VOLUME 21.1 I WWW.RZIM.

ORG

THE MAGAZINE OF RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

JUST THINKING

Learning
ToThink
Critically
PAGE 2

+
THE JOURNEY
OF SHEEP
PAGE 14

COMPLETE TO
COMPLETE
PAGE 16

IF ONLY
PAGE 20

Just Thinking is a teaching

resource of Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries and
exists to engender thoughtful
engagement with apologetics,
Scripture, and the whole of life.
Danielle DuRant
Editor
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
4725 Peachtree Corners Circle
Suite 250
Norcross, Georgia 30092
770.449.6766
WWW.RZIM.ORG

TA B L E of CONTENTS
VOLUME 21.1

Learning To Think Critically

How does the Christian learn to

think critically? One must begin
by evaluating any worldview or
assertion on the basis of truth, the
coherence of what is being claimed,
and then the implications of
what this means personally.
Ravi Zacharias sat down with
Danielle DuRant to discuss the
significance of critical thinking.

14

20

Complete To Complete

A leadership trainer uses the phrase

complete to complete to encapsulate
the ideal mentality behind successful
teamwork. Cameron McAllister
contends that compressed into this
phrase is the assumption that a

If Only

Jill Carattini suggests that if we

knew beforehand what we know
after the fact, things could very well
turn out differently. But to assume
that because of that perspective we
now see perfectly is likely a perilous
oversight. The Israelites mistreatment
at the hands of the Egyptians was
overlooked in their perception of
the other side of the Red Sea. But
we can thank God that He knows
the longings we express and the ones
we do not know to express.

The Journey of Sheep

Anyone who has been to a sheep pen

would tell you that sheep are not
exactly the smartest in the animal
kingdom, writes IChing Thomas.
They do, however, have a strong
instinct to follow the leader. When
one sheep decides to go somewhere,
the rest of the flock usually follows,
even if the first sheep has no idea
what it is doing.

16

future conclusion looms large over

all our efforts leading up to a given
end. As Michelangelo remarked,
I saw an angel in the marble
and carved until I set him free.

22

Think Again

How do you reach a generation that

listens with its eyes and thinks with
its feelings? Ravi Zacharias says we
must know how to defend our own
beliefs, but likewise, not underestimate
the role we play in clearing the
obstacles in someones spiritual journey.
Above all, a genuine love for others
is essential.

JUST THINKING The Quarterly Magazine of RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

[ R e a d i ly v i s i b l e
to reason]

[2] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

Learning To Think Critically

Ravi Zacharias with Danielle DuRant

How does the Christian learn to think critically?

One must begin by evaluating any worldview or
assertion on the basis of truth, the coherence of
what is being claimed, and then the implications
of what this means personally. Ravi Zacharias
sat down with Danielle DuRant to discuss the
significance of critical thinking. To hear the full
interview, go to www.rzim.org.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[3]

Danielle DuRant: Its great to be with you,

Ravi, to talk about critical thinking and
engaging an audience. Would you begin by
defining critical thinking for us?
Ravi Zacharias: L ET ME PUT IT in the
simplest words I can. The word critical
often comes through as negative; that is,
youre criticizing somebody. Strangely
enough, if you use the word critique, it
comes through more positively because
you are critiquing a book or critiquing an
essay. I think critical thinking has two
components to it. The main component
is when youre analyzing any propositional
statement or system of thought, you are
engaged with critical thinking whether
you like it or not. So the only question is,
are you doing it well? Are you doing it in
a way that is befitting the subject or are
you doing it unjustly? The second aspect
of it is the ethical implications of whatever
it is you have processed.
So I like to think of critical thinking
as an analytical process of evaluating the
truth component of the statement or
thought you are processing. That has to
be done. If you are looking at a worldview,
any assertion, or any challenge to your
own worldview, you have to evaluate it
on the basis of truth, the coherence
of what is being claimed, and then the
implications of what this means for your
personal life. So first there is an analytical
component to itthe truth component,
the synthesizing component. And second,
at the end of it there must be an application or an imperative component to it.
We must think critically especially in
defending our worldview or in challenging
a counter perspective. So critical analysis
of worldviews is what critical thinking is
all about.

DD: Many vocations involve critical

thinking, whether you are a surgeon, a lawyer,
a teacher. Why is it so important for the
Christian particularly to engage in critical
thinking and to develop critical thinking skills?
RZ: The Christian still for some reason
is charged illegitimately with being the
only one who is exclusive. I have said it
many times before: all worldviews claim
exclusivity, but somehow it is popular to
hit the Christian as the only one that lays
claim to this. Yes, we do lay claim to the
fact that Jesus is the way, the truth, and
the life. There is an exclusive claim made
by Jesus in the pages of the Scriptures.
But exclusivity is also claimed in the
pantheistic worldviews and in all of the
monotheistic worldviews. So for the
Christian, it should be done gently, it
should be done efficiently, effectively,
and with respect when you are talking
to anybody.
Ive just come back from parts of
the world where I had to be so careful
in what I said and how I said it because
ninety percent of the audience sitting in
front of me was not sympathetic towards
my belief. I was engaged in a critical
analysis of my own worldview and then
showed why it was tenable and coherent.
So for the Christian today, and especially
for our young, it is important to instruct
them not only on how to defend what
we believe but also how to do it with
gentleness and respect. As Peter tells
us in 1 Peter 3:15-16, to do that with
gentleness and respect to always be able
to give a reason for the hope that is
within you. It is imperative upon us to
do it justifiably and to do it respectfully.

