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VOLUME 21.1 I WWW.RZIM.ORG

JUSTTHINKINGTHE MAGAZINE OF RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

Learning ToThinkCritically

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+THE JOURNEY OF SHEEP

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COMPLETE TO COMPLETE

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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

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Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

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JUST THINKING • The Quarterly Magazine of RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

TABLE of CONTENTSVOLUME 21.1

Learning To Think Critically

How does the Christian learn tothink critically? One must begin by evaluating any worldview orassertion on the basis of truth, thecoherence of what is being claimed,and then the implications of what this means personally. Ravi Zacharias sat down withDanielle DuRant to discuss the significance of critical thinking.

The Journey of Sheep

Anyone who has been to a sheep penwould tell you that sheep are notexactly the smartest in the animalkingdom, writes I’Ching Thomas.They do, however, have a stronginstinct to follow the leader. Whenone sheep decides to go somewhere,the rest of the flock usually follows,even if the first sheep has no ideawhat it is doing.

Complete To Complete

A leadership trainer uses the phrase“complete to complete” to encapsulatethe ideal mentality behind successfulteamwork. Cameron McAllister contends that compressed into thisphrase is the assumption that a

future conclusion looms large over all our efforts leading up to a givenend. As Michelangelo remarked, “I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

If Only

Jill Carattini suggests that if weknew beforehand what we knowafter the fact, things could very wellturn out differently. But to assumethat because of that perspective wenow see perfectly is likely a perilousoversight. The Israelite’s mistreatmentat the hands of the Egyptians wasoverlooked in their perception of the other side of the Red Sea. But we can thank God that He knowsthe longings we express and the oneswe do not know to express.

Think Again

How do you reach a generation thatlistens with its eyes and thinks withits feelings? Ravi Zacharias says wemust know how to defend our ownbeliefs, but likewise, not underestimatethe role we play in clearing the obstacles in someone’s spiritual journey.Above all, a genuine love for othersis essential.

[2] JUST THINKING • RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

[ R e a d i l y v i s i b l et o r e a s o n ]

JUST THINKING • VOLUME 21.1 [3]

Learning To Think CriticallyRavi Zacharias with Danielle DuRant

How does the Christian learn to think critically?One must begin by evaluating any worldview orassertion on the basis of truth, the coherence ofwhat is being claimed, and then the implicationsof what this means personally. Ravi Zacharias sat down with Danielle DuRant to discuss the significance of critical thinking. To hear the fullinterview, go to www.rzim.org.


Danielle DuRant: It’s great to be with you,Ravi, to talk about critical thinking andengaging an audience. Would you begin bydefining critical thinking for us?

Ravi Zacharias: LET ME PUT IT in thesimplest words I can. The word “critical”often comes through as negative; that is,you’re criticizing somebody. Strangelyenough, if you use the word “critique,” itcomes through more positively becauseyou are critiquing a book or critiquing anessay. I think critical thinking has twocomponents to it. The main componentis when you’re analyzing any propositionalstatement or system of thought, you areengaged with critical thinking whetheryou 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 areyou doing it unjustly? The second aspectof it is the ethical implications of whateverit is you have processed.

So I like to think of critical thinkingas an analytical process of evaluating thetruth component of the statement orthought you are processing. That has tobe done. If you are looking at a worldview,any assertion, or any challenge to yourown worldview, you have to evaluate it on the basis of truth, the coherence of what is being claimed, and then theimplications of what this means for yourpersonal life. So first there is an analyticalcomponent to it—the truth component,the synthesizing component. And second,at the end of it there must be an applica-tion or an imperative component to it.We must think critically especially indefending our worldview or in challenginga counter perspective. So critical analysisof worldviews is what critical thinking isall about.

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DD:Many vocations involve critical thinking, whether you are a surgeon, a lawyer,a teacher. Why is it so important for theChristian particularly to engage in criticalthinking and to develop critical thinking skills?

RZ:The Christian still for some reasonis charged illegitimately with being theonly one who is exclusive. I have said itmany times before: all worldviews claimexclusivity, but somehow it is popular tohit the Christian as the only one that laysclaim to this. Yes, we do lay claim to thefact that Jesus is the way, the truth, andthe life. There is an exclusive claim madeby Jesus in the pages of the Scriptures.But exclusivity is also claimed in thepantheistic worldviews and in all of themonotheistic worldviews. So for theChristian, it should be done gently, itshould be done efficiently, effectively,and with respect when you are talkingto anybody.

I’ve just come back from parts ofthe world where I had to be so careful in what I said and how I said it becauseninety percent of the audience sitting infront of me was not sympathetic towardsmy belief. I was engaged in a criticalanalysis of my own worldview and thenshowed why it was tenable and coherent. So for the Christian today, and especiallyfor our young, it is important to instructthem not only on how to defend what we believe but also how to do it withgentleness and respect. As Peter tellsus in 1 Peter 3:15-16, to do that withgentleness and respect to always be ableto give a reason for the hope that iswithin you. It is imperative upon us todo it justifiably and to do it respectfully.

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Scripture, he’s harking back also to anempirical way of justifying it: this is a fulfillment of prophecy which was spokenof hundreds of years ago. There is arational process, existential relevance,and a methodology we must adhere to.In a world full of challenges, you have tocome to something outside of the textthat you are defending rather than sayingthis is the text I believe.

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DD: So critical thinking is clearly an essential and a necessary bridge, particularlyto an unbelieving or skeptical audience. Howdid Francis Schaeffer use this discipline to compel non-believers to see the irrationality of their beliefs?

