Among my toughest audiences in apologetics are undoubtedly my two boys. From the time words started forming on their lips, questions of various kinds have been a staple around our home—the most formidable one being, “Why, daddy?” More than any other of our appetites, I strongly suspect that thirst for knowledge and the occasional thrill of discovery have played the greatest role in shaping history. From the vast machinery of the news media to the intricate systems of the educational enterprise, from specialized research institutions to the multifaceted world of religious devotion, human hunger for knowledge is the oil that greases the mill of civilization.

So pervasive is this drive for knowledge that it can become an end in itself, opening up a rudderless detour along even the journey to God. This is true in religious systems that claim knowledge for a select few, with secretly guarded rituals forever hidden from the uninitiated. Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, was built upon the premise that there exists a category of knowledge privileged to a select few. Most Eastern religions insist that the problem with humanity is not sin but ignorance; hence, their solution to the human predicament is enlightenment, not forgiveness. Similarly, scientific naturalism stakes its fortunes on the bare, cold facts of particles and quarks; to know them is to know ultimate reality—never mind the minor detail that, logically, there is a gaping missing link between knowing how something works and the conclusion that it was not made.

But according to the Bible, at the end of our incessant pursuit of knowledge lies a Person, not an ideology or impersonal reality. God is not only the beginner of all that is; God has also revealed Himself in the earthliest of terms. Jesus was born in circumstances accessible to the lowliest of the shepherds as well as to the most majestic of kings. He spoke to large crowds in public places and was crucified outside the city walls, thereby silencing forever the voices of self-appointed guardians of alleged esoteric knowledge. In biblical terms, no pursuit of knowledge is ever complete without the discovery of him who is the truth; to know him is to know not only ultimate reality but also ourselves.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – On Isms and Rabbit Trails →

When I imagine the women who came to the tomb to see the body of Jesus the day after he was crucified, I understand their sickened panic. The body had been taken somewhere unbeknownst and unknown to them. It was out of their sight, out of their care. He was out of their sight—not an empty shell, not “just” a body, but the one they loved. Mary Magdalene was devastated. She ran to Peter in horror: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

There is something about the human spirit that inherently seems to understand the importance of caring for the dead, of moving them carefully from the place of death to a place of rest, finality, and farewell. What we have come to know commonly as the funeral is based on this fundamentally human behavior. It is understood that the dead cannot remain among the living, and yet their removal from society is never a task met with levity. Evidences of tender ceremony are noted in the oldest human burial sites ever found.(1) This movement of the dead from the place of the living to a place of parting is full of tremendous symbolic meaning.

For British statesman and avowed atheist Roy Hattersley, this meaning and symbolism has been a complicated part of the imagination with which he views the world. For years he has disapproved of the funeral service, finding it a paradoxical attempt to soften the blow of utter darkness, with clergy fulsome about the dead man’s virtues and discreet about his vices, and congregations gathered more as a matter of form than feeling. In the mind (or at the funeral) of one who remains committed to the unpleasant truth that life simply ends as haphazardly as it began, there is no room or reason for the promise of resurrection and the pomp of certain comfort.

And yet, Hattersley writes in The Guardian of an experience that almost converted him to the belief that funerals ought to be encouraged nonetheless. His conclusion was forged as he sang the hymns and studied the proclamations of a crowd that seemed sincere: “[T]he church is so much better at staging farewells than non-believers could ever be,” he writes. “‘Death where is thy sting, grave where is they victory?‘ are stupid questions. But even those of us who do not expect salvation find a note of triumph in the burial service. There could be a godless thanksgiving for and celebration of the life of [whomever]. The music might be much the same. But it would not have the uplifting effect without the magnificent, meaningless words.”(2)

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The March of Easter →

There is a great amount of anticipation leading up to Easter Sunday. Easter has always been a springtime holiday. Coinciding with the Jewish celebration of Passover, where death gives way to life, the spring is a season of beginnings and of openings. What seemed “dead” in the natural world over the long, winter months now breaks forth with green buds of new life. The Easter season opens the door to verdant spring meadows, even as it closes the door behind on long, cold, dreary winters.

The historic Christian church laid out the liturgical calendar not only to coincide with the natural seasons of spring, summer, winter, and fall, but also to coincide with the events in the life and ministry of Jesus. The spiritual significance of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—he is the firstborn of all creation—also finds expression in the cycles and seasons of the natural world. But the celebration of Easter is far more than a mirror for the natural world. The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus issues a call to reveal the continuing reality of the Risen Lord in the world. In many church traditions, Easter Sunday is simply the first day of the season of Eastertide, which lasts until Pentecost. It is an invitation to consider how the continuing presence of the Risen Lord is perceived by and made manifest in the world. It is a season that invites followers of Jesus to consider how and in what ways their action in the world bears witness to the reality of new life, of opening, of new beginning.

Yet, when we’re honest, many simply view Easter as an annual remembrance day of an event that happened long ago. Many of us do wonder what difference the resurrection has made in the practical realities of our lives and in this world. We still argue with our spouses and loved ones; we still have children who go their own way. We have difficulties at work or at school. We still see a world so broken by warfare, selfish greed, oppression and sin. Like the two pilgrims on the road to Emmaus recounting the events surrounding the death of Jesus, perhaps we wonder aloud at the things we might have hoped would happen. “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21a). Signs of redemption seem fleeting like the spring. Flowers fade and grass withers. Things seem pretty much as they were before Easter Sunday and the reality of our same, old, lives still clamor for redemption.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Continuing Presence →