May 19, 2020 is a day I will not soon forget. It is the day that Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias, who was more commonly known as Ravi Zacharias, lost his two-month battle with cancer. I am not too proud to say that I cried when I heard this news. If you are not familiar with Ravi, he was an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian apologist, which means he was a defender of the Christian faith. In August 1984, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (“RZIM”) was founded by Ravi in Toronto, Canada to pursue his calling as a "classical evangelist in the arena of the intellectually resistant." Today RZIM’s headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and it has offices in Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Romania, Turkey, Austria, Spain and South Africa. He preached in more than 70 countries and authored more than 30 books in his 48-year career. His radio show, Let My People Think, is syndicated to over 2,000 stations in 32 countries and has also been downloaded 15.6 million times as a podcast over the last year. As the current White House Press Secretary said to CBN News as documented in a 5-19-2020 CBN News tribute article to Ravi, “You know, my dad said to me that Billy Graham was the great evangelist. And I think Ravi Zacharias is the great apologist.” Ravi Zacharias was an amazing human being who God used to impact the lives of tens of millions of people around the globe by challenging them to think about the message of the Gospel.
From the outset, RZIM’s core objectives were to deal with the unaddressed intellectual issues that troubled believers, and which stood in the way of skeptics taking the gospel seriously. While RZIM’s motto gradually evolved, its basic principle remained the same: to “help the thinker believe and the believer think.” According to Wikipedia, Ravi’s worldview was as follows:
“Zacharias claimed that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning of life, morality, and destiny. He claimed that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions. He routinely spoke on the coherence of the Christian worldview, saying that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks. Zacharias believes that the apologist must argue from three levels: from logic to make it tenable; from feelings to make it livable; and from whether one has the right to use it to make moral judgements. Zacharias' style of apologetic focuses predominantly on Christianity's answers to life's great existential questions, with defense of God.”
As briefly summarized in the preceding Wikipedia excerpt, the following are the actual four questions Ravi said everyone needs answer to come up with a coherent worldview:
How did I come into being?
What brings life meaning?
How do I know right from wrong?
Where am I headed after I die?
A you-tube video (the link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfb5-7mtC-8), which is called “Four Questions to answer in Life”, shows Ravi talking for about 9 minutes to a group of college kids about answering these important 4 questions. If you are looking for more background and insights on the preceding 4 questions, Ravi does an excellent job of explaining and interpreting the answers to these questions in this video. While I enjoyed watching the video for his thoughts and insights on answering these 4 questions, what he said about halfway through the video about why people do not believe is what stood out to me. Ravi said, “no matter how much evidence is presented about Jesus, our biggest problem is that we still want to have it our own way…..and that’s the problem with the world today.” Psalm 37:4 tells us:
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Having it our own way means we want to be in control. Dictionary.com defines control as “the act or power of controlling; regulation; domination or command”. Control reminds me of pride which dictionary.com defines as “a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.” In all my years of ministering to people with cancer, I have personally observed what Ravi is suggesting here. More specifically, having it our own way, wanting to be in control, and being prideful are the reasons most people reject the message of the Gospel and Jesus’ promise of eternal life even after hearing all the evidence which suggests they should put their faith and trust in Him. I have observed more times than I care to remember how they reject him even when faced with a trial with a deadline like a terminal cancer diagnosis. Pride and control destroy our marriages, and it destroys our friendships, and relationships. Finally, the desire to have it our own way comes between many, including terminal cancer patients, and Jesus’ promise of eternal life.
Ravi’s desire to evangelize to skeptics and intellectually resistant individuals both inspires and encourages me in ways I am not able to adequately describe. In my efforts to minister to people impacted by cancer, I am constantly interacting with people who are both skeptical and intellectually resistant to the Christian faith and many of these skeptics end-up passing away from their cancer without answering life’s basic questions about origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. I have mentioned in my blog posts many times how terminal cancer is often a trial with a deadline, causing many cancer patients to start thinking about the answers to these 4 questions which Ravi spent a lifetime trying to get people to consider and answer. Unfortunately, I do not have time to analyze all 4 of these questions. If you think about his last question about destiny or “where am I headed after I die”, the following are two quotes Ravi had to say about the one question which we will all have to provide an answer for before our time on earth is done (https://www.azquotes.com/author/16119-Ravi_Zacharias/tag/destiny):
“There is no greater discovery than seeing God as the author of your destiny.”
