Regarding Ravi

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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December 28, 2020

00:03: Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:07: This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture and media from a Reformed perspective.
00:15: Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
00:21: Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
00:25: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:27: My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:30: Today is December 28th, 2020, and we are quickly getting close to the last day of the year.
00:39: This week is going to finish out 2020.
00:42: And if you've been following along in our daily Bible reading, then you know that we have completed the New Testament Bible reading for 2020.
00:51: And if you're looking for a Bible reading going into 2021, I want to recommend something that my wife and I have been doing.
00:58: We have been using the YouVersion app on our iPhone.
01:06: It's called, it's YouVersion app.
01:09: And we've been doing the To the Word 2020 reading.
01:14: And this is reading the whole Bible in six months.
01:17: And it's a lot of reading.
01:18: It's about six or seven chapters a day, but it takes you through the reading on your iPhone.
01:23: You can read it to yourself.
01:25: You can listen to it, which is often how my wife and I are able to get through as many chapters as it is per day.
01:32: But it is a good opportunity for you to be in the Word and immerse yourself in the Word and to have an opportunity to just go through the story of the Bible.
01:46: Not necessarily focusing on exegesis of individual texts, but looking at the whole narrative of the Bible.
01:55: And so if you're interested in learning more about that, you can go to the YouVersion app.
02:00: Now we're already halfway through because we started this back in 2020, but you can jump right into the program and you can finish out the rest of this six month program.
02:09: Or there are other plans that are available on the YouVersion app.
02:14: So I would encourage you, again, they're not a sponsor of the show or anything.
02:18: It's just something that I use personally.
02:19: I want to recommend to you the YouVersion app.
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04:29: Now moving on.
04:30: I want to talk about today a subject that has been in Christian news for the last few days and it is not a pleasant topic.
04:40: It's certainly not a topic that I wanted to deal with.
04:44: And as many of you know, for the last couple of weeks I've been talking about Christmas because we just celebrated Christmas and we even had a few humorous caffeinated Calvinist roundtables.
04:54: We talked about Christmas music, we talked about eggnog, we talked about Christmas movies.
04:58: We've had a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks, but this program, we do try to have some serious conversations as well.
05:05: And one of the conversations that needs to be had right now is on the subject of Ravi Zacharias.
05:14: Now for many of us, the name Ravi Zacharias is fairly popular, at least it was, and was a name that was held in high esteem.
05:25: Ravi Zacharias was an apologist.
05:29: He was a Christian teacher and Christian philosopher and thinker.
05:34: He was a man who was respected in his field by many in different camps, even those in the Reformed camp, even though Ravi himself would not have identified himself as being Reformed, at least not that I know of.
05:48: He at least was respected by many, both inside and outside of the Calvinist camps because Ravi had a particularly unique gift in his ability to respond to some of the most difficult apologetic questions that come up.
06:05: And he would put himself in situations where those questions would be asked sometimes quickly and with a lot of emotion because he would put himself in college campuses, he would put himself in front of audiences of unbelievers, and he would allow those unbelievers to shoot questions at him.
06:28: And so Ravi made a name for himself for having not only a winsome personality, but also a very intellectual mind and he was able to respond to questions, sometimes very difficult questions with wisdom and he was very articulate and he would often answer very well.
06:54: And so this created a following for him and he had, before he passed away, he had established I believe it's RZIM, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
07:08: And so he had a ministry that went all around the world and like I said, many of us have heard Ravi over the years teach and explain the Bible and explain apologetic questions and so Ravi had a very large following and a big amount of respect that was given to him.
07:28: But recently, in the past few days, some very unsettling information has come out about Ravi in regard to what seems to be allegations regarding impropriety of a sexual nature in his life and as far as I have seen, it seems to be legitimate accusations and they seem to have the backing even of people within the ministry, so these don't seem to be just rumors or unsubstantiated claims, but they seem to be things that are true.
08:14: And so this leaves us with a difficult paradox to sort of overcome.