[4] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

DD: What about the Christian who says,

I really dont need to learn this skill; I just
need to study the Bible.
RZ: I WISH THAT PERSON were right
because I would love to be that way too!
Interestingly, many Muslims actually live
like that. I have talked to one of the leading muftis, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
and he said, I just have to tell you what
the Quran says and thats what I believe.
Well, what happens in a world of pluralistic
options? What happens to the world of
reason? What happens to legitimizing
the process, not just the end conclusion
youve come to? Is that what it is all about?
Im not going to listen to any other
argument; Im just going to believe what
I claim to believe. Can you do that in
a court of law? Im not going to defend
what Im saying; Im just telling you I
didnt do it. It doesnt work.
e do believe that the Bible is the
W
Word of God, but we come
through a process of legitimizing that
claim. We just didnt make that claim; we
tell you why we believe the Bible to be
the Word of God, and the Bible itself lays
claim to this methodology. For example,
in the Gospel of John, when the Holy
Spirit comes, Jesus said that the Spirit
would bring conviction of truth, righteousness, and things to come. Peter says
this is that which was spoken of by the
prophet Joel. So while hes harking to

Scripture, hes harking back also to an

empirical way of justifying it: this is a
fulfillment of prophecy which was spoken
of hundreds of years ago. There is a
rational process, existential relevance,
and a methodology we must adhere to.
In a world full of challenges, you have to
come to something outside of the text
that you are defending rather than saying
this is the text I believe.

DD: So critical thinking is clearly an

essential and a necessary bridge, particularly
to an unbelieving or skeptical audience. How
did Francis Schaeffer use this discipline to
compel non-believers to see the irrationality
of their beliefs?
RZ: T HAT S A GOOD QUESTION because
I think Francis Schaeffer broke new
ground. When I was a young student in
the 70s just entering into my theological
training, Schaeffer was a big name. He
authored such works as He Is There and
He Is Not Silent, The God Who Is There, and
Death in the City. Schaeffer was a pastor but
became branded more as a philosopher,
and with the opening of LAbri, young
existentialists would stop by and interact.
Regarding Schaeffers method, he took
the skepticism of an Immanuel Kant and
pointed out how Immanuel Kant came
to a point in his thinking that you really
cant make any meaningful statements
about God. He moved God-talk into a

John 16:7-11

But very truly I tell

you, it is for your
good that I am going
away. Unless I go
away, the Advocate
will not come to you;
but if I go, I will
send him to you.
When he comes, he
will prove the world
to be in the wrong
about sin and
righteousness and
judgment: about sin,
because people do not
believe in me; about
righteousness, because
I am going to the
Father, where you
can see me no longer;
and about judgment,
because the prince of
this world now
stands condemned.

think Francis Schaeffer broke new ground. He took

the existentialist and the nihilist to their point of
despair, to where it was that their philosophy bred a
despairing worldview, such as nihilism meaning
nothingness. He showed them through art or philosophy
that these points of despair had to be addressed and why
Christ brings meaning and hope.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[5]

nimbus, into a realm where you cant

critically talk about God, so it bred a
kind of skepticism, which Schaeffer took
to task. Schaeffer was very adept in what
he did: he took the existentialist and the
nihilist to their point of despair, to where
it was that their philosophy bred a
despairing worldview, such as nihilism
meaning nothingness. He showed them
through art or philosophy that these
points of despair had to be addressed and
why Christ brings meaning and hope.
Schaeffer did it very effectively and he
ministered to a lot of people in the 70s
and 80s.
meeting him just once when
IHeremember
we hosted him in Nyack, New York.
was pretty feeble at that point. If
Schaeffer can be credited with anything,
it was breaking wide open this terrain for
the Christian, charging us, You better
start defending what you believe and
know where we are heading. So when
Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop wrote in
Whatever Happened to the Human Race that
humanity was moving in the direction of
destruction, whether in sexuality or in
the sanctity of life, Schaeffer pointed
out that we were moving towards the
extinction of meaning. Philosophy was
leading us there in terms of its assumptions. But the fact of the matter is, life is
intended to be meaningful, and Schaeffer
showed how Christ addresses that. That
is the bridge Schaeffer provided between
the despair of the 60s and the postmodernism of the 90s. It is a very valuable
reminder to us of how to approach this.

DD: And if I recall correctly, I believe it was

Schaeffer who popularized the statement all
truth is Gods truth.
RZ: Y ES, HE DID. And I think it was
often misused by people who didnt
understand what he was saying. What
Schaeffer was actually saying is that if
something is true, it would also be true in
what God has said of reality and the
nature of life, destiny, origin, meaning,
and so on. So if it is true, it is not just
secularly true; it is also true in the
theological realm. It was interesting
what Mahatma Gandhi said: Truth is
God and God is truth. Now Gandhi was
depersonalizing it in a way and making an
abstraction out of it, but the fact of the
matter is there is no contradiction in
God. There is nothing that causes God
to disintegrate within Himself; so I would
say that Gandhi abstracted what Schaeffer
then personalized.

DD: What about people such as the new atheists

who accuse Christians of being irrational and
lacking critical thinking skills? After all, we
believe in a Jesus who walked on water and
was born of the Virgin Mary. That seems
fairly irrational to the average skeptic.
RZ: YOU KNOW, I find the atheist very
clever in what they do. For example, why
do they discount miracles? According to
David Hume, because the natural law
functions routinelyso why do you look
for miracles, an oddity in the midst of
natural law? So they did away with the
miraculous because they were going with
what was normative and what was routine.
But then when it came to ethics, they
very cleverly switched the terms. If you
started talking about an absolute, which
was normative, they would interject an
exception like, What happens if you
walk into your home and your family
member is being assaulted? Are you telling