RZ: THAT’S A GOOD QUESTION becauseI think Francis Schaeffer broke newground. When I was a young student inthe 70s just entering into my theologicaltraining, Schaeffer was a big name. Heauthored such works as He Is There and He Is Not Silent, The God Who Is There, andDeath in the City. Schaeffer was a pastor butbecame branded more as a philosopher,and with the opening of L’Abri, youngexistentialists would stop by and interact.Regarding Schaeffer’s method, he tookthe skepticism of an Immanuel Kant andpointed out how Immanuel Kant came to a point in his thinking that you reallycan’t make any meaningful statementsabout God. He moved God-talk into a

John 16:7-11

But very truly I tellyou, it is for yourgood that I am goingaway. Unless I goaway, the Advocatewill not come to you;but if I go, I willsend him to you.When he comes, hewill prove the worldto be in the wrongabout sin and righteousness andjudgment: about sin,because people do notbelieve in me; aboutrighteousness, becauseI am going to theFather, where youcan see me no longer;and about judgment,because the prince ofthis world nowstands condemned.

DD:What about the Christian who says, “I really don’t need to learn this skill; I justneed to study the Bible.”

RZ: I WISH THAT PERSON were rightbecause I would love to be that way too!Interestingly, many Muslims actually livelike that. I have talked to one of the lead-ing muftis, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,and he said, “I just have to tell you whatthe Quran says and that’s what I believe.”Well, what happens in a world of pluralisticoptions? What happens to the world ofreason? What happens to legitimizing the process, not just the end conclusionyou’ve come to? Is that what it is all about?“I’m not going to listen to any other argument; I’m just going to believe whatI claim to believe.” Can you do that in a court of law? “I’m not going to defendwhat I’m saying; I’m just telling you I didn’t do it.” It doesn’t work.

We do believe that the Bible is theWord of God, but we come

through a process of legitimizing thatclaim. We just didn’t make that claim; wetell you why we believe the Bible to bethe Word of God, and the Bible itself laysclaim to this methodology. For example,in the Gospel of John, when the HolySpirit comes, Jesus said that the Spiritwould bring conviction of truth, right-eousness, and things to come. Peter saysthis is that which was spoken of by theprophet Joel. So while he’s harking to

Ithink Francis Schaeffer broke new ground. He tookthe existentialist and the nihilist to their point of

despair, to where it was that their philosophy bred adespairing worldview, such as nihilism meaning “nothingness.” He showed them through art or philosophythat these points of despair had to be addressed and whyChrist brings meaning and hope.


nimbus, into a realm where you can’t critically talk about God, so it bred akind of skepticism, which Schaeffer tookto task. Schaeffer was very adept in whathe did: he took the existentialist and thenihilist to their point of despair, to whereit was that their philosophy bred adespairing worldview, such as nihilismmeaning “nothingness.” He showed themthrough art or philosophy that thesepoints of despair had to be addressed andwhy Christ brings meaning and hope.Schaeffer did it very effectively and heministered to a lot of people in the 70sand 80s.

Iremember meeting him just once whenwe hosted him in Nyack, New York.He was pretty feeble at that point. IfSchaeffer can be credited with anything,it was breaking wide open this terrain forthe Christian, charging us, “You betterstart defending what you believe andknow where we are heading.” So whenSchaeffer and C. Everett Koop wrote inWhatever Happened to the Human Race thathumanity was moving in the direction ofdestruction, whether in sexuality or inthe sanctity of life, Schaeffer pointed out that we were moving towards theextinction of meaning. Philosophy wasleading us there in terms of its assump-tions. But the fact of the matter is, life isintended to be meaningful, and Schaeffershowed how Christ addresses that. Thatis the bridge Schaeffer provided betweenthe despair of the 60s and the postmod-ernism of the 90s. It is a very valuablereminder to us of how to approach this.

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DD: And if I recall correctly, I believe it wasSchaeffer who popularized the statement “alltruth is God’s truth.” RZ:YES, HE DID. And I think it wasoften misused by people who didn’tunderstand what he was saying. WhatSchaeffer was actually saying is that ifsomething is true, it would also be true inwhat God has said of reality and thenature of life, destiny, origin, meaning,and so on. So if it is true, it is not just“secularly true;” it is also true in thetheological realm. It was interestingwhat Mahatma Gandhi said: “Truth is God and God is truth.” Now Gandhi wasdepersonalizing it in a way and making anabstraction out of it, but the fact of thematter is there is no contradiction inGod. There is nothing that causes God to disintegrate within Himself; so I wouldsay that Gandhi abstracted what Schaefferthen personalized.

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DD:What about people such as the new atheistswho accuse Christians of being irrational andlacking critical thinking skills? After all, webelieve in a Jesus who walked on water andwas born of the Virgin Mary. That seems fairly irrational to the average skeptic.

RZ:YOU KNOW, I find the atheist veryclever in what they do. For example, whydo they discount miracles? According toDavid Hume, because the natural lawfunctions routinely—so why do you lookfor miracles, an oddity in the midst ofnatural law? So they did away with themiraculous because they were going withwhat was normative and what was routine.But then when it came to ethics, theyvery cleverly switched the terms. If youstarted talking about an absolute, whichwas normative, they would interject anexception like, “What happens if youwalk into your home and your familymember is being assaulted? Are you telling

me you will not fight or take a baseballbat or something?” Very fascinating.When it came to natural law in the realmof the sun and the planets,they did notallow for the exceptions. But when itcame to ethics, it was the exception thatdebunked the absolute.

So what do those two reactionshave in common? They both want to getrid of God—because if you bring in themiraculous in natural law, you have toaccommodate the presence of God.If you take the normative and theabsolute in ethics, you have to invokeupon the very person of God. So it ismore the atheist that is anti-reason andanti-rational, but the accusation that ismade against the Christian is leveragedto their advantage now.

