Thriving on Logos – An eulogy for Ravi Zacharias

Isaiah: 55:10-11 – “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias famously known only as Ravi Zacharias (26 March 1946 – 19 May 2020) born in India and later turned Canadian-American was the Christian apologist who would be unknown to very few.

Following his passing away, most of us would have read, heard and watched his biography, obituaries, history and other snippets on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media. Many would have heard and re-heard audio-video messages of Ravi Zachariah (RZ).

For me, RZ was a man who thrived on the power of the Word of God. Period. Not without reason, though. The Word it was that altered the life course of this man when he was 17. He in fact won a competition in preaching the Word of God in Hyderabad from where he catapulted to international fame. Once he tasted blood, as it were, there was no looking back for RZ.

Appealing

An apologist par excellence and a convincing orator RZ preached the Word to audiences of different demographic nature and people of every age groups.

I heard RZ’s message when I was around 10 or 11 years old in Goa. That was in the early 1980s. My father had bought cassette tapes of RZ’s messages. Digitalisation didn’t enter India at that point of time, I guess. Listening to those tapes was fascinating to my two siblings and me as we were hearing an Indian preaching in English with a foreign accent. And the messages were powerful. Instantly they made an immediate impact on our young minds.

As we listened to his messages on the tape player, one verse and passage which seared my mind was Romans 8:28-39. RZ referred this verse when telling about a moving story of a prisoner in a Vietnam jail who had lost all hope of being released. The prisoner’s mind was shattered and in desperation wanted to commit suicide. As he contemplating on this, he spotted a crumpled piece of paper. Without knowing why, he was compelled to pick up that crumpled scrap of paper which actually was a page from the epistle of Romans chapter 8.

A communist jailor was daily tearing one page of the New Testament and using it as a tissue paper and dumping it on the ground.

On that particular day, this hopeless and desperate prisoner found this page and as he read from Romans 8:28 onwards, his eyes began to well up in tears and new sense of hope.

RZ read out the whole passage from verse 28 onwards till the end in a very dramatic fashion into the tape. With each passing verse RZ’s tone and tenor changed. His voice, filled with emotion as he neared the end of the passage, reached a crescendo matching that of probably the Apostle Paul who penned these words in the first place. His voice demonstrated the power of Christ’s love as expressed by Paul.

He explained that after reading the full passage, the prisoner knelt there and then and asked Christ to make a way for him to escape and promised God that he would become the messenger of love to many others.

RZ ended the message with the love of Christ. But those powerful words from Romans 8 which are endearing for all ages and times recited by him had an unmatched ethereal and convincing appeal.

Life-giving Word

Truly, there’s no rationale explanation of how God’s Word changes lives. Because, this Word was from the beginning and there is no telling how this Word changes lives, transforms people, brings people from the brink of destruction.

When RZ was explaining about the prisoner’s experience with the Word of God, probably he was just thinking about his own personal life which would have ended in a Delhi hospital many summers ago had it not been for a New Testament (it was a Gideons).

The Word does not go empty, isn’t it?

While RZ was in the hospital, a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and told his mother to read to him from John 14, which contains Jesus’ words to Thomas. RZ said it was John 14:19 that touched him as the defining paradigm, “Because I live, you also will live,” and that he thought, “This may be my only hope: A new way of living. Life as defined by the Author of Life.” He committed his life to Christ, praying that “Jesus if You are the one who gives life as it is meant to be, I want it. Please get me out of this hospital bed well, and I promise I will leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth. (Wikipedia)

RZ became a defender of the very Word which saved his life.

He authored more than 30 books revolving around Christianity, including the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God? In the category “theology and doctrine” as well as Christian bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad and The Grand Weaver.

All because of his love for the Word which is so sovereign and supreme. The Word which saved his life and lives of million others around the world. The Word, whether found in a New Testament or a full Bible or even on a scrap of paper, is highly potent to save the penitent.