A.W. Tozer emphasizes the critical distinction between mere conversion and a sound conversion, arguing that many evangelicals may be part of the church without truly experiencing the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. He asserts that true conversion leads to a joyous and victorious Christian life, while many settle for a superficial understanding of faith. Tozer warns that without a sound conversion, individuals lack the Spirit's guidance, rendering them indifferent to the teachings of Scripture. He calls for believers to seek a deeper, authentic relationship with God that reflects true spiritual rebirth. Ultimately, Tozer urges the church to pursue a genuine experience of being born of the Spirit and washed in the blood of Christ.

I am convinced that many evangelicals are not truly and soundly converted. Among the evangelicals it is entirely possible to come into membership, to ooze in by osmosis, to leak through the cells of the church and never know what it means to be born of the Spirit and washed in the blood. A great deal that passes for the deeper life is nothing more or less than basic Christianity. There is nothing deeper about it, and it is where we should have been from the start. We should have been happy, joyous, victorious Christians walking in the Holy Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Instead we have been chasing each other around the perpetual mountain. What we need is what the old Methodists called a sound conversion. There is a difference between conversion and a sound conversion. People who have never been soundly converted do not have the Spirit to enlighten them. When they read the Sermon on the Mount or the teaching passages of the epistles that tell them how to live or the doctrinal passages that tell how they can live, they are unaffected. The Spirit who wrote them is not witnessing in their hearts because they have not been born of the Spirit. That often happens.