Bible Dictionaries
Conversion

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

a change from one state or character to another. Conversion, considered theologically, consists in a renovation of the heart and life, or a being turned from sin and the power of Satan unto God, Acts 26:18; and is produced by the influence of divine grace upon the soul. This is conversion considered as a state of mind; and is opposed both to a careless and unawakened state, and to that state of conscious guilt and slavish dread, accompanied with struggles after a moral deliverance not yet attained, which precedes our justification and regeneration; both of which are usually understood to be comprised in conversion. But this is not the only Scriptural import of the term; for the first turning of the whole heart to God in penitence and prayer is generally termed conversion. In its stricter sense, as given above, it is, however, now generally used by divines.

Bibliography Information
Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Conversion'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​wtd/​c/conversion.html. 1831-2.