“I came to Him because I did not know which way to turn. I remained with Him because there is no other way I wish to turn. I came to Him longing for something I did not have. I remain with Him because I have something I will not trade. I came to Him as a stranger. I remain with Him in the most intimate of friendships. I came to Him unsure about the future. I remain with Him certain about my destiny. I came amid the thunderous cries of a culture that has 330 million deities. I remain with Him knowing that truth cannot be all-inclusive.”
As Ravi said in the four questions video I quoted earlier, our biggest problem is we still want to have it our own way. It amazes me how so many cancer patients go to their grave without answering Ravi’s last question which is “where am I headed after I die”? I will never forget a person who used to come to our Cancer Support Group a few years ago. I will call him “Bill” and he was a self-proclaimed religious seeker who used laughter to bring peace to himself and others. Towards the end of his cancer journey, I went and visited with him in his home while he was under the care of a home hospice nurse and pleaded with him one more time to consider putting his faith in Christ. He said he lived in many countries around the globe and had considered many of the religions of this world and he was not willing to proclaim Jesus as Lord, Savior and King. Instead, he liked parts of the various religions he had encountered over the years and he wanted to believe they were all true. As Ravi said, Bill wanted to do things his own way. He essentially wanted to create his own religion, and regardless if he realized it or not, he also wanted to be God as evidenced by his desires to create his own religion. In the end, I am not sure Bill knew what he believed, and, although only God knows what ultimately happened to Bill, his pride likely got in the way of him bowing his knee in repentance in faith to the Lord Jesus. Bill died a few days after I visited him, and his comments to me when I visited him a few days before he died still haunt me a few years later. When I visited him that last time, his laughter was gone and he also had no hope or peace, but he was adamant on doing it his own way. I could tell you more stories which are similar to Bill’s story, but I will save those for another blog post. Regardless, I think it is safe to say that I have observed more times than I care to mention how correct Ravi is in saying that our biggest problem is we want to do it our own way. John 14:6 tells us:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
I marvel at how Ravi spent 48 years challenging and encouraging people like Bill to consider the four questions we will all have to have answer in order to have a coherent worldview. Even in his final days, Ravi turned every conversation to Jesus and what the Lord had done for him. I know he labored to the very end because Michael Gryboski commented on his final days in the following May 19, 2020 Christian Post article called “‘Now with Jesus’: Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias dies at 74”:
“Zacharias’ daughter, Sarah Davis, posted a message on the website of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries on Tuesday, titled “Ravi Zacharias, Now With Jesus,” confirming that the apologist had passed away. “It was his Savior, Jesus Christ, that my dad always wanted most to talk about. Even in his final days, until he lacked the energy and breath to speak, he turned every conversation to Jesus and what the Lord had done,” she wrote. “He perpetually marveled that God took a seventeen-year-old skeptic, defeated in hopelessness and unbelief, and called him into a life of glorious hope and belief in the truth of Scripture—a message he would carry across the globe for 48 years.”
According to the RZIM website, Zacharias came to faith in Christ while recovering in a Delhi hospital from a failed suicide attempt at age 17. According to one of his essays, "Love Unsought", Ravi wrote the following about how he came to faith in Christ:
“Allow me to share a story from my own experience. As one searching for meaning in the throes of a turbulent adolescence, I found myself on a hospital bed from an attempted suicide. It was there that I was read the 14th chapter of John's Gospel. My attention was fully captured by the part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Because I live, you shall live also (John 14:19)”. I turned my life over to Christ that day, committing my pains, struggles, and pursuits to his able hands. Almost thirty years to the day after this decision, my wife and I were visiting India and decided to visit my grandmother's grave. With the help of a gardener we walked through the accumulated weeds and rubble until we found the stone marking her grave. With his bucket of water and a small brush, the gardener cleared off the years of caked-on dirt. To our utter surprise, under her name, a verse gradually appeared. My wife clasped my hand and said, "Look at the verse!" It read: "Because I live, you shall live also." A purposeful design emerges when the Father weaves a pattern from what to us may often seem disparate threads. Even today, if you will stop and attend to it, you will see that God is seeking to weave a beautiful tapestry in your life.”
