But we are the only ones who claim a new birth. It would have been very comfortable in a self-serving way to be the lone member of this organization and carry on with all of the privacy and all of the privilege of funding, etc. RZ: Definitive. RZ: Very important. I now look at my family tree and think it is remarkable. They know I’m a minister; they know what I do; they know my books; they know I’m preaching; they’ve heard my tapes, etc. I have so many questions for you. Contrary to what a lot of people think, although I’ve read and loved Francis Schaeffer, my calling and mind had already been shaped by then. JC: That’s a wonderful answer. I am seeking Him and his wisdom in a certain matter. He really. The ministry can induce laziness, especially in our kind of work where you repeat. RZ: I think there are two or three things that I feel are so important if the church is going to be the church among the leaders. Still, with the proviso that what follows below contains. What about the competence level of leadership? There will be people who let you down, and I’m sure we let other people down. He raised Joseph in a desert in order to use him in a palace. When I think of character, I just don’t think of obedience or of simply being aligned with the claims of God upon your life. They translated the first Malayalam-English dictionary, which is one of the most difficult languages in the world. In that interview (which I strongly suggest you read before proceeding with this article), Mr. Baughman outlined evidence for some very concerning behavior, including claims that Mr. Zacharias has consistently fabricated details about his academic history as well as that he engaged in sexually predatory behavior. SB: It’s funny, that question (or something close to it) is probably the question I’ve been most often asked by Ravi defenders. English writers have also helped me greatly. If a leader is not competent, many things will fall by the wayside. If your heart is in the right place, your fiscal accountability should be under some one else’s scrutiny, and I keep that under my wife’s scrutiny. You have the calling to be an expositor of the Gospel. God raised Moses in a palace in order to use him in a desert. I would probably say the most powerful book I read in the eighties that changed my thinking an awful lot is G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. This appeared in numerous early newspaper announcements for his preaching events. None of that changes the importance of the story. We are talking about leadership, and you probably have a lot of different ideas of how we could develop this, but is there anything you feel needs to be said about leadership in general? | Courtesy of Passion Conference/Phil Sanders Two days before Christmas, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirmed that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years. I looked at him and said, “Sir, I don’t even know you.” He said, “I’m going to trust you.” I said, “You know, that is a lot of money to take from a stranger. There was Sam Wolgemuth, who was also the great Youth for Christ International Director. The truth is that Ravi left the University after his first year. Well, Cover-Up in the Kingdom fulfilled a similar service. .) It’s the calling of God that prepares your heart and prepares the place for your heart. I’m away from home fifty percent of the time. Our speakers, events, and all our content are entirely supported by donations. ), In his memoirs, Walking from East to West, Ravi describes his near brush with a Vietcong ambush in 1971. I take very few within the Christian world. Unbelievers once revered the church and its teachings, but today they scorn them. As for my more recent discoveries, sadly, there are many. Major John Carter: In our leadership class, Zacharias, we discussed metaphors or images which guide leaders. I believe it is important to have that. I really think that today, as Christian apologists, that the biggest challenge to the faith is not an intellectual question. RZ: Low points were generally induced by fatigue. Ravi’s denomination, the Christian & Missionary Alliance, covered it up and issued a press release that was carefully crafted to say absolutely nothing. Hinduism does. The founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries on his new book, ‘The Logic of God.’ Ravi Zacharias has spent the better part of his life answering questions about Christianity . I now think of worship as the clue to the meaning of life. Ravi, a highly regarded speaker, author, and apologist, died a few months ago. One of the last interviews I did with Chuck Colson, back when we started “BreakPoint This Week” as a weekly interview program on radio, was with Ravi Zacharias. And if that is true of the common person in conversion, how much more true it must be of ones in leadership. That was the first thing; God took me there. No doubt, I am a hundred percent sure in my heart that God’s calling is on my life to do this work of a Christian apologist. Then, as time went on, because of the reluctance in my own heart, I would say Moses became a model for me: “Here I am, send Aaron.” I always felt unprepared and ill-prepared for this. Davis. She needs to know what checks I issue; she needs to know what I withdraw, and to me this is a very real thing that we talk about. Further Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview on Ravi Zacharias’ Confabulations April 3, 2020 by Randal In September 2018, I interviewed Steve Baughman about some concerning allegations pertaining to the conduct of widely revered Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Ravi was not only a significant personal influence for me, he was a great friend of this ministry for years. “The bodies of the four passengers were strewn across the side of the road, bullet-riddled and dead.”  