Ravi Zacharias - The Mystery of Evil and the Miracle of Life

I have entitled this message the mystery of evil and the miracle of life the mystery of evil and the miracle of life the word apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia it has got nothing to do with the English word apology as we commonly use it it literally means to give a word back to give an answer to what is being asked of you and so when Peter says always be prepared to give an apologia for the hope that is within you and doing so with gentleness and meekness and so on that's the word he's using there an answer back it is used also in rather extended application for example in the second book of Acts when the people are confused at the descent of the Holy Spirit not knowing what this phenomenon really signifies Peter says let me stand up and explain let me give you an apologetic let me give to you the context and the text of what is happening here this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel he's linking the historic notation in order to give them an explanation for the manifestation of the descent of the Holy Spirit so apologetics is a wide field and can cover many approaches to give an answer now we've talked a lot today about the rationalistic approach its strengths and its weaknesses when you use reason and logic and argumentation with which to convince somebody it has a very persuasive ability but when you use things like the law of non-contradiction by that I mean that a contradictory statement cannot be true logic sometimes is better a test for falsehood than it is for the truth you may be able to establish that atheism is false but that does not necessarily mean that Christianity becomes true there may be other options other than atheism you follow what I mean so the pure use of reason and logic alone has its limitations but let me tell you how effective it can be and then move on to a second approach as we deal with the issues that have been raised this weekend it is this a very well-known Christian philosopher by the name of Greg Benson very profound thinker was debating an atheistic philosopher by the name of Gordon Stein Stein is a very vociferous argumentative he's hostile to religion and very unashamed about it he's written case compiled a fat book all the anthology of atheism and skepticism some such title Gordon Stein when he was debating Benson at one of California's universities before a packed audience guest this is the way it went he would stand up and give a defense of his atheistic worldview and Benson then would cross-examine him on that then Benson would give a defense of the Christian worldview and Stein would cross-examine him on that so Stein stood up and gave his defense of atheism and his basic charge was that Christianity is irrational it is illogical it does not abide by the laws of fundamental logic it does not ever cohere with reason he took a single-line approach to say basically Christianity can't be true because it is unreasonable illogical irrational benson cross-examined him then Benson began his defense of the Christian faith and at the end of his defense of the Christian faith Gordon Stein the atheist made a fantastic blunder that destroyed his debate for the rest of the evening he had the audacity to look at Greg Benson and said do you believe God is material or non material Danson says God is non material he says mr. Benson can you tell me anything else that is absolute and real and non material and Benson said the laws of logic you see what happened all along he was defending his whole atheistic worldview by the laws of logic said that he cannot believe Christianity because it is illogical then he had the audacity to look at Benson and cats say can you tell me anything that absolute immaterial and real he says the laws of logic the student body just burst out in laughter Stein could not recover you see you can use the laws of logic with which to put a person with their back to the wall but after years of being on the circuit of open forums and debates and so on logic can only take you thus far ultimately conversion is the work of the holy spirit we all know that but let me per give to you an intermediate link a link that I think is apologetically very relevant even to the person the postmodernist whom we've talked about who doesn't want to listen to reason so my message tonight is an approach on this platform all human beings whether they are studying or unstudied in philosophy ultimately look for their lives to conform to reality as they understand it whether it's right or wrong if you they know that fire burns they will avoid putting that hand in there unless they are pure purely masochistic or suicidal they want their lives and their bodies to correspond to that which is real so that even if they don't use logic and reason they want their lives to be consistent with reality and what has happened at this the tail end of the 20th century I want you to hear this now the reason there is a breakdown is not even so much that rational they're that rational strength and that ability to think has been abandoned but our lives are breaking down because we don't understand what reality is all about and what I'd like to show you is where this breakdown is coming and how the gospel is then coming in contradiction to the world of existential struggles I think you'll find it extremely meaningful in the year 1900 to very significant atheistic personalities died one was the German philosopher Nietzsche who was born in 1844 and died in 1900 the other was the playwright and the literary genius Irish born Oscar Wilde born in 1854 died in 19 hundred oscar wilde is considered by most literary scholars today as possibly the greatest literary figure of the last two centuries they said he could converse on any literary theme he was an utter genius but he is also known for his gay abandoned abandonment in lifestyle and I mean that literally he was known to be sensual he led a debauched lifestyle his body was in many ways dissipating by it and when he died after a storm for imprisonment because he'd been so immoral he was put behind bars he had lived in his he he literally said I am dying beyond my means he made daring comments he loved to shock the bourgeoisie loved to shock society he says right or wrong is not important the only choices whether you want to be charming or dull nothing succeeds like excess said Oscar while he was a master aphorisms and an indulgent lifestyle that's what he propagated but he wrote one novel in his life he denuded the body but in this novel the Picture of Dorian Gray he unburied I think his soul he wrote many a plays of course but this is the only novel he wrote you know the story let me briefly recount it for you it's a story of what he described as a beautiful attractive looking young boy by the name of Dorian Gray very handsome and a nice artist by the name of basil - basil Hallward took a fascination with the intriguing pristine face of this Dorian Gray he kept telling him yours is the most beautiful face I have ever seen and he painted Dorian Gray's picture for him and when Dorian Gray finally set his eyes on that picture he was completely enamored by it and recognized how perfect a face he really had and when he received that picture he says to the artist wouldn't it be wonderful if every time you committed a sin or did something evil it never ever showed on you but only marred the picture it was a Faustian gamble he was going to end Gaugin