EvangeCube: Evangelical Tool or Trivial Trinket?

For those of you unfamiliar with the "EvangeCube," it is a "Rubik's Cube" device that conveys pictorial depictions of the Gospel message. You can actually view an online demonstration here.

My friend, Nathan Sheets is the President of EvangeCube Global Ministries and co-inventor of this tool, distributing more than 1.5 million units around the globe to date. Suffice it to say that the EvangeCube has inspired its share of critics and naysayers. A quick google search will reveal that there are a number of Christians who believe the EvangeCube is "the cheesiest evangelistic tool in the entire world." One site states that "the EvangeCube is the LAST thing I would show my pagan friends down at the local, but it is actually a big hit in the Middle East, where thousands of people have heard and understood the story of Jesus." (That seems to be a self-refuting condemnation.)

Another site states, "The EvangeCube reduces the entire mystery of salvation to seven handy flip'n'fold pictures on a cube, enabling you to trigger a major life event in a non-believing friend in just three minutes, tops!" (Is that a bad thing?) The Dallas Morning News recently ran a story on the EvangeCube in which they quoted Simon Jenkins, editor of Ship of Fools, an online Christian magazine, saying; "Can you imagine ever sitting down with someone and they have this cube and start talking. It's like something out of another world. If someone whipped out a cube in an English pub, I'd be embarrassed if somebody was watching. It's like indecency."

While I might not be inclined to use this tool to share God's redemptive plan within academic circles or to patrons in an "English Pub" one cannot deny that this tool has proven successful in conveying the simple Gospel truth to millions of people. Is there really something wrong with this? While I certainly emphasize a deep intellectual understanding and scholarly inquiry into the doctrines of God and the development of a comprehensive theology; I also understand that we should do all we can to communicate the simple life-saving message of the Gospel.

I am thankful for Nathan's vision and pray that God continues to use him and EvangeCube Ministries to spread the message of hope and salvation. I also pray that the Church would be reminded that if God can use Balaam's donkey to share His truth then he can use a simple cube with pictures.

Gilligan's Island: Then and Now

For anyone who denies that America is racing toward sexual anarchy, The Real Gilligan's Island, which appears on TBS, offers irrefutable evidence that we are in a rapid state of moral descent. Not only is this program sex-obsessed it is frankly devoid of any real creativity.

As with every prior civilization that travels from absolute monogamy to libertine sexual ethics the process is usually first made manifest in its creative arts and entertainment. One only has to watch the commercials for this program (as well as many others) to understand that this is precisely and almost exclusively the emphasis in most of today's arts and entertainment. Even the tagline for the Real Gilligan's Island, "hold on to your coconuts" accompanied by a close-up of Mary Ann and Ginger's breasts emphasizes the sexualized theme.

I am not simply appealing to some puritanical view of sexuality rather I am pointing out the parallel to every prior culture that has followed the road to sexual anarchy and its ultimate demise. This is both a moral and sociological fact.

The noted British anthropologist, J.D. Unwin observed in his famous 1934 study, Sex and Culture that "the cultural condition of any society depends upon its social and mental energy, or creative energy." Furthermore he observed that, "those cultures which allowed sexual freedom do not display a high level of social energy - their energy is consumed with meeting their physical appetites - they do not think large thoughts about the physical world - they are not interested in metaphysical questions regarding life and its meaning. In these cultures, life is for now."

Pitirim Sorokin, founder of Harvard's Department of Sociological Studies, wrote in 1956 regarding historical societies that experienced decline, "their periods of social and creative growth have been almost uniformly marked by a very tempered sexual regime, while the periods of their decline have been stamped by sexual anarchy."

In every instance, those cultures that embraced a liberal sexual ethic, as we have now done, expressed this libertine ethic most clearly in its creative arts. This in turn worked to advance this liberal view throughout the society to the point that unless there rose a counterrevolution; these societies all lost their former glory or collapsed altogether. I would argue that with the modern mediums of television and cinema, which serve to disseminate these ideas more broadly and more quickly that the process of demise is only hastened.

Utopian Failure in America's Schools

According to a recent nationwide study by Yale researchers, "preschools are expelling youngsters at three times the rate of public schools."

The study identified a "broad range of antisocial behavior among preschoolers, from the child who cut computer cords as a way to 'liberate the mice' to the 4-year-old who had a bag of marijuana in his backpack. The most frequent grounds for expulsion, child-care experts say, are aggression toward other children in the form of kicking, biting and hair-pulling."

The study acknowledges the growing problem of behavioral disorders among American children. Dartmouth Medical School conducted an earlier study, Hardwired to Connect, which similarly recognized the growing "crisis among children and youth in America." Their conclusions however defined this as the result of "disconnectedness," meaning "a lack of connection to other people (parents, friends, etc.) and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning." The Dartmouth study claimed that these behavior problems, which they defined as a national crisis, were the direct result of these conditions going so far as to suggest that "society needed to pay considerably more attention to young people's moral, spiritual and religious needs."

In response to the Yale study, so-called "child-development" experts acknowledge the problem but offer a different explanation as to the cause. In their mind, these behavior problems are not necessarily related to neglectful or irresponsible parenting as much as they are the result of poor teacher training. "Child-care experts said that many expulsions could be avoided with better teacher training and greater support from psychologists and social workers." Notice the absence of parents in this list of proposed solutions.

This is the way with all utopians who believe that the state and not the family is the solution to societal problems. The problem, in their minds, could not possibly be the selfish desires and actions of parents who place their own needs ahead of their children thus producing this growing sense of disconnectedness, which in turn produces insecurity and emotional instability. Instead, the solution in the mind of the secular humanist to every problem is, "education." Ignorance is seen as the source of all "evil" in the world and not sin. Of course this is astonishing in light of the fact that the 20th century saw the spread of "education" across the world to an unprecedented degree and yet this was not successful in preventing the unparalleled atrocities of the last century. Recall that Nazi Germany was quite possibly the most educated society on earth.

Truth, Obedience, and Conversion

Francis Schaeffer said, "Truth stands before conversion. Before a man can come to Christ he must have a proper understanding of truth, otherwise the words, 'accepting Christ as savior can mean anything'"

Understanding truth as relative and not absolute results in a "relative" faith or conversion. A relativistic mind considers that there are many "truths," all of which are individually determined and purposed to give the individual life meaning and/or help them live in peace in a metaphysical sense.

When presented with the "Gospel" they may conclude that Christianity as a "belief system" might work for them, thus they "accept Christ" because that is so often all the presentation requires. Their faith however, is rooted in their choice to believe and not the horror of a reality in which man existing apart from God as a result of his rebellion lives in utter darkness, despair and bondage for a hopeless eternity! The latter compels men to humiliation and repentance, the first step in dying to ourselves and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

It is this last aspect which seems so lost in contemporary Western Christianity: Lordship. This is where my friends, Dr. John Armstrong and P. Andrew Sandlin have been most helpful in challenging the current understanding of Justification, especially among ultra-Reformed circles. The current issue of Reformation and Revival Journal (Vol. 14, No. 1) carries a long, incisive exchange between Armstrong and Sandlin on the related issues of Gospel, Law, Justification, and Roman Catholicism. It also features excellent essays on these and other themes by John M. Frame, Don Garlington, John Hesselink, Gerald McDermott, and Norman Shepherd. Garlington's treatment of the so-called "New Perspective on Paul" is most informative, but all of the essays are outstanding. Andrew's essay "The Grace of Law and the Obligation of Gospel" also appears in this issue.

I highly recommend a subscription to the Reformation & Revival Journal; it is an essential resource for the thoughtful Christian who desires to grow in their theological and doctrinal understanding.