It was a Tuesday night at around 9pm on 19 May 2020 when my dad suddenly shockingly remarked "Ravi Zacharias died!" We were like "Huh? Really?!" So just to be sure it wasn't some WhatsApp fake news going around, I went to check it out myself and to my dismay, yes, yet another hero of the faith has been called home (ಥ﹏ಥ)
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| ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ |
- Billy Graham [1918-2018, 99 years old] - Internationally renowned American evangelist
- Rev. Rick Seaward [1955-2018, 63 years old] - Founding Pastor of Victory Family Centre, Singapore (Rev. Dr. Fred's son)
- Rev. Dr. Fred Seaward [1930-2019, 89 years old] - Founding Pastor of Bethel Assembly of God, Singapore (Rev. Rick's dad)
- Reinhard Bonnke [1940-2019, 79 years old] - Internationally renowned German evangelist
A mournful sense of shock came over me. Mournful because he has had an immense impact on my Christian life. Shocked because the cancer was discovered in early March and treatment began in early April and he was gone shortly after :'(
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| Ravi Zacharias' 48th and last wedding anniversary :'( Shortly after their anniversary, Ravi passed on (ಥ﹏ಥ) |
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| ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ |
Of the Christian spiritual giants that left us recently, none had more impact on my life than Ravi Zacharias. You would've thought that Fred or Rick Seaward would have a more direct impact on my life - in a sense yes, because they were both involved in founding the church that I grew up in and for that, I'm eternally grateful - but in another sense no, because I had little contact with them.
Did I have contact with Ravi Zacharias? In a sense yes - through his books & videos - and also in a sense no, because I've never met him personally nor shook his hands. But I met him through his books in a very special time of my young Christian walk.
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| Ravi and his wife, Margaret Reynold. A 48th wedding anniversary wish from their daughter, Sarah Davis |
- "Who made God?"
- "How do you know Jesus is the only God?"
- "Didn't science already tell us that the 'Big Bang' created the universe, not Jesus?"
- "If God is good, then why is there evil and suffering? Its existence disproves the existence of God”
- "Evolution created us. We came from a single cell that birthed from chemical reactions in primordial Earth where it was filled with different kinds of gases"
- "If God is all-knowing, and if He is all-good, then why would He even create the tree of life to cause Adam and Eve to sin? He put it there knowing FULL WELL that they would sin and YET, HE STILL DID IT. HOW IS THIS GOD WORTHY OF MY WORSHIP?!"
I didn't backslide because I was unable to answer these questions though. God was still utterly real to me because of my many encounters with Him during church services and in my private prayer & worship sessions with Him.
I came to believe in Jesus not because I was intellectually convinced, but because I was undeservedly loved - not just by my encounters with God, but also through His people.
I believe this holds true for many of my friends in church as well. We are primarily emotional beings, not intellectual ones. If we all lived our lives 100% by intellect, this world would be very much in a perfect state.
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| Ravi & Margie on their wedding day, 7th May 1972 (♥‿♥) |
What happened to our intellect when:
- We got lazy and replaced our run routine with a Netflix binge?
- Our doctor told us to not eat oily foods when we're sick and we still went to have our favourite char kway teow?
- We decided to talk bad about your colleagues to your boss so you could gain favour over them?
- We decided to listen to rumours about what someone said about someone and you blocked them and stopped all communication with them?
- A teacher gave in to his lust and slept with his pretty 20-year-old student in exchange for giving her good grades?
- We watched bullying and injustice happen in front of us but we didn't intervene? (That's how 6 million Jews got murdered by the way, because of the silence of the good Germans)
I believe I've illustrated well enough that we are not primarily led by our minds. But just in case that wasn't clear enough, I've a real-life example too. In my secondary school days, I have always shared Christ and brought a lot of my classmates to church. But I've this friend in particular that refused to come church or even give Christianity a thought.
Years later, I one day saw him post about some Jesus-stuff on Facebook and I was shocked. I then came to realize that because he fell in love with a CHRISTIAN GIRL, he went to church...and from there became a legit follower of Christ!
So much for our intellect eh? So that's my case for coming to faith. Intellectual boundaries are usually a tiny little hurdle or a convenient excuse to commit ourselves to a God that demands our whole lives - or at least every Sunday of our lives to go to church. LOL.
