This one hit differently.
Normally when a Christian leader is exposed for moral failure, I go through a process of grief and reflection. I grieve for the victims who were preyed upon through sexual immorality or financial impropriety. I grieve for those who are tempted to lose heart and faith because of his sins. I try to understand what would have led him to live a duplicitous life, and then grieve when I realize that I am no stranger to his temptations.
If, as Augustine reminds us, we are carried in the direction of our loves, I ask myself what I love more than Jesus. Am I being carried to Jesus in joyful surrender or away from him by the lusts of my heart? Do I have practices that orient me toward him, boundaries that prevent me from sinning against him, and accountability that helps me answer these questions honestly?
But this was no ordinary process of grief and reflection. The recent report about Ravi Zacharias was jarring.
I don’t know Ravi personally. I have never met him before and cannot attest to what he was like in person. Everything that I know about him is through his podcasts, lectures, books, and public appearances. So what is shocking to me may be no surprise to those who knew him personally.
On the forums where I could observe him, he managed to avert the common signs that pastors who flirt with disaster exhibit. He didn’t become increasingly self-referential in his sermons. He didn’t have self-aggrandizing posts on social media. He spoke about his safeguards against sin. He responded to questions with humility and gentleness. And the arrow of his messages always pointed to Christ.
How could he be so deceptive and I be so deceived?
I am still trying to answer that question.
But we have other questions as well. Is it wrong to judge Ravi Zacharias? Was he a false teacher? And how can we relate to his ministry in light of what we now know?
Here are some reflections that I hope will be helpful.
IS IT WRONG TO JUDGE RAVI ZACHARIAS?
Yes and no.
We do not know if God mercifully granted Ravi faith and repentance in the waning moments of his life as he did for the thief on the cross. We don’t know if Ravi asked Jesus to remember him in his final breaths. That would indeed be a miracle. But no more a miracle than the faith that we possess today. Therefore, we do not have the vantage point to judge whether Ravi is with the Lord. We are not privy to the prayers that he prayed before he died.
However, we can judge Christians based on their fruits while they live.
In fact, we are told to judge one another to ensure that we are in the faith. In that sense, judging one another is an act of love. We aren’t supposed to judge people who aren’t Christians, but those who claim to be. In his rebuke to believers in Corinth, Paul writes:
“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” (1 Corinthians 5:12)
To judge someone in this way means that we examine each other’s lives and love one another enough to tell each other the truth when ours behaviors and beliefs are not in step with our faith.
But does this contradict Jesus’ teaching when he says:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2)?
Most people think this means that Jesus does not want us to make any kind of judgments about people whatsoever. But I don’t think that’s what he means.
Jesus’ doesn’t want us to judge people by rendering a verdict over them with a Godlike stance. He wants us to avoid a judgmental attitude that lacks self-reflection. We are to hold up a mirror to our own hearts before examine someone else’s. That’s why we are immediately told in the next verse:
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)
Every time we judge someone we must do so with an eye for our weaknesses and our own need for grace. But that doesn’t mean Jesus wants us to avoid making judgments about people altogether. In fact, Jesus’ teaching requires us to judge others, especially religious leaders.
A few sentences later, he tells us:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15)
But how can we beware of false teachers without making a judgment about them? How can we know whom to trust without a discerning eye? Doesn’t Jesus’ teaching require us to examine the fruit of their lives? In other words, it is impossible to draw a conclusion about the trustworthiness of a person without making some kind of judgment about him.
So while we cannot judge Ravi based on knowledge we don’t have — such as what he prayed in the final moments of his life — we can judge him based on the knowledge that we do have. In fact, for the sake of his victims, for the sake of those who followed him, and for Ravi’s own sake, judging him would have been an act of love.
WAS RAVI ZACHARIAS A FALSE TEACHER?
There is a difference between a false teacher and a teacher who says something false. The latter errs in content but not in character. Time, experience, and relationships may refine this teacher’s theology. And even if it doesn’t, the point of contention may lack consensus in theological circles and does not detract from the Gospel at all.
However, false teachers use their platforms to prey upon the vulnerable (Luke 20:47). Normally, their ravenous desires are revealed by their teaching, and their messages detract from the Gospel.
But Ravi Zacharias falls into a unique category. He taught with theological precision. Even if we have some doctrinal differences, his teaching directed our eyes to Christ. His life appeared to carry the aroma of Christ. There is nothing about his teaching that would lead us to conclude that he was a false teacher. But that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t.
