MacDonald believed that people were either responding to God or turning away from him . For MacDonald there was no absolute need for a moment of conversion as traditionally understood. We are all at different stages on the journey - a journey that has its beginning and end in God. Spiritual awakening is a process of organic growth rather than a sudden discontinuity with the past. The soul is like a young plant reaching out to the light that illuminates every person whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or atheist.
Conversion is the moment of perception, illumination and understanding.
As we have seen it does not represent a radical new departure but a sudden spurt of growth as the light penetrates our inner being. The bible is a sign post to Christ. It is Christ, not the bible, who is God's revelation to humanity, and one reads the bible in order to respond to him. Right belief is secondary to obeying the light you have already received. For MacDonald social justice and the gospel could not be separated.