[6] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

me you will not fight or take a baseball

bat or something? Very fascinating.
When it came to natural law in the realm
of the sun and the planets,they did not
allow for the exceptions. But when it
came to ethics, it was the exception that
debunked the absolute.
So what do those two reactions
have in common? They both want to get
rid of Godbecause if you bring in the
miraculous in natural law, you have to
accommodate the presence of God.
If you take the normative and the
absolute in ethics, you have to invoke
upon the very person of God. So it is
more the atheist that is anti-reason and
anti-rational, but the accusation that is
made against the Christian is leveraged
to their advantage now.
But what about the origin of the
universe? Is it repeatable? No.They
themselves say this could never happen
again. What about the contingencies that
it took? Thirty some contingencies the
exactitude demanded. The very fact that
you and I are here is the process of what
even atheists would sometimes say is so
awesome that it is tantamount to being
something like a miracle. Some of the
scientists have used that very word. So
what I say to them is, you have already
accepted that which is not repeatable.
You have already accepted that which is
so rare. You have already accepted the
fact that when you come to a singularity,
you are actually seeing the laws of physics
do not apply to all of those origins. Do
we really think that the consummation
of love between and a man and a woman

and the birth of a child is just something

that is explainable so naturalistically?
Rather than seeing the miracle of birth
and the wonder of it, we think just by
describing it that we have debunked the
notion of the miracle.
o when we talk about walking on water
S
and the miraculous, we are talking
about a theistic framework. When you
are able to defend the existence of God,
you also talk about the intervention of
God in history and the intervention of
God in the process of a natural law.
To me, the very fact of natural law is a
miraculous expression of God to sustain
life. You remember when we had the two
astronauts visiting us here at the office.
They talked about looking through the
windows of space as they were orbiting
the earth and seeing something so unique
about this planet and its particularity.
I think we live with the miraculous
every day.
Now the atheist is unfortunately
partially correct when he or she attacks
the Christian faith and we make no proper
defense of it. So I think the defense of
the existence of God, the defense of the
very person of Jesus Christ, and the
defense of the miraculous can be done
and ought to be done. I would ask the
atheist how is it that they defend moral
reasoning in an amoral universe that by
non-moral origins has arrived at this kind
of thinking and this kind of argument.
I think they have a lot more to explain
than the Christian does.

would ask the atheist how is it that they defend

moral reasoning in an amoral universe that by
non-moral origins has arrived at this kind of thinking
and this kind of argument. I think they have a lot
more to explain than the Christian does.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[7]

DD: So it sounds like there are a few essential

questions that every Christian ought to be able
to answer. You mentioned the existence of God
and the uniqueness of Christ
RZ: V ERY MUCH SO , Danielle, for two
reasons. The first one talks about the
existence of God in general terms, a
theistic framework. We assume as
John 6:35-37, 44
Christians that God exists. But I was just
Then Jesus
in Paris talking to two leading French
declared, I am
businessmen and neither of them thinks
the bread of life.
within a theistic framework. They were
Whoever comes
talking about the French elections, and
to me will never
go hungry, and
somewhere in the conversation around
whoever believes the table somebody asked if they taught
in me will never
ethics or on anything spiritual. Oh no, no
be thirsty. But as
we dont deal with that at all, they said.
I told you, you
have seen me and Then they talked about three candidates
still you do not
that were in the running for election and
believe. All those one of the businessmenwho was one
the Father gives
of their studentssaid that the first
me will come to
me, and whoever candidate was addicted to alcohol, the
second was addicted to women, and the
comes to me I
will never drive
third was addicted to corruption. These
away. ...No one
are their words! And so my wife, Margie,
can come to me
said, Maybe they do need to start teachunless the Father
who sent me draws ing something about spiritual values and
ethics.
them, and I will
raise them up at
Then something very strange
the last day.
happened. As we were having dinner, we
looked out of the window into the Paris
night sky and there was a beautiful streak
of white across the dark clouds. The man
sitting next to me, a leading businessman
who is very well known in France, said,
Maybe there is a God.

e need to recognize that without

W
the theistic framework, this world
will implode under the weight of our own
addictions, principally to ourselves. So
you move beyond the theistic framework
to the Christian framework in the presentation of Jesus Christ. Im not talking
about the presentation of Christendom
nor in a sense of even Christianity.
Rather, who is Jesus? What did He claim?
Why it is that He is the one who is able
to redeem the heart, transform our lives,
and give us that new hunger that we so
need to make life meaningful in this
world?

DD: Were talking about critical thinking

skills, but of course were not dismissing the
fact that its the Word of God that converts
and changes peoples lives, transforming them.
RZ: A BSOLUTELY. I THINK thats an
important point to make: that really,
critical thinking is to lay bare what is
readily visible to reason, but it is the
transforming power of the Holy Spirit,
says John 6, that draws us. We will never
come to Him; transformation of the
human heart is ultimately a spiritual
thing. I saw that happen even on this trip
with a man for whom family and friends
have been praying for eleven years. He
was hard-nosed tough. We were sitting on
a sofa chatting on a yacht that they had
chartered because they wanted to ask me
their questions. He was talking about a

ritical thinking is to lay bare what is readily

visible to reason, but it is the transforming
power of the Holy Spirit that draws us. We will
never come to Him; transformation of the human
heart is ultimately a spiritual thing.

[8] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

broken relationship and how he went to

the one with whom the relationship was
broken and said, Id love to rebuild this
if you would turn your back upon these
other things that are drawing you away
from the family. He said the partner was
hesitant and just put it in a corner.
few minutes later I said to him,
A
Whats keeping you from Christ?
He said, This conditional love from
Godthat either you come to me or you
will end up in this kind of a destiny. I
looked at him and I said, Im fascinated.
In the opening part of our conversation
you said that you looked at the person
you loved and said, Why dont we rebuild
if you turn your back upon these other
attachments? Were you laying a condition
or were you reminding this person that
love has built-in conditions if it is to find
fulfillment? What do you think God is
saying to you? God is not offering you a
conditional love. Hes built a framework
of love and relationship where there are
preconditions necessary if you are to find
fulfillment in these things, just as this
yacht on the water has met the preconditions of how to stay afloat. Is this some
kind of a conditional thing that is to put
us in jeopardy or a conditional thing to
help us enjoy what it is like to float on
this water?
And I kid you not: he suddenly just
burst out into tears. A man in his fifties,
he literally got on his knees and just
sobbed and sobbed. For the first time, he
saw that if we are to enjoy the love of
God, we are going to enjoy it only when
we deal with it within the framework
that God has designed it to be enjoyed.