But what about the origin of theuniverse? Is it repeatable? No.Theythemselves say this could never happenagain. What about the contingencies thatit took? Thirty some contingencies theexactitude demanded. The very fact thatyou and I are here is the process of whateven atheists would sometimes say is soawesome that it is tantamount to beingsomething like a miracle. Some of the scientists have used that very word. Sowhat I say to them is, you have alreadyaccepted that which is not repeatable.You have already accepted that which isso rare. You have already accepted thefact that when you come to a singularity,you are actually seeing the laws of physicsdo not apply to all of those origins. Dowe really think that the consummation of love between and a man and a woman

and the birth of a child is just somethingthat is explainable so naturalistically?Rather than seeing the miracle of birthand the wonder of it, we think just bydescribing it that we have debunked thenotion of the miracle.

So when we talk about walking on waterand the miraculous, we are talking

about a theistic framework. When youare able to defend the existence of God,you also talk about the intervention ofGod in history and the intervention ofGod in the process of a natural law. To me, the very fact of natural law is amiraculous expression of God to sustainlife. You remember when we had the twoastronauts visiting us here at the office.They talked about looking through thewindows of space as they were orbitingthe earth and seeing something so uniqueabout this planet and its particularity. I think we live with the miraculous every day.

Now the atheist is unfortunatelypartially correct when he or she attacksthe Christian faith and we make no properdefense of it. So I think the defense ofthe existence of God, the defense of thevery person of Jesus Christ, and thedefense of the miraculous can be doneand ought to be done. I would ask theatheist how is it that they defend moralreasoning in an amoral universe that bynon-moral origins has arrived at this kindof thinking and this kind of argument.I think they have a lot more to explainthan the Christian does.

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Iwould ask the atheist how is it that they defendmoral reasoning in an amoral universe that by

non-moral origins has arrived at this kind of thinkingand this kind of argument. I think they have a lotmore to explain than the Christian does.



DD: So it sounds like there are a few essentialquestions that every Christian ought to be ableto answer. You mentioned the existence of Godand the uniqueness of Christ

RZ:VERY MUCH SO, Danielle, for tworeasons. The first one talks about theexistence of God in general terms, atheistic framework. We assume asChristians that God exists. But I was justin Paris talking to two leading Frenchbusinessmen and neither of them thinkswithin a theistic framework. They weretalking about the French elections, andsomewhere in the conversation aroundthe table somebody asked if they taughtethics or on anything spiritual. “Oh no, nowe don’t deal with that at all,” they said.Then they talked about three candidatesthat were in the running for election andone of the businessmen—who was one of their students—said that the first candidate was addicted to alcohol, thesecond was addicted to women, and thethird was addicted to corruption. Theseare their words! And so my wife, Margie,said, “Maybe they do need to start teach-ing something about spiritual values andethics.”

Then something very strange happened. As we were having dinner, welooked out of the window into the Parisnight sky and there was a beautiful streakof white across the dark clouds. The mansitting next to me, a leading businessmanwho is very well known in France, said,“Maybe there is a God.”

We need to recognize that withoutthe theistic framework, this world

will implode under the weight of our ownaddictions, principally to ourselves. Soyou move beyond the theistic frameworkto the Christian framework in the pres-entation of Jesus Christ. I’m not talkingabout the presentation of Christendomnor in a sense of even Christianity.Rather, who is Jesus? What did He claim?Why it is that He is the one who is ableto redeem the heart, transform our lives,and give us that new hunger that we soneed to make life meaningful in thisworld?

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DD:We’re talking about critical thinkingskills, but of course we’re not dismissing thefact that it’s the Word of God that convertsand changes people’s lives, transforming them.

RZ:ABSOLUTELY. I THINK that’s animportant point to make: that really,critical thinking is to lay bare what isreadily visible to reason, but it is thetransforming power of the Holy Spirit,says John 6, that draws us. We will nevercome to Him; transformation of thehuman heart is ultimately a spiritualthing. I saw that happen even on this tripwith a man for whom family and friendshave been praying for eleven years. Hewas hard-nosed tough. We were sitting ona sofa chatting on a yacht that they hadchartered because they wanted to ask metheir questions. He was talking about a

John 6:35-37, 44

Then Jesusdeclared, “I amthe bread of life.Whoever comesto me will nevergo hungry, andwhoever believesin me will neverbe thirsty. But asI told you, youhave seen me andstill you do notbelieve. All thosethe Father givesme will come tome, and whoevercomes to me Iwill never driveaway. ...No onecan come to meunless the Fatherwho sent me drawsthem, and I willraise them up atthe last day.”

Critical thinking is to lay bare what is readilyvisible to reason, but it is the transforming

power of the Holy Spirit that draws us. We willnever come to Him; transformation of the humanheart is ultimately a spiritual thing.


to carry this burden because he’s killed a man.He’s holding on to this baggage throughoutthe movie, climbing through the mountains.Finally someone cuts it off of him and every-one laughs with joy because they recognize theabsurdity of him holding on to this burden.It seems that you’ve expressed that even theboundaries that God sets for us are for oursafety and for our good.

RZ:YES. THAT SCENE you are talkingabout reminds me of the Roman law andwhen Paul says, “Who shall deliver mefrom this body of death?” If you murderedsomeone, one of the punishment possi-bilities was for you to carry the corpse onyour back. You literally carried that “deadweight,” so you’d think twice especiallyabout the size of the person you’d want to kill! Paul says, “Who shall deliver mefrom this body of death? Thanks be toGod”—He does.

