Ravi Zacharias: "FAITH is NOT ANTI-THETICAL to REASON"

Contributed the following article to the October 2011 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

Ravi Zacharias, international Speaker and Author, has been goaded by the thought that much of evangelism was geared towards the unhappy pagan. “What about the happy pagan, who had no qualms about his life?” That gave him a vision to equip evangelist-apologists who would reach out to the educated.  In 1984, with the sponsorship of a couple who God brought into contact in an amazing way, he founded the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Over more than a quarter of a century, he has been travelling to several nations and speaking to various kinds of audience – Communist officials, Students, Religionists, avowed atheists, Thinkers and Seekers.

In 1990, he took a sabbatical and that turned him into a writer.  Since then, he has written more than 25 books.  A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism, Can Man Live Without God?, Deliver Us From Evil, Cries of the Heart, Light in the Shadow of Jihad: The Struggle For Truth,  Recapture the Wonder, The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend, The End of Reason: A response to Atheists, Has Christianity Failed You? and Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality are some of them.  Jesus among Other Gods, The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha, Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks with Oscar Wilde, The Lamb and the Fuhrer: Jesus Talks wth Hitler, New Brith or Rebirth: Jesus Talks with Krishna are some of his books that bring out the uniqueness of Christ among different world views. His Radio programs ‘Just Thinking’ and ‘Let my People Think’ carry his speeches to a very large audience around the world. He has been engaging the learners and the seekers across the world’s renowned portals of learning including Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge.

Ravi Zacharias was born in Chennai to Mr. Oscar Tobias Joseph Zacharias & Isabella Manickam Zacharias.  His family moved to Delhi when he was four and had thus grown up as a northerner.  His parents hailed from Kerala and his great grand parents had accepted Christ about 5 generations before him. However, by his generation, they had grown cold. 

His father had studied abroad and had risen in the ranks to be Deputy Secretary in the Home Ministry.  His elder brother Ajit, Sisters Prem and Shyamala and younger brother Ramesh, were brilliant and top in their studies. Ravi on the other hand, was a failure in school, stemming out of his indiscipline and hatred for studies.  He simply did not measure up to his father’s expectation and had been told in so many words that he was a disgrace. That together with a sense of meaninglessness in life had driven him to suicide. “A quiet exit will save my family any further shame, and it will save me any further failure”, he reasoned. He consumed poison and was rushed to the hospital. While coming to his senses after a day of hospitalization, on the advice of Fred David a YFC director, his mother read out John chapter 14 for him.  Jesus’ words in John 14:19 struck a chord with him, “Because I live, you also will live.”

After his conversion, he became a voracious reader. He chanced upon an old commentary without a cover “The Epistle to the Romans: A Commentary” by W.H. Griffith Thomas and devoured it.  He was presented with The Cross and the Switchblade, the story of conversion of gang leader Nick Cruz through David Wilkerson’s ministry. He lapped up stories of William Booth who founded the Salvation Army, David Brainerd the missionary to American Indians and C.T.Studd who took the gospel to China and India, foregoing the opportunity to represent England’s cricket.  He then began to read books by C.S.Lewis, the converted journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and Christian Expository Writers like F.B.Meyers, G.Campbell Morgan and James Stewart and Bible Commentaries by William Barclay.  The standards these men set by their examples and writings raised the bar for him.

At the end of his first year in the Delhi University, he had picked up interest in Hotel Industry and his dad had helped him join the Indian Institute of Hotel Management. True to what Victor Frankl had said, “Without meaning, nothing else matters.  With meaning, everything else falls into place”, now studies had meaning, his family had meaning and even his failures began to make sense.