DD: Wow, thats really powerful. That

reminds me of the scene in The Mission,
if you recall that film from years ago. The
actor Robert De Niro has this huge bag
of metal on his back and he feels that he has

to carry this burden because hes killed a man.

Hes holding on to this baggage throughout
the movie, climbing through the mountains.
Finally someone cuts it off of him and everyone laughs with joy because they recognize the
absurdity of him holding on to this burden.
It seems that youve expressed that even the
boundaries that God sets for us are for our
safety and for our good.
Romans 7:21-25a

RZ: Y ES. T HAT SCENE you are talking

about reminds me of the Roman law and
when Paul says, Who shall deliver me
from this body of death? If you murdered
someone, one of the punishment possibilities was for you to carry the corpse on
your back. You literally carried that dead
weight, so youd think twice especially
about the size of the person youd want
to kill! Paul says, Who shall deliver me
from this body of death? Thanks be to
GodHe does.
We bear the burdens of our own
violations. A skeptic said to me in a
dinner in Abu Dhabi, After listening to
you tonight, I have to say to you the one
thing thats missing in our culture here is
the redemptive aspect. Amazing! He
said that they can talk you into believing
there is forgiveness, but you pay. There is
a price to be paid. Then he said, Im
thinking of this redemptive aspect when
you and I realize our redeemer paid the
price for something we could not even
pay for and gave us that new birth and
that new life.
So critical thinking sounds like such
an abstract thing but rightly applied leads
us to the crises of reasoning in life apart
from God. He is the transcendent point
for reasoning, hope, meaning, and destiny.
The Bible says, Come now, let us reason
together (Isaiah 1:18). God is a reasoning
God, and He pleads and calls to show
us that his way is the way that puts it
back together. Our way is the way that
destroys it.

So I find this law at

work: Although I
want to do good, evil
is right there with
me. For in my inner
being I delight in
Gods law; but I see
another law at work
in me, waging war
against the law of my
mind and making me
a prisoner of the law
of sin at work within
me. What a wretched
man I am! Who will
rescue me from this
body that is subject to
death? Thanks be to
God, who delivers
me through Jesus
Christ our Lord!

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[9]

ometimes I wish I could give the whole nine yards

in the first setting; theres nothing Id want to do
than that. But as Christian apologists, we take one
step at a time. You have to earn the right to be heard.
You open these doors very carefully because you know
youve not opened them, Gods opened them, and you
have to walk wisely.

DD: Youve already alluded to some of

the amazing opportunities that youve had
recently to speak in the Middle East and
with atheists in Europe. Would you tell us
about your invitation from the sheik?
RZ: I WAS IN B AHRAIN , D UBAI , and
then in Abu Dhabi. In Bahrain I was
asked to speak on Is Peace Possible?
and then in Abu Dhabi I was hosted by
the sheikh who actually funded the whole
event and came and sat in the front row.
It was a phenomenal moment. In
Bahrain, when I finished speaking on the
possibility of peace, which I subtitled,
Our Way or Gods Way, the brigadier
from my table walked right up towards
the platform as I stepped down and gave
me a hug in his flowing robes. He said,
Please take this message to the rest of
the world; we need it. In Abu Dhabi, the
sheikh, who is a member of the royal
family, sat through my whole talk of 45
minutes on Foundations for Living. He
also walked up to the platform, embraced
me, kissed me on both sides of the face,
and said, I hope this is the beginning of
a long friendship. Then he had me visit
their university the next day and to speak
at their national library.

Heres what I want to say: I have to

be very careful. Sometimes I wish I could
give the whole nine yards in the first setting; theres nothing Id want to do than
that. But as Christian apologists, we take
one step at a time. You have to earn the
right to be heard. I did bring the gospel.
I did present Jesus Christ. Would I have
liked to have done more? Absolutely. I
think the opportunity is coming as Ive
been invited back.
You open these doors very carefully
because you know youve not opened
them, Gods opened them, and you have
to walk wisely. They have absolutely no
doubt what I believe, why I believe it.
So we have to know there are genuine
seekers. Coming from India, I know
exactly what all that means. I think
even of Elisha in 2 Kings 5. When
Naaman was healed of his leprosy, he
asked Elisha, What do I do now? When
I go back and my master leans on my
arm, by virtue of his weight on my arm
I have to bow before the Temple of
Rimmon. Elisha didnt tell him, Do it
or Dont do it. Elisha said, Go in
peace. That is, Go, and God will be
with you. I think it is interesting that he
said essentially that at the right time, you
will know exactly what to do and God
will give you strength.

[10] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

DD: I imagine you faced some challenging

questions in these settings.
RZ: Y ES. T HEY WERE very, very pointed
and there were some tough ones. We
couldnt deal with all of them. I have to
go beyond the question to the questioner.
For example, one of the questions asked
in Dubai was, Youve talked about Can
man live without God but who is this
God? That was one question and fifty
percent of the audience was from the
Islamic worldview. So I said, The ultimate
definition to me is the creator of the
universe and the one who has called us
to Himself who is the redeemer of the
universe provided for us through his Son,
Jesus Christ. He offered to indwell us
with the presence of his Holy Spirit to
be able to deal with temptation and the
struggles of this world. So Im talking
about the God that is spoken of in the
Old and the New Testaments.