and he got his wish you remember the story another voice comes into his my life sir Henry Wotton so here's basil Hallward a good man a noble man an artist here is Sir Henry Wotton an indulgent hedonist and Wootton sucks him into his seductions and gets him to live the indulgent life the story goes on till one day he goes up into the attic and he uncovers the picture and he suddenly realizes all the dissipation all the destruction all the marks of sin are showing on his face Dorian Gray is horrified he looks at the pictures in the mirror the perfect picture of beauty looks at the picture that the artist had painted it is all marred finally the artist basil Howard himself whole-word himself gets to see the painting and when he realizes what is happening he says Dorian what have you been living like and he pleads with him and begs him to repent because the marks on his face are horrible showing a totally debauched lifestyle and as the two are talking and the whole word is commiserating with him pleading with him he says please repent Dorian get on your knees before God and ask for him to forgive you and Dorian Gray is not going to do it he says maybe I'm too far gone and Hallward says this isn't there a verse somewhere that says though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be as crimson they shall be as wool Dorian get on your knees and repent Dorian goes to the back finds a knife and stabs Hallward to death gets rid of the body a few more months a few more days go by and he goes back to look at the picture now there's a crimson flow coming out of his hands going on to the rest of his countenance he doesn't know what to do one trick leads to another one sin leads to another finally says you know if I can get rid of the picture nobody will ever know I have lived a duplicitous life and here this handsome countenance goes upstairs finds that knife again stabs at the heart of the picture and as soon as he stabs at that heart the book ends with a blood-curdling scream the servants come running upstairs and they look at an old decrepit face an old debauched body lying dead on the floor stabbed to death they don't recognize him until they see the ring and then they look at the picture and the picture is a pure young picture of dorian gray but the older man now has literally stabbed at himself once he tried to silence the voice from without to repent he couldn't stop because the voice from within kept haunting him and he tried to stop that voice from within and Oscar Wilde denuded his soul to the world ladies and gentlemen existentially he could not live a comfortable life he symbolized I think in his short life the conflicts of a genius mind sold out to sensuality that could not escape the contradictions of his philosophy he in his life propagated a reality that espoused unbridled freedom in his book of fiction he bared his soul on the enslavement and pain of promiscuity now you may say Ravi that is you know a novel that's the way they they the way they live that even though they propagate one philosophy they end up living another one and they find out it is incoherent let me read for you something that will absolutely startle you by a philosopher this was quoted in the Houston post of July 27 1991 under the section called religion and ethics it is from a journalist called George Cornell the headline article reads philosopher says world desperately needs a noble lie the world desperately needs a noble lie listen to the article please let me read it in its entirety this will tell you the unabashedly duction of secular thought which knows having abandoned Reason existentially life becomes unlivable how are they going to solve the dilemma listen to this religious philosopher loyal Dhiru says that modern culture urgently needs a noble lie a myth that links the moral teachings of religion with the scientific facts of life he said science has eroded the plausibility of the judeo-christian myths it has got into our heads and consciousness in such a way that the traditional myths can't be swallowed anymore the myths he said include archaic views of the universe a presumption that humans are at the center of the existence and the stories of Jesus's resurrection and of Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments down from a mount from a mountain these are pure myths he says dispel the myths of religion he said and all that has left is despair which considers life and the universe meaningless you see what he's saying you've got to get rid of these myths but when you get rid of these myths it leaves you completely desperate the Midd served as a framework for religious teachings that brought about man's betterment ruses without their integration of cosmology and morality of cosmic facts with idealism people will deny fixed standards and do whatever they choose splintering society or they might embrace the totalitarian option which relies on government to force humans to behave he said rule 46 get this now a professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College in Iowa presented his thesis at a recent symposium of the American Association for the Advancement of science in Washington a church-going but skeptical Lutheran Roux suggest that we start all over again and create a new new myth a noble lie that squares with what is known scientifically something that is convincing though it may not be factual what would that lie be he doesn't specify it remains for the artists the poets the novelists the musicians the filmmakers the tricksters and the Masters of illusion to winch us toward our salvation by seducing us into embracing a noble lie he told the scientific meeting perhaps he said in intent interview it is possible to rework transpose the judeo-christian tradition to make it plausible again in any case the illusion must be so imaginative and so compelling that it can't be resisted so beautiful and satisfying that all will feel they have to accept it he told the meeting what I mean by the noble lie is one that deceives us tricks us compels us beyond self-interest beyond ego beyond family nation or race that will deceive us into the view that our moral discourse must serve the interest not only of ourselves and of each other but of those of the earth as well you see what he's saying that science cannot give you a morality any more reason cannot come to grips with this how then do we make sense out of living he said build a lie create a noble lie something beautiful maybe like a Dorian Gray what he is positing here is that there is an existence shall break down and they do not know how to deal with the fact that God and God alone as a transcendent being gives us the point of objective existence of moral reality you take away the transcendent ethic and it is all up for grabs you do what you feel is right I do what I feel is right ruses that'll never work it'll ultimately end up with the totalitarian regime but the government tells us what to do he says therefore to keep us some totalitarianism let us fabricate a lie so we'll think right and wrong our realities even though we know in fact they're not you know this passes off for academic sophistication these days what are the struggles they have why do they feel they need to come up with a lie let me deal with four struggles that secularism can't deal with because reality smacks them with existence every step of the way I think you'll be intrigued by how convincing something like this can be first is what I call the mystery