Ravi Zacharias

What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind.

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (26 March 1946 – 19 May 2020) was an Indian-born Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist and evangelist, hosts the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, and teaches apologetics at Wycliffe Hall.

Quotes

• The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced the ultimate, and it has let you down.
  • As quoted in "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: Not Just a Problem with Youth Ministry" (9 April 2012), by Brian Cosby, The Gospel Coalition
• In naturalism, man is actually very insignificant, but arrogates to himself stupendous power. In Christianity, man is actually the apex of created significance, but is called to see it in abject humility.
  • Created for Significance

1990s

• It is easier to hide behind philosophical arguments, heavily footnoted for effect, than it is to admit our hurts, our confusions, our loves, and our passions in the marketplace of life's heartfelt transactions.
  • Can Man Live Without God. 1994. p. 6. ISBN 9780849939433. 

• Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying a totalitarian rule.
  • Can Man Live Without God. 1994. p. 12. ISBN 9780849939433. 

2000s

• Truth by definition excludes.
  • Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. 2000. p. 6. ISBN 9780849943270. 

• Historic figures have homes to visit for posterity; the Lord of history left no home. Luminaries leave libraries and write their memoirs; He left one book, penned by ordinary people. Deliverers speak of winning through might and conquest; He spoke of a place in the heart.
  • Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. 2000. p. 28-29. ISBN 9780849943270. 

• In other words, truth is not only a matter of offense, in that it makes certain assertions. It is also a matter of defense in that it must be able to make a cogent and sensible response to the counterpoints that are raised.
  • Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. 2000. p. 55. ISBN 9780849943270. 

• Teaching at best beckons us to morality, but it is not in itself efficacious. Teaching is like a mirror. It can show you if your face is dirty, but it the mirror will not wash your face.
  • Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. 2002. p. 90. ISBN 9780849943270. 

• In his book Modern Times, the historian Paul Johnson referred to Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini as the three devils of the twentieth century. Interestingly, Nietzschean dogma influenced each of them.
  • The Real Face of Atheism. 2004. p. 25. ISBN 9780801065118. 

• With no fact as a referent, what is normative is purely a matter of preference.
  • The Real Face of Atheism. 2004. p. 56. ISBN 9780801065118. 

• Then he said something that was absolutely defining for him: "Write this down and never forget it: Love is as much a question of the will as it is of the emotion. And if you will to love somebody, you can."
  • I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love. 2005. p. 29. ISBN 9781418515812. 
  • quoting his brother

• Love is a command, not just a feeling. Somehow, in the romantic world of music and theater we have made love to be what it is not. We have so mixed it with beauty and charm and sensuality and contact that we have robbed it of its higher call of cherishing and nurturing.
  • I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love. 2005. p. 39. ISBN 9781418515812. 

• Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer.
  • I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love. 2005. p. 43. ISBN 9781418515812. 

2010s

• Humor aside, I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.
  • Has Christianity Failed You?. Zondervan. 2010. p. 157. ISBN 9780310269557. 

• A good questioner should always have a follow-up question.
  • "Apologetics in the Twenty-First Century" (2016)

External link

• Encyclopedic article on Ravi Zacharias on Wikipedia