Once Zacharias surrendered his life to Christ, he offered up a prayer that if he emerged from the hospital, he would leave no stone unturned in his pursuit of truth. In his service to Christ, he likely impacted the lives of tens of millions of people around the globe during his lifetime. One year, I heard he gave over 660 talks around the world and his associates often remarked about his relentless energy to share the gospel with everyone he encountered. He obviously left no stone unturned in pursuit of the truth.
One of my mom’s friends attended Fort Wayne (Indiana) Bible College and sang in a group formed by one of the College’s young faculty members who I will call Fred. After Ravi’s botched suicide attempt, Fred obviously had access to Ravi in the hospital in Toronto and I was told that Fred was used by God to lead Ravi to Christ. What a humbling privilege that must have been for Fred, and I am sure they remained friends for the rest of their lives. While Ravi was still living with his parents in Toronto, my mom’s friend had the opportunity to meet Ravi while he preached to the students in the music group that Fred helped create at Ft. Wayne Bible College, which I believe is now called The College of Biblical Studies. My Mom’s friend sent me a note this week about how happy she was to get the chance to meet Ravi earlier in life and to hear him teach from the bible on multiple occasions.
Once Ravi found the truth of the gospel, his passion for sharing it burned bright until the very end. Even as he returned home from the hospital in Texas, where he had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for his cancer, I read Zacharias was sharing the hope of Jesus to the three nurses who tucked him into his medical transport.
My heart mourns over the passing of an evangelist who had a passion to reach out to the skeptic and the intellectually resistant. He “saw the objections and questions of others not as something to be rebuffed, but as a cry of the heart that had to be answered,” said Michael Ramsden, president of RZIM said in a statement. “People weren’t logical problems waiting to be solved; they were people who needed the person of Christ”. In his quest to evangelize skeptics and resistant intellectuals, the following are just two examples of how Ravi desired to share the gospel in unique and challenging venues, which many evangelists might be too scared to show up at as they would likely consider such environments as hostile and people there unwilling to listen to what they had to say:
Christian recording artist, Fernando Ortega, had the following to say about Ravi in his 5-19-2020 Facebook post:
One of the most memorable and meaningful experiences I've ever had in my life was when Ravi was invited to speak at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. I was so truly honored that Ravi invited me to lead worship at the event, which was attended by thousands of Mormons. The place was absolutely packed, with congregants leaning over the balcony to listen closely to everything that was presented that night. There are many hymn melodies in our own evangelical canon that are used by the Mormons, though they use different texts than we do. I chose a handful of songs they would be familiar with but used the standard texts we are used to. I was thrilled when that massive congregation sang every note, full voice. The sound in that place! The Mormon Tabernacle is renowned for its stunning acoustics. And then Ravi stepped up to the podium. You could have heard a pin drop. His message was uncompromising, and his delivery was riveting - filled with the truths of the Gospel, and the people hung on every word. I believe Ravi was the first Evangelical Christian to fill that pulpit in more than 100 years. And I think I was the second Evangelical Christian musician to sing there. Anyway - the line to speak with Ravi afterwards was incredibly long. I remember afterwards how Ravi treated us to a delicious dinner at which he shared with us how the event came to be, and all the amazing and wonderful things that were going on behind the scenes.