DD: Going back to critical thinking, what

about the role of the Holy Spirit in this
process? Im thinking there may be some who
would say, I really dont need to sharpen my
critical thinking skills because the Holy Spirit
is the revealer of truth.
RZ: W ELL , ANY TIME anything is taken
to an extreme, it is an improper use of
reasoning. If somebody says, I dont
need any critical thinking; the Holy Spirit

is all I need and the Bible is all I need, I

would ask, Why do you think Saul of
Tarsus was chosen as the one to become
the apologist of his time? Why was
Moses? Why was Daniel? These people
were well-learned in all the philosophies
of their time. We were in Ephesus recently
and thats where Paul set up the school
of Tyrannus. Why? To dialogue and to debate.
He would even use their own poets.
We need to differentiate between
the path to the gospel and the power of
the gospelthey are two different things.
The path to removes the prejudices and
hurdles, and to start quoting the
Scriptures at that time is to quote the
very thing that is a hurdle. You are
defending that which you are going to use
and defend. You know, people in the
West may have a completely different
view of evangelism to those of us who
come from the East. I know how long it
took to clear the obstacles for my father
in bringing him to a point where he could
hear the gospel. I was recently with
Chinese business people. One of them
was devotedly committed to worshipping
his ancestors and talked about it. Thus
for me to start immediately sharing the
gospel, what he is registering at that
point is, Are you asking me to turn my
back upon my ancestors? So we have to
realize the implications of how they are
reading what you are saying and those
have to be addressed.

e need to differentiate between the path to the

gospel and the power of the gospelthey are
two different things. The path to removes the prejudices
and hurdles, and to start quoting the Scriptures at that
time is to quote the very thing that is a hurdle.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[11]

n warfare the goal of one party is to

destroy the other. In Christian
engagement, the goal is to win the
person who is of the other worldviewnot to destroy the person. So to
quote, The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal but mighty through God.

[12] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

DD: You mentioned Ephesus and Im thinking

of our work in Turkey. I did not know how
few Christians there are in this biblical land
or that a Turkish Christian is seen as basically
not being Turkish. That is, if you are a
Christian in Turkey, you cant be Turkish
because you would be of another faith. These
are hurdles one has to step over.
RZ: I T S VERY HARD , very hard. I
remember a friend I grew up with and we
played cricket together. I remember he
used to have a phrase he would use when
he would talk to me after I became a
Christian. He would say, Youve lost your
originality. It was his way of saying,
Youre not an Indian anymore. I would
say to him, Why do you say that? Would
you say that to a Muslim in India? Youve
lost your originality. Would you say that
to a Buddhist in India? Why are you
saying that? Youre saying it because
Im a Christian, because I have become
a follower of Jesus Christ. But are you
aware of the fact that He spoke in
parables? He spoke with wisdom;
He spoke in proverbs. He was talking
to us as Easterners.
The parables are all laden with
Eastern motif, but this cultural, familial
tie is a very real tie, and we dont realize
how tough it is. But when they come to
know Christ, they know what the implications are. Sometimes in the West we
just think we have added another thing to
our belief. In the East you have to know
there is a renunciation that takes place of
some beliefs. Now, does that mean disrespect for the family? No, absolutely not.
A young man who comes to know Christ
will actually love his parents even more
and respect them. It is just that we do not
deify them because we know there is one
God and one mediator between God and
man, and thats the person of Christ Jesus.

DD: As we close, would there be some resources

that you would recommend for Christians to
engage deeper in critical thinking?
RZ: T HERE ARE SO MANY. There are
many books written on logic; there are
many books written on reason. Dr.
Norman Geislers book Come Let Us
Reason is a tough one but it gives you
the formal fallacies of reasoning. A book
that helped me a great deal years ago
was Mortimer Adlers Ten Philosophical
Mistakes. In that, Dr. Adler talks about
a words meaning and various concepts
and categories. It is good to get a handle
on these things. There are many more
recent books that authors have penned
on critical thinking. I like Dr. Geislers
book When Critics Ask, which deals with
different fallacies. I like the book by Arlie
Hoover that he wrote years ago called
Poking Holes in Faulty Logic.
So to sum it up, come to terms with
what the fallacies are, what the mistakes
are, what the laws of logic are, but most
importantly, observeand thats a good
aspect of critical thinking, by the way.
Observe how it is done and what it was
that was done in the process of countering an argument. There are various books
on how to argue that involve a more
hostile way of winning an argument, yet
I dont think thats what the Christian is
all about. But if you read books by C. S.
Lewis, read books by Frances Schaeffer, if
you read ones by good apologists, you can
see what they are doing. Thats the best
way to engage in learning how to think
critically, and I would add, constructively.
You see, in warfare the goal of one
party is to destroy the other. In Christian
engagement, the goal is to win the person
who is of the other worldviewnot to
destroy the person. So to quote, The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty through God (2 Cor 10:4).

Ravi Zacharias is Founder and Chairman of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[13]

[renewing of our minds]

The Journey of Sheep

by IChing Thomas

Realizing our propensity to follow ways that

are dangerous to our souls, are we willing
to follow the Good Shepherd and surrender
our minds and hearts to his leadership?

[14] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

few years ago, while traveling

across to Europe in a ferry, we
found our bus parked next to a
truck. It was one of those trucks where
there are two levels of storage space for
live animals. This time, it was loaded with
sheep. There must have been at least a
hundred sheep crammed into that vehicle,
all on their way to the slaughterhouse.
As I observed the animals, they
were behaving rather amusinglysome
were sticking out their noses sniffing
away, while others were trying to peek
out curiously as they experienced the new
smells, sights, and sounds that were quite
different from their usual farmstead. Little
did they know they were on their way to
be butchered!
In another incident, it was reported
a while ago that shepherds in Turkey
watched in shock as hundreds of their
sheep followed each other over a cliff.
It started when one sheep went over the
edge, only to be followed by the whole
flock. At the end of the episode, more
than 400 sheep died in the plungetheir
bodies buffering the fall of 1,100 others
that followed.
While we might laugh at the silliness
of the sheep, it is also a vivid illustration
of our human state. On a daily basis, we
are offered joyrides that promise pleasure
and adventure, opportunities that seem
to realize our ambition for recognition,
power, material wealth, intimacy, and
even meaning. At every turn, we are led by
advertisers to believe that their products
or services can satiate our thirst for
excitement and thrill. Unknowingly, we
accept invitations for rides which take us
on roads that could result in our slow
spiritual deaths. Sadly, we are not often
aware of the looming danger as we are too
preoccupied taking in the new experience
and novelty. By the time we arrive at our
destination, it would be too late for us to
escape our end.

