by Elder Johnny Kim

Lately, there’s been a new Internet fad making the social networking rounds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, on a different planet, and without Internet access for the past month, then chances are you’ve heard about the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge”. In short, it involves people posting a video of themselves dumping a bucket of ice water on top of their heads for the sake of ALS awareness and soliciting donations for the ALS Association. Regardless of what you might think of the method by which the awareness is being spread, there’s no denying that it’s been highly effective. According to Forbes, the ALS Association has received over $100 million dollars in the past month attributed to the popularity of the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge”, which amounts to a 3,500% increase in donations compared to what was received this time last year.

Perhaps lost in all the hoopla surrounding this latest trend are some facts that most participants might overlook in their haste to fill their buckets with ice. From all the publicity and attention that the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” has received, if you had not heard about ALS before, then one might think that this illness is widespread and prevalent within the US population. As horrible a disease as it may be, ALS actually affects less than 0.01% of the US population. It is estimated that approximately 6,000 people in the US die each year due to ALS. Compare that to the approximately 54,000 people who die each year in the US due to influenza and pneumonia. Furthermore, unless ALS donors specifically stipulate limitations on how their donations can be used, they will find themselves contributing to research which involves the destruction of fertilized human embryos.

ALS is a horrible disease and Christians would be right to want to support finding a cure for it in an ethical and responsible way, just as with other diseases and illnesses. But out of all the people who would participate in the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge”, Christians should be the ones to recognize that there is actually a disease far worse than ALS or any other disease known to man. A disease that affects 100% of the world’s population, present in every man, woman, and child on this planet from birth…the disease of sin (Psalm 51:1-5). Without a cure, the pain of living with ALS ends with death. But for the one afflicted with sin, physical death only marks the beginning of an eternity of agony and suffering in hell (Revelation 14:9-11).

It seems that people who participate in the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” find themselves to be emboldened, doing what they normally wouldn’t do but for the sake of a good cause. Yet, how much more emboldened should Christians be when it comes to raising awareness about the issue of sin? If we are willing to submit to 30 seconds of indignity in the form of ice water on our heads, then how much more time, even on social media, should we be willing to devote to bringing awareness to the sin in people’s lives and their need for repentance and a Savior? Compared to 30 seconds of indignity for the ALS cause, how much more should we gladly accept the shame, ridicule, and insult from an unbelieving world for the Gospel cause (Romans 1:16)? Now I am in no way condemning the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” or those who participate in it, but simply seek for all of us to consider how much more loudly, boldly, daringly, repeatedly, desperately, and urgently then, should we be the clarions for the greatest, most serious problem to face all humanity, past, present, and future?

As Christians who have come to a saving knowledge of Christ, not only can we preach awareness of the disease of sin, but we can also preach the cure. Unfortunately, in a fallen world we can’t dismiss that there may never be a cure for ALS, but God has made the cure for sin known to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ in His Word. So will you take up the challenge to preach the Gospel to those who are in desperate need of it? And as you do so, will you “nominate” your fellow brothers and sisters by way of exhorting them to do the same? This challenge of preaching the Gospel may not be trendy, popular, and widely accepted, but it’s the most important challenge that God has set before those He has cured and saved through Christ.