In May 1965, when he was 19 years old, he got to participate in the Preaching Contest that was part of the YFC Youth Congress, that was being held in India (in Hyderabad) that year.  He had spoken on ‘the Love of God’ after picking up the topic. Though it was a moving sermon, another girl had outshone and she was being adjudged the winner.  However to everyone’s surprise, a tie was announced and Ravi Zacharias was adjudged the joint winner.  This meant that the two had to preach again, and this time he had to speak on the Cross of Christ. Years later he found that when the Judges panel had been ready to give the prize to the girl, Sam Kamalesan had spoken up, “I think we are seeing a young man today whom God has put his hand on. Yes, it’s a tough call and they are both outstanding young people. Let us make them equal winners and have them preach again". Ravi went on to win the contest but what matters to him was that it proved to be a turning point in his life.

His next development as a preacher came about when inspired by an American Teen Preaching Teen Team that came to India, he and a small team (his friend Sunder, his sisters Prem and Sham, Kenny a guitarist and Fred of YFC) went around India on a 10day preaching trip.  They hit four cities – Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Madras – and one of his first sermons was at Emmanuel Methodist Church, Madras and in the audience was Sam Kamalesan, senior pastor who had invited the team.  He had preached 29 times from only 5 sermons he had written out to bring along.

A year before his retirement, his dad decided to move to Canada while planning for his post-retirement days.  He decided to send Ajit and Ravi first so they can get to understand the country before the rest of the family moves. Within a week of arrival in Toronto, his brother Ajit secured a job in IBM.  Soon, Ravi himself got hired as Assistant manager in the Banqueting department, at Westbury Hotel. They started attending a Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) church pastored by Ray Deitz.  In about 2 years since having fellowship there, Ray asked him to come on the Church board, lead the church youth. There too, Ravi formed a Youth preaching team of about 10 people and went around places in Canada.  On hearing his sermons, people would often come to him and say, “The Lord has gifted you with evangelism”.

Soon he realized that he desired more than what books could offer. So he took up part-time Theology classes in Baptist Seminary. As a banqueting manager he was encouraged to get customers to order more liquor. He could no longer live honorably with having to entice people to consume more liquor.  He had earlier considered  starting a restaurant with Waterbury’s nationally acclaimed chef Tony Rolden.  Now, his passions were changing and he decided to join the Ontario Bible College full time. Two years into college he got an invitation to preach in Vietnam, at the height of war in 1970. He finally landed in Saigon in May of 1971, with someone offering to pay for his trip and for his remaining period at the Bible College. A seventeen years old Hien Pham became his interpreter in Vietnamese who also took him around in his motorbike. A week after graduating from the Bible College in April 1972, he got married to Margie.

He was then appointed as an Itinerant Evangelist by the C&MA.  Soon, Ravi decided to pursue a Masters in Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. In the summer of 1974, in the midst of his Maters, he was asked by C&MA to go to Cambodia for five weeks. It was a country about to fall into the hands of one of the most vicious regimes in world’s history - the Khmer Rouge.  After he had arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he opened a letter his dad had handed on his departure and was moved to tears as his dad had told how sorry he was for the hurt he had brought into his life and how he was thrilled now that one of his sons had been called into God’s ministry.

After his graduation in 1976, he was commissioned on a forty eight weeks trip around the world. In those eleven months, he preached 576 times. Soon after his return, he was asked by C&MA to teach in their Seminary in Nyack, New York.  In 1983 and again in 1986, he had the honor of being invited to speak at Amsterdam, in a Conference for Evangelists organized by Billy Graham’s Evangelistic Association, on “The Lostness of man” and “Preaching across cultural and religious barriers” respectively.  On returning to New York, he gave a year’s notice to C&MA that he will be leaving. Over the last 25 years, he has been reaching new frontiers through RZIM.

All of this and more have been intricately woven into a life story in Ravi’s own words in his book ‘Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows'.  God has been using him as a Speaker and a Writer who reaches his word to the elite world – literate, self-sufficient and happy.  We are proud to have one of our fellow Indian, hailing from Chennai, making a mark internationally for God’s glory.

CORRUPTION: Are we Immune?

