Holiness is Wholeness: According to Humility and Against Pride or Despair


So how does a diminishing in the effectiveness of winning souls become acceptable? I believe it is because past failure breeds two kinds of sinners. Those who accept failure and those who deny failure. Historically among Christians, the first group today are called liberals. The second group today would be called fundamentalists. I speak here only of each group. I am not speaking about any one individual that would call themselves by either name. There have been individuals that have been exceptional. But the church is declining rapidly in its impact on its world and that began, not in the 1960s's, but in the late 1800's. Success in winning souls though breeds a different kind from these two types of sinners.


Out of the late 1800's came a great struggle over the heritage of the previous generation. The previous generation was best represented by Charles H. Spurgeon in England and by Dwight L. Moody in the United States. Neither of them, though, was deceived about the decline in winning the souls around them near the end of their ministries. Neither claimed to know the answer to the new problems they were facing, but each was waiting on the Lord for a fresh renewal. As they waited and stood firm, they avoided calling their inheritance a failure or denying that their inheritance had any failures within its walls. They were humble in both their place and in their time. They both called for people to turn to the Scriptures and wait on God.


We need that same humility today. Unfortunately, despair is often humility's counterfeit substitute. This is where people are hypercritical and this is accepted. This is surrendering to liberalism and its overly strong sense that our forefathers failed us. On the flip side is the danger of pride once despair is rejected. This is where people are not willing to be critical of their forefathers when criticism is due. This is surrendering to fundamentalism and its overly strong sense that our forefathers were very near infallible. That is why Martin Luther once said, "Pride and despair are close cousins." It is human nature, not the divine Spirit, who causes us to go to extremes and miss humility.


Holiness is wholeness is an example of humility. It avoids the despair of saying our forefathers knew nothing and that only contemporary scholarship can point the way to the meaning of holiness. Contemporary scholarship and liberalism often hit on the idea of holiness meaning "set apart" as derived from the Arabic language. On the flip side it avoids the fundamentalist pride of saying our forefathers were infallible and ignoring that there was more than one opinion or definition for holiness in the past. Fundamentalism often falls back on the meaning of "separate" as derived from the Roman Catholic and Latin concept of sanctification and struggles with admitting any other opinion existed. Humility recognizes that not all members of our Protestant inheritance saw holiness as meaning the exact same thing. Its meaning was somewhat unclear, yet not entirely unclear, if we are honest. Usually our forefathers joined together both the meaning of wholeness and the meaning of separate. I believe we must take this one more step and add the clarity of it meaning only wholeness at its core. That improvement requires humility.


So back to why a diminished return on winning souls is now acceptable. It is because losing a battle over time becomes chronic. One generation sins by losing humility and falling into pride or despair, because it can see winning people to Christ slipping away. Sin must blame someone and it must justify its sinning. The next generation does the same and the next after it. It takes a mighty God to stem this tide and change it after three to four generations of failure (see Exodus 34).


Holiness is wholeness is the answer to Spurgeon's and Moody's waiting. Spurgeon even defined holiness as wholeness. But it was not yet clear to him what this all meant in terms of both reading the Scripture and its implications for our lives and for theology. This is why he was still waiting.

I believe that God truthfully and graciously wanted to humble the following generation with this correction and renewal of the mind, but the mighty majority refused (see Romans 12:1-2). The problem is that like in the days of Moses, ten to two came back with a bad report on winning souls. That would mean five proud and five despairing to every 2 humble. Holiness is wholeness would breed new success in winning souls. Its implications are enormous for this age. Look at the need for wholeness in our world and the broader recognition of this need.

It seems too good to either side that has either accepted failure like today's liberals or denied failure like today's fundamentalists. We now have a third alternative. The only question is when the majority will pursue humility again rather than either despair or pride. Will there be renewal of our minds now like at the time of Luther? Or like at the time of Calvin? Or like at the time of Hooker? Or like at the time of Wesley? Or like at the time of Spurgeon? I guess I too must wait on the Lord who will renew my strength. I am waiting for the day.


In Christ,

Pastor Jon