When I read about this as tagged from Tim Challies’ blog, my heart ran the (sadly recently all too familiar) gamut of emotions – shock, disgust, anger, shame, and deep sadness.
Whilst these are allegations that have yet to be proven true in a court of law, the picture that has emerged from so many sources over such a protracted period of time seems clear.
The name of Christ has been dragged through the mud again, this time by a deceased, (once) widely-respected evangelist. How many non-Christians or young believers will be stumbled by his sexual misconduct and sin? Of course he has already been judged as he met his maker, and whilst we are not his judge, and are sinners just as he is, this must stand as a warning and reminder to all believers.
The first reminder was that we should never put any Christian on a pedestal, no matter how much he or she has served and ‘accomplished’ for God. We are all co-labourers in Christ and must ALL be held to account.
The second is that this is a warning ringed by flashing red lights, that we must watch our sexual purity, the conduct of our minds, every second of the day. We have to strengthen our marriages, and remember as Christopher Ash wisely advised, that sex within marriage is truly in the service of God.
We might try to make excuses for him, but Ravi Zacharias has no one to blame except himself. He will go down in history as a deeply marred man, whose practice went horrifically against what he preached.
He is accountable, and no ‘ministry’, however great or global, can excuse how he has preyed on women, solicited them from a position of power as the owner of the establishment they worked in (what was he doing owning a spa that practiced Hindu Ayurveda? Oh wait, we now know why, don’t we?), sought out their vulnerabilities using his charisma and dare we say, his position as a Christian leader. No ‘service for the Lord’, no matter how arduous, can justify such ‘need’. Yes, there but for the grace of God go we, but this has tainted his entire ministry and witness, wounded the women he harassed if not driven them away from Christ, made Christianity a further object of disparagment to the world, put paid to the accusations of hypocrisy of Christians, and causes deep shame amongst Christians that we did nothing more to call out sin, discipline a brother and restore him whilst there was still a chance.
Is his work still valid? Maybe. God can use all of us in all our failings. But Ravi Zacharias’ personal witness and testimony is utterly sullied, especially after his barefaced lies when confronted with this whilst he was still alive, and how he continued in his sin even after it was brought to light.
May this be a warning for all of us in ministry, never to make our leaders or ourselves feel that we can justify wrongdoing. There should always be a platform for the victimised to feel that they should report sin and demand that it is rightly dealt with, with discipline and due punishment in the spirit of grace.
We must be alert, for the devil prowls like a lion, seeking to devour those who seek to be effective for him. In our churches, in our Sunday schools, in our counselling ministries, in all our work, we must make sure leaders and those in positions of authority or teaching are supported in their walk with God and are deeply accountable. Every leader must be answerable and not beyond discipline, for God knows, we all need to be kept on the straight and narrow.
We need to watch ourselves. Whilst this should not paralyse us and make us second-guess everything or everyone, we need to be on high alert, for the stakes are high indeed.
Lord have mercy on us, all sinners. Even as we are saved by grace, help us to continually flee from sin, be jealous for the sanctity of Your Name, and to guard the purity of the church. For to this we have been called, to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, and not to stumble others, or be barely saved as one escaping through the flames, as we will all face final judgement and be held accountable by the fearsome Lamb in all his rightful might as He sits on the throne in blinding light.
I came across this by Grayson Gilbert a few days later, who puts it far more eloquently (albeit at greater length) on how this should be warning to us all. He writes at Patheos – The Chorus in the Chaos (Relevant and Reformed).
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