That is what he said in the 2005 book. Today’s interview is with Ravi Zacharias. Sharma said one of the interviews was conducted about a month and a half ago by attorneys with Miller & Martin—the firm hired by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) to investigate allegations that Zacharias had abused therapists at the spas. Noting all this for the record is, I think, a worthwhile pursuit. That was just one link, but there were a series of links from John Stott directing me to the seminary to the man, Mr. D.D. So the information is out there, but it seems to have no effect on business as usual. I think if character is not there, you are not only destroying the role that you are called to, but the message that you are carrying. JC: That is so very true. However, the passion and the end will not automatically come together because it takes competence to get you there. Your time with the Lord is so critical. Why don’t you just leave him alone?! I was empty, purposeless. How you deal with members of the opposite sex, how you deal with fatigue, the challenges to your capacity, and the parameters of your own capabilities. And prior to that in my undergraduate studies, from a methodology point of view, there were people like John Montgomery in the early days. The office is where you manage a group of people. But twenty years ago when this ministry as an organization was formed, I moved from being an itinerant evangelist to an itinerant evangelist-apologist. My great-grandfather and my grandfather were linguists. My professors were very influential in my life in the early days—people like Norm Geisler, his impact on me. My executive committee has time alone with me. It’s the Webster’s of the Malayalam language. Ravi Zacharias: I think the best description I would give is that of a “privileged servant.” That would be the best description. Two days before Christmas, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirmed that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years. I’m just a few months younger than he is, but Joseph has modeled a lot for me. I really believe that I am also accountable to my wife and children. When I was first taken in by Ravi’s powerful preaching in early 2015 I had no idea what was in store. The year I published my Ravi book I also completed a book of Gospel guitar arrangements and recorded an album of banjo solos, plus took care of my business as a partner in a law firm. a ‘professor at Oxford’” or “No, the suicide threat he made to cover up his online misconduct is a forgery!”  Instead it has been about my motives. JC: What about accountability structures? If you do not lead, somebody else will. Ravi, a highly regarded speaker, author, and apologist, died a few months ago. If you are not getting the sleep, your body is being subject to a lot of strain. He reasoned with Felix of righteousness and self-control and the things to come—the judgment and points of relevance, points of reference, points of disturbance—which is what apologetics is all about. He was born and grew up in India, before immigrating with his family to… I think Billy Graham made a very simple statement years ago when he said it was a great day in his life when he learned that God can use good organization. In that interview (which I strongly suggest you read before proceeding with this article), Mr. Baughman outlined evidence for some very concerning behavior, including claims that Mr. Zacharias has consistently fabricated details about his academic history as well as that he engaged in sexually predatory behavior. A prominent Canadian religious broadcaster wrote me and said she read the book in one sitting and that it is “teaching us a tough and needed lesson, and God’s work in our lives is better because of it.” I’m not sure what she means, though. This is ironic for the man who so often recounts his “bed-of-suicide” promise to God; “I will leave no  stone unturned in my pursuit of truth.“. So all of this, being raised in India, living in the West, connecting now between East and West, there is no doubt in my mind that my calling, my upbringing and conversion, there is a very real strand tying it all together. If I dropped the story it would never be told. They do in terms of their writing. My pastors I worked under while I was a young man. It is important. We also see it in his, at the 2012-2013 Southern Evangelical Seminary catalogue, (page 83.) Now I know that you’ve continued to research Zacharias in the last two years. Now, even more irrelevant to the growing mountain of evidence against Ravi Zacharias, nobody should assume that I spend my whole life sitting around thinking about the man. He plumbs the depths of the Scriptures and keeps God always as God before us and we as his creation. (Last week I documented  my findings here.) That impression begins to grow, nurtured by your reading and your studies. It should never be underestimated. People are looking for that. , A new discovery for me is that Ravi presented himself for years as having earned a BA from the University of New Delhi. SB: Thank you for being one of the few Christians to take the Zacharias deceptions seriously. I almost want to nuance it with the idea of giftedness because sometimes you can teach a lot of skills on exposition but a person may not have the competence or the giftedness to do it. RZ: I think to me there is a very clear relationship. And more. Those are the issues I address today and people sit up and listen. The new revelations concerning Ravi Zacharias have shocked much of the evangelical world, but they’re no surprise to Steve Baughman. I do not like leaving home and yet half of my life is spent on the road. But in 1971, a few months after the event, he told his student newspaper at the Ontario Bible College that he saw “a bullet riddled car and a blood soaked body.”  