Anyone who has been to a sheep pen

would tell you that sheep are not exactly
the smartest in the animal kingdom. They
do, however, have a strong instinct to
follow the leader. When one sheep decides
to go somewhere, the rest of the flock
usually follows, even if the first sheep has
no idea what it is doing. The incident in
Turkey is a case in point. Apparently, even
from birth, lambs are conditioned to
follow the older members of the flock.
Interestingly, sheep are often used
to typify humans in the Bible. Jesus
speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd
and how we are like hapless sheep that
have gone astray and in need of a
shepherd.1 Similarly, the wisdom of
Proverbs warns us that There is a way
that seems right to a person, but in the
end it leads to death.2
Realizing our propensity to follow
ways that are dangerous to our souls, how
then might we safeguard ourselves from
following the wrong path? The apostle
Paul, who recognized how easily the
human heart is enticed by the things and
the ways of the world, urged the Romans
to no longer conform to the pattern of this
world, but to be transformed by the
renewing of their minds in the power of
one worthy of leading (see Romans 12:1-2).
In short, if we are to follow the Good
Shepherd and surrender our minds and
hearts to his leadership, there is hope for
every journey no matter how discouraging
it might appear. By renewing our vision
with the power of his life and the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, we can discern the
options presented to us by the world
and avoid the way that leads to far less
promising ends.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge
you, brothers and
sisters, in view of
Gods mercy, to
offer your bodies
as a living
sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God
this is your true
and proper
worship. Do not
conform to the
pattern of this
world, but be
transformed by
the renewing
of your mind.
Then you will be
able to test and
approve what
Gods will is
his good, pleasing
and perfect will.

IChing Thomas is associate director of

training at Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries in Singapore.
1
2

See John 10:11-15 and Matthew 9:36.

See Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[15]

[abundant clues]

Complete To Complete
by Cameron McAllister

Do future conclusions loom large over all efforts

leading up to a given end? Michelangelo famously
remarked, I saw an angel in the marble and
carved until I set him free. Might this statement
shed light on what the Danish philosopher Soren
Kierkegaard meant when he said that life is lived
forwards and understood backwards?

[16] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

ast, present, and future all

collaborate to make us who
we are. Few would debate
that both the past and the
present play a crucial role in
our personal formation. We
can discount neither where we came
from nor where we are when we consider
who we are. But the question becomes
more enigmatic when we turn to things
that havent yet happened. Is it possible
that our future somehow influences who
we are even now? If so, what might that
mean for us? Strange as it may sound, I
want to suggest that traces of your future
exist in the present but that the best way
to see those traces is by looking through
the lens of the past.
The theologian J.R. Daniel Kirk
identifies Romans 6 as one of the key
place[s] to look for the intrusion of
Christs resurrection into our current
lives.1 Kirk insists on the word intrusion because the complete implications
of Christs death and resurrection have
yet to be fully realized. As Christian men
and women, however, we strive to faithfully embody the conviction that the
consummation of Christs redemptive
work on the cross does indeed intrude
into our day-to-day lives. Specifically,
Romans 6:4 epitomizes the convergence
of immanence and imminence on display in
our faithful behavior: Therefore we have
been buried with Him through baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life.
Far from being lofty and abstract
sentiment, what this actually means is
that as servants of the living God, our
lives are simultaneously reflective of
Gods past, present, and future work.
Nevertheless, Christian faith remains a
delicate balance of anticipation and
fulfillment. If we nurture a premature
focus on Gods future work to the
exclusion of present concerns, we risk

succumbing to the very things we ignore.

If, on the other hand, we live only for
the present, we risk forgetting where we
came from and where we are going. The
question then becomes: How do we lead
lives that are complete examples of what
God has not yet completed?
Eugene Peterson acknowledges,
I was a pastor long before I knew I was
a pastor; I just never had a name for it.2
His recent memoir is a marvel of seemingly unrelated events, ranging from a job
in his fathers butcher shop to a bloody
confrontation with the neighborhood
bully, converging to shape both his identity
and his vocation as a pastor. In other
words, Peterson reads the traces of his
future by the light of his past. This is why
it is now possible for him to revisit these
childhood scenes and see a little boy who
was somehow already Pastor Pete even
as he wielded his first butchers knife or
found himself locked in hand-to-hand
combat with his local nemesis. Only now
is it possible for Peterson to look back
and to see the future transform a first job
and a fistfight into an apprenticeship.
Speaking personally, one of my own
encounters with the future took place my
senior year of high school. I was an
unpromising student with no academic
aspirations whatsoever. The sixth period
bell had rung, and we commenced with
the usual uproar with which we punished
substitutes for disrupting our regular
routine. In walked a wild haired man
with a stack of books in each hand, and a
sweater that might have been stolen from
Bill Cosby. Instead of taking the bait,
however, our sub countered our rude
commotion with famous first sentences,
beginning with Moby Dick and ending
with the King James Bible. The passion
with which he spoke was fierce and magnetic, and by the time he got to Genesis 1:1
his voice was no more than a whisper, and
our class leaned in hungrily as though his
words were the very bread of life.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[17]

