With Signs Following: The Story of the Latter-Day Pentecostal Revival (Springfield, Mo: Gospel

Publishing House, 1926), 38.

42 Mariasusai Dhavamony, Christian Theology of Inculturation (Roma: Enitrice Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, 1997), 164.

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the nature and destiny of his creation are revealed. Because the new believers realize that Christ is
illuminated in their lives and their world and experience become more complete and fulfilled.43 In
other words, for Pentecostals conversion is an existential experience.
Pentecostalism realizes that the people group in Acts were following the lessons of Jesus
Christ. His teachings involved two important aspects concerning the Holy Spirit and conversion.
Firstly, the role of the Spirit is vital in the genuine conversion of a person, for He convicts an
individual of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (Jn. 16:8-11). This will lead him to have an actual
personal (anubhava) experience. Secondly, there is the motivating role of the Spirit in the disciples to
witness Christ (Acts1:8). Therefore, a person who shares the gospel with a non-believer becomes a
media/channel, but Holy Spirit convinces them to turn to Christ. There are several stories in Acts
demonstrating that the Spirit empowered the person to witness Christ, and also condemned the
hearer of sin, and turned the person to follow Jesus.44These examples reveal that the Spirit
experiences of the early Christians played a significant role in the authenticity of conversion.
There are numerous stories that can be shown in the history of the Pentecostal Churches of
India where conversion happened as the result of an answer to prayer to Jesus during the most
difficult and helpless situation in their lives. It may be a healing from the incurable diseases,
deliverance from the evil spirits, miracles in families, rejoining from the broken family life.45 The one
who experienced Jesus personally, asks with conviction, “How can anybody stop us from turning to
Jesus?”
3.1.1. Radical Change- Regeneration

The radical change of the people in and through Pentecostal experiences is well documented
by the theologians in the history of Christianity. However, mainline churches like Catholics and
Jacobites in India criticized Pentecostals for viewing every individual conversion with a total
transformation in whole life with new forms of identity in the lens of Pentecostal experience. But
Pentecostals comments born-again experience as an identity reconstruction that brings about
“radical conversion- a transformative experience, in which a person gives his or her life to Jesus
Christ.”46 Hindu proponents questions the conversion that leads to a new form of identity breaking

43 Benno van den Toren, “Challenges and Possibilities of Inter-religious and Cross-Cultural Apologetic Persuasion”, 48.
44 Lukose, “An Indian Pentecostal Reading on Conversion”, Religious Feedom and Conversion in India: Papers from 4 th
SAIACS, edited by Aruthunkal Varughese John, Atola Longkumar, Nigel Ajay Kumar.
45 Lukose, Religious Freedom and Conversion in India, 176.
46 Adriaan S. Van Klinken, “Men in the Remaking: Conversion Narratives and Born-Again Masculinity in Zambia.”

Journal of Religion in Africa 42, no 2 (January 2012): 216,

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or leaving the old. Hinduism questions the importance to have such a new identity leaving their own
religious identity of the past.
Pentecostals argue that it is not any external persuasion that leads to conversion, rather it is a
work of the Holy Spirit that guides to have a born-again experience. Akrong observes the born-
again experience “as a spiritual status as well as a form of social identity …that demands radically
new patterns of behavior.”47 The Pentecostal conversion experience involves a new moral identity as
the aftereffect of both personal decision-making as well as divine intervention.48 According to
Manglos, “it is understood as a moment of transformation in moral practice rather than in belief,
primarily, which begins a relationship of reciprocal, interweaving agency between the convert and
God.”49 Sociologically, born-again experience leads to having a transformative ethical lifestyle that
turns into missional activism of Spirit-filled converts50.
Conversion imparts a discontinuity with a world estranged from Christ.51 The believer’s new
personality that identifies to be a Pentecostal is to expurgate all past character in the development of
a new identity that is both universal and indigenous. The Conversion thus encompasses a division
from past affiliations within a custom providing no methods for truth, and no confirmation of
assurance for this world.52
3.1.2. Total Change-Turning Away
The Conversion always comprises continuity and expansion as well as change.53 Samuel
Kutty says,
The experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit changed the adherents. They saw the world in a
new light. The new experience gave the common people freedom from their old conventional
religious bondage, a new life, and a new vision for a better future. The new experience brought the

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236694723_Men_in_the_Remaking_Conversion_Narratives_and_Born-
Again_Masculinity_in_Zambia (accessed April 12, 2020).
47 Akrong, Abraham. “The ‘Born again’ Concept in the Charismatic Movement in Ghana,” Evangelical Review of Theology

35, no 1(2011): 31.

