Editor’s Note: Go read all of the great material at Didacticmind.com.
Our favourite resident psychopath, The Dizzle hizzself, put up a long video a couple of days ago on the Ravi Zacharias scandal. It is worth watching in full to understand what went wrong:
For those of you who don’t have a clue, or are not Christians, here is a basic rundown. You can read more about it in detail here.
Ravi Zacharias was one of the most famous and respected Christian apologists in the world. The organisation that he created around his teaching and missionary work spread the Gospel of Our Lord far and wide. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries overall, and the man himself, are responsible for bringing THOUSANDS of men an women to the Lord. All of that is wonderful, of course.
But allegations had been swirling around Ravi for some time, about highly inappropriate and even outright abusive behaviour around women at various massage parlours and spas. Back in 2017, one of his victims came forward and suffered considerable ridicule and scorn at the hands of much of the Christian community, because she dared to besmirch the character of one of its greatest leading lights… or so many thought, at the time.
The full details of the investigative report, conducted by an independent agency, are now available online. They prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Ravi Zacharias did exactly what many of his victims said he did. He was far from the holy man that many thought he was. In fact, he was a sexual predator.
The Dizzle breaks down, in considerable detail, exactly how Ravi probably went from pious man of God and loving husband, father, and grandfather, to pervert and abuser of women. And he explains exactly why a great man like that could fall so low. It’s not actually that hard to understand.
I won’t go into too much detail about that. Watch the video and find out for yourself. I do, however, want to take a few minutes to note the folly of trusting in men.
First, though, let’s take a look at how you should handle a crisis like this.
To its immense credit, RZIM has refused to hide or avoid responsibility. They made the full findings public, and apologised without reservation to the victims of their founder’s abuse. They repented of their earlier sins and humbly asked for forgiveness from those women that Ravi abused and silenced.
That is how you handle an awful situation like this. You step up, take ownership, and refuse to hide behind a wall of denials and lawyers. Take heed of this, brothers, for it is an instructive lesson in how you must live your own life.
More than anything else, though, the Ravi Zacharias scandal teaches us what most Christians forget:
Our faith DOES NOT come from men.
It comes instead from God-made-man. Our faith roots itself in the eternal sacrifice that the living God, Jesus Christ Himself, made on the Cross. God quite LITERALLY died for us – for you, specifically.
THAT is the root and core of our faith.
I did not come to Christianity because of any one apologist, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. I regard the work that Ravi Zacharias did as a preacher with great respect. Having watched many of his best videos and listened to many of his best arguments, I greatly respect his eloquence and passion for the Gospel.
But I did not come to Christ because of any one man.
Oh, certainly, men helped me to get there. Many of them read this site. Men like LTC Tom Kratman, and a certain friend of mine down south, and Last Redoubt, and Sean Carnegie, and others. These men helped me to understand why Christianity makes sense. They showed me where to look and what to read.
But the last step was one that only I could take. It was by far the hardest. And that step involved believing that a man, who is God, died for my sins and rose from the dead.
If you eliminate the “who is God” part of that last sentence, then you can only call the Christian faith one thing:
BATSHIT INSANE.
That’s the literal truth. You HAVE to be insane to believe that a man voluntarily died for your sins, and for those of everyone around you. You have to be PSYCHOTIC to believe that the same man rose from the dead.
But the moment that you insert the “who is God” back into the sentence above, then it makes perfect sense.
We are beneficiaries of substitutionary atonement. That’s just a big fancy term for: “God died for you, so don’t be a dick – thank Him”.
The fact that God died for us, though, does not mean that we automatically fix ourselves. We don’t. If it were that easy, then EVERYONE would be a Christian. All you have to do is mutter some mumbo-jumbo about “Christ is wuzza wuzza Holy Spirit argle bargle in nomine Whatsit rhubarb rhubarb Amen”. And you’re saved.
Let’s leave that sort of nonsense to the Moose Limbs. Christians don’t get off anywhere nearly so easy.
When we become Christians, we have to actively fight against the temptations that drove us to Christ in the first place. And it’s REALLY FREAKIN’ HARD WORK. We ALL fail, because temptation is easy and alluring.
That is why not one Christian – NOT ONE – is worthy of entrance into Heaven. Not one of us is even worthy to spit-shine Jesus’s sandals. His Hugeness Himself said so – go read your Bible and you’ll see it right there, plain as day.
The Big Cheese also warned against men like Ravi Zacharias – seemingly righteous men of great and wise conduct, who in reality were worse than the most depraved of public sinners. Why? Because those depraved sinners show their sin in public. Those who hide their sins, and lie about them, are much, much worse.
And if you base your faith on the works of mere men, you will be disappointed.
Root your faith instead in the unbreakable rich soil that is Christ Jesus. Only He was without sin. Only He could forgive and heal others on His own authority. And only He had the power to redeem all of Mankind – with a gift that every one of us is free to accept or reject.
If you accept that gift, you will spend the rest of your life fighting against temptation. It will be a long, miserable, and horrible fight. You will lose almost all of the battles.
But you will have won the war.
If, however, you accept that gift and then continue to sin while telling yourself that you are somehow specially exempted, you are a fool. Worse, you are a lying fool. You are lower than the whores in the street, the drunks in the bar, even the confessed rapists and murderers in prison.
Why? Because at least they admit their sins and accept what they are.
You, on the other hand, blind yourself to your own hypocrisy and faithlessness. And you deserve whatever you get at that point.
Ravi Zacharias certainly is getting whatever he deserved, right now. I doubt he’s enjoying his sentence. None of us are going to enjoy God’s judgement upon us. But we can at least ameliorate some of that judgement.
How? By simply being honest with ourselves and the world.
I will tell you right now that any of you who listens to me or thinks that I am some paragon of virtue, is sorely mistaken.
I have certainly fornicated. The fact that I was and am utterly loyal to just one woman, is no excuse.
I have assuredly cursed God. The fact that I have bitterly repented of this fact, makes no difference.
And I am extremely guilty of the great sin of Pride. I know I’m extremely good at what I do, and that I have a wide range of talents. Naturally, I have no problem with showing off that fact. Plenty of people dislike me for that precise reason. The fact that I admit to it and try – however badly – to tamp down on that tendency, offers no refuge.
The difference is that I admit my sins publicly and tell anyone and everyone who listens to me that he should not trust a single word that I say. And that is because I know that if you put your faith in me, you are bound to be disappointed.
If, however, you put your faith where it belongs – in Almighty God – then you will never be disappointed.
So don’t put your faith in weak and wavering men. Put it in the hands of Jesus Christ, who is God, and see it repaid a thousandfold.