of human wickedness the mystery of human wickedness do you know what is the most populous subject on the university campus today that philosophers are writing about they are writing about evil they cannot explain it anymore the latest book has come out by Andrew Delbanco professor at Columbia University and it is entitled the death of Satan how Americans have lost the sense of evil a few weeks ago the New York time magazine had a very profound article I'll refer to it later possibly the most profound article I have ever seen by a secular man asking the question what has happened to us as a culture why are we doing the things that we are doing what has gone wrong with Western life the way we are experiencing it now but listen to what Professor Delbanco says in the introduction of his book once upon a time evil was personified evil was massive methis tahvalli's or the devil colorfully costume almost flavourful altogether identifiable as a clarified being from another world but in the industrial system evil has become systematized the production of it has become technologized internationalized and multinational eyes and especially in times of war and high zealotry officially rhapsodize just as industrialism has radically altered the ways and means of making and distributing it has also altered the moral structure within which we live yet malefactors are harder to spot they no longer boast horns and wear suits with tails but rather three-piece suits and sometimes turtleneck sweaters of cashmere wool or magenta blouses of tailored silk see what he's saying we've lost this point of reference for Satan it's a fascinating book but it's too esoteric goes into philosophical argumentation let me therefore bring you to Ron Rosenbaum's article in the New York Times because you'll be able to understand the rigors where you and I are I wrecked relate more to this listen to what he says he begins his pick his article there's a picture of flames out in the beginning and he talks about it as the mystery of wickedness he says what does it take to make a Susan Smith how can you explain a mother who takes two little children her boy Michael three years old and Alex 14 months old puts them in their safety seats when with ironic treachery buckle them in for their safety sake as these little faces are looking into the eyes of their mother because they're being secured for their safety by unknowing in their innocent little minds that there's a scheme going on in her mind not to protect them but to so strap them in that neither of them would ever be able to float to the top and then send that car into the waters and watch two of our own offspring go into a watery grave and then go out and meet with people and cry and describe somebody who has taken them away and then go into the church and call a pastor alone and spend hours with him in prayer that the killer will be found that somehow this man who took her children out of her arms will be tracked down i well remember sitting in the plane I was leaving for London that night and watching this on the screen and the artist's conception of what this killer must have looked this one who dared kidnapped her children must look like and the whole nation was gravitating to one point will somebody help us get Michael and Alex back and Rosenbaum says what happens in the mind of a young Susan Smith what happens he says in the mind of a Jeffrey Dahmer who goes and is not just content to savagely kill somebody who's gone out with for the night but then end up cannibalizing them in such a dastardly act what happens to the Menendez brothers who bring their mum and dad literally to their knees fill the father full of lead till he is he is murdered at the hands of his sons and the mother is still gasping and panting literally crawling on all fours as Rosenbaum crawling in her blood desperately trying to get away when one of the boys goes out reloads and comes back and in cold blood finishes the mother off and then goes out gets the money to buy new a flashy new car what happens he says he phoned gah ex Governor Mario Cuomo phoned philosopher Alvin Plantinga from Notre Dame talked to some of the best of minds and says I want to understand the mystery of evil and until I understand the mystery of evil life is going to make no sense for me what is it they've lost the objective point of reference life now doesn't fit what does evil really mean I think this is the point at which even university students sit up and take note because they see it happening they see it in our stages and our screens and in real lives where this abandonment and the violence takes place now the Bible is very clear notice how the Apostle Paul says it and I'll read that one that Romans one pass and I'll read it from the JB Phillips translation his English is so masterful here listen to what he says now the holy anger of God is disclosed from heaven against the godlessness and evil of those men who render truth dumb and impotent by their wickedness it is not that they do not know the truth about God indeed he has made it quite plain to them for since the beginning of the world the invisible attributes of God example his eternal power and deity have been plainly discernible through things which he has made which are commonly seen and known thus leaving these men without a rag of excuse they know all the time that there is a god yet they refuse to acknowledge him as such or to thank him for what he is or does thus they became fatuous in their argumentations and plunged their silly minds still further into the dark behind a facade of wisdom they became just fools who would exchange the glory of the immortal God for an image of a mortal man or of preachers that run or fly or crawl and he goes on to describe the catalogue of sins now I want to position this as best as I have understood it in the scriptures if I were trying to answer Rosenbaum I think I would at least start with one simple fact and link it then in the Genesis account here it is follow me please when God created man the first humans as he created them please listen now he spoke to Adam he spoke to Eve he has revealed that speaking in his word these are not just some concepts floating around in some ethereal substance out there as it were he has spoken he has described creation as good and he has revealed his character to them something very fascinating happens in Genesis 219 which i think is definitive or what is going to happen after that God watches and observes when Adam is doing something now as an under sovereign he is naming the other creatures remember that incident in the scriptures he's naming them and when God saw him naming them the Bible says God was pleased but he knew he needed to help meet and then created Eve now in the process of the beginning God has spoken now Adam has spoken and circumscription is being given to reality there is a naming going on now all of a sudden what happens is when that seduction takes place evil comes in and here's what I believe takes place when God gives Adam and Eve that challenge do all of this and you shall live but in the day that you shall eat of the Nitra tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall surely die implicit in that plea for God from God to ask Adam and Eve what to do was this simple statement trust me trust me don't touch that tree believe me you see what's happened he's defined reality adam has defined the reality as he knew it now God gives him a circle switch description