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.
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.