We bear the burdens of our ownviolations. A skeptic said to me in a dinner in Abu Dhabi, “After listening toyou tonight, I have to say to you the onething that’s missing in our culture here isthe redemptive aspect.” Amazing! Hesaid that they can talk you into believingthere is forgiveness, but you pay. There isa price to be paid. Then he said, “I’mthinking of this redemptive aspect whenyou and I realize our redeemer paid theprice for something we could not evenpay for and gave us that new birth andthat new life.”

So critical thinking sounds like suchan abstract thing but rightly applied leadsus to the crises of reasoning in life apartfrom God. He is the transcendent pointfor reasoning, hope, meaning, and destiny.The Bible says, “Come now, let us reasontogether” (Isaiah 1:18). God is a reasoningGod, and He pleads and calls to show us that his way is the way that puts itback together. Our way is the way thatdestroys it.

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Romans 7:21-25a

So I find this law atwork: Although Iwant to do good, evilis right there withme. For in my innerbeing I delight inGod’s law; but I seeanother law at workin me, waging waragainst the law of mymind and making mea prisoner of the lawof sin at work withinme. What a wretchedman I am! Who willrescue me from thisbody that is subject todeath? Thanks be toGod, who deliversme through JesusChrist our Lord!

broken relationship and how he went tothe one with whom the relationship wasbroken and said, “I’d love to rebuild thisif you would turn your back upon theseother things that are drawing you awayfrom the family.” He said the partner washesitant and just put it in a corner.

Afew minutes later I said to him,“What’s keeping you from Christ?”

He said, “This conditional love fromGod—that either you come to me or youwill end up in this kind of a destiny.” Ilooked at him and I said, “I’m fascinated.In the opening part of our conversationyou said that you looked at the personyou loved and said, ‘Why don’t we rebuildif you turn your back upon these otherattachments?’ Were you laying a conditionor were you reminding this person thatlove has built-in conditions if it is to findfulfillment? What do you think God issaying to you? God is not offering you aconditional love. He’s built a frameworkof love and relationship where there arepreconditions necessary if you are to findfulfillment in these things, just as thisyacht on the water has met the precondi-tions of how to stay afloat. Is this somekind of a conditional thing that is to putus in jeopardy or a conditional thing tohelp us enjoy what it is like to float onthis water?”

And I kid you not: he suddenly justburst out into tears. A man in his fifties,he literally got on his knees and justsobbed and sobbed. For the first time, hesaw that if we are to enjoy the love ofGod, we are going to enjoy it only whenwe deal with it within the frameworkthat God has designed it to be enjoyed.

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DD:Wow, that’s really powerful. Thatreminds me of the scene in The Mission,if you recall that film from years ago. Theactor Robert De Niro has this huge bagof metal on his back and he feels that he has


DD:You’ve already alluded to some ofthe amazing opportunities that you’ve hadrecently to speak in the Middle East andwith atheists in Europe. Would you tell usabout your invitation from the sheik?

RZ: I WAS IN BAHRAIN, DUBAI, andthen in Abu Dhabi. In Bahrain I wasasked to speak on “Is Peace Possible?”and then in Abu Dhabi I was hosted bythe sheikh who actually funded the wholeevent and came and sat in the front row.It was a phenomenal moment. InBahrain, when I finished speaking on thepossibility of peace, which I subtitled,“Our Way or God’s Way,” the brigadierfrom my table walked right up towardsthe platform as I stepped down and gaveme a hug in his flowing robes. He said,“Please take this message to the rest ofthe world; we need it.” In Abu Dhabi, thesheikh, who is a member of the royalfamily, sat through my whole talk of 45minutes on “Foundations for Living.” Healso walked up to the platform, embracedme, kissed me on both sides of the face,and said, “I hope this is the beginning ofa long friendship.” Then he had me visittheir university the next day and to speakat their national library.

Here’s what I want to say: I have tobe very careful. Sometimes I wish I couldgive the whole nine yards in the first set-ting; there’s nothing I’d want to do thanthat. But as Christian apologists, we takeone step at a time. You have to earn theright to be heard. I did bring the gospel. I did present Jesus Christ. Would I haveliked to have done more? Absolutely. Ithink the opportunity is coming as I’vebeen invited back.

You open these doors very carefullybecause you know you’ve not openedthem, God’s opened them, and you haveto walk wisely. They have absolutely nodoubt what I believe, why I believe it.So we have to know there are genuineseekers. Coming from India, I knowexactly what all that means. I thinkeven of Elisha in 2 Kings 5. WhenNaaman was healed of his leprosy, heasked Elisha, “What do I do now? WhenI go back and my master leans on myarm, by virtue of his weight on my arm I have to bow before the Temple ofRimmon.” Elisha didn’t tell him, “Do it”or “Don’t do it.” Elisha said, “Go inpeace.” That is, “Go, and God will bewith you.” I think it is interesting that hesaid essentially that at the right time, youwill know exactly what to do and Godwill give you strength.

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Sometimes I wish I could give the whole nine yardsin the first setting; there’s nothing I’d want to do

than that. But as Christian apologists, we take onestep at a time. You have to earn the right to be heard.You open these doors very carefully because you knowyou’ve not opened them, God’s opened them, and youhave to walk wisely.

DD: I imagine you faced some challenging questions in these settings.

RZ:YES. THEY WERE very, very pointedand there were some tough ones. Wecouldn’t deal with all of them. I have togo beyond the question to the questioner.For example, one of the questions askedin Dubai was, “You’ve talked about ‘Canman live without God’ but who is thisGod?” That was one question and fiftypercent of the audience was from theIslamic worldview. So I said, “The ultimatedefinition to me is the creator of the universe and the one who has called us to Himself who is the redeemer of theuniverse provided for us through his Son,Jesus Christ. He offered to indwell uswith the presence of his Holy Spirit to be able to deal with temptation and thestruggles of this world. So I’m talkingabout the God that is spoken of in theOld and the New Testaments.”