says this as far you can go please trust me when they fell what happened they chose to call God a liar and she says Satan deceived me Satan deceived me you know what wickedness is wickedness is governing your life by a starting point of a lie that you can define good and evil apart from God that's what Satan said why why don't you be as God's you know in the day you eat of this it will open your eyes and you shall be as God knowing good and evil what he's really saying is you can define good and evil after that this is so pivotal and I think if it Dawn's into the mind it it to me it was very liberating to understand this because I've known the lies by which I have been tempted to live sometimes I've known the lies by which humanity can be so sucked in the lie that tells you stolen waters can be sweet when they are bitter the lies that tell you you can take the law into your own hands and kill somebody when it is not so the lie that Susan Smith believed that her problem was that her children were in the way the lie that told Jeffrey Dahmer he can put these bodies into his freezer and consume them with impunity the lies that the Menendez boys believed that they could kill their father another and somehow blame society for it if you look at what had happened to Adam and Eve the outside temptation came and lured them so says Eve I was deceived but you go to Noah's time it is a pristine world all over again he was a godly man even Eve took of the fruit of the tree Noah took of the fruit of the vine and now all of a sudden he's in his drunkenness and his son comes and sees him naked brings his brothers to that scene all of a sudden you find out you didn't need Satan crawling out there anymore trying to allure you you didn't need basil Hallward from my outside telling you to repent your conscience from within was going to also be a struggling factor to you and what happened was two things emerged from within that episode both in Adam and Eve and in noah's case two things happened violence came into the household and the body became abused in sexuality and the families were split immediately after the something that ties this all together is very pivotal right now so God describes reality Adam as an under agent defines reality they choose to make God a liar when you go to Genesis chapter 10 and 11 remember the Tower of Babel is being built again another definitive passage and here's what happens then he says let us go down because men said let us make a name for ourselves Adam it earlier on name the animal kingdom as it were now people are saying let us make a name for ourselves you know what they're saying let's redefine reality where we right at the top let's redefine reality where we right at the top God says let's go down and confuse their languages because if they speak the same language they will redefine everything and everything good will become evil everything evil will become good God confuse the languages to keep us from speaking the same language because what is inside will sooner or later come out on the outside we will reconstruct language because we are trying to deal with reality and call what is true a lie and calling that which is a lie making it to be the truth following him saying language has everything to do with how you perceive reality so what God calls good let us not call evil and what God calls evil let us not call good if you allow me to put it this way please bear with me I wouldn't do it except to make it relevant for our language we read in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us let us put it into our into our context because the logos was more meaningful for the Greek than it would be for you and me in the beginning was the definition and the definition was God and the definition became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth God defines what is real that which God has put together as reality let no man put asunder look at your life now what lies are you living with what lies are you convincing yourself that you can alter and that it won't work out falsely you struggle that I struggle with it and ladies and gentlemen why have we come up with statements like politically correct please forgive me because I don't like to address these issues as Point Blank on campuses I don't why do we use words like homophobic why do we loo use words like pro-choice because we are tampering with reality that's why you watch a generations words and you will find what they are doing with reality and at the heart of the susan's myths and the Dahmer's and your life and my life is the biggest question are we calling God a liar all the wickedness in the world that we see starts off from one fundamental principle choosing to call God a liar wickedness is the natural outworking of believing a lie goodness is the natural outworking of believing the truth if you're a good man sir if you're a good woman man it is because you're believing the truth and if you're an evil person it is because you're living with a lie it's as simple as that but as catastrophic you know how this works out let me end this section here I think with a very simple little illustration of profound implications here it is this when Adolphe Eichmann walked to the gallows the whole world was watching if you haven't read the book the house on Garibaldi Street of his arrest I urge you to read it it's fascinating but a Press reporter Hannah Arendt a philosopher wrote to the last scene a book as fascinating it's called the banality of evil the trivializing of evil she ends the book with these words listen he's played the atheist game to the core listen to the words he uses at the end and all fight men went to the gallows with great dignity he had asked for a bottle of red wine and had drunk half of it he refused the help of the Protestant minister the Reverend Reverend William hull who offered to read the Bible with him the voice would have come again you see the voice of truth he had only two more hours to live and therefore quote he said have no time to waste he walked the fifty yards from his cell to the execution chamber calm and erect with his hands bound behind him when the guards tied his ankles and knees asked them to loosen the bonds so that he could stand straight I don't need that he said when the black hood was offered to him he was in complete command of himself nay he was more he was completely himself nothing could have demonstrated this more convincingly than the grotesque silliness of his last words he began by stating emphatically that he was of God glow bigger to express in common Nazi fashion that he was no Christian and did not believe in life after death he then proceeded quote after a short while gentlemen we shall all meet again such is the fate of all men long live Germany long live Argentina long live Austria I shall not forget them end of quote in the face of death he found the cliche used in funeral oratory under the gallows his memory played him the last trick he was elated and he forgot that this was his own funeral it was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness has taught us the lesson please listen is a secular thinker the lesson of the fearsome word and thought to define banality of evil he defied language and if I'd thought what was he talking about absolute nonsense and I say to you my dear friend that as words reflect reality I think it is so important we understand what wickedness is all about I went through a very difficult session with a friend