48 Nicolette D. Manglos, “Born Again in Balaka: Pentecostal versus Catholic Narratives of Religious Transformation in

Rural Malawi,” Sociology of Religion 71, no 4 (December 2010): 412.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249291485_Born_Again_in_Balaka_Pentecostal_versus_Catholic_Narratives
_of_Religious_Transformation_in_Rural_Malawi (accessed March 12, 2020).
49 Ibid., 417.
50 Stephen Jester, “The spirit’s Role in Mission: Narrative Pentecostal Theology in West Africa”, International
Journal of Pentecostal Missiology 5 (2017), 97.
51 Gordon T. Smith, Transforming Conversion: Rethinking the Language and Contours of Christian Initiation (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker, 2010), 35.
52 See Alan R. Tippett, “Conversion as a dynamic process in Christian mission”, Missiology 5, no 2 (1977): 203-221.

Stephen Jester, “The Spirit’s Role in Mission: Narrative Pentecostal Theology in West Africa,” 98.
53 M.M. Thomas, “Indian Theology”, Dictionary of Mission: Theology, History, Perspectives. Edited by Karl Muller, Theo

Sundermeier, Stephen B. Bevans, Richard H. Bliese (Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999), 210.

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weak, oppressed and rejected by the traditional religious communities to the main stream of the
religion and society.54

The people who subsequently experience a transformation appear to undergo something

similar to ‘spiritual dissonance’. Psychologically, the convert may seem to agonize from ‘mental
disturbance’, but this trouble indicates a move from peripheral notion to the center of
consciousness. When a person is, therefore ‘converted’ means, in these terms that ‘religious ideas
now to take a central place from previously peripheral in his consciousness and that religious aims
form the habitual center of his power’.55 Emotionally, the about-face can be described as ‘losing
one’s grip’. Intellectually, the conversion is akin to a ‘radical clarification’ that induces a paradigm.
The turning away can be described from the viewpoint of religious experience as ‘recognizing
oneself a sinner’. Theologically, conversion can be described as the working of the Holy Spirit on
the affections or on the expression of love.56
On the other hand, turning away is an about-face ensuing from critical conflicts which are
overcome only by way of an intellectual, moral, religious or social conversion to a new set of
thoughts and behavioral norms that will make sense of completion.57 The conversion experiences
accompanying the ‘turning away’ phase is frequently colorful, dramatic and even traumatic. That
conversions have a long-term impact is besides question.58 For instance, Moses turned away from
the luxuries of the Egyptian court and centered as a human of faith. Turning away can be concluded
as receiving a new face of life with a new identity.
3.1.3. Internal Change- Born Again Experience

Pentecostalism sees a spiritual dynamic in conversion more than any other cause.
Pentecostals analyze an internal change while a person accepts Jesus as their savior. This
transformation produces a born-again experience with a conviction that Jesus Christ is not only their
personal savior but the only universal savior.
To be born again in this sense indicates a spiritual rebirth contrasted with physical rebirth
(Jn. 3:1-8). It is an experience of spiritual renewal acquiring a personal relationship with God by the

54 T.S. Samuel Kutty, The Place and Contribution of Dalits in Select Pentecostal Churches in Central Kerala from 1922-1972 (Delhi:
ISPCK, 2000), 38-39.
55 “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience

(accessed December 18, 2020)

56 Frank K. Flinn, “Conversion: up from evangelicalism or the Pentecostal and charismatic experience”, Religious

Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies, Edited by Christopher Lamb, M. Darrol Bryant (New York: CASSELL,
1999), 57.
57 Ibid., 58.
58 Ibid., 60.

