Vale Ravi Zacharias

May 19, 2020 by

by Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch:

The great Ravi Zacharias has just passed away. He was a true champion of God and for God:

The world has just lost one of the greatest Christian apologists and evangelists of recent times, and a wonderful, humble servant of God. Ravi Zacharias has just passed away after a battle with cancer of the spine. He was 74. There already are and will be many dozens of wonderful eulogies to this great saint of God, so there is little I can add to what is already being said.

But let me nonetheless offer a few words. He was born in India in 1946 to an Anglican family, but rebelled during his youth. He was suicidal as a teen, but found Christ at age 17. After completing studies in Canada, the US, and the UK he settled in the US where he established the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

His story is recounted in his 2006 book, Walking from East to West (Zondervan). I look at the volume in more detail – noting some similarities with his spiritual journey and mine – in this 2008 article: billmuehlenberg.com/2008/09/22/a-tale-of-two-men/

He had ministered all around the world, and spoken to many tens of thousands of people at universities and elsewhere, sharing the truth claims of biblical Christianity. He was without doubt one of our most important Christian apologists of the past century. Other names that come to mind include C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and William Lane Craig.

He had spine problems for a number of decades, and he often ministered while in quite a lot of pain. He of course wrote often on the issue of pain and suffering. He offered both philosophical and theological treatises on the topic, but he offered plenty of devotional and pastoral perspectives on it as well. As he once said, “We all want Canaan without going through the wilderness.”

The last days of his life were spent at his home in Atlanta with his wife of 48 years, Margaret, and his three children. His daughter Sarah had recently said this (May 9): “We know that God has purposed and numbered each of our days, and only He knows how many more Ravi will experience on this earth. … While we are full of so many emotions, we are also at peace, resting in the truth that God knows all and sees all and is sovereign and good. I think of the great joy my dad will have and I am comforted.”

Read here

See also:

Ravi Zacharias, by Amy Orr-Ewing, CEN [£]

Join Ravi Zacharias International Ministries for a livestreamed memorial service on May 29th

Related Posts

Tags

Share This