Josh Benner

Tag: Ravi Zacharias

  • Late evangelist Ravi Zacharias found to have committed sexual misconduct

    Ravi Zacharias was widely considered the greatest Christian apologist of the past generation. Zacharias died in May at the age of 74 after a brief battle with cancer. In recent months, accounts of a scandal which arose during his lifetime have again resurfaced.

    Background

    In December of 2017, Christianity Today ran an article where Zacharias was interviewed regarding a lawsuit settlement with a Canadian woman whom Zacharias had claimed sent her unsolicited and sexually explicit photos of herself. Zacharias had claimed that the couple had attempted to extort money from Zacharias.

    This summer, there were also new reports of multiple episodes of sexual misconduct from massage therapists at spas co-owned by Zacharias. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), an evangelistic organization founded by the late Zacharias announced an external investigation into his conduct. While the investigation is still ongoing, RZIM issued an update yesterday.

    In the statement, RZIM said:
    The interim investigation update indicates this assessment of Ravi’s behavior to be true—that he did indeed engage in sexual misconduct. This misconduct is deeply troubling and wholly inconsistent with the man Ravi Zacharias presented both publicly and privately to so many over more than four decades of public ministry. We are heartbroken at learning this but feel it necessary to be transparent and to inform our staff, donors, and supporters at this time, even while the investigation continues. We will speak more comprehensively to all concerned after the completion of the investigation.

    There can be a lot of responses for people who were fans and supporters of Ravi. For some, anger. For some, disbelief. But one thing that people should not feel is pity for Ravi. I know it can be tempting to think “he doesn’t have a chance to defend himself.” That’s not true. I think to Ravi’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations made during his lifetime. He was the one who got ahead of that story and made himself out to be the victim.

    There are actual victims of this misconduct, and even though Ravi is deceased, the truth still matters. There’s a popular and successful ministry that bears his name, and the misconduct of its founder matters.

    I loved the ministry and teachings of Ravi Zacharias. It was a great joy to be able to meet him when he visited my seminary. The fact that people like him went to Trinity influenced why I chose that seminary. I take no joy in these claims be substantiated. But when Christian leaders fall, it should be Christians who also lead the charge for what is right.

    I do think that we should appreciate RZIM acknowledging his misconduct. They also commissioned the investigation which found the wrongdoing. We don’t know if there were people in the ministry who may have known more about his misconduct and did nothing. But the organization is doing the right thing now and admitting to claims which could have a catastrophic impact on the livelihood of the ministry.

    How should people who loved Ravi’s ministry respond?

    If you’re someone like me who benefited from the teaching of Ravi Zacharias, what do you do? Do you burn any of his books you have? Do you ignore the accusations and assume he was righteous?

    We all do sin and fall short of the glory of God. And that includes our teachers. They too are imperfect. But when a scandal comes to light, that doesn’t mean that everything they ever taught or believed was wrong. There are certainly no shortage of Biblical figures who fell into major areas of sin. David comes to mind and the affair he had with Bathsheba. We still read the Psalms.

    David repented during his lifetime. For people who lead churches, Christian universities, and powerful ministries, there is often so much institutional effort to save face and to keep money coming in that there’s always a temptation to want to ignore or bury sin and scandal.

    But here’s a key difference. If the allegations against Ravi are true, not only did he never publicly repent nor acknowledge his sexual misconduct, he actually worked to control and obfuscate the narrative.

    I write so much about these scandals when they happen because too many Christians want to act as if there’s some righteousness in pretending that these things don’t happen.

    And the desire to turn a blind eye to sin is the same attitude which allows these people to continue to to real harm a they become powerful figures within ministries.

    Truth matters and truth is worth knowing. We shouldn’t make excuses for people. But as Christians, within churches, we must hold leaders accountable. But Ravi wasn’t a pastor! We must also have expectations for those who influence our thinking and theology, of those who write the songs we listen to and the books we read. Of those who we recommend to others, who’s YouTube videos we watch, and who we reference in conversations.

    So how should Christians and people who loved Ravi respond? I think we appreciate the impact that they had in our lives. You can’t just forget everything a great teacher ever taught you. And I’m not suggesting that everything he ever said or taught is now bad. But I also don’t think we should look to people who led double lives and never owned up to their sins in their lifetime for our Spiritual nourishment. There are too many other Godly teachers.

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  • 10 great quotes from Ravi Zacharias

    Photo courtesy of RZIM

    Earlier this week, the famed Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias passed away from cancer at the age of 74. Zacharias had an international ministry that took him across the globe defending the Christian faith and presenting the gospel. He had a prodigious travel schedule and wrote many books. He leaves behind a tremendous legacy and a wealth of wisdom and insight into human nature, society, and theology. What follows are some of my favorite quotes from Ravi.

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  • Remembering Ravi Zacharias: 1946-2020

    2015 Ravi Zacharias_PortraitThe renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias died today at the age of 74, after being diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer in March.

    To me, Ravi was a giant within contemporary Christianity. Many looked at Ravi as this generation’s C.S. Lewis. In one memorial, I heard Ravi described as a person who could help thinkers believe and believers think. I first stumbled upon his radio program as an 18 year old kid and I spent many, many hours listening to him over the years. When I chose a seminary to attend, the fact that Ravi had gone to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was one of the things which influenced me.