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work of the Holy Spirit that brings blessings in this life and salvation to eternal life. The born-again
person realizes that he or she is a sinner (Rom.3:23) and the penalty of that sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
Being born again is having a transformation of the soul and heart by the work of the Holy Spirit.
This spiritual makeover happens internally in thoughts, emotions and choices when a person
become born again59. Therefore, Pentecostals prefer the term transformation to conversion. They
claim that a genuine conversion experience is the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the initiator,
inspirer and igniter in a true conversion.60 Pentecostal pioneer David J. du Plessis called it “truth on
fire.”61 Despite the accusations of Hindus, Pentecostals have remained insistent that God is to be
personally experienced through the Holy Spirit to have an inner experience, which is indispensable
(Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:8) and insists that it is normative and expected from every believer.
Pentecostals stress that each individual must reach a realization of their sins and of the
atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross. They must make the personal decision to confess their
sins and accept Jesus Christ as her only Lord and Savior. They are then expected to live in the light
of this experience, maintaining their personal relationship with Christ and doing their best to follow
the teachings of the Bible.
3.1.4. External Change-New Creation
Pentecostals do believe that as stated in 2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (RSV). When converts’ minds
and hearts are transformed by the Holy Spirit, they put on Christ in their new self. The old patterns
of life are slowly substituted by the new life in Christ (Col.3:5, 12-13). The converts dedicate
themselves to a new ideal, new code of behavior, new spiritual disciplines. The social impact of
conversion will be evident in the public expression of new modes of life. That external change will
impact publicly even when the converts ‘withdraw from the world’ and acknowledge the ultimate
meaning of life.62
For Pentecostals, the conversion is a matter of spirituality nothing does it have with politics
nor does it try to destroy other’s religious identity and cultural pattern of life. Pentecostalism from
its origin states that the nature and process of conversion never happen by pressure, rather it is the

59 “What is a Born-Again Christian? What is the Meaning and Significance of being Reborn?”,
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/salvation/what-is-aborn-again-christian.html (accessed February 28, 2021).
60 Lukose, Religious Freedom and Conversion in India, 176.
61 David J. du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost (South Plainfield, N.J.: Bridge Publishing, 1977), 181.
62 Frank K. Flinn, “Conversion: up from evangelicalism or the Pentecostal and charismatic experience”, Religious

Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies, 61.

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work of the Holy Spirt having Christo-centric experience. People are just a medium of
communication of the gospel.
4. Characteristics of Pentecostal Conversion
The Pentecostal experience is marked first by a conversion phase (repentance, a conviction
of salvation in Jesus’ Name), to be followed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit (including speaking in
tongues, divine healing and the laying-on of hands, and attestations of Christ’s return). Pentecostals
believe that the following process will lead to conversion:63
1. Discovery-beginning to understand the basic facts and desiring to hear more.
2. Deliberation (or discussion)- weighing up the benefits of accepting or rejecting.
3. Decision – recognizing that the gospel is helpful and deciding to trust in Christ.
4. Doubt- (or distraction)-facing uncertainties, tensions, temptations and persecutions.
5. Discipleship (or devotion)-full commitment to Christ and to others who follow Christ.

4.1. Christo-Centric experience

Pentecostalism was vigorously Christocentric. What do Pentecostals believe? There is a
strong emphasis upon experiencing God through the power of the Holy Spirit, a stated belief in the
supremacy and centrality of Jesus Christ,64 with a personal relation to Jesus as savior and Lord.
A true Christian life is completely based on and developed upon the Anubhava of Christ.
They will accept the incarnation of Christ as fully God and fully human, and also in his atoning
death on the cross to save the souls. “God’s love is demonstrated in Christ on the cross, i.e., in
suffering and self-sacrificing love, which leads to the transformation of a sinner.”65The converts can
experience salvation through Christ not merely by the forgiveness from sin but by freedom from sin
i.e., to become a new creature/creation.66 Pentecostals believe that salvation is probable only
through the cross of Christ. Christ is a spiritual liberator who came to make people free with his
truth. “The truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:14-15 RSV). Since Pentecostalism is an evangelical faith,
the emphasis is laid on the need of experiencing Christ for the transformation of an individual’s life
through faith.

63 Robin Daniel, The Process of Conversion (np: Tamarisk Publications, 2017), 8.

64 L. Grant McClung, Jr. “Theology and Strategy of Pentecostal Missions”,
http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/1988-01/1988-01-002-mcclung.pdf (accessed November 5, 2020).
65 Frank K. Flinn, “Conversion: up from evangelicalism or the Pentecostal and charismatic experience”, 61.
66 M. Stephen, A Christian Theology in the Indian Context (Delhi:ISPCK, 2001), 44.