Some of you may not like the fact that I am even asking this question. You do not consider Ravi to be a false teacher at all. In fact, you see him as a man who was flawed and in need of grace as we all are. Shouldn’t we liken him to the prodigal who found a home in Jesus’ loving embrace? Isn’t he like King David who needed a prophet to convince him that he was guilty of murder and adultery?
But are these the best comparisons?
Why is it that when a Christian leader fails, our instinct is to compare him to the prostitute whom Jesus welcomed but not the Pharisee whom Jesus rebuked as being a white washed tomb that is beautiful on the outside but dead on the inside (Matthew 23:27-28)?
I loved Ravi’s ministry. He was the only prominent Indian pastor in America while I was in college. I was inspired by his lectures. His ability to provide simple explanations to complex questions was remarkable — nothing less than a gift from God.
But we must be honest about the comparisons we draw. Is it more accurate to compare him to the woman who wept at Jesus feet, who was known, not for her name, but for her sins? Or the Pharisee who used his religious influence to devour the vulnerable while publicly denying his need for repentance? Who justified his predatory behavior as God’s gift to him?
The prodigal’s repentance was celebrated by the community. King David wrote a song about the worst failure of his life and the community joined him in singing it. In other words, confession was made to both God and others and it overflowed in joyful communal celebration of God’s grace. But there will be no such song on this side of eternity for those who followed Ravi’s leadership. We, who long for Ravi to join our celebration of God’s grace, are left wondering if Ravi truly knew his need for it.
HOW SHOULD WE RELATE TO RAVI’S MINISTRY?
Ravi’s ministry resided in the realm of reason and rationality. And his duplicitous life doesn’t make those truths less reasonable and rational. A logical statement remains logical regardless of whether it is stated by a sinner or a saint. In that sense, we can still find his arguments and lectures compelling.
But it is not that simple. Ravi claimed to have more than logical truth. He claimed to have truth that can change you, that can make you a different kind of person, that can set you free. So how do we relate to that message when those who pleaded with us are so unaffected by it? Or, what do you do when the teaching has failed to transform the teacher?
Before we reject the message outright, we must ask if Ravi’s actions were the natural overflow of having believed it, or having denied its power. I would argue that the recent report reveals that his life was inconsistent with the Gospel he proclaimed. Ravi proclaimed the news of a King who used his power to help those who were powerless to save themselves. A King who paid for all our sins and therefore gives us the freedom to repent. A King who welcomes us into the family of the redeemed. A King whose love for us melts our hearts to love God and others, and to hate sin and the way it harms others.
But what if Ravi did not use his power as our King has? And what if he demonstrated no such freedom to repent? What if he lacked the vulnerability to join the chorus of the redeemed? And what if he had justified the sin and the harm he did to others?
Perhaps this is where Jesus would tell us:
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” (Matthew 23:2-3)
In other words, it is possible for someone’s teaching to be consistent with Jesus’ desires, even when his actions are not. It is possible to be compelled by the message without condoning the actions of the man. Or as Jesus tells us here, for us to listen to what he says but not do as he does. Therefore, to answer the question of how we can relate to his ministry, I would still recommend Ravi’s lectures to a person who has questions about the faith, but not without making a note about his life.
But you may feel differently.
None of these questions that we wrestle with are easy. What I admired most about Ravi’s ministry was that it made us confront our questions and find answers in Christ. I suppose that we must do that here again for the things that are left unsettled.
I know, in writing this, I am writing about an actual person whose family is grieving and is trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of these revelations. You may be grieving as well. So please know that I do not write these things from a place of moral superiority, where I am looking down upon Ravi Zacharias. Instead, I write as a grieving man who once looked up to him as a giant in the faith but can find him no more.
We all come across a brother in Christ like Ravi Zacharias. For me all around us this only affirms that our Master is the only Righteous- just as revealed by Apposite Paul- None are Righteous- by this we only Glorify Our Lord - and He is Gracious enough to accept all who repent- while we accept A Sin is a Sin - who ever does that- let us not diminish in any way the work he did in Lord's vineyard- my hope is when I join the chorus of sons and daughters in His Kingdom, I will see this brother given his rightful place in Heaven-much above me and those who judge him now. In all these, Let The Glory Belong to Only My Lord