What is Redeeming the Culture?
By AJ Rinaldi in Redeeming the Culture | 1 comment
The concept of Redeeming the Culture was born out of the relationship between the parachurch organizations EvanTell, Inc. and Probe Ministries. In 2006, when it was announced that Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code was to be made into a movie starring Tom Hanks, believers everywhere were mobilized as a response to the controversy over how the history of Jesus and the Church was being misrepresented. One of the most excellent resources to address the issue was a study produced jointly by the two ministries. It was entitled Redeeming The DaVinci Code and it addressed the topic in a unique way with great impact.
Probe Ministries, under the leadership of Kirby Anderson, wrote and produced a study on the historicity of Jesus and the ecclesiastical development that followed His resurrection. Sharp contrasts were drawn that distinguished the historical truth from the fiction that had been written by Dan Brown. It was a terrific apologetic resource done with objectivity, thorough scholarship, and production excellence.
Recognizing that knowledge in and of itself without application is a fairly useless commodity, Probe partnered with the evangelistic organization EvanTell and their founder, Dr. Larry Moyer, to take the study to another level. The second part of the program was an equally thorough and excellent treatment of the subject from a different perspective. Rather than a historical, critical, apologetic defense, EvanTell’s piece provided sound Biblical and practical instruction for the Christian who sought to take the knowledge gained from the truth of the apologetic study and better understand how to share the gospel of Christ when engaged in conversation about the book and/or movie.
The unique thing about this particular endeavor was the approach that Probe and EvanTell took. Rather than attacking the people who enjoyed the book and the movie, the idea was to equip believers to respond—not react, when challenged about their faith. The overriding philosophy was and is one of “attract, don’t attack”. From this concept the overarching theme of “Redeeming the Culture” was born.
Redeeming the Culture is not about affecting change through social programs, governance or radical activity. Rather, it is a desire to see individuals exercise leadership within their own sphere of influence to change hearts and minds one at a time…
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Steve | Apr 2, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for launching this blog. While most people agree that our society needs change, there is not widespread agreement, even among Christians, on how that change should occur.
First, there is widespread thinking among evangelicals that the major reason for our problems within church and society is the fact that we have miscommunicated the gospel. The argument includes the idea that “Easy Believism” is leading us down the wrong path.
Proponents of this view argue that the gospel is more than “Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again.” It is not enough to trust that He died in your place; you must also agree to turn from your sins in order to have eternal life.
Second, there is the view that the world is getting better and better. As this improvement continues, the Christian worldview will gain prominence transforming our entire culture including, schools, government, media, etc.
This second argument includes the thought that the problem in our day is the dead-end theology that society will continue to get worse, culminating in a Great Tribulation.
There are godly men and women who hold to various end-time views. There is room for disagreement.
However, what’s nice about the Redeeming the Culture blog is that it will encourage Christians concerning the importance and effectiveness of sharing the simple gospel in the realm in which they find themselves.
We do not need to be discouraged by thinking that our gospel message is wrong, that our end-time view is somehow contributing to the decline of society or that the solution requires us to engage in sweeping and radical macro-transformational efforts such as implementing the Old Testament laws as part of our judicial system.
Evantell has always championed the clear communication of the simple gospel message. I’m glad that Evantell continues to teach people how to communicate this simple gospel as well as provide resources to assist.
The average person can make a difference by merely sharing this simple yet transforming message.