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DD: Going back to critical thinking, whatabout the role of the Holy Spirit in thisprocess? I’m thinking there may be some whowould say, “I really don’t need to sharpen mycritical thinking skills because the Holy Spiritis the revealer of truth.”

RZ:WELL, ANY TIME anything is takento an extreme, it is an improper use ofreasoning. If somebody says, “I don’tneed any critical thinking; the Holy Spirit

is all I need and the Bible is all I need,” Iwould ask, “Why do you think Saul ofTarsus was chosen as the one to becomethe apologist of his time? Why wasMoses? Why was Daniel?” These peoplewere well-learned in all the philosophiesof their time. We were in Ephesus recentlyand that’s where Paul set up the schoolof Tyrannus. Why? To dialogue and to debate.He would even use their own poets.

We need to differentiate betweenthe path to the gospel and the power ofthe gospel—they are two different things.The path to removes the prejudices andhurdles, and to start quoting theScriptures at that time is to quote thevery thing that is a hurdle. You aredefending that which you are going to useand defend. You know, people in theWest may have a completely differentview of evangelism to those of us whocome from the East. I know how long ittook to clear the obstacles for my fatherin bringing him to a point where he couldhear the gospel. I was recently withChinese business people. One of themwas devotedly committed to worshippinghis ancestors and talked about it. Thusfor me to start immediately sharing thegospel, what he is registering at thatpoint is, “Are you asking me to turn myback upon my ancestors?” So we have torealize the implications of how they arereading what you are saying and thosehave to be addressed.

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We need to differentiate between the path to thegospel and the power of the gospel—they are

two different things. The path to removes the prejudicesand hurdles, and to start quoting the Scriptures at thattime is to quote the very thing that is a hurdle.



In warfare the goal of one party is todestroy the other. In Christian

engagement, the goal is to win the person who is of the other world-view—not to destroy the person. So toquote, “The weapons of our warfare arenot carnal but mighty through God.”


DD: You mentioned Ephesus and I’m thinkingof our work in Turkey. I did not know howfew Christians there are in this biblical landor that a Turkish Christian is seen as basicallynot being Turkish. That is, if you are aChristian in Turkey, you can’t be Turkishbecause you would be of another faith. Theseare hurdles one has to step over.

RZ: IT’S VERY HARD, very hard. Iremember a friend I grew up with and weplayed cricket together. I remember heused to have a phrase he would use whenhe would talk to me after I became aChristian. He would say, “You’ve lost youroriginality.” It was his way of saying,“You’re not an Indian anymore.” I wouldsay to him, “Why do you say that? Wouldyou say that to a Muslim in India? ‘You’velost your originality.’ Would you say thatto a Buddhist in India? Why are yousaying that? You’re saying it becauseI’m a Christian, because I have becomea follower of Jesus Christ. But are youaware of the fact that He spoke inparables? He spoke with wisdom;He spoke in proverbs. He was talkingto us as Easterners.”

The parables are all laden withEastern motif, but this cultural, familialtie is a very real tie, and we don’t realizehow tough it is. But when they come toknow Christ, they know what the impli-cations are. Sometimes in the West wejust think we have added another thing toour belief. In the East you have to knowthere is a renunciation that takes place ofsome beliefs. Now, does that mean disre-spect for the family? No, absolutely not.A young man who comes to know Christwill actually love his parents even moreand respect them. It is just that we do notdeify them because we know there is oneGod and one mediator between God andman, and that’s the person of Christ Jesus.

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DD: As we close, would there be some resourcesthat you would recommend for Christians toengage deeper in critical thinking?

RZ: THERE ARE SO MANY. There aremany books written on logic; there aremany books written on reason. Dr.Norman Geisler’s book Come Let UsReason is a tough one but it gives you the formal fallacies of reasoning. A bookthat helped me a great deal years ago was Mortimer Adler’s Ten PhilosophicalMistakes. In that, Dr. Adler talks about a word’s meaning and various conceptsand categories. It is good to get a handleon these things. There are many more recent books that authors have pennedon critical thinking. I like Dr. Geisler’sbook When Critics Ask, which deals withdifferent fallacies. I like the book by ArlieHoover that he wrote years ago calledPoking Holes in Faulty Logic.

So to sum it up, come to terms withwhat the fallacies are, what the mistakesare, what the laws of logic are, but mostimportantly, observe—and that’s a goodaspect of critical thinking, by the way.Observe how it is done and what it wasthat was done in the process of counter-ing an argument. There are various bookson how to argue that involve a more hostile way of winning an argument, yet I don’t think that’s what the Christian isall about. But if you read books by C. S.Lewis, read books by Frances Schaeffer, ifyou read ones by good apologists, you cansee what they are doing. That’s the bestway to engage in learning how to thinkcritically, and I would add, constructively.

You see, in warfare the goal of oneparty is to destroy the other. In Christianengagement, the goal is to win the personwho is of the other worldview—not todestroy the person. So to quote, “Theweapons 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.


Realizing our propensity to follow ways thatare dangerous to our souls, are we willing to follow the Good Shepherd and surrenderour minds and hearts to his leadership?

The Journey of Sheepby I’Ching Thomas

[ r e n e w i n g o f o u r m i n d s ]


Afew years ago, while travelingacross to Europe in a ferry, wefound our bus parked next to a

truck. It was one of those trucks wherethere are two levels of storage space forlive animals. This time, it was loaded withsheep. There must have been at least ahundred sheep crammed into that vehicle,all on their way to the slaughterhouse.