So the body count had quadrupled. Find more thoughtful content on these topics in RZIM Answers. ), , Ravi describes his near brush with a Vietcong ambush in 1971. Out of the fifty-two weeks of the year, there are maybe two weeks when I’m by myself writing. If you are called to lead and you don’t lead, somebody else will. (Neither Ravi nor SES have responded to my several requests for comment. God always works in some marvelous and mysterious ways. Has there been any time over the past in which you felt your calling has changed to some degree? Margie and I were walking out, and there was a man standing there. How has it been received by evangelical leaders? You spoke about your calling, and this is a personal question: Was there anything that came as a confirmation of your calling to do this type of work more than anything else? Apologetics does not dominate our message; it undergirds our message. My wife needs to know where my money goes if I’m spending it. I am more and more convinced, as the seventies and eighties have brought to our attention, you cannot have lone horses out there. Then, accountability to my executive committee, where they talk to me and ask me the questions they want. My great grandfather translated the works of Shakespeare and Arabian Nights; he was a linguist. Nobody should care what I am doing with my life, but they can google me if they do. Zacharias Described His Wife as a ‘Beautiful Blend of the Irish & Scottish’ Zacharias said in a 2018 … Tim Tebow. The change came when I recognized that I needed to be in hostile and adversarial areas because those are where the people are that need to be rescued. and keep going that way, but I never wanted it that way. I think in my conversion, there are two or three things. In terms of the leadership model, I also learned by observing fine pastoral men. The one who had such a tender heart towards so many things and yet had to be taken into such tough situations. I think John Piper is clearly one of my favorites. There is something in your heart that God seals, and when I look at the way it has happened, the steps one after another, I could never have engineered any thing like this. In the earliest days, when I first looked at my calling, Jeremiah was the one, as the weeping prophet. In January, we called together fifty friends, and this ministry was born in August of 1984. I was raised in the Anglican Church, and I never knew Christ. Attacks on Christianity and the church are rampant in today’s society. Still, it is important to me to document the record as best as I can. How do I do this? Ravi Zacharias: Janet, good to be with you and your gathering around your home. We also see it in his faculty bio at the 2012-2013 Southern Evangelical Seminary catalogue, (page 83.) Stott, John Montgomery, Norm Geisler, John Gerstner, Carl Henry, and Kenneth Kantzer. I went back to my room and picked up our bags. She sat back in her seat and chuckled and said, “That’s a lot of money.” I was a seminary professor. Given that it has been more than a year since. There was John Tiebe, who was a Canadian and was a Youth for Christ Director in Delhi under whose watch I really came to know Christ. It is a dramatic tale of God‘s intervention in the life of a very special 17-year-old who had attempted to take his own life. John Stott played that early role when I was looking for a seminary and he directed my paths to Trinity. In fact, the only time I am alone is when I’m writing, which happens maybe twice a year for a week. Fire begets fire. I would rather step back and let somebody else do it in the forefront, so Moses became that model leader that I looked at. I’ve never wanted to be away from my wife and kids for any period of time, and yet that’s what I have to do in my itinerant world. The first of which is I have such an interest in the writings of Oscar Wilde. I think it is one of the greatest books ever written. about some concerning allegations pertaining to the conduct of widely revered Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. I was flying back from there and I thought to myself, Apologetics… How desperately it is needed. But before RZIM was formed, I was a professor at Nyack, the Alliance seminary, and I had just spoken for Billy Graham in Amsterdam in 1983. There are different types, of course, but the Son of Man came to seek and to serve. This, of course, is not a trivial matter. Crooked preachers are sooo “dog bites man” for them. I cannot tell you what it is, just pray for us.” They did not even know that I had resigned from the seminary, effective one year after that. Our current culture doesn’t leave too much room for in-person conversations. In September 2018, I interviewed Steve Baughman about some concerning allegations pertaining to the conduct of widely revered Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. I don’t travel alone. Also, the wife God gave me, who affirmed and reassured me. We should not underestimate the role of leadership. You see, the pulpit can become quite the show window for a person and it can become a big ego thing. I stay in areas where I am known by the hotel personnel, so I am accountable in that sense. He passed away very suddenly two years ago. A true appraisal of my own heart and every man and woman’s heart is that we need to be humble before God. But if you tell me where you live, I will fly in sometime in the next two months to see you. They were priests in South India, the top rung of priests. Today it is almost a manufactured profession. I have a doctrinal accountability to a denomination. Packer, John R.W. The disciplines that are needed for sermon preparation and delivery will be taken for granted. I have never been able to deny this or speak in laudable terms or in less than laudable terms than just to tell you the way I am or who I am. I actually parted ways with my literary agent when I told her I wanted to write a book defending atheists. There is a fraternity that we all must have. More important, as Evangelism, Inc. ignored my findings over and over, I realized that this is about much more than Ravi Zacharias. Is there a role you want me to play?’” The man said, “I have no idea what it is you are seeking wisdom for, but I just got off my knees with God impressing me to give you a check for $50,000.”. Two years ago, Steve published an exposé on Ravi, revealing a pattern of sexual misconduct and deception by the famous apologist and those around him.Yet few paid any attention. I actually parted ways with my literary agent when I told her I wanted to write a book defending atheists. I think that comes through my mother, who was a very tenderhearted woman. You are in effect becoming a counterpoint to what it is you are propagating. Abnormally born as it were, wrenched from the womb (in terms of calling), the convergence of various cultures into his life—the Greek, the Hebrew, the Roman, and now speaking to the Christian. Looking at Jeremiah and the demands God placed on him, with all of the questions that he had, he was always raising questions before God, Why, why, why? Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Ravi Zacharias, Steve Baughman, Copyright © 2021 • Randal Rauser • A Steady Site. 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