Ravi was also known for going on college campuses and addressing the students directly. For example, on April 4, 2013, as documented in an article called “Why I am not an Atheist”, Ravi spoke before a capacity crowd at Princeton University. Below are some excerpts from that article:
"We really fail to understand where life goes if you choose to define it without God," Zacharias told the packed audience in McCosh Hall. How do we define the most essential things in life?" Zacharias asked Princeton students rhetorically. "We struggle to explain life without all points of reference... without any transcendental, ontic points of reference. Essentially, atheism points to meaninglessness in response to life's chief queries, notably ones surrounding death, suffering, and justice. In addition, a key missing ingredient from atheism is firm boundaries involving issues of morality. A philosophical view that denies God as an absolute moral giver, in turn, trivializes evil and desacralizes human life. Standards become relative. Among the ramifications to a life without God is the difficulty of anchoring morality. Without a transcendent lawgiver to establish morality, evil can be trivialized in relativism," Zacharias said. As such, Zacharias wholeheartedly rejects atheism. "I simply cannot find a rationally defensible way for moral reasoning," he said. "We are, at our core, moral beings."
From his hospital bed in Texas, Ravi wrote the following about how his faith continue to grow after he was diagnosed with cancer (https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-global/cancer-and-the-hope-of-easter-reflections-from-my-hospital-bed):
“I am writing this from a cancer hospital in Texas. Two months ago, I was startled after back surgery to learn I had sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, for which I am currently undergoing treatment. I have had a healthy life blessed by God, so this came as a shock. I have always believed in the power of the message of Easter, but I believe it even more so now. It is the ultimate message of hope beyond all hopes; in fact, it is the ultimate grounding of hope.”
As someone who has been ministering to people with cancer for over 13 years, I find his comments about the message of Easter and how he believed it even more post cancer diagnosis to be particularly encouraging to me. Here is a man who spent his whole life talking to people about Jesus and then he gets a terminal and inoperable cancer diagnosis and it causes him to believe in the message of the Gospel even more. If you think about his response for a minute, aren’t Ravi’s comments about his faith growing in response to his terminal cancer diagnosis just amazing? My pastor says to us all the time that, “you can’t just tread water with Christ. You are either swimming towards Him or away from Him, but you can’t just paddle in place with regards to your relationship with Christ”. If you were to ask me what is the most amazing observation I have made while serving people impacted by cancer, I would respond by saying how God uses trials to draw people into a relationship with Christ and how he also uses trials to deepen a believer’s faith in Christ. Ravi coming to faith in Christ after a failed suicide attempt shows how God can use a major trial to draw people into a relationship with Him. Additionally, Ravi’s response about believing the message of Easter even more once he started to digest the fact that the medical professionals were telling him that he had inoperable and terminal cancer provides yet another example of how cancer is a trial which can deepen our relationship the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, God can use a major medical trial like Cancer to draw someone like Ravi, who had spent a lifetime studying Jesus as evidenced by his ten honorary doctorate degrees in apologetics, into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the Christ the King. James 1:2-3 tells us:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
In Ryan Kohl’s interview with Ravi on March 9, 2012 (the recording of the interview and the corresponding article can be found at http://whatiwannaknow.com/2012/03/ravi-zacharias/), he asked Ravi questions about apologetic issues including Ravi’s criticisms of the new spirituality, Deepak Chopra, televangelists, the character of the Biblical God, and other topics. The following question is from that interview and Ryan asks Ravi if all religions should peacefully coexist? Ravi’s answer, detailed below, is classic Ravi Zacharias and I am providing it so you can gain a better appreciation for how he skillfully and accurately responded to difficult and complicated questions. In other words, he was able to correctly prove his answers to controversial questions without being offensive:
“Ryan’s Question to Ravi: There seems to be a growing number of people who believe all religions should peacefully co-exist. Recently Rob Bell released a book called “Love Wins,” and it essentially argued that truth would reveal itself eventually. What do you make of these arguments?
