Sunday, June 6, 2010

Ravi Zacharias' Gandhi


I was glancing through The Case for Faith with Lee Strobel where he interviews respected apologist and speaker Ravi Zacharias. Strobel is notorious for finding interviewees who already support his preconceived agendas; He likes to tell his fans that he is in eager search for the truth regardless of where he finds it, but continues to interview people who are clearly biased to the fundamentalist agenda. They were discussing the topic of Christianity’s claim to being the only one true way to god. There are plenty of fallacies throughout but I thought that it was pretty telling that Ravi, when asked by Strobel, couldn't say if Mahatma Gandhi would go to heaven or not. He just stated, "that is something that will be determined by God.” But, we all know that Gandhi was keenly aware of Jesus' claims and theres zero evidence suggesting that he ever accepted them. Likewise, there is a multitude of evidence suggesting that he denied Jesus as any kind of deity. Gandhi on Christianity , edited by Robert Ellsberg, demonstrates that Gandhi didn't believe in the emaculate conception or that Christ rose from the dead. Gandhi did not recognize Christ as the savior of the world or the son of god. Gandhi was a Hindu that happened to like some of the teachings of Jesus. He was known to quote sections from the Sermon on the Mount from time to time. But, even Satan quoted scripture. (see Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness) This doesn’t mean that Gandhi took scripture literally. So, you would think that Zacharias could very assuredly say that Gandhi is now writhing in agony within the flames of hell.

Most Christians will tell you that a person who has never heard of Christ can still make it to heaven by acknowledging his presence and placing their trust in this “heart knowledge”. God’s authorship is supposedly visible throughout creation and written on the consciousness of man. Romans 1:20 states, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse”. Now that the Biblical text is available, man really should be without excuse since the "infallible" word of god is accessible to most of the modern world with the exception of some third world, Muslim and Communistic Countries. It sounds like Ravi didn’t want to offend anyone by condemning a man who preached a message of peace and harmony throughout the world. This is the problem with the message of salvation that even such astute Christian scholars like Ravi Zacharias can’t grasp. The Bible teaches that, “no one can go to the father except through Jesus Christ”. John 14:6. So, how can Ravi remain on the fence line? Certainly, Gandhi did many moral works but these works were not done in the name of Christ. So, we can’t toy with the contradictory passages of saved by grace versus saved by works as an avenue which would allow Gandhi invitation to heaven.

This leaves us with the ugly truth about Christianity. Good people, including Gandhi or your dearest relative, will suffer for all eternity because they rejected the gospel message or chose to ignore the evidence written subjectively within their hearts and throughout creation. Gandhi has been dead for sixty two years now and is suffering every second of the day in an unquenchable fire. No doubt, he is surrounded by some of the most tyrannical monsters to ever grace the annuals of history such as Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot. We can’t even have the blessed assurance that he isn’t suffering the same fate as the aforementioned diabolical characters. There is no biblical support for “degrees” of hell, so we can only assume that everyone will suffer the same fate. Dante’s Inferno suggests that there may be levels in hell, and so does some ambiguous passages of scripture that are probably only referring to the Day of Judgment. Scripture like Luke 12:47-48: “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

You would think that god would be more lucid on issues that have eternal consequences. I, for one, would really like to know if god thinks that it’s morally permissible to treat Gandhi in the same fashion as Genghis Khan. Zacharias doesn’t want to commit to what his own Bible says on these issues. I thought that Christians were supposed to care more about the will of god than the will of man. As a Christian, he should worry about what God thinks and about spreading the truths of Christianity. This is becoming an increasingly popular way of Christian’s having their cake and eating it too. They want people to believe that god may still have second thoughts depending on how good the person was while on earth. They don’t want to make it sound like god is the moral monster that he really is and all of those people who committed idolatry will suffer the same fate as O.T. Israel—with the exception of it being an eternal judgment. Christians would like to think that your garden variety pagan or Gandhi-type personality would make it to heaven because it seems so ridiculous that good people would have to spend eternity being punished for finite "crimes"… because it is.


9 comments:

  1. You have a good point. The deal is, it is a rule of thumb not to talk ill of the dead. Ray Comfort talks about why your sweet little grandmother will still be punished in Hell and why that is still fair. If push comes to shove Ravi Zacharias may concede that Gandhi is in Hell but the hope is that even in the last moments of his life he repented and trusted in Christ and that was enough. We don't know all, that is God's job, we can't speculate, so God may have saved him unknowing to anyone but yes if he did not except Christ then he will meet Hell punishment for sins because they were not forgiven. It’s not for rejecting you're punished so much as it is not accepting the cure for punishment so you die from the disease (punishment).

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  2. We human beings cannot Judge where a person goes after death. Only GOD has the authority to Judge the human beings. Any person who denies Jesus as Christ will go to HELL. The Holy Bible says in Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?P.CHIRADEEP CHETAN Pastor MISSION OF CHRIST.

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  3. Thanks! That really clears things up for me. I never realized that scriptures such as those were in the Bible. I was only a Christian for 30 years. Man, you changed my whole perspective.

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  4. I agree with the first point. Ravi is a brilliant man, he wasn't purposely top toeing to avoid his beliefs. He was tip toeing so he himself does not sound like the Almighty Authority or speak for the mind of God. We know what God revealed of His mind, but we do not know that God revealed ALL of his mind. Also, doesn't the scripture say man will be judged by the quality of his actions? Perhaps- Ghandi may be in Hell(which God sends no one too...people walk into hell willingly when they play god instead of worshipping God) It's idolatry that fractured the Cosmo's and has us all writing books about "somethings gone wrong" and everyone has an opinion on how to fix it...it's why self help sections are the biggest sections in the bookstore. Back to my point..Ghandi may be in hell, but who knows what that means in it's fullness if his life was judged by his heart and actions. We can only speculate and trust the nature of God, and rest peacefully and re-assurd that the loving merciful just God of the universe does what should be done. If you believe that..what is the fear? Why rage against God? Will he not do what "ought" to be done? All the rage comes from man wanting to be God.

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  5. Interesting last comment Anonymous.

    "Why rage against God? Will he not do what "ought" to be done? All the rage comes from man wanting to be God".

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  6. Since, you are, as you say, an atheist, this would lead me to believe that you do not believe in God. If you do not believe in God, as is evident by your callous exclusion of a capital G in your spelling of His name, then you shouldn't give any credence to satan, which is what you have done by capitalizing the s in his name. Makes me scratch my head. God has given us the choice to accept His gift of salvation, or to reject it. That makes Him a perfect God, and you a mere man. You will die, and you will perish. You can choose your destiny. God has given you that choice.

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  7. You obviously know quite a bit about men of God (RAVI ZACHARIAS and RAY COMFORT) and yet you say you are an atheist. You are no atheist, that is just wishful thinking. You DO believe in God, you just don't want to admit it, because to admit it would confirm to you that you are a sinner and need Gods grace. Look, even satan believes and he trembles because he knows his time is short. You cannot believe in one and not the other. You cannot use the argument of morals and say you do not believe in a moral giver. You believe in God, but you choose not to accept Him or His Son, Jesus Christ. Your problem then is not unbelief, it's rebellion and rejection of the truth. That is sad.....and I think you know why.

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  8. Just a quick corrections on how they should respond to salvation or people's destination. Jesus himself said, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Therefore, Ravi is doing exactly what is asked of him; only God is the judge. Let me summarize it like this: God is the judge, the Holy Spirit convicts, and Christians are called to love. It is this simple. Peace.

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