08:22: We have a man who on the outside seemed in every way not only to be a Christian, but to be a Christian leader, a Christian thinker, a Christian speaker, a Bible teacher, an apologist, and yet it seems as if he had parts of his life that were unsettling and again, I don't want to get into the particulars of the accusations, but if you are interested, you can certainly look those up and find out more for yourself, but here's what I want to simply address today is how should we as Christians, how should we respond when we find out that someone that we have respected as a believer, that we have loved as a teacher and appreciated as a teacher, how are we to respond when we find out that this person had a particular issue with maybe a fairly serious sin problem in his own life that remained hidden throughout his life and did not become exposed until well after his death? And this is a difficult question because really I've been watching some of the conversations that happen online about this, and a few of the things that keep coming up are the questions of one, was he saved? And that's a big question, and really that question is only asked by people who believe in the perseverance of the saints, or we might call that eternal security, because people who don't believe in eternal security, people who don't believe in the perseverance of the saints, they think you can gain or lose your salvation based on either your behavior or your faith.
10:29: You can believe and be saved and not believe and be unsaved, and I've known people who believe that you could get saved, get lost, get saved, get lost, and I know that's an extreme example, but there are people who believe that, but for those who believe in eternal security, for those who believe in the perseverance of the saints, you only get saved once, and once you're saved, you're saved forever, and that's why it's often explained as once saved, always saved, and that's an unfortunate way to describe it, but it ultimately does explain at least the idea that once you are saved, you're saved forever.
11:05: It's eternal life.
11:06: It's not life that is eternal and contingent.
11:11: It's eternal life.
11:12: And so the question is, if someone like Ravi has a sin issue in their life, could they truly be saved and still have this sin issue, and I've seen the arguments that have been going on.
11:26: Some people say, well, David had an issue with sexual sin, and Solomon had an issue with sexual sin, and Samson had an issue with sexual sin, and in all three of those men's lives it created problems, but yet they were still men of God, yet they were still men who were, you know, David was a man after God's own heart, and so oftentimes this is used as somewhat, I don't want to say it's an excuse, but as biblical justification, well of course he was saved, he just had a problem with this particular sin, but there then comes the question of, okay, well, even if he was saved, was he, should he have been teaching the Bible, should he have been out in front proclaiming the word if it was known that he had these proclivities to sin, and that becomes an even deeper question, because now you're not just dealing with was he saved, but you're dealing with the question of was he really qualified.
12:24: Was he really qualified to be standing before people proclaiming the truth if he himself was not above reproach, and of course above reproach is the qualification for an elder, and I don't know that Ravi ever served as an elder, I know he certainly served as a teacher among Bible students and in seminaries and colleges, so this raises another question, and again the question just keeps getting deeper as you go along, but ultimately the question of was Ravi Zacharias saved, my answer is I don't know, because I don't know his heart, and I truly don't, I have no way of knowing who is elect and who is not, but I do know this, there are people, there are people out there who are not saved, and yet on the outside they look like they're saved, there are people who put on a good show because they know what the show is supposed to look like, and they're able to mimic and appear as if they are saved, even if they're not saved, and so is it possible that Ravi Zacharias was not saved, I think the answer to that has to be yes, it's possible, but I don't think that we can say with certainty whether or not he was saved, we do know this, he was a man who apparently was given to serious sin, and the Bible does tell us that we are known by our fruits, and so that is a very serious consideration when considering that, but I want to go a step further, because we ask the question, okay, is he saved, the answer is we don't know for sure, we hope so, I pray so, I pray, I do know this, no sin that he ever committed was beyond the ability of God's forgiveness, and it was no sin that he ever committed was beyond the grace of what was accomplished in the cross by Christ, so certainly Ravi Zacharias was not beyond the grace of God, but the next question is, well, what do we do with his teaching now that we know that this was the case? And I do think that this is going to put a tarnish on his name, and I think really rightfully so, I mean, his name has been damaged by the sin that was in his life that apparently is legitimate, and again, I want to say, if something happens, and I'm basing this off of information right now that's available to me, if something comes out and all of this turns out to be a lie, then I will easily and gladly retract all of this, but as it looks right now, it looks like it's pretty accurate, and pretty serious, and pretty damaging to his character, so the question is, what do we do with what he said, what do we do with all those good things he said, and the answer to that is, you know, we thank God that he was able to use a broken vessel, because what Ravi Zachariah said that was true is still true in spite of the things that he said, or the things that he did, the things that he said that were true are still true in spite of the things that he did in regard to his sin, but I do think going forward, this will affect how we recommend his works to others, because at this point now, knowing what we know, it would be hard to point to Ravi and say, okay, here's a source of biblical truth that's good and positive and wholesome and unstained.