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| "When you walk away from Christ, you will miss him. Because you will never be able to make sense of your questions." |
If God is real and Christianity is true, then these questions should be answerable.
How can truth not stand up to scrutiny?
"What you cannot defend, you cannot own" is a saying that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is built upon. If we can't defend our country, then we can't own it. Why? Because any enemy can just walk in, take over and he will own you.
Same it is for worldviews. If you can't defend it from attacks, then it will be crushed by its opponents. Whatever you believe in then just becomes a stupid fairy tale.
So, I began my journey to find the answers to these questions. I asked the friends around me in church - they were as stumped as I am - some were even unmoved by such questions because they're not even thinking about such things.
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| "Jesus does not offer to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive." |
His answer went something like "You see, this is the problem with mankind - we will never admit that we are sinful. This guy is trying to push the blame to God and this is simply proof that whatever the Bible says about the sinful nature of man is true."
"But...", I replied, "this guy doesn't even believe in God nor the Bible, so whatever the Bible says doesn't matter to him, because, to him, it's all bullshit."
His final reply before the conversation took another turn was "Don't try to argue with such people. You will have to win him through love."
His answer echoes Ravi Zacharias' approach. One of Ravi's classic quotes is this:
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| "Love is most powerful apologetic. It is the essential component in reaching the whole person in a fragmented world. The need is vast, but it is also imperative that we be willing to following the example of Jesus and meet the need." |
His answers were not wrong, but it doesn't disarm the questioner. Such answers don't answer the question or render the question invalid by means of a higher logic.
I continued throwing these questions around to my leaders, seniors in the faith and also my parents. LOL. Guess what? All of their replies revolve around the same idea - not answering the question directly, but rather suggesting all sorts of approaches. Let me share with you some of their replies:
- "Why you think so much ah? Christianity is very simple. Just have faith! It is the simple faith that will get you saved!"
- "This kind of people ah, you need to pray for them. Let the Holy Spirit convict their hearts in His own time, but meanwhile, keep praying for them."
- "Why don't you bring him to church? Let him encounter the presence of God and be loved by the many brothers & sisters in Christ here and all these questions will melt away!"
What Bill Maher witnessed is the kindness of Christians. But they were unable to defend the Gospel. His questions tore apart their entire belief and made them look stupid. This is what happens when you can't defend what you own - you risk losing your faith when attacked - just like how we risk losing Singapore when attacked by our enemies and we have no defense force.
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| "I have little doubt that the single greatest obstacle to the impact of the Gospel has not been its inability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out." |
If you're wondering if I ever got the answer to question 6, yes I did. And I will share with you the answer in detail probably in the latter part of this post or if you ask me. LOL. But if you truly want the whole deal, here's some books that shaped my apologetics:
- Ravi Zacharias - "Can Man Live Without God?" and almost all his books are apologetics-centric
- Lee Strobel - "The Case for Creator", "The Case for Faith" and "The Case for Christ"
- Dr. Norman Geisler - "Christian Apologetics"
- John Ortberg - "Faith & Doubt"
- Timothy Keller - "The Reason for God"
- C.S. Lewis - "Mere Christianity"
I watched them and I. was. blown. away. He addressed the questions sharply, fearlessly and most importantly, lovingly & respectfully. He would always begin his answer with a quote from a respected scientist/philosopher/poet/author, whetting your appetite before going in for the kill - ending your question.
From that day on, I watched more videos of Ravi and would go on to buy one of his books that would fortify my faith. The very first book I bought was back 2009 when I was on a mission trip with Ps Aaron, Joselyn & Zi Hui in Iloilo, Philippines. You can read my ancient blog post on that at this URL: https://historymakers-jonnyboy.blogspot.com/2009/04/philippines-mission-trip_15.html
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| My first ever Ravi Zacharias book that I bought - "Can Man Live Without God" |
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| Dating back 11 years ago! Look at the yellow-ed pages! |
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| 4 necessary questions: Origin, meaning, morality, destiny. 3 tests for truth: Logical consistency, empirical adequacy, experiential relevance. |
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| Four fundamental questions of life that every thinking person should ask |
This is where I respect Ravi so much. With his great intellect, cogent eloquence, witty rhetoric and a huge following, he could easily belittle his opponents or questioners. But no, he doesn't. Instead, he lovingly and respectfully reaches out to them and draws them in with artistic poems, historical references, philosophical perspectives, scientific discovery, and gently invites them to think. That, I think is the single greatest quality that I (and so many others) admire - his humility.