I shall leave that unnamed basically person unnamed because I even hesitated to mention it but let me do it a man sat in our office dan and I were there he'd gone wrong he'd gone very wrong in life he cheated an awful lot of people a lot of money was involved Lord of lies by his own mouth a lot of lies had been stated but then he turned around and said I really didn't mean it for evil you know I didn't mean it wrong if I'd meant it for wrong but I put my children in the way but I put my children in the way of this sort of thing if I really believed that I was doing wrong you know that sounds so good doesn't it but I looked at him and said my dear friend I said there's a difference between serving God and playing God when you believe the first lie that you could cheat all these people and lie you also believe the lie in effect that your children won't get gotten this see it builds a web it builds a web and I stand before you pleading with you that words are very important God defined reality watch the language of the world changing right now and what has happened is we took the devil out of the scene we took sin out of the scene now we are left with the mystery of wickedness and we've got no point of reference to define it anymore but the Dahmer's and the Menendez is and the Susan Smith's come along and we say will somebody please help me I need to find a not settle what's happening to us what's happened to us is we believe the lie that we are big enough to be without God and control everything right down here the mystery of iniquity but secondly is what I call the Marvel of worship the Marvel of humanity's worship first is the mystery of human wickedness second is the Marvel of humanity's worship there is a longing within each one of our hearts there is a longing listen to what d-h Lawrence said we want to delude ourselves that are the problem of our empty nest love is at the root I want to say to you it isn't love is only the branches the root goes beyond love a naked kind of isolation an isolated meat that does not meet and mingle and never can it is true what I say there is a beyond in you and a beyond in me which goes further than love beyond the scope of stars just as some stars are beyond the scope of our vision so our own search goes on beyond the scope of love and at least I think that it is at the root going beyond love itself Lawrence and one of the few occasions that he writes was very absolutely right here it is not just love I have a family that I love dearly I'd cling to them past anything else that I possess but there's a point at which you look for something more you may be completely in love with another human being who fulfills the deepest desires of your heart except one desire that the human being cannot fulfill there's always that haunting sense of emptiness that mankind cannot fill who put this there this is an existence she'll struggle this is why I think the arts will always be so powerful in our existence because the arts give us the the privilege as it were of creating another reality but it just assumes it's another reality what it is is the reality in here I mentioned to you this afternoon of the call from Elvis Presley's brother and as we had lunch this week and I talked to me about the drugs that he was involved in and the drugs that Elvis was involved in and how he came in the morning and he and his other brother and they found out this flat on his face with this Brooke of the Shroud of Turin and the Bible under him and he said he said I just was crushed my whole world collapsed before my eyes everything I'd lived for was now literally lying flat on his face dead the ambulance was taking Elvis away the family completely distraught and in a sense the world of teenagers began to react that their icon was gone and I and he talked about all of these prescription drugs that he'd become addicted to and I said what was it that drove that man he gave me two or three answers but he said Ravi all I know is with all the women that he had screaming for him and all the fame that he had before him the man was an extremely lonely man he said he cried with loneliness he said the song that I believe he meant more deeply than any other but a song he could never appropriate as far as we outwardly knew he said I saw him send in Las Vegas before a crowd of gamblers and drinking people and he says I want to sing a song to you that deeply moves me and he sang How Great Thou art and he says the audience was in spellbound silence he said many times when I bid him goodnight the last one to leave him every night he'd be at the piano singing hymns he said he really hungered for something greater than what the world was giving him well the psalmist says as the deer pants for this rave for the worth for the streams of water so my soul pants after you how lovely are your dwelling places Oh God my soul longeth here fainted for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for for the Living God yay the swallow has made herself a house and a sparrow a nesting place where she mail young a place near your altar a place near your altar or Lord of Hosts my king and my god better a day in your presence than a thousand elsewhere I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness that hunger that even the blatant secularist has he cannot explain it conflicts existentially and God feels that that's why the woman of the well do we worship here do we worship there you know and he says look you're an empty woman you've had five husbands the man you're living with is not your own I can give you a drink of water so that you'll never thirst again they that's worship must worship me in spirit and in truth the father seeketh such to worship Him see there is not only this contradiction of wickedness with which we don't know how to explain secular people do not know how to explain this hunger within the human heart they struggle with it those of you who are with me at the Harvard forum the second night when we finished that Eames courtroom is a beautiful auditorium the students were lined up in that semicircle I still remember some of their faces as I was standing there I was so weary from having lectured for an hour it's intense and yet for about two hours you're answering questions fresh young looking scholars brilliant scholars holding my hand with both of their some of them saying I really need an answer for this when I was speaking in Toronto this year at Ontario Bible College doing a lectureship on the second night a young Bulgarian man came forward he said I heard you Sunday night at the people's church she said I don't go to church but somebody said there was a person who dealt with philosophical issues so I came can I quote you to him this is exactly what he says to me he said I'm an atheist mrs. Zacharias I don't know what it is about what you're saying but it strikes me deep inside here as something we all need to hear I don't know what it is please keep doing what you're doing and if you believe willing to come to Bulgaria I will host your meetings and there's Bible college students standing out there looking in stunned silence of this law student from York University who's telling me to please keep doing what around he doesn't know what it is but it sounds right you know what it is he's probably saying there's something in here that says only God is big enough to fill this let me tell you a beautiful story that I've included in the book I just written it every time I thought of it