Short Take #4: The Biggest Question

Here is another short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. Is this man, Ravi Zacharias, who spoke about God, eloquently about God, was he actually right with God? Was he actually born again? And the question is not how could a Christian sin, all Christians sin, but Christians, according to scripture, don't practice sin without repentance. It's not a habitual characteristic of their life. They may sin, they may sin for a time, but then they come to confess and repent of it when they realize they've sinned against God.

And that's the question here. Was he actually saved because it appears that he was practicing sin? Now, Ravi Zacharias understood the gospel. I want to play another soundbite here where he talks about that our greatest need in life is for forgiveness. That is really the heart of the gospel, that we're sinners, and we, our greatest need is forgiveness from the God who created us that will be our just judge someday, and that forgiveness can only be given through the person and the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Here's Ravi Zacharias. The heart of the Christian message is this unique thing we call forgiveness. At the heart of the message is this unique thing we call forgiveness. I dare you to look at any other worldview.

I don't even need to name them. Look at any pantheistic worldview. Look at any other monotheistic worldview, and you will find out one way or the other. You are weighed in the balances. And as one of them will say, your righteous deeds have to outweigh your unrighteous deeds or in the pantheistic worldview. It is karma.

You pay, you pay, you pay one way or the other you pay. The Christian faith is unique in giving you the joy and the beauty of forgiveness at one of the most exorbitant prices ever. The very son of God says I forgive you. I forgive you.

You remember the famed Jim Baker, who was at the helm of PTL years ago and that empire fell so sadly. It was about six in the morning when I heard the news in the 80s and I was heading out to play a game of racquetball when I turned it on and heard that news. I pulled up on the side of the road. I said this is going to change the landscape for evangelicalism for sure.

And it did. Forgiveness is a huge burden falling off your shoulders like pilgrim comes to the hill and the first angel of dawn says thy sins be forgiven thee and the back pack of burden of sin falls off pilgrim. Again, that's Ravi Zacharias and that is literally haunting to listen to knowing what his life turned out to be. I just pray before he met God after his death that he had repented of the grievous sin that he had been conducting in his life. But you can see from that soundbite there that he understood the gospel. He understood that all the religions are all about working to attain forgiveness from a God and whereas true biblical Christianity is not our own work but the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, putting our faith in his work on the cross and not our own works.

So he understood that. So how does someone who understands the gospel and professes to believe in Christ, was he actually right with God? And I don't think we can know the answer to that for sure because we can't know what he's believing in his heart for sure. But the Bible does say clearly that those who practice sin unrepentantly will not inherit the kingdom of God. Perhaps the scariest passage in all of scripture, Matthew 7, part of the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, he says this, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Verse 22, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Verse 23, And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So apparently, according to Jesus, we can call him Lord, we can prophesy in his name, we can cast out demons in his name, perform many miracles, do all these great things we think we're doing, and then when we stand before him, he can say to us, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So it's the practicing, the unrepentant practicing of sin, lawlessness, that is the differentiation. So that's why we have to even ask this question. A man who speaks about God, Ravi Zacharias, was he actually right with God because there's no report or no evidence that there was ever any repentance. He was practicing, this was a pattern of his life for year after year after year with no end point of saying, you know what, I've got to come clean on this before God and men. This has been a short take from The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. To find out more about The Christian Worldview, order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org. You can also call us at toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.