Ravi Zacharias, Luminous Defender of Faith, Has Passed Away

This post first appeared on Kineti and is authored by Judah Gabriel Himango, one of Tabernacle of David’s teachers.

We lost a great luminary today: the great apologist and defender of faith and Judeo-Christian values, Ravi Zacharias, has passed away. ♥  

Ravi was a remarkable mind who engaged with university students, professors, leading atheists, philosophers — the worlds’ greatest thinkers — arguing persuasively for God’s existence and God’s revelation to humanity through the Messiah.
Here is the announcement and beautiful tribute from Ravi’s family:

“Ravi perpetually marveled that God took a seventeen-year-old skeptic, defeated in hopelessness and unbelief, and called him into a life of glorious hope and belief in the truth of Scripture—a message he would carry across the globe for 48 years.”

Here’s a fantastic recent video of Ravi, where the Orthodox Jewish Ben Shapiro interviews him and they grapple with the Law, the Prophets, redemption, and ultimately, the Messiah.

In the above video, when Ben challenges Ravi, “What does Christianity add that was missing in Judaism”, Ravi responds first with a fun note about Jewish and Christian brotherhood:

“I remember [conservative Jewish luminary] Dennis Prager’s comment when the two of us we were talking about this, he said, ‘When messiah comes, there will be just one question: have you been here before?'”

He then speaks about how the Tenakh has always been filled with God being the redeemer — appealing to the first of the 10 commandments where God says he brought Israel out of Egypt — and how this central theme of God redeeming humanity plays out its fullness through the coming of Messiah, Jesus. 

What a great blessing the Lord had sent us in Ravi Zacharias!

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for a donation to the Ravi Zacharias memorial fund. I just donated, and I hope you will too.

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