Baptistic Theologies, 2009

cannot be influential; therefore some introductory remarks about his conversion should be made. Gavril Dunca’s conversion Dunca was born in the village of Negrilesti in the region of Cluj on 15 th November 1900. Together with his father and a brother, at the age of fourteen, he started work in the Old Kingdom of Romania in the city of Ploiesti. The family split up and Dunca remained alone in this big city trying to find a means to survive. The hardships and the health problems he suffered led him to become religious. He read the New Testament and some other religious books and believed this was all he had to do in order to be saved. At the end of the First World War, in 1919, he decided to return to his home village. On the way back he was interned in the hospital in Cluj. There he met John Todorut, a Baptist believer whose example of honesty, love and courage impressed Dunca. From him he learned the need to obey the Bible and heard about the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He also found out about the gatherings of ‘repenters’, a general term describing evangelicals and other groups separated from the traditional churches. Dunca was convinced about the need to literally obey the biblical commands, a trait that would follow him for the rest of his life. With this attitude he returned to his home village. He contacted a group of people affirming the mortality of the soul, the physical future presence of Jesus’ Kingdom on earth and the possibility of salvation after death, but decided their message was not biblical. Therefore he kept searching. He found a Baptist believer from the village who gave him a Bible, a song book and two pamphlets written by Baptist preachers. These writings convinced him to embrace Baptist beliefs which he considered to be biblical. Dunca asserts that the day of his conversion was 6 th December 1919 and describes it as ‘the day when I gave up the world with its 1 Dunca, Amintiri din viata mea, p. 1. The Beginnings and Growth of Baptist Witness in Bicazu Ardelean 45 pleasures and I started to wrestle with myself’. 21 He was baptised on 20 th August 1920. Dunca never accepted without question a system of beliefs. Hence the reference he made to ‘wrestling’. His searching spirit from childhood influenced him to read the Bible. Moreover he rejected the teachings of the first group of people he met in his village. The first Baptist he met did not immediately change his way of life but led him to study more. His conversion took place only at the moment when his beliefs, derived directly from personal Bible study, coincided with certain denominational teachings. This deliberate and thoughtful approach made him an influential leader and a passionate preacher. Furthermore his later experiences of rejection by a part of his family and people from the village, the cruel persecutions he endured," and all attempts to quench his missionary zeal (all unsuccessful