As I observed the animals, theywere behaving rather amusingly—somewere sticking out their noses sniffingaway, while others were trying to peekout curiously as they experienced the newsmells, sights, and sounds that were quitedifferent from their usual farmstead. Littledid they know they were on their way tobe butchered!

In another incident, it was reporteda while ago that shepherds in Turkeywatched in shock as hundreds of theirsheep followed each other over a cliff. It started when one sheep went over theedge, only to be followed by the wholeflock. At the end of the episode, morethan 400 sheep died in the plunge—theirbodies buffering the fall of 1,100 othersthat followed.

While we might laugh at the sillinessof the sheep, it is also a vivid illustrationof our human state. On a daily basis, weare offered joyrides that promise pleasureand adventure, opportunities that seemto realize our ambition for recognition,power, material wealth, intimacy, andeven meaning. At every turn, we are led byadvertisers to believe that their productsor services can satiate our thirst forexcitement and thrill. Unknowingly, weaccept invitations for rides which take uson roads that could result in our slowspiritual deaths. Sadly, we are not oftenaware of the looming danger as we are toopreoccupied taking in the new experienceand novelty. By the time we arrive at ourdestination, it would be too late for us toescape our end.

Anyone who has been to a sheep penwould tell you that sheep are not exactlythe smartest in the animal kingdom. Theydo, however, have a strong instinct to follow the leader. When one sheep decidesto go somewhere, the rest of the flockusually follows, even if the first sheep hasno idea what it is doing. The incident inTurkey is a case in point. Apparently, evenfrom birth, lambs are conditioned to follow the older members of the flock.

Interestingly, sheep are often usedto typify humans in the Bible. Jesusspeaks of himself as the Good Shepherdand how we are like hapless sheep thathave gone astray and in need of a shepherd.1 Similarly, the wisdom ofProverbs warns us that “There is a waythat seems right to a person, but in theend it leads to death.”2

Realizing our propensity to followways that are dangerous to our souls, howthen might we safeguard ourselves fromfollowing the wrong path? The apostlePaul, who recognized how easily thehuman heart is enticed by the things andthe ways of the world, urged the Romansto no longer conform to the pattern of thisworld, but to be transformed by therenewing of their minds in the power ofone worthy of leading (see Romans 12:1-2).In short, if we are to follow the GoodShepherd and surrender our minds andhearts to his leadership, there is hope forevery journey no matter how discouragingit might appear. By renewing our visionwith the power of his life and the guidanceof the Holy Spirit, we can discern theoptions presented to us by the worldand avoid the way that leads to far lesspromising ends.

I’Ching Thomas is associate director oftraining at Ravi Zacharias InternationalMinistries in Singapore.

1 See John 10:11-15 and Matthew 9:36. 2 See Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urgeyou, brothers andsisters, in view ofGod’s mercy, tooffer your bodiesas a living sacrifice, holy andpleasing to God—this is your trueand proper worship. Do notconform to thepattern of thisworld, but betransformed bythe renewing of your mind. Then you will beable to test andapprove whatGod’s will is—his good, pleasingand perfect will.


Complete To Completeby Cameron McAllister

Do future conclusions loom large over all effortsleading up to a given end? Michelangelo famouslyremarked, “I saw an angel in the marble andcarved until I set him free.” Might this statementshed light on what the Danish philosopher SorenKierkegaard meant when he said that life is lived forwards and understood backwards?

[ a b u n d a n t c l u e s ]


Past, present, and future allcollaborate to make us whowe are. Few would debatethat both the past and thepresent play a crucial role inour personal formation. We

can discount neither where we camefrom nor where we are when we considerwho we are. But the question becomesmore enigmatic when we turn to thingsthat haven’t yet happened. Is it possiblethat our future somehow influences whowe are even now? If so, what might thatmean for us? Strange as it may sound, Iwant to suggest that traces of your futureexist in the present but that the best wayto see those traces is by looking throughthe lens of the past.

The theologian J.R. Daniel Kirkidentifies Romans 6 as one of the “keyplace[s] to look for the intrusion ofChrist’s resurrection into our currentlives.”1Kirk insists on the word “intru-sion” because the complete implicationsof Christ’s death and resurrection haveyet to be fully realized. As Christian menand women, however, we strive to faith-fully embody the conviction that the consummation of Christ’s redemptivework on the cross does indeed “intrude”into our day-to-day lives. Specifically,Romans 6:4 epitomizes the convergenceof immanence and imminence on display inour faithful behavior: “Therefore we havebeen buried with Him through baptisminto death, so that as Christ was raised fromthe dead through the glory of the Father,so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Far from being lofty and abstractsentiment, what this actually means isthat as servants of the living God, ourlives are simultaneously reflective ofGod’s past, present, and future work.Nevertheless, Christian faith remains adelicate balance of anticipation and fulfillment. If we nurture a prematurefocus on God’s 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 wecame from and where we are going. Thequestion then becomes: How do we leadlives that are complete examples of whatGod 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 seem-ingly unrelated events, ranging from a jobin his father’s butcher shop to a bloodyconfrontation with the neighborhoodbully, converging to shape both his identityand his vocation as a pastor. In otherwords, Peterson reads the traces of hisfuture by the light of his past. This is whyit is now possible for him to revisit thesechildhood scenes and see a little boy whowas somehow already “Pastor Pete” evenas he wielded his first butcher’s knife orfound himself locked in hand-to-handcombat with his local nemesis. Only nowis it possible for Peterson to look backand to see the future transform a first joband a fistfight into an apprenticeship.