    Ravi presented the Christian faith and responded to the questions of skeptics all over the globe. He presented on university campuses in America; he regularly had events in his native India; he preached in Moscow shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He lectured in the Middle East. He was articulate and thoughtful. He was a cultural commentator who thought like a philosopher. But there was always a gentleness with how he approached complex and divisive subjects. He respected people with whom he disagreed and invited people in to see the Jesus whom Ravi loved.

    “Truth cannot be sacrificed at the altar of pretended tolerance. Real tolerance is deference to all ideas, not indifference to the truth.”

    -Ravi Zacharias

    Ravi presented Jesus as the only satisfactory and coherent explanation for the deepest longings of the human soul: our need for an explanation for our origin, destiny, meaning, and morality.

    Born in India, Ravi spoke many times about his struggles as a child. He grew up under intense pressure to succeed. As a child, he talks of his father’s explosive temper. At 17, he tried to take his own life by swallowing poison. While he was in the hospital, a Bible was brought to him and his mother was told to read to him from John 14.

    I had the opportunity to meet Ravi once, at an event when he came back to speak at Trinity. It was one of the highlights of my time in seminary. Former football player Tim Tebow recently talked about Ravi Zacharias on a viral Facebook post. He called Ravi one of his heroes. I agree with the sentiment. The heroes of our faith are people who are still fallen and fallible but who influence us, who touch our hearts, who point us to God, who influence how we think.

    Rest in peace Ravi. Well done, good and faithful servant.

    In the 1950s kids lost their innocence.
    They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term —the generation gap.

    In the 1960s, kids lost their authority.
    It was a decade of protest—church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

    In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self.
    Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion….It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.

    In the 1980s, kids lost their hope.
    Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.

    In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.

    In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore.

    -Ravi Zacharias

  • Apoloigst, theologian Norman Geisler dies at 86

    Dr.-Norman-Geisler-Interview.jpg
    Photo from the website of Norman Geisler. 

    Norman L. Geisler, a 20th century giant in Christian apologetics, theology, philosophy, and ethics passed away on Monday at the age of 86.

    He was an author, contributor, or editor of 127 books in his prolific academic career. He taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Dallas Theological. He was part of the committee that wrote the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy in 1978. He served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society and founded the International Society of Apologetics and two seminaries: Southern Evangelical Seminary and Veritas Seminary. (more…)

  • Controversial billboard raise questions about morality in atheism


    I saw a link to this article on Facebook this afternoon.

    A nationwide atheist organization called the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has been posting billboards that focus on individual atheist’s own personal statements pertaining to how they can be moral without the belief in a higher power. The signs have been posted in a handful of cities throughout the country, including my hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

    Over the past couple of weeks, there has been controversy about a billboard that has been removed from two locations.

    The billboard (pictured at the top of this post) was originally removed last week, after a local church complained and insisted that it be taken down. The billboard was posted on property owned by the church.

    The sign was reposted in another Columbus location, and was removed on July 5, after a local business complained, according to FRFF.

    Supporters of the billboards are pointing to societal intolerance of the atheistic viewpoint. Dan Barker is the co-chairman of FRFF and stated through the organization’s website:

    “Probably the number-one myth we need to dispel about atheism is that people can’t be good without supernatural beliefs, rewards and punishments, that people who don’t believe in a god are incapable of morality. Nonbelievers know that it isn’t what you believe, but how you act, that makes you an ethical or unethical person.”

    Certainly an atheist can decide what he or she thinks is moral and virtuous and act in accordance with those beliefs. And, an atheist can act in ways that would be viewed as ethical by the much of our society; I think that very few Christians would disagree on that level.

    But the problem is that the atheists are doing this out of a Judeo-Christian ethic, and simply removing God. For people to try to say they don’t believe in God and that they are moral is appealing to a standard that exists with mankind because there is religion.

    Without a God, I think it is nearly impossible to establish an actually working ethical theory.

    Here are some questions to think about pertaining to morality in a world without God:

    • What makes something good? Maybe you could argue that things are good because they cause happiness, and are enjoyed, but why are those things good? What about the things that cause happiness and which are enjoyed but which society deems to be bad? Why are those things bad if they produce happiness and are enjoyed?

    • Why do we have rights? I think most of us like to believe we have certain rights, but why do we have them? According to whom? In America, are the rights that we have established as rights rights just because we’ve established them? What if the founders had judged differently? Then would we not have those rights?

    • For instance, why is murder wrong? Because it deprives someone of life? But then why is that wrong?

    • In some parts of the world, people don’t enjoy the same rights that we do, is that right or wrong? When people are mistreated in other countries what is it that makes the mistreatment wrong? Is there an intrinsic belief that they have some type of value because they are humans? But that’s just an opinion, some would disagree. Perhaps someone like Kim Jong Il would disagree with you. Who would be right, you or him? Who wins? How do you decide? What is ultimately moral?

    • Why are people like Hitler considered evil? Without a divine giver or objective morality and purpose, how were his actions bad? Was it because he was depriving people of basic human rights? In the grand scheme of things, how do those actions or those people even matter?

    I think Ravi Zacharias puts it very interestingly:

    “When you accept the existence of goodness, you must affirm a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But when you admit a moral law, you must posit a moral lawgiver. That, however, is who you are trying to disprove and not prove. For if there is no moral law giver, there is no moral law.”

    jrb