How can so many people read the Bible but still die unbelieving?

if the Bible is really the revealed Word of God and it has the power that you say it has why is it that millions of people can read it and know it and still die unbelieving thank you I'll take a few moments and take a few thoughts and Abdul will add to it as we normally do try to complement what the other person is saying I appreciate what you're saying I not only appreciate it I think of it a lot because the land in which I was born has over a billion people when you arrive in some parts of the world you see the masses and the crowds of them and I remember once walking into a venue with my brother-in-law and seeing thousands engaged in what was completely irrational behavior I leave the country and the setting unnamed it was unthinkable to me that they were doing what they were doing and I looked at my brother-in-law said to him where would you begin if you had to speak to an audience like this I remember in my 20s when I was speaking in one city and in one country again I won't name I'd left my hotel room to go to have lunch and there was a crowd gathering and I thought boy maybe a magician or a performer of some sort and I was not rushed I said I'll stand but as I got closer to the front there was no performance there was no musician there was no artist there was no magician it was a man completely naked who was insane clawing away at himself and doing crazy things and the crowd was just cheering him on and laughing I remember being so stunned by that it's a true story what I'm telling you not embellishing it not making this up I could give you the city and the day and I thought to myself who is really more insane here the man who doesn't know he's lost his mind and the crowd that thinks they have their mind and they're laughing at this person what somebody not to have called a hospital ambulance or a police officer and take this beautiful human being away to help him and get clothed and try to give him some kind of shelter the emotional response we have at the masses and their response may seem just that it is not an emotional response it also has to be weighed through intellectually people believe many many things there are billions of people who today would believe in an autocratic government a domineering government there are people we were in Iraq a few weeks ago we were having lunch with a man who was involved in killing people and they told us of some Isis people who had come into that hospital and the ISIS people were talking to each other as soon as these people have made us well we'll kill them and to their own shock and surprise they saw the love of these doctors and the nurses and when they were made well again they wanted to know what is it that makes them tick why they think the way they do you and I will not be the ultimate judge over any human being we leave that in the judgement of God and the Bible says that judge of all the earth will do that which is right but for me not to tell them or the gospel of Christ would be like me finding a cure for cancer and walking through the hospital ward and seeing so many dying of cancer and not telling them what the answer really is and what the cure really should be that's why the answer Jesus himself gave was willing to be crucified and willing to be laying down his own life and to die on the cross because what we need more than anything else in this world is the twin realities of grace and truth grace and truth and that's the gospel message we take to the world and rather than being taunted by sighs of those who disagree with you think of the miracle of your own change life and your own transformed life and bring that message and let God be the ultimate judge the judge of all the earth will do that which is right we are given the privilege of telling his story many will turn away and walk away from it but many will believe and the blind man says whether this person is who you tell me he is or not all I know is I was blind and now I see and that's the message we have to take to the world where many are blind and Christ's offers for them to get the perspective of eternity not from the keyhole of time but the keyhole of eternity where you see the whole tapestry and the whole artwork of God leave the judgment to him give the answers he's given and you don't change any life if you change a life somebody else will change them only God can change the heart of a person and you leave that in God's hands you know just to add a couple of thoughts on the tail end of that and I was one of those people by the way so the longest time I came from a completely different worldview yes I was a theist I actually believed that God existed but I very much did not want the Gospel message to be true for a long time it took me nine years from the time I first really began to look at what the Bible had to say about who Jesus was and coming to look at all the evidence scientific existential philosophical theological nine years and the reason isn't because the answers were hard to find the reason is because the answers were hard to embrace as a consequence to believe I think we often forget this I think in our hyper rationalistic worldview sometimes when we think about there are clear arguments there's a beauty in the words and all these things that people come to these things with a blank slate but they come wanting to believe the truth they often that the cases that people don't always do that I can identify with every single person like that I can name off and rattle off not just religious people who have these issues but even irreligious people who claim to say all the evidence is what leads me away from God because there's no evidence in these kind of things when you think about what Thomas Nagel wrote and many of you maybe have written him read the words of Thomas Nagel I think a very force might an open and honest Catholic frustra philosophy at New York University he said I want a theism to be true and I made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers it's not that I didn't actually hope that I'm right in my beliefs if that I hope there is no God I don't want there to be a God I don't want the universe to be like that so when you look at that kind of desire and you come to someone and you say John 3:16 or the whole corpus of Scripture whatever it might be and you say how come the beauty of these words would overpower a desire like that I think the answer lies in the fact that you know and I remember a song that was written by a very famous person who's passed away since and he said he asked the question how beautiful did the words have to be before they conquer every heart and the answer is simply this there are no words as beautiful as possible to overcome some one's free well and God has given us I think the dignity of actual free will where the beauty of what he says is indeed beautiful we might even recognize the beauty of it as some who are who have rejected him have actually recognized but say I don't want it because there's consequences and they think only in tempera temporal consequences the human heart is a very very complicated thing a human mind is a very complicated thing when I find amazing about the Bible is that it doesn't say if you say these words they'll just believe because it's so powerful and then you're disappointed because the promise was broken jesus himself didn't convince everybody see the Bible is very honest and very forthright about the way human beings work in the way the words of scripture actually work you can recall time after time they questioned Jesus he questions their intentions they walk away but a man walks up in mark chapter 9 chapter 10 the man walks up and says what must I do to attain eternal life Jesus starts to talk with him about the law the man says I've kept all these laws since my youth I've kept every single one of them and the Bible says Jesus this is the key part his little tiny phrase no one remembers but says Jesus loving him said you lack one thing go and sell all you have and come follow me he wasn't saying they'll give up all your possessions and you know sort of live like you know sort of a monastic life what he was saying is you sir you particularly sir need to give up all you have and follow me because you're not willing to go where the truth actually is because I might cost you something and the man walked away sad because he was very rich and Jesus led him my point is this is that there's nothing in the scriptures that says that these words will simply ball people over even with eloquence and and the passion that you have to offer it because God gives us the dignity of a difference the dignity of differing with even him and there's that freewill element to it the power is there I can attest to you that the very things that I once thought were silly about the gospel I actually found to be so profound that I'm almost embarrassed that I found them silly before having done a long search and seeing that the consequences whatever they might be are worth following that truth it was because people didn't despair although it can be quite despairing about the power of these words and the power this truth that they kept at it for nine years almost a decade and I'm thanking God that they actually did persist despite the fact that it didn't seem like the words were beautiful enough to convince but they are there and they actually do prick the heart the conscience of someone who doesn't want to believe whether some religious worldview or a non-religious worldview but all I would say is this is that as Ravi said it's not us who does the convincing it is the words but also the power and think of the Spirit of God working in someone's life to point into something that matters to them I think part of the reason why we don't see conversion it could be saying this is the truth you were just wrong about this this is the truth as opposed to saying this is the truth and it speaks to you specifically when the Apostle Paul says let your speech always be gracious that those season was solved so you may know how you ought to answer each person he's not telling you to answer a question he's saying you ought to answer each person because people need answers and questions don't so I think sometimes we get a little too cerebral in our responses because we're answering questions forgetting that there's a person behind the question itself and how they react that is up to them and God gives them the dignity to reject or accept what he has to offer so it's the power of the word but it's also the reality of human wealth and I'm in living testimony of the fact that sometimes there are loggerheads sometimes they get resolved great question thank you [Applause]