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4.2. Pnuemato-Centric Experience

Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Christianity from the birth. Its emphasis on a direct
personal experience of God through the Holy Spirit.67 Pentecostals argue that conversion is
ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit where human being has no part. Holy Spirit convinces the sins
to the people (Jn14:15), and leads to a spiritual regeneration. Pentecostals therefore understand and
believe that the Holy Spirit as a missionary spirit.
The Pentecostal understanding of spirit experience occurs as a decisive experience distinct
from conversion whereby the holy spirit manifests himself, empowers a transformation in one’s life,
and enlightens one as to the whole reality of the Christian mystery (Acts 2:4; 8:17; 10:44; 19:6).
Pentecostals believe in the experience subsequent to conversion as a crucial part of developing
spirituality. It is integral to Pentecostalism. This experience shapes the convert’s world view. What
makes the spirit experience unique and important experience? What more is there that needs to
happen?
Pentecostalism teaches that pneumato-centric experience is a subsequent to conversion while
generally expect this to be a sequence of events that leads one into the fullness of Pentecostal life.
As a result of it, converts may experience an appropriate evidence of transformation from the very
beginning itself. A convert will be able to experience the spirit encounter at the initial stage of
conversion and it continues throughout their life. Jester describes that “the efficacy of Christ and the
pneumatological-experiential supersedes former allegiances and beliefs systems”68of Pentecostals. For
Pentecostals, conversion signifies the essence of the Spirit’s work as an essential aspect of
experiencing Christ and witnessing Him to the world.
Pentecostalism sees conversion more than a moral transformation. According to Anderson,
“the Pentecostal emphasis on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, that claims to offer more
than what the traditional religions did.”69 There have been occasions where mainline Churches
distanced themselves from Pentecostals when it came to conversion issues. However, Pentecostals

67 Allan Anderson, “Introduction: World Pentecostalism at a Crossroads,” Pentecostals after a Century: Global Perspectives on a
Movement in Transition. Edited by Allan H. Anderson and Walter J. Hollenweger (Sheffield: SAP, 1999), 19.
68Stephen Jester, “The Spirit’s Role in Mission: Narrative Pentecostal Theology in West Africa,” 99.
69 Allan H Anderson, “The Pentecostal Gospel and Third World Cultures” (Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of

the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Springfield, Missouri, 16 March 1999). http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/aanderson
(accessed March 7, 2020).

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argue that “in the future the church worldwide will have to give the gift of the Spirit”70a greater role
even in its theology.
Pentecostalism describes that renewal and recreation of the personality take place after
experiencing Holy Spirit in our mind, not merely in our emotions (Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2). The Holy
Spirit removes the evil effect of sin and recreates and sanctifies the person to think and work in
harmony with God’s eternal plan. The restoration and reorientation of a person’s mind is the fruit of
salvation in Christ Jesus. This transformation takes place by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2).
The Christian mind is not worldly, but “Christ-like.” In Philippians 2:5 states that, “Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Holy Spirit illuminates the human mind to grasp the
divine truth. He unfolds the hidden mysteries of the past, present and future to human
understanding so that men may be enlightened.71
Pentecostalism strongly says that in the process of conversion the convert makes a complete
break with the past with the power of the Holy Spirit as a repudiation of personal sinful history,
behavior, and traditional allegiances. Then, the Holy Spirit enables one to have a new experience
where by he/she receive a new sense of belonging and community with the Pentecostal family.
5. Conversion and its Social Impacts
Conversion within Pentecostalism is characterized as a radical break with the past, as well as
the encompassing social world. It is frequently contended that the radical break is caused by the
dualistic nature of the Pentecostal worldview, in which the world, as well as other religions, is
respected as something unsafe to be maintained a strategic distance from. Consequently, converts
are encouraged to break free from their previous ‘worldly’ and devout life, to embrace a Pentecostal
moral code.72 But in India changing social religious identity is a highly problematic issue over the
years.
Pentecostalism states that the new convert will focus on Jesus’ words as said in Matthew
6:33 (RSV), “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as
well.” True spiritual conversion radically changes this direction of one’s life, rather than a partial
change in which the barrier between two worlds can be overcome. This is not a superficial turning

70 Hwa Yung, “Mission and Evangelism: Evangelical and Pentecostal Theologies in Asia”, Christian Theology in Asia, ed.
Sebastian C.H. Kim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 266.
71 John Thannickal, Pentecostal Polyphonic Discourses (New Delhi: ISPCK, 2019), 152.
72Julia Kuhlin, “Love Thy Hindu Neighbor as Thyself” A Field Study of North India Pentecostals’ Perceptions of

Hindu-Christian Relations, 50,

https://www.academia.edu/9838293/Love_Thy_Hindu_Neighbor_as_Thyself_A_Field_Study_of_North_Indian_Pent
ecostals_Perceptions_of_Hindu_Christian_Relations (accessed February 2, 2021).

