# Ravi Zacharias ??



## OPC'n

So I came across someone by the name of Ravi Zacharias on Facebook. I don't know if he's a preacher, or professor, or a theologian. He sounds very smart and is interesting. I'm tempting to start listening to what he has to say, but I don't want to if he's not reformed. I'm not trying to be snooty, I'm just not smart enough to catch slight deviations from the truth sometimes. I don't want to have to worry about pilfering though pastors' or theologians' teachings to make sure it's right. Anyway, does anyone here know him?


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## Mr. Bultitude

He's an ordained minister (though not a pastor of a congregation) in the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination. Generally he's characterized as evangelical and an apologist. Regarding the doctrines of grace, he "recommends J.I. Packer’s book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God," though his ministry "does not have an official ministry position on the doctrines of Calvinism or Arminianism, and we have staff members holding to a variety of views in both of these doctrinal traditions." He's got enough reformed cred to have written one article for _Tabletalk_ magazine and to have been interviewed by them and have multiple conference talks linked on Ligonier. I've listened to his radio program before, and have some friends who are fans of his work, and overall he seems like a very solid evangelist.


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## Tom Hart

Ravi Zacharias is a well-known Indian-born Canadian apologist. He converted from Hinduism to Christianity. He has a radio show called 'Let My People Think' which I remember my dad listening to. I actually saw him speak in Hamilton, Ontario when I was a kid. From things I've heard him say, it seems he is an Arminian.

He is a well-respected speaker and I appreciate much of what he has done in opposing aggressive secularism and atheism. However, I was quite disappointed when I learned that he has been for years claiming that he was a visiting student at Cambridge, when that is not true. (Even Cambridge has said it's false.) His credibility rightly suffers for that claim, which he has often made as though to highlight his academic background. The revelation gave the atheists a field day.

Zacharias also parades a PhD that is only honorary. That's not a crime, however. It's just a bit of a grey area in academics.


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## reaganmarsh

It's unfortunate to hear of the Cambridge claim. 

He is quite a gifted apologist. I've read several of his books with profit and have enjoyed some of his lectures.


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## Jack K

Most people would benefit from listening to him. It would be rare to run into any questionable teaching.


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## JimmyH

In another thread you mentioned that you don't like to read and are exposed to TV from your living arrangement. I hear Ravi Z often on Moody Radio. I also here the excellent Tony Evans, and John MacArthur among many others. I listen to Christian radio a lot. I love J Vernon McGee though he is a Dispensational, and not reformed. I separate the wheat from the chaff. If you are well grounded in the precepts of the reformed faith I think that listening to Christians who are not exactly on the same page, but are true believers, can be beneficial. I also love to hear Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley, and youtube videos of Billy Graham. These people are not perfect doctrinally, but neither are R.C. Sproul, or John Piper. Beats the soaps and the sit-coms.

Reactions: Amen 1


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## Bill The Baptist

Tom Hart said:


> He is a well-respected speaker and I appreciate much of what he has done in opposing aggressive secularism and atheism. However, I was quite disappointed when I learned that he has been for years claiming that he was a visiting student at Cambridge, when that is not true. (Even Cambridge has said it's false.) His credibility rightly suffers for that claim, which he has often made as though to highlight his academic background. The revelation gave the atheists a field day.
> 
> Zacharias also parades a PhD that is only honorary. That's not a crime, however. It's just a bit of a grey area in academics



I think perhaps this was a bit overblown by a number of atheist bloggers. Apparently he did a sabbatical at a place called Ridley Hall, which at the time was affiliated with Cambridge. Most people in academia would not consider such a thing to be the equivalent of being a "visiting scholar at Cambridge", but it is a bit uncharitable to assume that his intention in including this on his resume was to deceive. As far as the honorary doctorate is concerned, there are quite a few prominent Christian leaders with honorary doctorates who call themselves doctor. I personally find this to be a bit tacky, but there in nothing necessarily deceptive about it.


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## C. Matthew McMahon

I might be wrong, but many years ago I used to listen to him toward the end of Bible college, and if memory serves me, isn't he Arminian? I believe, at the time, that was the reason I didn't listen to him further.


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## deathtolife

Came across this clip with Joyce Meyer, maybe helpful?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6UQNFqUJbQ


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## StephenG

Ligonier has had him speak at past conferences. Would they have invited him if his stance on the doctrines of Grace was unclear?


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## C. Matthew McMahon

Personally, I tend to shy away from that which is doctrinally ambiguous. 

I don't know what Ligonier's policy is on who they invite. 
Don't get me wrong, from Bible College to the end of Seminary Ligonier was a huge initial influence.


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## Peairtach

OPC'n said:


> So I came across someone by the name of Ravi Zacharias on Facebook. I don't know if he's a preacher, or professor, or a theologian. He sounds very smart and is interesting. I'm tempting to start listening to what he has to say, but I don't want to if he's not reformed. I'm not trying to be snooty, I'm just not smart enough to catch slight deviations from the truth sometimes. I don't want to have to worry about pilfering though pastors' or theologians' teachings to make sure it's right. Anyway, does anyone here know him?


You've got to remember that you can come to a point where you can listen to the non-Reformed with profit. Some non-Reformed people have made genuinely substantial contributions that the Reformed can benefit from but wouldn't get elsewhere.