Contributed the following article to the August 2011 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

Year 2010 saw several scandals break out and much corruption in high places coming to light.  Scams around expenses made for organizing the Common Wealth Games, around allocation of 2G spectrum to mobile service providers, around politicians, bureaucrats and even ex-army officials procuring Adarsh flats meant for 26/11 martyrs, around land grabbing in the mineral-rich parts of Karnataka and so on.

Just the previous year, India saw the biggest fraud in the corporate history – Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers had fudged account books over a decade.  It is not that corruption has suddenly let out shoots.  It has been there for eons and what we see reflected in the highest places of political, social and corporate power is but a reflection of the social fabric that these individuals come from. We are all guilty of corruption and if we do not watch out, we could end up like them in our own spheres of influence and activity.

How do we stay away from becoming perpetrators of such corruption that often has a small insignificant start but slowly begins to work out like rust and finally leads to rot?  We need to protect ourselves like Daniel and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah better known as Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego.  They determined that they would not defile themselves with the King’s food.  To many of us, had we been put in the same predicament, it would not even have looked like defilement.  We would have come up with 10 reasons why we cannot forego the King’s food.  We might even have come up with 10 good reasons why we need to indeed partake of the Royal Menu with the rest of the Jewish Royalty that was undergoing training.  Most of us try to see how closer we can get to the line separating evil from good, and stay uncontaminated.  Daniel on the other hand, was one who tried to stay as far as he could from the thin dividing line so that he does not even by a remote chance pollute himself.

Eric Liddell, the famed sprinter-missionary had similar discipline.  His moral conviction did not permit him to participate in Sports on the Lord’s Day.  He therefore refused to participate in the Heat for the 100 meters race which he was widely expected to win at the 1924 Paris Olympics, having set a record of 9.7 sec in the AAA championship the previous year.  He instead regimentally prepared for the 400 meters event, even while having already decided to go to China as a Missionary. He would pummel himself so much in preparation for an event that he was not used to, even against a strong possibility of not succeeding at it, but would not compromise on his commitment concerning Sundays.  As history would have it, he broke the previous Olympic record and won the middle-distance event of 400 meters in style, though he was not expected to win in this category.

The point is not about whether it is wrong to play on Sunday.  With Daniel too, the point is not about  whether it was a sin to eat the King’s food that probably did not adhere to Kosher rules, or had likely been offered to idols or had intoxicating drink.  It is about whether we stick to our moral convictions or do we sidestep them for some allurements.  Most people who have long gone into the wrong side of life have trained their appetite with ideas and decisions that have restructured their thought of what they need. By redefining in their minds what it is they think they need, they end up hungering after the wrong things and these wrong things end up ultimately devouring them.  Daniel decided to train his appetite by not letting it get used to the lavishness of the King’s table and getting his taste spoiled.

Clayton M. Christensen, a 1979 Harvard Business School graduate and author of ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’ says that everyone has to address the question, “How can I be sure I’ll stay out of Jail?” He reminds us that 2 out of 32 people in his Rhodes Scholar class of 1977 (Awards for outstanding all-round students at the University of Oxford) spent time in Jail.  He tells us that we often unconsciously employ the ‘marginal cost’ economics doctrine in our personal lives when we choose between right and wrong.  We think, “I know that as a general rule, most people shouldn’t do this.  But in this particular extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s OK.” The marginal cost of doing a wrong thing ‘just this once’ seems alluringly low.  It sucks you in and you fail to look at where the path is ultimately headed and at the full costs that the choice entails.  Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of “just this once”.

Clayton too has had a ‘Eric Liddell’ like experience and discipline about what he will do on Sundays.  The Oxford University varsity basketball team that he played on had become the best of friends and had made it to the final four in the British equivalent of the NCAA tournament. While it turned out that the championship game was to be played on a Sunday, he went to the coach and explained that he had made a personal commitment at age 16 never to play ball on Sunday. The coach and the teammates just could not believe it and said “You’ve got to play. Can’t you break the rule just this one time?”  He went away, prayed about it and decided that he shouldn’t break his commitment.

