Probably everyone has played a matching game, where you have one card in your hand and you search for another card that matches what you have. It’s an easy game to play, for it is quite simple to look at two images to see if they match or not.
Suppose you could do that with spiritual matters, like your salvation. Specifically, would it be possible to play the “matching game” with your “conversion story”? Have you ever shared “conversion stories” with someone else, telling how you were saved and hearing how they were saved? Now, obviously the circumstances of conversion are rarely ever going to match (the “circumstances” being what was happening in a person’s life that caused them to turn to Christ and give their life to Him). However, should the conditions of conversion match? In other words, should the steps that someone followed to be saved match the steps that someone else followed to be saved?
Have you ever talked with someone about what you did to be saved and then found out that they did something different than you? Sometimes people say they were saved when they were “baptized” (i.e., sprinkled) as an infant. Others will say they were saved when they prayed and asked Jesus into their heart. Someone else will say they were saved when they repented from their sins and were immersed. When “conversion stories,” detailing the steps someone followed to be saved, don’t match, how can someone know if the steps they followed are the right steps or not?
The Holy Spirit gave us an entire book in the New Testament to help us answer that question; He gave us a record of conversions in the early days of Christianity to make sure that our “conversion story” matches His plan. The book of Acts is that record, and it is replete with accounts of individuals and multitudes being converted to Christ. As one would expect, in dealing with an inspired document, there are no contradictions or discrepancies among the accounts of conversion in the book of Acts. The circumstances surrounding those who were converted varied, but the conditions (i.e., inspired steps) they followed to be saved did not vary, but were identical in every case.
Am I a genuine convert of Christ? Was I saved in the way (the only way) that God designed for men to be saved? All I have to do is “play the matching game” to find out. Does my “conversion story” match the conversion accounts in the book of Acts. Every convert in God’s record believed (Acts 16:31), repented from their sins (Acts 2:38) and was baptized (Acts 22:16). Then, and only then, were they saved. If my conversion story does not match God’s pattern, then it is not of God.