I suppose it's difficult to judge how mature one is as an individual to decide what you want to expose yourself to, but It's good to get advice from other brothers and sisters, as here.

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk


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## Tom Hart

Bill The Baptist said:


> Tom Hart said:
> 
> 
> 
> He is a well-respected speaker and I appreciate much of what he has done in opposing aggressive secularism and atheism. However, I was quite disappointed when I learned that he has been for years claiming that he was a visiting student at Cambridge, when that is not true. (Even Cambridge has said it's false.) His credibility rightly suffers for that claim, which he has often made as though to highlight his academic background. The revelation gave the atheists a field day.
> 
> Zacharias also parades a PhD that is only honorary. That's not a crime, however. It's just a bit of a grey area in academics
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I think perhaps this was a bit overblown by a number of atheist bloggers. Apparently he did a sabbatical at a place called Ridley Hall, which at the time was affiliated with Cambridge. Most people in academia would not consider such a thing to be the equivalent of being a "visiting scholar at Cambridge", but it is a bit uncharitable to assume that his intention in including this on his resume was to deceive. As far as the honorary doctorate is concerned, there are quite a few prominent Christian leaders with honorary doctorates who call themselves doctor. I personally find this to be a bit tacky, but there in nothing necessarily deceptive about it.
Click to expand...


This was, as you say, overblown by atheist bloggers. I also think that it was not necessarily Zacharias's intent to deceive; we can charitably grant that this was a careless claim. When one is in the public eye, one ought to be especially careful. Zacharias is a Christian, and his opponents would look for anything to invalidate him. (Note Dawkins's tag 'Lying for Jesus'.) Ad hominem attacks are part and parcel of the 'new atheist' line of argument.


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## Tom Hart

deathtolife said:


> Came across this clip with Joyce Meyer, maybe helpful?
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6UQNFqUJbQ



This, I think, is more concerning than any careless claims of where the man has studied. Ravi Zacharias is a gifted apologist, but if he condones Joyce Meyer, I venture to say that his doctrine is perhaps unsound. And from one video I saw, I understand that he is also soft on Roman Catholicism.

All that said, I still think his teachings can be very profitable. We should just be aware of his apparently Arminian stance and his theological waffling. Many Christians are better prepared to share and defend their faith because of Ravi Zacharias. His organization, RZIM, also does lots of good work in evangelism and apologetics.


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## MichaelNZ

I remember Dr James White playing a clip of Ravi Zacharias on the Dividing Line where Zacharias seemed to say that Roman Catholicism is part of Christianity. I can't find the programme on SermonAudio though.


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## PicardyThird

MichaelNZ said:


> I remember Dr James White playing a clip of Ravi Zacharias on the Dividing Line where Zacharias seemed to say that Roman Catholicism is part of Christianity. I can't find the programme on SermonAudio though.



It was the Dividing Line of February 3, 2015. It can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WHFSGWCWlA

Or here:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=995191514850

The discussion of Ravi Zacharias begins at around 29 minutes.


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## OPC'n

Thank you everybody for your responses. I guess I will just look for other teachers to listen to


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## Ask Mr. Religion

JimmyH said:


> In another thread you mentioned that you don't like to read and are exposed to TV from your living arrangement. I hear Ravi Z often on Moody Radio. I also here the excellent Tony Evans, and John MacArthur among many others. I listen to Christian radio a lot. I love J Vernon McGee though he is a Dispensational, and not reformed. I separate the wheat from the chaff. If you are well grounded in the precepts of the reformed faith I think that listening to Christians who are not exactly on the same page, but are true believers, can be beneficial. I also love to hear Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley, and youtube videos of Billy Graham. These people are not perfect doctrinally, but neither are R.C. Sproul, or John Piper. Beats the soaps and the sit-coms.


Along these lines Ligonier's http://refnet.fm/ is worth a listen.


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## Scott Bushey

MichaelNZ said:


> I remember Dr James White playing a clip of Ravi Zacharias on the Dividing Line where Zacharias seemed to say that Roman Catholicism is part of Christianity. I can't find the programme on SermonAudio though.



https://kimolsen.net/2011/12/01/the-downfall-of-ravi-zacharias/


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## johnny

OPC'n said:


> Thank you everybody for your responses. I guess I will just look for other teachers to listen to



My wife and I flew to Sydney yesterday to drive a worktruck back to Queensland (11 hour drive)
We listened to Jonathan Edwards and some of Sinclair Ferguson's works through the ipad's text to speech.
This is something we are doing a lot more of, we were also playing around with the voices.
We ended up choosing a British Male voice called Daniel, time just flew along.

We are loving using this system more and more, but it does take some getting used to...


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## Reepicheep

If James White disses someone...I immediately guess there's a 50/50 chance the person might be O.K. Ravi Zacharias has been a blessing to Christians for many years. I praise God for him. His strength is deconstructing humanism/secularism/and Eastern religions.


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## Mindaboo

I personally listen to Ravi Zacharias. I haven't found much that I could argue with him on. I've read his book "Walking East to West" and it was excellent. That's just my opinion. I also love Adrian Rogers. He's arminian as well, but he was a fantastic preacher. I don't listen to a lot of stuff, but those two I will listen to.


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