Speaking personally, one of my ownencounters with the future took place mysenior year of high school. I was anunpromising student with no academicaspirations whatsoever. The sixth periodbell had rung, and we commenced withthe usual uproar with which we punishedsubstitutes for disrupting our regular routine. In walked a wild haired man with a stack of books in each hand, and asweater that might have been stolen fromBill Cosby. Instead of taking the bait,however, our sub countered our rudecommotion with famous first sentences,beginning with Moby Dick and endingwith the King James Bible. The passionwith which he spoke was fierce and mag-netic, and by the time he got to Genesis 1:1his voice was no more than a whisper, andour class leaned in hungrily as though hiswords were the very bread of life.


The only suitable word for thisoccasion is “foreshadowing.” I had neverexperienced the power and subtlety ofcreative language before. I never knewthat an expertly chosen group of wordscould instill the world with a renewedsense 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 daylook back on this eccentric orator in hisoversized sweater and rumpled trousersand recognize that he was more than just a substitute teacher. He was a briefmentor, and in a fateful moment, past,present and future overlapped, and Ibrushed shoulders with my future vocation as a writer. Such moments makeus privy to the future, but the recognitioncomes only with the benefit of the past. I think this is part of what the Danishphilosopher Soren Kierkegaard meantwhen he said that life is lived forwardsand understood backwards.

THE END IN SIGHTThe leadership trainer Bruce Bickle

uses the phrase “complete to complete”to encapsulate the ideal mentality behindsuccessful teamwork. Compressed intothis phrase is the assumption that a futureconclusion looms large over all effortsleading up to a given end. Michelangelofamously remarked, “I saw an angel in themarble and carved until I set him free.”In other words, the ideal artist begins thepainstaking process with the end already

in sight and allows the future to exert itspeculiar pull on her current efforts. The“complete to complete” mentality informsEugene Peterson’s discovery that he was,is, and always will be a pastor, and it seemsan apt summation of my own dawningrealization that I was a writer-in-waitinglong before my Christian calling and asuitable platform for self-expression coincided.

Just like Michelangelo’s angel, ourfuture is here, hidden in the marble ofour lives, and awaiting the chisel. Thoughour purpose may not always be clear, if wenurture the discipline of careful reflection,what Frederick Buechner calls “listeningto your life,” we will soon discover abundant clues about the future in thepresent. Ron Hansen believes his careeras a novelist began during the 1952 performance of his kindergarten’sChristmas pageant.3 Fatefully overlookedby the teacher because of the presence of his twin brother in the same class, Ron ended up as the only kid without anactual part in the nativity scene. Havingalready exhausted her supply of shepherds,Magi, and angels, Sister Martha promptlyforfeited her own part in the play andconceded to the little boy on the verge of tears before her, “Well, we’ll need anarrator. You can be Saint Luke.”4

In the span of two sentences, Ronwent from being an outcast to the envy of his entire class. More importantly, thisimpromptu decision on the part of SisterMartha would reveal in retrospect that he

Just like Michelangelo’s angel, our future is here, hidden inthe 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 Buechnercalls “listening to your life,” we will soon discover abundantclues about the future in the present.


was already a writer long before he knewhe was a writer. Though the completeimplications of this amateur play wouldn’t be fully confirmed until thepublication of his first book, it is nowabundantly clear that this deceptivelysmall event was a window into the future:“I frequently have been asked when it wasthat I first had the impulse to be a fictionwriter, and I find myself often thinking of that kindergarten play and of thosehundred grown-ups and older childrenwhom I knew weren’t listening to me butto those fascinating and archaic words,‘betrothed,’ ‘swaddling,’ ‘manger.’ I feltthe power that majestic language had foran audience, that they’d been held rapt notjust because of what Luke and I reportedbut because of the way we said it.”5

“How shall we picture the kingdomof God,” asks Jesus, “or by what parableshall we present it? It is like a mustardseed, which, when sown upon the soil,though it is smaller than all the seeds thatare upon the soil, yet when it is sown,grows up and becomes larger than all thegarden plants and forms large branches;so that the birds of the air can nest underits shade” (Mark 4:30-32). Significantly,Jesus’s parable reveals that there are noplants or trees without seeds, and thereare no trees that weren’t once seeds. Andaccording to Michelangelo, there is noangel without the slab of marble, andthere is no angel that wasn’t formerly aninert slab of marble. There’s no Pastor Petewithout the butcher shop and the bully;there’s no novelist named Ron Hansenwithout a kindergarten Christmas pag-eant. Far from indulging in empty para-dox, all of these examples illustrate thatthe “newness of life” about which Paulspeaks is available to us here and now.

Consider the acclamation, “Christhas died. Christ is risen. Christ will comeagain.” The tenses behind each of theseevents function once again to point us tothe past, present, and future. Jesus’s

death on the cross is the historical occur-rence into which we are reconciled toGod and the touchstone against whichwe measure our present lives. By thatsame token, Christ’s resurrection fromthe dead means that his leadership andguidance are available to us here and now(Matt 28:19-20). Finally, the reality ofChrist’s imminent return is sealed withthe guarantee of the Holy Spirit, pouredout as a pledge upon Christ’s followerswith power from on high.6 The HolySpirit enables us to walk in “newness of life” even as our mortal feet approachthe grave.7

As William A. Dyrness so aptly putsit, “The future cannot be separated fromthe present.”8By the Spirit’s power, weare now free to walk as members of a“new creation” set against the backdropof a fallen world that is passing away aswe speak. By the Spirit’s power, we arefree to live as complete examples of whatGod is still bringing to completion,“being confident of this, that he whobegan a good work in [us] will carry it onto completion until the day of ChristJesus” (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 PaulineChristianity (Grand Rapids, MI: BakerAcademic, 2011), 87-88.2Eugene Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir(New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 2.3Ron 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, 21-27.8William A. Dyrness, Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life (Grand Rapids, MI:WM. B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011), 310.


