For years, I have been wary of Ravi Zacharias. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy listening to him from time to time, but more that it always felt like he wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, get to the point. He could go on and on about some historical figure who couldn’t find reason within his own worldview, but Ravi just didn’t close the deal effectively, if at all.
I don’t share this post to toot my own horn, for I am just as deserving of wrath as Ravi (Luke 13), but his approach was one that got him invited to speak before cults and pagan world leaders. He defended praying with them because that was his “in” to share the gospel with them. What gospel though? Ravi should be famous for never closing the sale, preferring flowery arguments.
But we preach Christ crucified.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are not your own. You were bought with a price. And your master has a message for you to deliver with others. It is not your message to spruce up so the pagan will be more likely to want it. It is a message containing the words of life to those who are regenerated through it.
The sheep of Jesus will know his voice and follow him. The goats in the pasture are not the ones we are to cater to. It is the sheep. And while I don’t have an intrinsic sheep detector, I do have an external one. It is the gospel and the response to it.
As an elder, I spoke with church members about all sorts of topics, including apologetics. I always suggested the simplicity of knowing your Bible, believing it as true, and using it as the foundation of your argument. Unfortunately I had more people interested in defending the faith more like Ravi than like James White.
May God use the public napalm bomb of Ravi’s legacy to His eternal glory. Genesis closes with “what you meant for evil God meant for good” and we know that god does work all things together for the greatest good. We also know that the greatest good is the glorification of God. It sucks from this angle. But I trust that this has not usurped God’s will for us all.