Looking back at that small decision, involving just one of several thousand Sundays in his life, he says, resisting the temptation of ‘Just this once in this extenuating circumstance’ has proven to be one of the most important decisions of his life.  His life as anyone else’s has been one unending stream on circumstances justifying mistakes.  Had he crossed the line that one time, he would have done it over and over in the years that followed.  He learned that it is easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.  If we give in to “just this once” we’ll regret where we end up.  That’s what happened to Jeff Skilling of Enron fame, Clayton’s classmate at Harvard Business School.

We do not have to look far.  We have our own examples in this nation - Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju, Harshad Mehta and the likes.  We better define for ourselves what we stand for as Christians and draw the line in a safe place. In each transaction that we make, let us keep our integrity intact - be it paying Tax, making expense claims, or filing reports.  Let us not make minor compromises, lest we soon find ourselves compromising large and wide.  It is easier to say NO before you have tasted it than to say NO after you have tasted it. The life of a Raju or a Mehta had gone wrong not when he chose to cross the line but possibly when he failed to draw a line well before the line that he ultimately crossed.  Like the frog that is slowly roasted to death when the vessel is gradually heated, we too will get sucked into the quicksand of corruption before we know it, if we allow ourselves to be dishonest even just once. May the Lord give us the strength of character and help us live true to the light that we have received. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

TITHE (One-Tenth) and CHARITY

Contributed the following article to the Feb 2011 issue of VANAMUTHAM,

a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission,

that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.

The english version that was adapted for the Tamil magazine can be found at

Giving-as-we-should

God's sure Judgment and a New BEGINNING

[Continuing from Chapter 16 of Revelation. This concludes my 4-part summary of Greg Albrecht's Exposition of Revelation (in Revelation Revolution)]

In Chapter 16, the angels pour out the bowls in quick succession. Those who follow the beast are stricken with boils, the sea turns to blood, the rivers and springs turn to blood, the sun becomes intensely hot, and the kingdom of the beast is plunged into darkness. River Euphrates is dried up, preparing the way for the evil kings of the east to come and battle the army of God at Armageddon. These judgments are most possibly not a blow-by-blow description of coming judgment but graphic, metaphorical illustrations of the sure judgment of God.

We see (in chapters 17-18 of Revelation) a portrait of God’s earthquake-like devastation on the religious-political system of Babylon. God minces no words, comparing the enticements, temporary pleasures and ultimate emptiness of religion to a whore. This whoredom is not sexual prostitution. This is a sign of infidelity and includes power and money, key elements of prostitution. Many who profess the name of Christ can fall for the temptation of selling themselves for the price of self-sufficiency and vanity. The whore is described as riding the beast with seven heads and ten horns, introduced in Ch 13.

An angel explains that the seven heads of the beast represent seven hills or mountains and seven kings. The ten horns are ten lesser kings who rule with the beast. The beast revolts against the whore, who represents a religious system that rules the world.

For Christians in the first century, this city would have represented Rome. The beast would have represented the political power of Rome; its seven heads corresponding to the seven hills of Rome as well as the succession of emperors in the first century. However, the whore and the beast are the archetypes of every evil system opposed to God throughout the ages. The whore is the great religious system that has controlled the history of the world. She is the economy and the culture. The rulers of the world hate her because she controls them; but they are in bed with her because they want what she provides. This system could be communism, materialism, atheism, or even counterfeit Christianity. Chapter 18 gives a detailed account of God’s judgment on this system. It contains a funeral dirge for the system of Babylon.

