3 Quotes by Ralph Winter

The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible.

The gospel must be distinguished from all human cultures. It is divine revelation, not human speculation. Since it belongs to no one culture, it can be adequately expressed in all of them. The failure to differentiate between the gospel and human cultures has been one of the great weaknesses of modern Christian missions. Missionaries too often have equated the good news with their own cultural background.

When Americans go to India, we need to learn to understand how Indians see purity and pollution, and to reexamine our own beliefs of “clean” and “dirty.” Keep in mind that India is known for its personal cleanliness and its public filth, and America for its public cleanliness and its personal filth.