Channel: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

Views: 584,255

Rating: 4.8590961 out of 5

Keywords: RZIM, Ravi, Ravi Zacharias, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, apologetics, evangelism, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, Christianity, Christian, Christian Apologetics, philosophy, God, truth, Bible, gospel, Lord, salvation, truth of the bible, Ravi zacharias on the Bible, why does god send people to hell

Id: 4CIGJw-XRq8

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Williamthelegend]

I would complement both those men on being able to speak for 9 minutes while making zero points, and just saying words. I've never understood how people acquire such a skill set. I'm sure that kid probably forgot what he even asked after their long and empty responses. But he really should have stopped them and and told them to answer the question.

[u/IntellectualYokel]

I'd ask the friend what they thought was the main point in those answers in their own words. Then I'd respond to that. There was too much rambling, especially on the part of professional liar Zacharias to respond to it point by point.

[u/tycoondon]

Me personally, I would say that I have no desire to listen to fake doctor Ravi Z ramble on about anecdotes and personal stories and unrelated jibberish until such time that the questioner forgot what he asked only to see him conclude by giving an answer to a strawman question that wasn't what was originally asked.
Now, in full disclosure, I didn't even watch this video past the point that I saw it was Ravi Z. I didn't have to because I know his shtick. In fact, I'd be willing to put money on the fact, sight unseen, that this sequence of events, or something pretty close to it, is EXACTLY what happened.

[u/Armada5]

No real answer was given, just a lot of rambling nonsense.