In Chapter 19, Jesus is the rider on a white horse. He has destroyed Babylon. The chapter contrasts the whore and her lovers from Babylon with the Lamb and his bride. The bride is the church, the people of God down through time. Christ’s bride wears white clothing in contrast to the purple and red clothing of the great whore. The whore of Babylon earns her purple and red clothing by her profession that degrades and abuses her. The bride is given her garments, which symbolize righteousness, reminding us that our righteousness is given to us because of Jesus Christ, by God’s grace. She accepts the love of the Lamb who died and gave Himself for her. A wedding supper is given for her.

The battle between the forces of Christ and the armies of the Kings of the world turn to be a non-contest. The beast and the false prophet are thrown into a lake of fire and the rest of the army is killed, the birds gorging themselves on their flesh in a great supper of God to which all the fowls are invited.

Chapter 20 talks about a thousand-year reign of the saints. In Psalms 50:10, the psalmist tells us that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The one thousand years of Revelation could well be symbolic of a long, long period. Three views have prevailed about the one-thousand years. Postmillennialism was the prevailing Protestant idea until about mid-nineteenth century. In this view, Jesus’ second coming occurs after the millennium. It looks for a thousand year period of peace brought about by the evangelistic work of Christianity, after which Christ will return to defeat Satan and rule forever. Obviously, such a millennium has not started as peace does not reign supreme on earth. Premillennialism is now popular among evangelicals and teaches that Christ will return, followed by an exact thousand year reign followed by Satan’s removal. Dispensational Premillenialists believe that Christians will be raptured seven years before the millennium, requiring two second comings of Jesus. Historic Premillennialists see rapture at Christ’s second coming, immediately preceeding the one thousand years. Ammillennialsm believes that the thousand years is symbolic of an imprecise period of time of the ‘Church age’ between Christ’s resurrection and his return.

What can we know for sure? During this time, Christ and the saints reign and Satan is bound and sealed in the abyss. Initially, earth is a ‘Satan-free’ zone but towards the end he is released, deceives and is again soundly defeated by fire from heaven. This points out that even under the best of circumstances the human heart is deceitful. Perhaps Satan will be allowed back to prove that even when we have been exposed to perfection, we are still capable of being deceived. This lesson may not be for some future time, it could be for Christians of all times. Satan is finally cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet await him. We come back to the heart and core of GOSPEL: We are saved by grace.

The next scene depicts Judgment. At least two books are opened. One of them includes names of those who will be judged ”according to their works”. We might call this ‘The book of Human Merit and Works’. We often think that our evil deeds will be outweighed by our good deeds. But James 2:10 says that anyone who stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all the law. No one can come out of the Last Judgment looking good based on his or her deeds. This book is contrasted with another book, the book of Life. Only those whose names are written in this book is saved from eternal damnation.

At the end (chapters 21 & 22) of the book of REVELATION, Jesus tells us that all things will become new. We have only known an earth of suffering, sin, pain, heartache, warfare, inhumanity lust and greed. A new world is coming that will be without all these. The new Jerusalem is referred to as a bride, which tells us about God’s personal relationship with his people, for all eternity. Towards the end of the book Jesus reminds us that He is coming soon. Twenty centuries from the time the book was written does not appear to be “soon”. Some say that these prophecies have already been fulfilled but it is obvious that many of these have not. Death still lurks, the first heaven and earth are still around and the bodily second coming of Jesus has yet not taken place. “Soon” could therefore be when the believer dies and goes to be with God. It is just that since we do not live longer than 70 or 80 years, on average. Whether we live in the first or the twenty first century, Jesus is coming soon. The Revelation is always current.

[The CROSS was in essence God's LOVE at cross-roads with God's Righteousness and Judgment.  God's REVELATION to John too, was of God's LOVE at cross-roads with God's righteous judgment.  If only we understand its message, will we accept his Grace, become his Bride and join him for eternity.  Greg Albrecht of PLAIN TRUTH MINISTRIES has fascinatingly brought out this clear message in his exposition. I recommend that you read this book to soak yourself with a clear understanding of God's message of love and hope, conveyed through John's REVELATION.]


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