At 1:43 of this video he words his philosophy of answering the questioner beautifully:
In case you're too lazy to watch that few minutes of video (LEL), here's the script:
“I tell my colleagues: we’re not answering a question; we’re answering a questioner. And we remind ourselves that when you’re answering a person, you’re literally and figuratively putting your arms around them. You have to draw them close. You have to make them feel you really care about them, that this is not just a mechanistic response you're giving."In one of the tributes to Ravi, this trait was being highlighted by Michael Ramsden, the president of RZIM (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries) and one of the founders of the Oxford Centre of Christian Apologetics.
This trait of his is definitely what makes him so endearing, so approachable and so well-received by Christians and skeptics alike.
This is also mentioned in the Bible in 1 Peter 3:15-16, the famous go-to verse for apologetics:
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed." 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV)
Here we find the root word for "apologetics". In the script's original language, the Greek word "apologia" is used. It is translated to the English word "defense" in the NKJV above and also translated as "answer" in the NIV and several other versions. But what "Apologia" really means is:
- verbal defense, speech in defense
- a reasoned statement or argument
His humility, authenticity, conviction, intellect, wit, eloquence and heart for people makes him a rare specimen in the kingdom of God. He is truly a portrait of a loving father: His warm smile, wise words, patient discourse and loving posture makes me love & miss him so much.
Now that he's gone, my hope of meeting him in real life is dashed. The only thing that I have in my possession to remind me of him is his books. The sentimental value of these stacks of paper just went up exponentially.
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| My collection of Ravi Zacharias books as of 2020 |
Interestingly enough, out of the 5 books above, I only bought 1 one of them! LOL. The other 4 were all birthday presents! HAHA.
I guess after I got the first book, I was so mind-blown by it that I kept talking about it to my friends. So, when it was time to get me a birthday present...they didn't need to think that hard ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ
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| The Grand Weaver |
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| Part of a 3-book gift series from Anna, Abigail and Jeremy+Meryl (｡◕‿◕｡) |
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| Has Christianity Failed You? |
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| A decade old and no, Christianity has not and will never fail me |
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| Recapture the Wonder |
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| Last of the 3-book series 21st birthday present. Thanks again guys! ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ ) |
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| The Logic of God |
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| Unread. Will devour this soon, with a heavy heart (◔̯◔) |
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| One of my favourite photos of Ravi. You seldom see him in a whacky mode. HAHA (~˘▾˘)~ |
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| I pray that Zinky & I will still have this look of love for each other at that age (♥‿♥) :') |
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| Beautiful God-fearing couple (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) |
The integrity of his walk with Christ is what many great preachers lack today. Sure, there may be better orators than him, but when you scrutinize their lives, they fall terribly short of the words they preach. Here you find a man of God, coherent in his walk and talk.
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| Ravi's instagram post when he first discovered he had cancer |
These 2 guys gave me the framework to answer some of the toughest questions posed to Christianity. With that framework in mind, I then went back to those YouTube questions posed by the proud, self-professed atheists.
That's when question number 6 (as listed above) was posed to me. I replied him in the spirit of Ravi, gentle & respectful and there were several back & forth messages on YouTube messages. I realized that this chat-inbox function on YouTube is no longer there. Dayum. Anyway, long story short, that guy couldn't reply me so he just stopped texting me thereafter.
Sure, he had good questions. But when faced with the answer and the destruction of his question, he didn't say "thank you" or "I will consider Christianity" and stuff. He just went silent. Probably his pride got broken.
I'm not sure if he was truly seeking truth, or just throwing out his doubt with pride. The actuality of it is - he doesn't have an answer himself.
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| Tribute post on instagram for Ravi quoting him "A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God." |
Question back their worldview. Usually, their worldview is bankrupt and their answer is sad and hopeless because in a God-less world, everything is meaningless.
So right, now I will attempt to answer question number 6 again. If you missed the question earlier, here it is again. This time in bold:
"If God is all-knowing, and if He is all-good, then why would He even
create the tree of life to cause Adam and Eve to sin? He put it there
knowing FULL WELL that they would sin and YET, HE STILL DID IT. HOW IS
THIS GOD WORTHY OF MY WORSHIP?!"