16:21: I don't think we have that anymore.
16:23: We have a person whose life and the exposure of their life has come to light to the point that I don't think we can positively encourage people to go to his books and literature anymore, and not because they're wrong, but because I think there now is a difficulty in, let's say you have a new believer who has some apologetic questions, you give them a book by Ravi Zachariah, they read it, they love it, and then they find out that he was a man given to this type of sin, it was never discovered until after his death, and now they're confused.
17:02: Okay, so is this the type of person that I should be seeking out? Is this the type of lessons or the type of leaders that I should be seeking out? And the answer, of course, is no.
17:18: So I think that moving forward, we can say this, what we have learned from Ravi in the past about being articulate, about being wise in our answers, and giving a good defense for the gospel, all of those things are positive and I'm thankful for those things.
17:35: But at the same time, stepping back, I think moving forward, the better part of wisdom, I would say, that we move past his materials and we start looking at some other materials.
17:47: And thank God, Ravi Zachariah was not the only apologist out there, and I don't even think he really is the best.
17:56: Even before all this came out, I have my own opinions.
17:59: I thought Ravi was good, but I think there are other men that are out there that do an even better job of providing a good defense for the hope that is within us.
18:10: And, you know, many of you know this, you've heard me talk on the program, my favorite, personally, my favorite apologist is Dr.
18:16: James White.
18:17: Now certainly he's a Calvinist, he was one of the men who was very influential in helping me understand Calvinism early on in my learning about Reformed theology, and so I would point people to him.
18:29: If you're looking for apologetics, especially on the subject of theology, you won't find a better person to pursue that than Dr.
18:40: James White.
18:40: If you're looking into especially Mormonism, Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witness, Islam, oneness, theologies, I mean, James White has so much great material, and I can't recommend him enough.
18:56: He is a wonderful brother in Christ, and someone that I would count not only a teacher, but a friend, and I'm thankful for him.
19:04: And like I said, there are many others you can look into, and so again, my thought for today is simply this.
19:15: I am saddened by the news, and it is a reminder that we have to be careful when we put people into positions where they become the object of our faith, then it's very dangerous.
19:34: And I think for a lot of people, that's where Ravi Zacharias stood.
19:37: He was the one who had all the answers, he was the one who was the apologist, he was the one who everyone looked to.
19:44: And now to know that he was a man who was given to certain types of sin that were very heinous, and very real, and very serious, for many that's going to cause them to question a lot of things, and it shouldn't, because the things that he said that were true are still true, even in the midst of his sin.
20:04: And so my prayer is that if you maybe have been heartbroken over this situation with Ravi, I understand, and I share your heartbreak, and I pray that the Lord will help you to find better teachers in the future, and that we would all pray for his family, and for those who he has hurt, and those who are going to continue to be hurt by what has happened in this exposure regarding his ministry.
20:36: Well, I know that was a lot to say on a very sensitive subject, and I hope today has been enlightening, has been encouraging, and maybe has been helpful for you in thinking through a very difficult situation.
20:48: Thank you again for listening to the program today, I hope you are able to join us again tomorrow, and we appreciate you listening to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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