and I wrote it just moved me to tears I only got us big enough to give us such beautiful little stories I think it is a Billy Graham teamate when I heard this story I could be wrong but I know it's a true story many years ago during the Cold War one of their members was in Romania and he was walking sort of huddled up bundled up with his coat tightly clung clinging to him it is a blistery day but one Romanian amidst the many were one of them was walking by hands in his pockets and whistling a tune he wondered how this fellow could whistle in that gold and then he paused and listened he was whistling at him the Great Physician now is here the sympathizing Jesus he said I ran after him and I looked at him and I said do you know Christ on the full of shrugged his shoulders he couldn't talk English he didn't know what to do and then he's decided to whistle the hymn fellow's eyes just lit up his face just beamed he whistled the melody with him they hugged one another pointed towards the heavens embraced and touched their hearts and walked on the way two worlds were bridged because at this point even a tune resounded the words of what they knew was real deep in their hearts the mystery of worship the world is know how to deal with this if that's what a stranger can do for you just the lines of a hymn and you wrap your arms around a total stranger what does it do when you learn to worship God himself who brings the divergent areas of your lives and makes it into a composite whole it is God and the worship of the Living God who brings meaning into your life outside of it all these fanciful things we live for just end up ultimately being burned into rubble the most precious thing I still experience in my life are the moments where I can walk away of listening Giusti I can just walk away from there knowing that the Lord has spoken to me I can listen to some of the speakers we've heard and walk away and just know my heart has been touched because a bridge has been created so first is the mystery of evil existentially the secularist doesn't know what to do with it secondly is the Marvel of worship thirdly and quickly the mastery of the human will that's where the collision really takes place in a recent issue of Newsweek magazine there's an article on Ted Turner it's a fine article you know about the man has to be a genius he has to be immensely capable for a man to have gained so many successes one after another has to be farsighted but it is interesting what this article says he says in this article I don't want any money any more there his friend says he says what Turner wants is more power what he wants is more power he says I want to know what being really big is like the article ends which says nothing is going to be big enough for Ted Turner I couldn't help but think of what happened to Alexander the Great you know how when he died he was in Babylon and when his wife was soundly asleep he was so ill I think his sweat EES crawled out of the bed and crawled over to a nearby river he was hoping to drown himself and didn't know enough that his body could soon early to be spotted but he hoped if he would drown and disappear they would all think he really was a god but as one Greek philosopher says the problem with Alexander was he was his own worst rival nothing would satisfy him nothing would satisfy Turner with power nothing ultimately will satisfy you or me can I give a personal illustration here I'll be very careful always like to be careful with my family so that I don't say anything to you about them that they don't leave say Dias let me just say this as quickly as I can because one of the reasons I think gods but God puts children into our lives which we forget is to teach us we think we're here to teach them and I don't mean that in any trivial sense my kids have taught me more than I think I will ever teach them when we were in Singapore my son who has a sense of humor that I think he's got for me I phoned him and I said nee nee tson all right then having a great time are you you know while we're suffering here in school gone to school every day mummy and you having a wonderful time I know I know so I thought I'd pull his leg I said no son we're here in a meagre place I said I've been fasting for the last seven days it's all been prayer and fasting and Bible study for me from 7:00 in the morning till 9:00 at night no food nothing it's bread and water type thing it's all fasting in prayer yeah yeah dad yeah yeah dad next day I phoned him at night how you doing Sonny said dad I decided not to go to school you know fasting in prayer he said hmm they teach us a lot many of them are wonderful things my little girl Naomi taught me a big lesson a month ago a lesson that I think I needed to learn a long before this she never knew she taught it until I got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to go and tell her she taught it to me she was going through a personal struggle where she was hurting a lot very deeply and I don't know what it is about us men we do have some strange beliefs and simplistic solutions to very deep-seated emotional we think to lines and it's saw I don't know what it is about us we are really quite foolish in that when we were in Bangkok I'll tell you what happened we're sitting at a beautiful dinner beautiful cultural denied them at an English cup we just gotten off the Orient Express and talked about how like a dream come true and the man was sitting next to me and the woman sitting next to Margie we're having a wonderful car and the man is telling me about the law firm he heads up which is the fourth largest law firm in the world and you know my eyes were rolling when he's telling roll the case he's fighting fourth largest law and I look across the table and the woman talking to mark he's got tears running in her face I said what's going on there you know what he said to me he is so busy his law firm is so successful thought he'd take a break you know what she said to her some years ago we lost our 12 year old son she said we've never been able to work that tragedy through we needed to get away so that we could just he for a little while she was telling the truth and the boys convincing me about the I very sincere show and that's the kind of lesson I learned Naomi's going through this deep struggle and you know I sat on one night and I'd this the way you solve it ABCD gave all the simple answers I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I was dead wrong because I knew what I was doing I was fearing that my power of direction was not going to be taken in this instance that I was going to lose that power or my child's life I mean that very sincerely very ashamed Lea Marga dealt with it you know how she dealt with it she cradled Naomi in her arms while Naomi cried her heart out Marga never said a word just sang some of the hymns of faith to her where did the power come from from me it was coming from myself I was losing something I didn't want to lose from her it came from the power of a relationship that could tie into a greater truth than just us I got up at 3:00 in the morning and I went by him the bed her bedside and I wept and I asked her forgiveness this is where our worlds collide they collide with the mastery of our wills and I challenge you brethren take that will and turn it over to him the world resists him even though they cannot explain reality it's the power that is so great within them and I just say to you the disciples fought over it can