Ravi’s Answer: That’s a multifaceted question. The first part of it is a practical one. Can’t we all get along with our differences? The answer to that is absolutely and we should. Jesus himself came into a pluralistic culture; the whole nation of Israel was under the heal of the Roman. Jesus told them if the solider is asking you to carry his arms one mile, why don’t you walk the second also. That’s peaceful co-existence, that’s not resorting to arms to overthrow something, that’s winning through the triumphant nature of love. That’s the first part. The second part is that just because you give a person a right to believe something doesn’t mean that what the person believes is right. Some beliefs are clearly and plainly wrong and in the marketplace of ideas we need to be able discuss and disagree but not do so disagreeably. Thirdly, justice is an important virtue. Justice is not vice; it is not vile. If justice were not a virtue, why do we have our courts? Why do we have our police force? Why do we bring someone who has committed a violent crime to the court so that due justice is done to him? Justice is the firmest pillar of government said Plato. We need to have that. The question is who is the instrument of that ultimately? That is God himself. So, for Rob Bell to suddenly think that it all works out and that there is no justice, he is actually taking away what the virtuous necessity of life and eternity is all about. If he wants to say, “let God be the final judge.” I’m all for it. He’s made it clear in his word that they that are on the side of truth. “Listen to me,” said Jesus to Pilate. But, Pilate replied, “What is truth?” and walked away not wanting to hear it. So, I believe that learning to get along, learning to disagree without being disagreeable is a good pursuit, but justice is a virtue and God alone is pure in his justice and he will deal with those who have chosen even to spend eternity without him. For God to override that is to violate the most sacred thing he has given them which is the prerogative of their will. So, for a reason who rejects God even heaven will become hell if they don’t want the presence of God. One fundamental mistake Rob Bell makes in his book is that he doesn’t seem to understand the biblical concept of salvation. You see in every religion of the world, salvation is earned through works, whether it’s Hinduism, whether it’s Islam, all of them, and they will not deny that. In the Christian faith alone, you have a sequence of three: redemption, righteousness, and worship. You can never be righteous without being redeemed, you cannot worship without being redeemed and righteous. That is both a logical and chronological sequence. So, for him to talk about good people is to miss the heart of the Gospel. You can never be good until you’re first redeemed.”
Dr. John Neufeld, in his May 19, 2020 article titled “Thank you, Ravi Zacharias”, wrote the following about Ravi’s approach to apologetics:”
Sam Allberry, a global speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministry, mentioned that he had learned three lessons working with Zacharias.
The person matters more than the question.
Tone is as important as content.
The cross is the heart of the message.
Allberry added, “Ravi didn’t preach an argument, he used argumentation to preach a person.”
If you would like more examples of how Ravi was able to connect with his large audiences on a personal level, here is a tribute video (2 minutes & 41 seconds) on you-tube called “Ravi Zacharias – Thank you”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdEEyRNF6YE
In the early 2000’s, I had the humbling privilege of hearing Ravi preach in person for the first time. It was an amazing introduction to his ministry for me. When reflecting upon his ministry, thank you does not seem to be enough. However, because I am running into skeptics all the time in my cancer ministry, I am also thankful for how God used Ravi to seek, educate and minister to the resistant intellectual and the skeptics and how his ministry will continue to live on through RZIM as well as his books, radio and digital recordings. Additionally, thank you Ravi for teaching us that time is merely a temporal thing and that we were created to spend eternity with God. Thank you, Ravi, for teaching us to surrender to Him (Jesus), to follow Him, to love Him, to serve Him, to live for Him, and to take His message wherever we go. Finally, thank you for your 4 questions which every person needs to answer in order to have a coherent worldview. I loved how you challenged people to think through these things and how you pointed out that remaining undecided on the message of the Gospel is the same as rejecting the message of the Gospel. There are so many people who have terminal cancer who need to think about these four questions and determine if Ravi was correct in saying that the Christian faith is unique in its ability to provide answers to these 4 questions. Thanks be to God for the His faithful servant, Ravi Zacharias. To God be the glory!
“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)
Jim Risk, a two-time cancer survivor, is the volunteer Ministry Coordinator for the Cancer Support Group (CSG) at a non-denominational church in NE Ohio. Jim and his wife, Kristina, have participated and served in CSG, a Christian ministry, since 2007.