If Onlyby Jill Carattini

If we knew beforehand what weknow after the fact, things couldvery well turn out differently. Butwould they turn out better?

Hindsight is 20/20. We know the truthof the expression from experience.“If only I would have taken a differ-

ent street, I wouldn’t be stuck in traffic.” “If only I would have quit while I was ahead, I wouldn’t be stuck in this situation.” Suchthoughts are unending: If I would have paidcloser attention, if I would have pushed a littleharder, if I would have stopped pushing ... if only I knew then what I know now, things would haveturned out differently.

Quite probably in many cases that istrue. If we knew beforehand what we knowafter the fact, things could have very wellturned out differently. Yet equally wrapped upsomewhere within this “if only” mindset isthe thought that things would not only haveturned out differently but that they wouldalso have turned out better. Knowing thiswould take much more than 20/20 vision.Standing on the other side of knowing givesus a different perspective, to be sure. But toassume that because of that perspective wenow 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 andmisery were broken off before their eyes.God moved them from slavery to freedom via the floor of the Red Sea, putting before

[ a l l m a t t e r o f t r u s t ]


his people a sign momentous enough tomake an impression upon each day aheadof them. Yet walking through the adversi-ties of the desert, they cried out as ifnever having seen the hand that was leading them. “If only we had died inEgypt! Or in this desert! Why is theLORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives andchildren will be taken as plunder.Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3).

It seems the view from hindsightcan be as misleading as it is insightful.The Israelite’s mistreatment at the handsof the Egyptians was overlooked in theirperception of the other side of the RedSea. Moreover, their deliverance at thehands of God in hindsight was seen asunremarkable and unrelated to their needfor God in the present.

The cry of “if only” is all too oftena cry of distrust. The seemingly harmlessexpression insists that we know best, thatwe know what is better, that we knowwhat we need. Like the Israelites in theirforgetful wailing, we are often certainthat we not only know what will makeour situations better, but what will finallymake us happy. We always seem to knowjust the thing our lives are missing. “Ifonly we had meat to eat,” the Israelitesinsisted, “we would be satisfied.”1Butthey were not, and we are no more successful. In reality, what we need isoften a far cry from what we think weneed. For good reason many Christianscan look back to a prayer and thank Godthat it wasn’t answered.

G.K. Chesterton speaks in a poemof the posture we often forget when the

cry to change the past or achieve theperfect 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 thefreedom of thankfulness that the one listening to her prayers sits with wisdomfar greater than her own. For even Jobwho cried, “If only I had never come intobeing, or had been carried straight fromthe womb to the grave,” found in the endthat he had spoken out of turn.2But wecan thank God that God’s thoughts arebeyond our own, that God knows thelongings we express and the ones we donot know to express. We can thank God for

the promise that all things work togetherfor good—our trials, our mistakes, our past,our future.

God is at work even in the momentswhen we would cry “if only.” And at that,God’s own “if onlys” are far more sobering.As Christ approached Jerusalem and sawthe city, he wept over it and said, “If you,even you, had only known on this day whatwould bring you peace…” (Luke 19:42).Rest assured, God knows your need, and so sends the Son and gives the Spirit thatyou might also know his peace.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Sliceof Infinity at RZIM.

1 See Numbers 11.2 Job 10:19.

The cry of “if only” is all too often a cry of distrust. Theseemingly harmless expression insists that we know best,

that we know what is better, that we know what we need.

The Gentle Goldsmith

Think Again


FRENCH PHILOSOPHER AUGUSTE COMTE once observed that “ideas govern the world or throw it into chaos.” I believe he wasabsolutely right. History has shown that crimes of logic can be morecatastrophic for humanity than crimes of passion. Like a herd ofmindless sheep following their leader off a cliff, many in our dayhave lost the ability to think critically to their own detriment.

How do you reach a generation that listens with its eyes andthinks with its feelings? I believe the strident attacks of the antitheists and other factorssuch as globalization have made apologetics and critical thinking an indispensableneed 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, wewill confirm in their minds the faulty idea that Christianity is intellectually flawed. Soit is important to know how to defend what we believe and to do this with gentlenessand respect, recognizing the significance of God’s transforming grace in our own lives.

However, let me offer this word of encouragement: Do not underestimate therole you may play in clearing the obstacles in someone’s spiritual journey. A seed sownhere, a light shone there may be all that is needed to move the seeker or skeptic onestep further. Indeed, if apologetics is to be done effectively, we must connect with theperson at the level of the personal. Jesus consistently drove this home. His one-on-oneconversations were remarkably personal and left others looking into their hearts andconsidering 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 thewell raised one question after another as if that were really her problem. It would havebeen very easy for the Lord to call her bluff with some castigating words. Instead, likea gentle and nimble-handed goldsmith he rubbed away the markings of sin and pain inher life until she was amazed at how much true gold he brought out in her. He gaveher hope, knowing all along who she was on the inside. The value of the person was anessential part of Jesus’s message—and this must be so for us as well. A genuine love forothers can cast a bright, golden light in a dark and hurting world.

Warm Regards,

Ravi

For more information or to make a contribution, please contact:

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries4725 Peachtree Corners CircleSuite 250Norcross, Georgia 30092770.449.6766

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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 .

JUST THINKING • The Quarterly Magazine ofRAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

© 2012 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

4725 Peachtree Corners CircleSuite 250Norcross, Georgia 30092

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all myprayers for all of you, I alwayspray with joy because of yourpartnership in the gospel fromthe first day until now, beingconfident of this, that he whobegan a good work in you willcarry it on to completion untilthe day of Christ Jesus.—Philippians 1:3-6

Love is the most powerful apologeticwww.wellspringinternational.org

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