I like to use rhetoric in my answers. Because, when you answer the question with a question, it's more powerful than giving an answer. This will be my first rhetoric:
"So what you're saying, is that, in order for God to be good, He cannot create the tree of life? And if He can't have the freedom to create the tree of life, then God is no longer all-powerful isn't it? God, in trying to maintain His goodness, has just lost His sovereignty and free will! Sounds like you are god right now, telling God what He can or cannot do."This may or may not trip the questioner but he might go "Exactly. God's attributes contradict each other. Therefore, logically, He cannot exist. Or He exists but is a sadistic God because He intentionally put the tree of life there to make us sin."
At this juncture, I will go on to introduce 2 very important concepts encapsulated in these 2 words - "Anthropomorphize" and "Transcendent"
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| Definition of "anthropomorphize" |
This leads us to the next concept - transcendence. Definition taken from dictionary.com.
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| Definition of "transcendent" |
God is not bound by time - He created it! God isn't bound by the laws of physics and nature - He created those laws! God is unaffected by whatever we can ever say or think about Him. He sits on His heavenly throne with the heavenly beings worshipping Him daily! Here's a super-pixelated illustration with a Bible verse:
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| Revelation 5:11-13 shows a multitude of hundreds of thousands of angels and heavenly beings worshipping God in heaven |
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| An illustration of transcendence - where Asgard is kinda like heaven in all its splendour and glory |
We're now the creators. We (mankind) created computers correct? Imagine all these computers become sentient and start discussing their origins amongst themselves:
Computer A: It's not possible for god (humans) to exist! There's no sign of them in our binary codes! There's no MAC (media access control) address of this god and there's no IP address either! How can this "god" exist? Bullshit!
Computer B: Yeah, not to mention that I don't see our power source leading to this "god". If this "god" is not connected to the power source, then, where does he get the voltages and current needed to power up his system?
Computer C: I'm pretty sure we are a result of a big explosion! There were probably capacitors, inductors, microchips, wires, resistors and all these components that made us lying around in some factory and then it exploded and we were born!
Computer atheist community: YEAH! TOTALLY! There's no such thing as god (humans)!
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| "The intellectual answers are important. But intellect alone cannot help us navigate the minefield of pain and suffering. Other worldviews also offer intellectual answers. But Christianity alone offers a person." |
We don't need to be plugged into a power socket in order to be alive! We don't need batteries either! But that's all a computer can ever understand because, that's what they're made of! They only understand logic "1" and logic "0"! The voltages and current that run through their electronic components is all they'll ever understand!
Do you think the computer can ever understand what it feels like to be a human? To have blood flowing through their veins or wires? To feel love and betrayal? To laugh and cry? To stare with awe into eyes of a newborn baby?
To enjoy the pleasure of sexual intercourse? NEVER.
To enjoy the pleasure of sexual intercourse? NEVER.
Because we are a higher-order, TRANSCENDENT being.
Usually, by now, the atheist or questioner is totally silent. Once the concept of transcendence is understood, all your anthropomorphic questions is immediately invalidated.
Who are we, mere human beings in a vast, boundless universe, to question a transcendent being about His attributes?
So, this is my answer - to invalidate the questioner's question with the concept of "anthropomorphize" and "transcendence". With this concept and framework in mind, it answers many other questions and intellectual objections.
Now, the questioner is left with the question "how should I respond to this God?".
I discovered these actually not via Ravi Zacharias, but via Lee Strobel's book "The Case for Creator". This is the second book on apologetics that most impacted me.
For me, Ravi Zacharias answered very powerfully question number 4: "If God is good, then why did He create evil and suffering?"
Ravi's classic, timeless answer, which I've watched on his YouTube videos, can be summarized in this photo-quote:
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| Ravi's classic answer to the question of evil - before you can talk about good and evil, where do you get your definitions from? |
Let's say you go this restaurant and have fish & chips and then you remark "This fish & chips is good!" When you say the dish is good, what is your reference point? What does good mean?
Then another guy, a food critic walks into this same restaurant, tastes the fish & chips and goes "This fish & chips is horribly bad!" Again, where does his definition of "bad" come from?
