Ravi Zacharias Live
February 23, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton
Last night my friend Todd and I took a trip down to Mariners
Church for an exciting evening with Ravi Zacharias, LT Jeyachandran, and Stuart
McAllister (and some other cool people we met there). We got seats a few feet
from the stage, which made the experience even more memorable. Ravi Zacharias
is one of those contemporary heroes of the faith whose sharp intellect and
endearing personality have impacted people of every continent and faith.
Zacharias spoke on “Defending the Faith in the 21st
Century.” Toward the beginning of his talk, he took a jab at the emerging
church. In its questioning of propositional truth and meaning, he suggested it
(along with postmodern philosophy in general) is similar to the snake in the
garden who asked, “Did God really say…?” In the 21st century, we are
defined as not knowing where we are in history and not knowing who we are as
humans. He believed this is because of six changes that have taken place:
1)
The popularization of the “Death of God,” and the willingness
to live with the ramifications.
2)
Religious pluralism
3)
The power to inform through visual means at the expense of
textual.
4)
Loss center of cultural molding
5)
Loss concept of humanity
6)
World power is shifting to a younger generation
In response to these changes, Zacharias believes we must
respond with
1)
An apologetic that is not only heard but also seen.
2)
An apologetic that is not just argued but also felt.
3)
An apologetic that rescues not only the ends but also the
means. The proper place of word must be restored in our worship.
If I were to explain for you each of these three points, it
would boil down to the same thing- we must not only have good intellectual
responses, but we must live in a way that reflects Christ in our hearts. This
is a necessary point, but I was disappointed that it was basically his only
point for our response to the challenges of our culture.
The largest disappointment of the evening was the Q & A.
Zacharias is known for his Q & A segments and they built it up over the
course of the evening. But instead of taking audience questions the “20’s
pastor” sat on stage with the speakers and asked a few basic, broad apologetic
questions, like “How do you respond to someone who says all religions are
basically the same?” They offered good responses, but I (and I suspect most of
the audience) wanted to ask questions. I wanted to ask if Zacharias would
elaborate on what his specific concerns are with the emerging church. Audience
questions would have been far more interesting than what actually took place.
For those interested, on May 21st Mariners
will host an event with Lee Strobel to deal with the Da Vinci Code.
Details should be on their website soon.
Related posts:
- ETS 5- James Beverley on Ravi Zacharias, Robert Millet, and the New Dialogue
- The Ambassador's Table – Friday the 13th
- Should God Live In His Car?
- "Calvin's Legacy" Conference at WSC (Jan 16-17): Live Blog
- ETS 2006 in Washington D.C.
- We’re live at The Christian Web Conference
Posted in Apologetics, Culture, Main Page, Roger's Posts
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February 23rd, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Roger, I'm not a supporter (nor a critic) of emergent churches, but when you wrote
“If I were to explain for you each of these three points, it would boil down to the same thing- we must not only have good intellectual responses, but we must live in a way that reflects Christ in our hearts. This is a necessary point, but I was disappointed that it was basically his only point for our response to the challenges of our culture” I had this thought: living in a way that reflects Christ in our hearts might be the heart of the message, and perhaps some of us get distracted with all the tangential matter, all the disquisition. Maybe the Christian life in response to the challenges of culture consists in reflecting Christ in our hearts, and therefore in our daily walk. Thatmight just be it. Why do we need more than this?
Vicky
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Roger,
Do you know if Zacharias' message will be available on CD or MP3? Sounds like a good event to hear!
February 24th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Vicky, I think you answered your own question with your response. Since you are not “just” reflecting Christ in your heart. You are using your mouth (actually keyboard in this case) to get your point across. We are called to give a reason for the hope that is within. So, while we reflect Christ in our hearts, we are to give a reason (speaking, writing, etc.) for Christ and the hope we have.
Thanks,
Jeff Downs
Resource Index/Blog,
February 24th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Hi Vicky!
I think Jeff made a good point. My concern with Zacharias's talk isn't that he think we should live our faith well- I agree with him on that. Rather, I think it could be taken as living faith at the expense of speaking faith. We need do to both and do it well. Living faith, though necessary, isn't sufficient for dealing with problems like religious pluralism. Mormons live their faith very well, often better than Protestants. So if it comes down to who lives their faith better, people should become Mormons. The problem is that there is no true gospel in Mormonism, but that can't be articulated simply by living a Christ-like life. We need to speak our faith and live it.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
I kind of doubt it, but if it becomes available it would likely be through RZIM.
February 24th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Hey Roger,
I agree with you (and Jeff) that we need to speak our faith. Ironically, though, it seems that the biggest problems in Christianity arise over speaking, not living the faith.
About your comment that “Mormons live their faith very well, often better than Protestants. So if it comes down to who lives their faith better, people should become Mormons” –I see your point, but I differ with your logic! I think it does come down, not to “who lives their faith better” but to living the faith. A lived faith is the strongest witness, I think, even stronger than speaking. And, yes, we must seek the true gospel, which is the Word of God, not our words. Maybe I'm nitpicking here though–I suspect we agree about the gospel's importance–
February 26th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
“Ironically, though, it seems that the biggest problems in Christianity arise over speaking, not living the faith.”
I wouldn't necessarily say that our “biggest problem in Christianity arise over speaking” but the incongruity of both the walk and the talk. Can't have one without the other.
“A lived faith is the strongest witness, I think, even stronger than speaking.”
I certainly wouldn't pit one against the other, nor rank one above the other. The one who lives the faith will necessarily speak about it. The real irony would be one who lives the faith, but says nothing of it. And in speaking, we can surely expect to have problems. Proclaiming Christ as King who lays claim on the entirety of Creation absolutely causes great waves.
February 27th, 2006 at 7:28 am
His talk will be available on CD and DVD in a week or so. I'll look for the contact email address of the person from Mariner's who is creating them, if you would like it.
shawn
February 27th, 2006 at 7:31 am
Roger –
I don't think Ravi was making the statement that we don't speak our apologetic. He was emphasizing the point that there needs to be some link to what we speak and how we live. If you remember the illustration that he presented regarding the talk he gave in Ohio and how the woman said that his (Ravi's) message was very persuasive but she wondered how he lived. It was his words (his spoken apologetic) that was persuasive and she was wondering if he lived it as well.
Shawn