you imagine Jesus had just been transfigured then he came down and cast out a demon from a little boy and these two fellows are these boys are arguing of who's going to be greatest in the kingdom the very passage mathema mark 9 he's just been transfigured what glory he's just cast out a demon that they couldn't be so how did you do this he said this can't cometh not out except by fasting and praying there debate is who's going to be greatest in the kingdom and nobody wanted to admit it if you really want to be understanding of what mastery is turn the life over to the Grandmaster self Robert Jaffrey I'll be through in few moments here Robert Jeffery the Great Canadian missionary I've got some of his books he was fluent in Chinese and the New York Standard Oil Company wanted to send Robert Jeffery by the way he was heir to the great Canadian newspaper The Globe and the Toronto Globe and Mail still very much a powerful newspaper there Robert Jeffery was heir to that Standard Oil Company offered him a job to go to China for the Standard Oil Company New York they offered him a huge salary he said no thank you they doubled the salary no thank you they finally sent him a message Jeffery at any cost he replied in one line your salary is big your job is too small he knew where in the power really lay like Henry Martin who gave up the girl he loved in Cambridge and went on and died at the age of 30 or 31 having translated the New Testament into persian into Arabic and into Hindustani dragged across a desert and changed as great cambridge genius gave his life over knowing where the power really lay and I say how precious it is for us to understand it the mystery of human evil the world cannot cohere with its argument there the mastery of humanity's worship of the midde the the miracle of humanity's worship and the mastery of the human will the marvel of humanity's worship the mastery of the human will and finally the miracle of human existence and I tied this together listen very carefully here please because the application is going to be important Alan Isaac's the atheist in his book the survival of God in a scientific age Isaac's as an atheist listen to what he says it is one thing for the Salvation Army to re-equip with electric guitars but it is quite another thing for religion to deal effectively with the cynicism of young minds which have been nurtured in a century dominated by science the greatest gift of the century to our posterity is this that we have released our children from the fear of the supernatural the concept of God is still available for those who need it but those who do not have no longer to be ashamed or afraid so what place he asks if religion should have any in our culture the greatest gift of this century to our posterity is that we have released our children from the fear of the supernatural the Atheist says that how do we deal with this whole thing I say to you that the fact of the matter is that in human existence itself we do one simple thing that can so easily get a sidetrack please listen to me now we as Christians overestimate the value of a miracle most skeptics underestimate the value of a miracle why is it in the times of Moses there were so many miracles and so many still didn't believe why in the time of Elijah so many miracles so many still didn't believe in the time of Jesus's birth so many miracles still so many didn't believe Judas walks with Jesus for all those years and sees miracle after miracle and still so many and still he didn't believe Elisha's servant watches sixteen miracles performed one after another and he still didn't believe you see if the heart is determined to follow its own way a miracle alone is not going to satisfy and yet the miracle that the world is looking for I believe is not the miracle from out there but in the loneliness of a breakdown in the existential experience where wickedness cannot be explained where the hunger for worship keeps going further and seeking some answer where the will seems to constantly be colliding with other wills there is a miracle this world is looking forward you know what that miracle is it's what Justin Heywood in the Moody Blues sang years ago it a it he says this why do we never get an answer when we are knocking at the door with a thousand million questions about hate and death and war because when we stop and look around us there's nothing that we need in a world of persecution that is whirling in its greed why do we never get an answer when we are knocking at the door and then the chorus goes I'm looking for someone to change my life I'm looking for a miracle in my life what the world is looking for is not so much just an answer of origins the world is looking for something that will change that enslavement within and ladies and gentleman because existentially lives are broken and existentially Christ being such restoration he brings that subjective experience because objectively his word is true and that is the sequence of us always be the truth is objectively true appropriated subjectively if it's only a subjective truth with no objective corroboration there's no way of proving it true or false this is true on the inside because it is true on the outside and God can bring a miracle in your life and mine as a teenager my family members are here they will tell you I had very little to live for failure marked my life failure punctuated my life I was possibly the biggest failure in our family and I had it said to me in many different ways and it was true it was absolutely true but then I found a miracle in my life when the Lord met me at the darkest moments of despair and transformed me and I said this deal all over the globe I go and I see transformed lives I see people who sought for that miracle and found it and if this whole idea of evil the search for worship the conflict of wills and the search for a miracle in human existence continues how then can the church respond I have two applications an illustration and it won't be long number one please follow me I think this is very pivotal you don't see these things written too many place so but the more you pursue the Scriptures you see why it is so when Adam and Eve sinned they were expelled from the garden there was an eastward move but the door from the east was shut with the chera be there with the angelic beings guarding it they were up they were kicked out eastward when Cain killed his brother Abel he went into the Land of Nod he stood when the men were billing the building the Tower of Babel they were moving east towards Shinar when lot and Abraham stood and surveyed the topography before them and I Abraham said you make the first choice where you want to go the Bible says he chose and moved towards the east the cities of men Abraham was the first one to move west and when he turned and moved West you know what the Lord said to him I'll give you everything all that is north all that is south all that is east all that is west are you as a Christian while the world goes east are you willing to go west are you willing to take that stand that is completely and radically different to anything else the world would consider plausible psychologist Paul wits ghost sports a philosopher says this painful words today religionists wonder why youth has abandoned the churches not wanting to realize that it is precisely because organized religion openly subscribed to a commercial industrial hero system that is almost openly defunct it so obviously denies