7. Transitive and Intransitive Conversion.
conversio transitiva (God converts man) and conversio intransitiva (man converts), it must be noted that these are not two processes that are different in fact and time, but one and the same process that is only considered differently. Man converts by God converting him. It is not the case that God first converts man, and then, through a second act, man converts himself. When Jer. 31:18 says: 72x) "IW [HEBREW] [Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned,] this does not mean that two conversions or even two different stages of conversion are taught, but according to the context the meaning is this: if we are to be converted, then you, God, who is our only help, must
presentation under gratia universalis, pp. 26 ff.
only on the sufficiency and efficacy of the means themselves, but also upon the conduct of man in regard to the necessary condition of passiveness and submissiveness under the Gospel call. Dieckhoff, "Der missonrische Pradestinatianismus", p. 25: "So it depends on his (man's) behavior for the sake of the freedom that is left to him in the face of grace, which does not seem irresistible, whether faith is established by grace... is brought about by grace or not." "Kirchenzeitung" of April 1, 1885: "Inasmuch as anyone can hinder both [conversion and salvation] by wilful reluctance, in this respect and only in this respect, conversion and salvation do not depend on God alone". bring it about. Also words like Joh. 6:44: "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him" express that coming to Christ is only through the drawing of the Father. The intransitive and transitive conversion is also united in one process by the statement of the Apostle in Eph. 1:19: "We believe according to the effect of his mighty power". Quenstedt uses the image to illustrate the numerical unity of the process: Man converts as the ship turns when driven by the skipper or the wind.!?? Even Baier is correct in saying that conversio transitiva and intransitiva are one and the same act. '°8) The division of the transitive and intransitive conversion into two factually and temporally different processes is done in the synergistic interest. Its purpose, if not merely rash talk, is to take conversion out of the hand of God and put it into the hand of man. Only if the intransitive conversion in the sense of conversio continuata, which is a continuous process that runs through the whole Christian life, is taken, does it follow in time the transitive conversion.