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In the Steps of John Wesley
were a notable company of those belonging to the Holiness groups. As shown in chapter six above, the three movements in Britain have not been without social concern, but it has not figured prominently in their conception of service. This they have envisaged as an emphasis on the regeneration of the individual as the Church's chief contribution to society and as meeting the deepest and eternal need of man. This certainly seems to be the emphasis of the New Testament. It is sometimes asserted today that Christ's teaching of the Kingdom of God envisages the redemption of society and commissions the Church to this task. 4 Scholars such as Ritschl, Adams Brown, H. W. Perkins and Newton Flew have seen a social challenge to Christian perfection in the conception of the Kingdom of God. Christ was recognised by His contemporaries as being in the succession of the prophets and in Him their passion for social righteousness finds its fulfilment. But however strong the Christian's social concern should be, and however active he should be in promoting social righteousness, there is a strong case in Scripture for the belief that his chief concern is in the reconciliation of the individual to God, that regeneration of persons without which it is doubtful whether any righteous social order can be created or stand. It has been objected against the teaching of Christian perfection that the perfection of the individual is not possible in an imperfect environment. As often as this objection has been raised it has been pointed out that it involves far more than the limited and qualified perfection taught by Wesley and his followers, the "imperfect perfection"to quote Warfield's thrust. For if this qualified perfection is impossible in this imperfect world, what of the sinless perfection of the Incarnate Son of God? Nevertheless a genuine sanctity involves a concern to transform one's environment, to see God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. b. Holiness by faith as a vital Protestant doctrine. Whatever the deficiencies of its advocates and the inadequacy of their presentation, does not Christian history indicate that there is value in the proclamation of an attainable experience of the fulness of the Spirit bringing deliverance from sin and power for Christian service? The very limited survey of individuals and groups under the narrow qualifications of