Introduction

Author ES Williams

The purpose of this book is to warn of the rise of a heresy in the Christian Church that is known by the term holistic mission. Its advocates assert that the Great Commission of the Church, quote, ‘must be understood to include social as well as evangelistic responsibility, unless we are to be guilty of distorting the words of Jesus’.  At the heart of holistic mission is the belief that socio-political action and evangelism are, quote, ‘a partnership like two

blades of a pair of scissors or two wings of a bird’.  The effect of the holistic model is to make social reform part of the evangelical mandate, and the Great Commission is understood to include both social activity and evangelism. The mission of the Church is to build the Kingdom of God on earth.

Holistic mission is the product of a politically-motivated reinterpretation of Scripture, which by degrees has come to dominate the thinking and activity of much of the modern evangelical movement as many churches and mission societies now embrace holistic ministry.  It is deeply heretical because it redefines the very meaning of the gospel itself—the priority of the gospel is no longer the salvation of sinners, but the socio-political transformation of society.

In effect, holistic mission has undermined the proclamation of the true gospel, distorted the interpretation of the Scriptures, and morphed missionary outreach into primarily a socio-political enterprise that seeks to improve whole societies through good works.  Preaching salvation from sin through the atoning death of Christ is no longer regarded as a priority.

Holistic mission is supported by some of the most well-known names in evangelicalism, including Billy Graham and John Stott, and is routinely taught in the Bible seminaries and mission institutions of the evangelical world. Over the past 40 years or so it has developed a massive influence that can hardly be exaggerated through conferences, books, periodicals and the work of numerous Christian missiologists operating in the fields of the social sciences and anthropology. It now has all the unstoppable qualities of the proverbial juggernaut.

This book endeavours to trace holistic mission from its roots far back in the nineteenth century, through higher criticism, liberal theology, and the social gospel.  It then catalogues how it took shape in the post-war period with the founding of the World Council of Churches and the new evangelical movement, followed by the Lausanne movement for World Evangelization, and culminating in the rapid growth of academic missiology in Bible seminaries around the world at the present day.

While holistic mission regards itself as the authentic expression of biblical Christianity, it unashamedly associates with the enemies of the Faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). It boldly promotes ecumenism and looks favourably upon the Roman Catholic Church.  Simultaneously, it fiercely rejects biblical fundamentalism as anti-intellectual and culturally-conditioned.  The biblical doctrine of separating from false teaching is being replaced by the ‘new’ approach of contextualising the gospel to make it culturally appropriate.
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The net result has been the tragic loss of the true gospel of salvation in a welter of unbiblical activity, conference papers and socio-political initiatives.  It will inevitably end in full-blown apostasy, but for the grace and restraining hand of God.

The following chapters document the insidious development of holistic mission from its beginnings in sheer unbelief; on through the folly of ecclesiastical compromise; culminating in the deliberated and conscious rejection of what the people of God have always regarded as true biblical evangelism.

In his short letter to the Church, Jude exhorts believers to ‘earnestly contend’, for the Faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). The emphatic expression ‘contend earnestly’ translates the Greek word (epagonizomai), from which we get the English verb to agonize. The word ‘earnestly’ is added to convey the full force of the command that we should agonise over the defence of our precious Faith. It is in this spirit that I write this book.

Holistic Mission: Weighed in the Balances is available through Amazon.co.uk

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