The only suitable word for this

occasion is foreshadowing. I had never
experienced the power and subtlety of
creative language before. I never knew
that an expertly chosen group of words
could instill the world with a renewed
sense of beauty and vitality, or that a
simple sentence could awaken hidden
vistas of meaning in my understanding.
I never dreamed that I would one day
look back on this eccentric orator in his
oversized sweater and rumpled trousers
and recognize that he was more than
just a substitute teacher. He was a brief
mentor, and in a fateful moment, past,
present and future overlapped, and I
brushed shoulders with my future
vocation as a writer. Such moments make
us privy to the future, but the recognition
comes only with the benefit of the past.
I think this is part of what the Danish
philosopher Soren Kierkegaard meant
when he said that life is lived forwards
and understood backwards.
THE END IN SIGHT

The leadership trainer Bruce Bickle

uses the phrase complete to complete
to encapsulate the ideal mentality behind
successful teamwork. Compressed into
this phrase is the assumption that a future
conclusion looms large over all efforts
leading up to a given end. Michelangelo
famously remarked, I saw an angel in the
marble and carved until I set him free.
In other words, the ideal artist begins the
painstaking process with the end already

in sight and allows the future to exert its

peculiar pull on her current efforts. The
complete to complete mentality informs
Eugene Petersons discovery that he was,
is, and always will be a pastor, and it seems
an apt summation of my own dawning
realization that I was a writer-in-waiting
long before my Christian calling and a
suitable platform for self-expression
coincided.
Just like Michelangelos angel, our
future is here, hidden in the marble of
our lives, and awaiting the chisel. Though
our purpose may not always be clear, if we
nurture the discipline of careful reflection,
what Frederick Buechner calls listening
to your life, we will soon discover
abundant clues about the future in the
present. Ron Hansen believes his career
as a novelist began during the 1952
performance of his kindergartens
Christmas pageant.3 Fatefully overlooked
by the teacher because of the presence
of his twin brother in the same class,
Ron ended up as the only kid without an
actual part in the nativity scene. Having
already exhausted her supply of shepherds,
Magi, and angels, Sister Martha promptly
forfeited her own part in the play and
conceded to the little boy on the verge
of tears before her, Well, well need a
narrator. You can be Saint Luke.4
In the span of two sentences, Ron
went from being an outcast to the envy
of his entire class. More importantly, this
impromptu decision on the part of Sister
Martha would reveal in retrospect that he

ust like Michelangelos angel, our future is here, hidden in

the marble of our lives, and awaiting the chisel. Though
our purpose may not always be clear, if we nurture the
discipline of careful reflection, what Frederick Buechner
calls listening to your life, we will soon discover abundant
clues about the future in the present.

[18] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

was already a writer long before he knew

he was a writer. Though the complete
implications of this amateur play
wouldnt be fully confirmed until the
publication of his first book, it is now
abundantly clear that this deceptively
small event was a window into the future:
I frequently have been asked when it was
that I first had the impulse to be a fiction
writer, and I find myself often thinking
of that kindergarten play and of those
hundred grown-ups and older children
whom I knew werent listening to me but
to those fascinating and archaic words,
betrothed, swaddling, manger. I felt
the power that majestic language had for
an audience, that theyd been held rapt not
just because of what Luke and I reported
but because of the way we said it.5
How shall we picture the kingdom
of God, asks Jesus, or by what parable
shall we present it? It is like a mustard
seed, which, when sown upon the soil,
though it is smaller than all the seeds that
are upon the soil, yet when it is sown,
grows up and becomes larger than all the
garden plants and forms large branches;
so that the birds of the air can nest under
its shade (Mark 4:30-32). Significantly,
Jesuss parable reveals that there are no
plants or trees without seeds, and there
are no trees that werent once seeds. And
according to Michelangelo, there is no
angel without the slab of marble, and
there is no angel that wasnt formerly an
inert slab of marble. Theres no Pastor Pete
without the butcher shop and the bully;
theres no novelist named Ron Hansen
without a kindergarten Christmas pageant. Far from indulging in empty paradox, all of these examples illustrate that
the newness of life about which Paul
speaks is available to us here and now.
Consider the acclamation, Christ
has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come
again. The tenses behind each of these
events function once again to point us to
the past, present, and future. Jesuss

death on the cross is the historical occurrence into which we are reconciled to
God and the touchstone against which
we measure our present lives. By that
same token, Christs resurrection from
the dead means that his leadership and
guidance are available to us here and now
(Matt 28:19-20). Finally, the reality of
Christs imminent return is sealed with
the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, poured
out as a pledge upon Christs followers
with power from on high.6 The Holy
Spirit enables us to walk in newness
of life even as our mortal feet approach
the grave.7
As William A. Dyrness so aptly puts
it, The future cannot be separated from
the present.8 By the Spirits power, we
are now free to walk as members of a
new creation set against the backdrop
of a fallen world that is passing away as
we speak. By the Spirits power, we are
free to live as complete examples of what
God is still bringing to completion,
being confident of this, that he who
began a good work in [us] will carry it on
to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
Cameron McAllister is a member of
the writing team at RZIM.
1

J.R. Daniel Kirk, Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?

A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline
Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2011), 87-88.
2
Eugene Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir
(New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 2.
3
Ron Hansen, A Stay Against Confusion:
Essays on Faith and Fiction (New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), 16-19.
4
Ibid., 19.
5
Ibid., italics added.
6
See Joel 2:28-31, Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8,
and I Corinthians 1:21-22.
7
See Romans 8:11,13, 21-27.
8
William A. Dyrness, Poetic Theology: God and
the Poetics of Everyday Life (Grand Rapids, MI:
WM. B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011), 310.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[19]

[ a l l m at t e r o f t ru s t ]

If Only
by Jill Carattini

If we knew beforehand what we

know after the fact, things could
very well turn out differently. But
would they turn out better?