reality and banishes sacredness with bureaucratic dedication men are treated as things in the world is pulled down to their size the churches subscribe to this empty heroics of possession display and manipulation I think that today Christianity is in trouble not because its beliefs are dead but because it does not offer its ideal of heroic sainthood as an immediate personal one to be lived by believers in a perverse way the churches have turned their backs both on the miraculousness of creation and on the need to do something heroic in this world I've got some heroes in this room and that's why I read biographies can you and I pray for God's blessing on our children that he will make heroes out of them in his sight a heroic alternative to the eastward move of the world true saintliness I think as Steve had addressed this morning on the on the gun the gluttony after things how easily you get seduced into it and become an icon to people and you go back into your room and you know the hollowness that can be within can we be full people weighty people in the eyes of God as well that's what the word glory means weighted miss there's not a hollowness there is something fulfilling will the church be willing to move West while the rest of the world is moving east and i mean that in the figurative sense be in Contra distinction in playa stark contrast to what the world lives by and lastly I say this is it possible and I thought deeply so you have to bear with me please don't critic indemnify this I thought of this long and hard very long and hard and if I'm mistaken forgive me but you know if the world wants to believe a noble lie and we believe that this is the truth and this is the word that defines reality there is only one question left for you and me to answer in this apologetic conflict why do we believe this to be true when was the last time you walked into a church and heard a sermon on why the Bible is true this is our problem our young people want to believe this but they are not getting answers on why this is true we tell people they are framing their lives by a lie we have followed the truth and the biggest question in our churches today is why is this the truth why have you traded your life for what's Genesis 1 to 12 says here and the rest of it if this is true then we better tell our young people why it is true because they can't go into their colleges and university and just say the Bible says we tell them they are living by a lie and we tell them we are living by the truth and they want to know who says so the biggest failure we are doing as Christian leaders today to our young people is we have not taught them how to defend this that is the failure of the apologetic movement over the last 20-30 years we have not told them why this is true here's the illustration and with that I'm true this is a true story it is a book entitled the man who never was it's a true story about British naval intelligence considered the greatest ruse during the war and it took place during wait was it took place during the invasion of Italy immediately after the North African campaign and it was conceived in the mind of an ordinary soldier man by the name of Evan Montague it's a fascinating story I could take 15-20 minutes just building the story one of the greatest intelligence operations in the Second World War that turned the tide at that point as they were making their approach into Italy the forces had to go past Sicily the German soldiers though the German defenses were deeply entrenched in there and Evan Montagu talked to his senior officers and ultimately Churchill got involved in it and he said if we can get the Germans to move away from Sicily then we've got easy access well you know that's like saying if you can boil the ocean then you get the submarines up and you can shoot them you know yeah sure if you can get the Germans out of Sicily but why will they move out of Sicily that's on route to what we're trying to go to he says that's the point can we get them to believe a lie that we are not going to Sicily we're going to Sardinia Churchill so why would we go to Sardinia he says I know we're not going to start in here but when you're done to believe we're gonna go to Sardinia how you gonna do that they said they would get an announcement somehow to trickle through that somebody had crashed somewhere of a major officer carrying intelligence information and in his briefcase was information of a secret plan of invasion and so they were looking for this man but no such man existed so the heaven Montague went to the hospitals and found out if they could give him a dead body and they would throw it off the coast of Spain and hope that would have flown to the Spanish island there and that somehow there were enough informers who would see this take the message give it to the Germans and get them to read this is not going to be as simple as that first of all you use akan just take an ordinary dead body if they do and if they do an autopsy there you can't say he died by drowning because it won't show that he died by drowning so they decided to find the fellow who died of pneumonia with some fluid inside his lungs and maybe just enough to fool the autopsy procedure they found the fellow a father gave his dead son they named him Richard Martin they put him in a uniform they put all kinds of papers into his including romantic letters from a non-existent woman tickets to the theater a receipt for an engagement ring and then the notes of how they were going to go to Sardinia all couched in language but with just enough information for them to suspect Sardinia and Montague sir let's include one line in PS I think here got Mountbatten Mountbatten said let's not carry this too far so now we got to do it but he put a PS when it is over looking forward to having some sardines with you the Germans fell for that line this is British humour here they're going to Sardinian all the defenses being moved to Sardinia all of them it was called Operation mincemeat operation mincemeat successful the man who never was lies in a grave in Spain today he served his country though a dead man because he carried information the Germans fell for and the forces moved into Italy with an exceedingly extremely successful invasion can I reverse the analogy for the good guys and the bad guys here you know what Satan's done he's got us to move our forces fighting battles in certain areas and we've let this unguarded battling out many social issues as good as they are but nobody knows how to defend this anymore if we want to call this world's lie a lie we're going to have to demonstrate it the truth and defend the truth because the mystery of iniquity is there the Marvel and the hunger of worship is there the miracle of existence itself and the mastery of the will in this existential struggle God's Word is true let us do this generation a favor by defending this because the Word of God conforms to reality and our lives must conform to reality too may God bless you and I trust his word will become true in your life if you don't know him here I hope you'll find his definition of reality

Channel: Apologia Acts 17:17

Views: 276,284

Rating: 4.7472982 out of 5

Keywords: Ravi Zacharias, Christian Apologetics, Philosophy, Lecture, The Bible, Scriptures, Existentialism, Morality, Reality, Ethics, Atheism, Atheists, Skeptics, Skepticism, Lies

Id: wsIPrasmvAQ

Length: 65min 45sec (3945 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 01 2012