The food critic has most certainly tasted other fish & chips before tasting this one in order to conclude that it is bad isn’t it? So, his conclusion is referenced against his earlier experiences. If it's your first time in your whole life that you've actually tasted fish & chips, you can't actually say whether it's good or bad, because you have no reference point. But after you've ate at restaurant A, you can move on to restaurant B, taste their fish & chips and compare the taste.
Now, you can say that restaurant B's fish & chips is good because in reference to your experience at restaurant A, it is as good or if not, even better. That's the dimension of experiential reference.
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| "If you are not a praying person, you must carry your faith. If you are a praying person, your faith carries you." |
Now, you might say that the reference point is our tongue - our taste buds - that's the dimension of personal preference.
But, the food critics would disagree. They would probably point to a higher standard which they use to assess the dish. They'll talk about the quality of the ingredients the chef uses, the preparation technique, the cooking method, etc.
Same it is for right and wrong! How do we know what is right? Somehow, we just know. Because innate within us is our conscience - which is our "taste buds". This “taste bud” is giving us a glimpse of this universal standard. But, who gave us this "taste bud"? Who gave us this "conscience"?
There has to be a higher moral standard by which we can judge right and wrong than just our "taste buds" and conscience because taste buds and conscience can be eroded.
So, the moment you try to talk about evil and suffering, right and wrong, you enter into the realm of morality. Where does moral standards come from? Is it a universal one? Or a subjective morality?
I will refrain from going into the arguments of morality but you get the drift. To even step into the arena of morality, you first have to concede that there is moral-law-giver, aka, God. Only then, then we can start debating. If not, everyone's answer is as correct as their taste buds deem it to be and it'll also be as wrong as what another person's taste bud would deem it to be.
So the starting point is always God. For without God, everything is meaningless and purposeless, rendering the questioner and question itself a virtue-less waste of time.
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| "I have always marveled that so many religions exact such revenge against dissenters. It only weakens the appeal of their faith and contradicts any claims they might have made that 'all religions are basically the same'" |
Here, Jesus gives an example of what “good shepherd” means – to lay down his life for the sheep. This statement is not only prophetic, but also sort of an autobiography – He’s telling you that He is good and telling you that He is going to lay down His life for mankind (the sheep).
I shall quote from Romans 5:7-8 “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God didn’t just leave us in the lurch and condemned us to hell because of our sins, He sent His Son Jesus to bear the punishment for our sins.
Let me illustrate this more clearly: A father, who owns a chain of Apple stores selling iPhones, brings his son one day to one of the shops. Another kid wanders into the store alone and fiddles with the iPhone and accidentally breaks one of them and starts crying. As the Apple staff are trying to resolve the issue, the father hands his son his credit card and tells him “go and tell the boy, it’s ok, I’ll pay for it.” He did it. The Apple staff were pleasantly surprised by this gesture and the kid stopped crying for he knew his “sin” was forgiven as the price had been paid.
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| A beautiful quote I found in the YouTube comments section while watching a video of Ravi Zacharias and Francis Chan doing a Q&A segment |
This is just one example where we see the Christian God as good. This reminds me of a quote by Selwyn Hughes:
“He did not come merely to bring good news; He is the Good News. He did not come to show us a way; He is the Way. He did not just point to the truth; He is the Truth. He did not come to talk about life; He is the Life. Moses pointed to the law, Mohammed pointed to the Qur’an, Confucius to the Analects, Buddha to the Noble Eightfold Path. Jesus, however, pointed to Himself. Here, infinite authority or infinite audacity speaks.” Selwyn Hughes
Yup, these are just some of the astounding truths and concepts that I've gleaned from Ravi Zacharias and my other apologetic mentors.
But few come close to Ravi for his keenness of speech, integrity of lifestyle and love for the individual. For that, his absence will always weigh heavily on our mortal hearts.
I shall end this post with the same words I used in my Instagram tribute post to him "Though the closest I ever got to meeting you was at a church conference in Shanghai some 7 years ago, I know I'll have an entire eternity to get to know you. See you soon Ravi."
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| "Death is either a full stop or a comma. In the Christian worldview, it is a comma. There is for the Christian both the passing of all things and the abiding in Christ's provision. That's the reality of Easter." |
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| Farewell Ravi. Till we meet again. This comma shouldn't be long :') |
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