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point, a mere alteration of the external facade of human life. Conversion is not a gradual change that
occurs over a period of time, such as sanctification. On the contrary, true conversion takes place
much deeper in a person’s soul. It is a decisive break with old patterns of sin and the world and the
acceptance of new life in Christ by faith. The pursuit of a completely new life involves the rejection
of the world system and its anti-God values.73This includes the abandonment of dead religion and
hypocrisy. The Conversion also involves the idea of changing the direction.
According to Robin Daniel, in conversion, “a person will abandon one set of beliefs and
adopt another, inspired by new principles, ideals and convictions.”74 This spiritual conversion within
Pentecostalism is so profound that it entails many changes in a person’s social life. Philip Hefner
states, “transformation in the here and now is…the work of the Holy Spirit.”75 It is a change of
thought, which is an intellectual change; and a change of view, a new recognition of God, of self, of
sin, and of Christ. It is a change of affections, which is an emotional change, a change of feeling, a
guilt for sin committed against the Holy and Righteous God. It is a change of heart with a
purposeful diversion from sin and turning to God through Christ to seek forgiveness. Therefore, the
complete personality, mind, affection, and desires will change radically upon conversion.76 The
whole purpose of conversion is to bring a person into a right relationship with God. It was the
purpose of God who ‘was in Christ and reconciled the world unto Himself’ (2 Cor. 5:19).
The converts experience changes in their outlook towards the world, human and God, and
see the world from a spiritual category and not ‘in intellectual types’. It refers to a spiritual act of
discerning the work of God and work of evil in the world (spiritual and material world). 77
Pentecostals teach that “the believer is not supposed to be conforming with this world. Once you
are saved, you must reject this world so that you are received well in the ‘world yet to come.”78
Pentecostalism does not suggest a short-circuiting reality in the realm of social concern, rather they
are committed to transformation.79

73 Steven Lawson, What Is True Conversion? April 03, 2017, https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-true-

conversion/(accessed February 20, 2021).
74 Robin Daniel, The Process of Conversion (np: Tamarisk Publications, 2017), 5.
75 Philip Hefner, “Transformation as Mission,” For All People: Global Theologies in Contexts: Essays in Honour of Viggo

Mortensen. Edited by Pedersen Else Marie Wiberg, Holger Lam, and Peter Lodberg (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002),
179.
76 Steven Lawson, What Is True Conversion? April 03, 2017.
77 Josfin Raj S. B, “Pentecostal- ‘ism’: An Alternative Christian Worldview”, Pentecostalism Polyphonic Discourses. Edited by

Rajeevan Mathew Thomas, Josfin Raj S. R (Delhi: ISPCK, 2019), 165.

78 Ibid.,166.
79 Douglas Petersen, Not by Might nor by Power: A Pentecostal Theology of Social Concern in Latin America (Oxford: Regnum,

1996), 146.

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In a world of much division and turmoil, Does God expect any societal change in a
community through converts? Definitely, God wants his people to bring a drastic change in the
society through this act that his name will be glorified. The Pentecostals of course are known for
their rupture from the past and leading a ‘transformed life’ with the power of the Holy Spirit. God
even assumed to be involved in all aspects of human social life that exactly bring an effect in the
social transformation.
Pentecostals are the true agent of social transformation, which is marked in the Indian
society. However, it is being questioned by Hinduism often criticizing Christianity as the Western
Religion. Hindu extremists comment that Christianity destroyed their cultural identity.
6. Pentecostal Theology of Conversion
Holy Spirit experiences had an essential position in shaping and reshaping Pentecostal
theology. Anderson sees that Pentecostal theology is ‘more than an academic and written theology’.
It is located in the preaching and practices of churches. He refers to it as the ‘enacted theology’
(Theology in practice),80 which is attested in Pentecostalism around the globe.
Pentecostals trace theology primarily based on their origin from the earliest tradition,
instructing and leading the practices of the first followers of Jesus Christ and their true experience.
Josfin Raj states that Pentecostal theology is “developed after the Pentecostal experience of the
people.”81 Therefore, one may also argue that the theology of Pentecostalism is an experience of the
early first-century communities of faith.82 Pentecostal experience urges them for evangelization and
conversion that are two inseparable tasks of the Pentecostal Mission. Both objectives at reconciling
the world to God by redeeming it via Jesus Christ. Pentecostalism considers that the church is God’s
agent for bringing such redemption to the world. But conversion to Christ is a personal matter for
each individual and it takes place only through personal faith in Christ. However, Hindu extremists
are creating lot of issues associated with conversion and persecute the Church in this current age.
There are conflicting perspectives and allegations leveled against the Pentecostal Christians
on that grounds in the Indian context. Hindu fundamentalists do not recognize the difference
between conversion and proselytism as the Christian writers distinguish it. Moreover, it is also
unclear to Sangh Parivar, a Hindu fundamentalists team about the traditional Christian doctrine of

80 Allan Anderson, “The Contextual Pentecostal Theology of David Yonggi Cho,” AJPS 7, no 1 (1999): 102.
81 Josfin Raj S. B, “Pentecostal- ‘ism’: An Alternative Christian Worldview”, Pentecostalism Polyphonic Discourses, 164.
82 Ibid., 164.

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salvation through Christ by means of conversion.83 Even within the Christian communities, there are
misunderstandings and conflicts on the theological understanding of conversion. This conflict was
questioned by Arun Shourie the former minister of Disinvestment, communication and information
technology in the Bharatiya Janata Party government that “if Christians themselves are separated on
the issue of conversion, then how can they argue that the Bible has obviously commanded them to
convert the other communities?”84 But the Pentecostals say that conversion could mean internally a
continuous growth in divine-human relationship till one realizes one’s harmony with God.
Externally converting others should mean supporting humans to develop in a divine-human
relationship till they recognize their unity with God. Conversion, ultimately, is to God and not to
any belief, faith or any person.
The Christians, however, become the bearers of the livid persecutors for their unique faith of
the religions in India and worldwide. They suffer all the violence in the direction of their faith
because they are requested to do the whole thing in the word of love. There are many victims who
suffer the motive of this tragedy because of their love for Jesus Christ. Is persecution of Christians
new? Is it real? Christian persecution can also be traced to Christianity’s beginnings. Jesus Christ
himself turned out to have been martyred at the cross, and the early church also had to confront
huge persecution. While Jesus used to be on earth, he bore witness to the battle between the
temporal kingdoms of the earth and God’s Kingdom. He noted that this anxiety may from time-to-
time result in bodily harm, discrimination, and loss of life for believers. Jesus stated: “A servant is
not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:20 RSV).
The belief in individual conversion has to be coupled with the precise Pentecostal experience
of the Holy Spirit, and evangelism. Consequently, evangelization that leads to individual conversion
is de-facto vital in Pentecostal theology. Pentecostals see an experience of urgency to guide people
to “a personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ,” and to an individual, “dynamic encounter with
the risen Spirit of Christ.”85 This understanding of conversion takes place where the repentant sinner
accepts Jesus as his savior by simple faith and the Holy Spirit unites him to Christ and into his death
and resurrection. This is the procedure of conversion in which converts experience a new birth. It is

83 Joel Thattupurakal Mathai, “Conversion in the pluralistic religious context of India: a Missiological study” (PhD diss.,
North-West University in co-operation with Greenwich School of Theology, April 2017), 134.
http://repository.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/26351/Thattupurakal%20Mathai_J_2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllo
wed=y (accessed November 2, 2019).
84 Arun Shourie, Missionaries in India continuities, changes, dilemmas (New Delhi: ASA, 1996), 212.
85 Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Ad ultimum terrae: evangelization, proselytism and common witness in the Roman Catholic Pentecostal

dialogue (1990-1997) (Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 1999), 70.

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the end result of as persons respond to the proclamation of the Word of God and the Spirit offers
them a new beginning thereby making them followers of Christ (Acts 15:3).
Thus, the discussion on theology of conversion has demonstrated that every single theology
of conversion is a product of its time, and therefore, there are not absolute and raise the following
questions.
1. If the theology of conversion is traditionally determined with the useful resource of using the
societal forces of the time, then how can such theology of conversion be absolute?
2. How can any such theology of conversion relate to the Indian scenario in which the context is
absolutely different? Does not India need a new theology of conversion to discuss with the social
forces which are at work in India?
3. How can this kind of theology of conversion declare that it captures completely the nature of
conversion?
The misunderstanding of this reality can at the end, result in aggressive and contradictory
approaches and will lead in the direction of one-of-a-kind Christian traditions. It additionally ends in
dismissive and counter-costs that preclude the witness of the church. Moreover, an aggressive spirit
will lead to further hostility and will prevent the meaning of biblical conversion clearly seen, in a
context such that of India.86 Therefore, Amos Yong’s ‘hospitality model’87 is very significant in the
contemporary religiously-tensed Indian context. Yong’s technique can also take into account the
particular Hindu-Christian encounter as suggested by Sebastian C. Kim. Again, Kim suggests the
need for ‘respect involving restraint’ in the intolerant Hindu-Christian religious context in India, and
so he urges that ‘the Christian desire to share their religious experience needs to be respected and
appreciated as well as the Hindu sense of faithfulness to Dharma.’88 Pentecostals should recognize
the ‘Hindu understanding of conversion is incompatible with Pentecostalism, but to respect the
Hindu view, not as a capitulation to Hindu objections nor as a gesture of concession however as an
act of proper appreciation for Hindu beliefs and practices.’89

86 Joel Thattupurakal Mathai, Conversion in the pluralistic religious context of India: a Missiological study. 132-134.
87 Amos Yong, in his book called “Hospitality & the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor” (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 2008), opens the door of interreligious possibilities to a new world. He suggests an innovative paradigm
for theology of religious encounter, interreligious dialogue, and contemporary missionary practices. He constructs a
platform for the doctrine of hospitality by endorsing that followers of Jesus Christ counter interreligious violence, war
and terrorism with the spirit of Pentecost.
88 see Sebastian C.H. Kim, In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India, 199; Sebastian C.H. Kim, “Hindutva,

Secular India and the Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee: 1954-57,” Nationalism and
Hindutva: A Christian Response. Papers from the 10th CMS Consultation, edited by, Mark T.B. Laing (Delhi: ISPCK, 2005), 140-
142.
89 Kim, ‘Hindutva, Secular India and the Report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee,’ 141.

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Pentecostals need to think over their theology of conversion and present clearly conversion
as a spiritual experience to the Hindus in India to avoid anxiety amongst them. Kim has discussed
the conversion between Hindus and Christians. Kim highlighted three clarifications for why
conversion is frustrating in India. (1) It challenges the communal shape present in the Indian society,
(2) it threatens the socio-economic establishment, and (3) the anti-conversion address is the
keystone for prevailing ideology of Hindutva.90 Kim also focused on the query from the theological
perspective and concludes that the conversion issue is so difficult to settle due to the fact that it is
discussed from two radically distinctive religious systems.91 This became obvious in determining the
Indian Constitution during the 1940s. In the Assembly, Christians claimed that the right to change
religion and to elect one’s own religious identity was an ultimate right for each citizen of India. On
the other hand, those against conversion considered conversion as an offence and deflation of other
people’s religion. Moreover, this was once argued that conversion distressed the harmony in society
and was used for political ends.92 Until this point, notwithstanding, no law was written against
conversion in the Constitution and in its place all residents were guaranteed the right as mentioned
in the article 25 to ‘freely profess, practice and propagate their religion.’ Since then, in regards to
conversion and policymaking, the conversion issue was not settled yet with the adoption of the
Constitution. However, some states in India have exceeded so called ‘Freedom of Religion Acts’
which are meant to regulate conversion. In this regard, Coleman argues that “the anti-conversion
laws are to be seen as part of a Hindu nationalist agenda to problematize religious choice and
identity in India.”93
In the theological development of Conversion, Pentecostals follow what Jesus said, “If
anyone has ears to hear…(Mt.11:15). If any man would come after me…(Mt.16:24). If anyone keeps
my word…(Jn.8:51).” The offer of salvation in Christianity is for every man and woman to be
accepted or refused. This makes Christianity more individualistic than the most different structures
of faiths or beliefs. Pentecostals believe in the individual conversion and faith in Christ as a
genuinely born again Christian or follower of Christ.94 Then, the converts will grow in their radical

90 Sebastian. C. H. Kim, In Search for Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2003), 4-5.
91 Ibid., 183.
92 Ibid., 38-40.
93 Jennifer R. Coleman, “Authoring (in) Authenticity, Regulating Religious Tolerance: The Implication of Anti-

conversion Legislation for Indian Secularism” (paper presented at the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and
Constitutionalism Graduate Workshop, College Hall 209 University of Pennsylvania, September 13, 2007-08).
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/dcc/; achieved at https://perma.cc/9WY3-DTFN (accessed December 22, 2020)
94 Robin Daniel, The Process of Conversion (np: Tamarisk Publications, 2017), 4.

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love of God and the radical love for neighbor. Conversion is a process of continuous inner
purification or boom through which a person discovers the indwelling and the universal presence of
God and this realization manifests itself spontaneously in the love for neighbor. In this procedure,
one may also go through different levels of understanding of reality or belief structures. Pentecostals
engage with people of other religions, not always with the intention of conversion but on a
compassionate dimension of the Spirit, though such engagement might also once in a while bring
conversion. Pentecostals usually say that no man or woman should attempt to convert any individual
either by pressure or by allurement.
Conclusion

Conversion as a spiritual experience has, to an extent, been neglected by scholarly research,

although the issue of conversion per se has been an interest of scholarship. Thus, this study makes a
significant contribution to a mostly unexplored area. The religious life of Indian Pentecostals,
particularly conversion as a spiritual experience, has to be explored further because the strategy they
employed has not been productive but produced even more hostility.
Hindu radicals claim that Christians have been immoral and brands it a low-caste religion
supported by the Western Christianity. Nevertheless, the most common criticism from Hindu
fundamentalists is that Christianity is a foreign religion. This common Hindu nationalist stand has
permeated into a large Hindu population. Therefore, the Hindu nationalists developed hostility and
a growing intolerance towards Christianity; mainly targeting Pentecostals in India. The end result of
this is the growing anti-Christian violence and anti-conversion laws. This trend might lead to a
second-phase of even more violence against Christianity, especially since the BJP is the ruling party
in India.
Further scholarly research is required on the Pentecostal’s understanding of conversion as
spiritual experience; and the willingness to make this theology known among Hindus may reduce the
existing tension and hostility between these communities. Other Christian denominations argue that
Pentecostals are responsible for deteriorating the social relations by way of using aggressive means
of proselytization. According to Pentecostals, they have an advantageous focus on ministry and take
the Word of God more profoundly than other denominations. As a result, the Pentecostal churches
grew faster than other churches by regularly baptizing new converts; hence, describing themselves as
“a living church.”
Pentecostals have been apolitical through and large. They follow the New Testament
commands to pray for their governments and political leaders. In political settings in which
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Pentecostals are a minority, this takes shape by urging for divine intervention that would make
Pentecostal mission, particularly local evangelism viable. One of the reasons behind the stress that
Pentecostal is apolitical, is because Pentecostals understand the call of God and human response in
term of a spiritual experience which is both inward and outward.
A Conversion is a spiritual event of turning to God which has repercussions on the society
in which converts live. It has a vertical dimension that is, the relationship to God, and a horizontal
dimension directed towards the society. Christian conversion is strictly a personal decision without
force or inducement. The phrase conversion is used in the Book of Acts 15: 3. In all different
occasions, biblical point of view is not a forced conversion, but an individual's voluntary choice. The
mission of Jesus was carried out by preaching the Good News by giving the freedom of sense of
right and wrong (Mk.1:15).
When a convert believes in Jesus Christ, he or she also enters into a new relationship with
others. Therefore, Pentecostals call humans to repentance giving hearers their own choice and never
by force, inducement or allurement. Instead, what is employed is the provision given in the Indian
constitution, Article 25. Pentecostals view that the encouragement for conversion and its demand is
given in the gospel in the New Testament. It is also divine and by which Holy Spirit convicts
someone of the need to believe in Jesus as their personal savior and Lord. The final decision is with
the hearers. There is no room for pressured conversion in the Pentecostal thought as Hindutva
forces allege. Christianity in India is a harmonious religion and apolitical. Hence, the so-called
forceful conversion is inappropriate to the very idea of conversion in Pentecostalism. Every citizen
of India has the liberty and moral sense and has the right to profess, exercise and propagate the
religion subject to public order, morality and health. The provision gives right to each and every
citizen to live according to the fundamental rights. It truly gives the rights to convert to any faith or
ideologies deemed to be good.
The Hindu radicals, however, has been taking illegitimate benefit of Article 25 of the
constitution of India and present it to the Indian citizen that Christians are a threat to country -wide
solidarity. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to show that the Pentecostal perception of
conversion as a spiritual experience is based on biblical understanding. This understanding may
serve as a foundation for the discourse that the church in India is dealing with in the context of
conversion. The study also arrives at a theological appreciation of conversion as a spiritual
experience in the Indian context. Nonetheless, politically, socially, and religiously Pentecostals have
anxiety nowadays about the persecution of Christians in India. To conclude, it should be noted that

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Indian Pentecostals ought to understand the errors of the past, especially through overseas
missionaries; because those errors have produced serious consequences for the life and witness of
Christians in India today.
Finally, I believe that there is a need to reframe the communicative meaning of conversion
as a spiritual experience to redirect the ongoing communication with Hindu radicals so that
unnecessary confusions and misunderstanding may be avoided. It needs further discussion and
scholarly debates. Pentecostalism may have failed to communicate the true essence of the
conversion experience to a non-believer. For this reason, it is important to communicate it vividly,
that the underlying experience of conversion is spiritual and not political.

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