Document 4.6 George Whitefield, Marks of a True Conversion, 1739

George Whitefield | Marks of a True Conversion, 1739

When George Whitefield was first ordained as a minister in the Anglican Church, he began open-air preaching in parks and fields to reach those who did not regularly attend church. Whitefield used dramatic gestures, a commanding speaking voice, and personal charisma to inspire an emotional response from his audiences. In 1738 he brought his revivals to the American colonies, attracting audiences by the tens of thousands. “Marks of a True Conversion,” excerpted here, was one of his most famous sermons.

If a person is what the world calls an honest moral man, if he does justly, and, what the world calls, loves a little mercy, is now and then good-natured, reacheth out his hand to the poor, receives the sacrament once or twice a year, and is outwardly sober and honest; the world looks upon such a one as a Christian indeed, and doubtless we are to judge charitably of every such person. There are many likewise who go on in a round of duties, a model of performances, that think they shall go to heaven; but if you examine them, though they have a Christ in their heads, they have no Christ in their hearts.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew this full well; he knew how desperately wicked and deceitful men’s hearts were; he knew very well how many would go to hell even by the very gates of heaven, how many would climb up even to the door, and go so near as to knock at it, and yet after all be dismissed with a “Verily, I know thee not.” The Lord, therefore, plainly tells us, what great change must be wrought in us, and what must be done for us, before we can have any well-grounded hopes of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Hence, he tells Nicodemus, “that unless a man be born again, and from above, and unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And of all the solemn declarations of our Lord, I mean with respect to this, perhaps, the words of the text are one of the most solemn, “Except, (says Christ) ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The words, if you look back to the context, are plainly directed to the disciples; for we are told, “that at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus.” And I think it is plain from many parts of scripture, that these disciples, to whom our Lord addressed himself at this time, were in some degree converted before. If we take the words strictly, they are applicable only to those, that have already gotten some, though but weak, faith in Christ. Our Lord means, that though they had already tasted the grace of God, yet there was so much of the old man, so much indwelling sin, and corruption, yet remaining in their hearts, that unless they were more converted than they were, unless a greater change past upon their souls, and sanctification was still carried on, they could give but very little evidence of their belonging to his kingdom, which was not to be set up in outward grandeur, as they supposed, but was to be a spiritual kingdom, begun here, but completed in the kingdom of God hereafter.

Source: George Whitefield, Sermons on Important Subjects (London: Henry Fisher, Son, and P. Jackson, 1832), 269.