indsight is 20/20. We know the truth

of the expression from experience.
If only I would have taken a different street, I wouldnt be stuck in traffic.
If only I would have quit while I was ahead,
I wouldnt be stuck in this situation. Such
thoughts are unending: If I would have paid
closer attention, if I would have pushed a little
harder, if I would have stopped pushing ... if only
I knew then what I know now, things would have
turned out differently.
Quite probably in many cases that is
true. If we knew beforehand what we know
after the fact, things could have very well
turned out differently. Yet equally wrapped up
somewhere within this if only mindset is
the thought that things would not only have
turned out differently but that they would
also have turned out better. Knowing this
would take much more than 20/20 vision.
Standing on the other side of knowing gives
us a different perspective, to be sure. But to
assume that because of that perspective we
now see perfectly is likely a perilous oversight.
The Israelites often cried out to God
in the belief that they were seeing perfectly.
The shackles that bound them to Egypt and
misery were broken off before their eyes.
God moved them from slavery to freedom
via the floor of the Red Sea, putting before

[20] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

his people a sign momentous enough to

make an impression upon each day ahead
of them. Yet walking through the adversities of the desert, they cried out as if
never having seen the hand that was
leading them. If only we had died in
Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the
LORD bringing us to this land only to
let us fall by the sword? Our wives and
children will be taken as plunder.
Wouldnt it be better for us to go back
to Egypt? (Numbers 14:2-3).
It seems the view from hindsight
can be as misleading as it is insightful.
The Israelites mistreatment at the hands
of the Egyptians was overlooked in their
perception of the other side of the Red
Sea. Moreover, their deliverance at the
hands of God in hindsight was seen as
unremarkable and unrelated to their need
for God in the present.

cry to change the past or achieve the

perfect future emerges from our lips.
He writes,
Thank God the stars are set beyond my power,
If I must travail in a night of wrath,
Thank God my tears will never vex a moth,
Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower.
Instead, the Christian is given the
freedom of thankfulness that the one
listening to her prayers sits with wisdom
far greater than her own. For even Job
who cried, If only I had never come into
being, or had been carried straight from
the womb to the grave, found in the end
that he had spoken out of turn.2 But we
can thank God that Gods thoughts are
beyond our own, that God knows the
longings we express and the ones we do
not know to express. We can thank God for

he cry of if only is all too often a cry of distrust. The

seemingly harmless expression insists that we know best,
that we know what is better, that we know what we need.

The cry of if only is all too often

a cry of distrust. The seemingly harmless
expression insists that we know best, that
we know what is better, that we know
what we need. Like the Israelites in their
forgetful wailing, we are often certain
that we not only know what will make
our situations better, but what will finally
make us happy. We always seem to know
just the thing our lives are missing. If
only we had meat to eat, the Israelites
insisted, we would be satisfied.1 But
they were not, and we are no more
successful. In reality, what we need is
often a far cry from what we think we
need. For good reason many Christians
can look back to a prayer and thank God
that it wasnt answered.
G.K. Chesterton speaks in a poem
of the posture we often forget when the

the promise that all things work together

for goodour trials, our mistakes, our past,
our future.
God is at work even in the moments
when we would cry if only. And at that,
Gods own if onlys are far more sobering.
As Christ approached Jerusalem and saw
the city, he wept over it and said, If you,
even you, had only known on this day what
would bring you peace (Luke 19:42).
Rest assured, God knows your need, and
so sends the Son and gives the Spirit that
you might also know his peace.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice

of Infinity at RZIM.
1
See Numbers 11.
2

Job 10:19.

JUST THINKING VOLUME 21.1

[21]

Think Again
The Gentle Goldsmith

F RENCH PHILOSOPHER AUGUSTE C OMTE once observed that

ideas govern the world or throw it into chaos. I believe he was
absolutely right. History has shown that crimes of logic can be more
catastrophic for humanity than crimes of passion. Like a herd of
mindless sheep following their leader off a cliff, many in our day
have lost the ability to think critically to their own detriment.
How do you reach a generation that listens with its eyes and
thinks with its feelings? I believe the strident attacks of the antitheists and other factors
such as globalization have made apologetics and critical thinking an indispensable
need for our times. Thus, we must understand the other worldviews we encounter
and be a patient listener to someone of another faith. But first we must know how
to defend our own beliefs, for if we cannot answer the skeptics genuine questions, we
will confirm in their minds the faulty idea that Christianity is intellectually flawed. So
it is important to know how to defend what we believe and to do this with gentleness
and respect, recognizing the significance of Gods transforming grace in our own lives.
However, let me offer this word of encouragement: Do not underestimate the
role you may play in clearing the obstacles in someones spiritual journey. A seed sown
here, a light shone there may be all that is needed to move the seeker or skeptic one
step further. Indeed, if apologetics is to be done effectively, we must connect with the
person at the level of the personal. Jesus consistently drove this home. His one-on-one
conversations were remarkably personal and left others looking into their hearts and
considering their spiritual condition.
One of the most extensive conversations Jesus had surprised his own disciples
a conversation with a Samaritan woman (see John 4). You recall how this woman at the
well raised one question after another as if that were really her problem. It would have
been very easy for the Lord to call her bluff with some castigating words. Instead, like
a gentle and nimble-handed goldsmith he rubbed away the markings of sin and pain in
her life until she was amazed at how much true gold he brought out in her. He gave
her hope, knowing all along who she was on the inside. The value of the person was an
essential part of Jesuss messageand this must be so for us as well. A genuine love for
others can cast a bright, golden light in a dark and hurting world.

Warm Regards,

Ravi

[22] JUST THINKING RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

For more information or to make a

contribution, please contact:
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
4725 Peachtree Corners Circle
Suite 250
Norcross, Georgia 30092
770.449.6766

RZIM is a member of the Evangelical Council for

Financial Accountability and the Canadian Council
of Christian Charities.
WWW.RZIM.ORG

HELPING THE THINKER BELIEVE. H E L P I N G T H E B E L I E V E R T H I N K .

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JUST THINKING

The Quarterly Magazine of

RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

I thank my God every time

I remember you. In all my
prayers for all of you, I always
pray with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now, being
confident of this, that he who
began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:3-6
2012 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries