The year 2020 will be remembered for the Wuhan Virus and, for reasons we can only weep about, the fading legacy of Ravi Zacharias. The once internationally renowned Christian apologist’s postmortem fall from grace is a tragedy of immense proportions.
Almost every Christian is grieving about, or grappling with, the moral chaos that the late Ravi Zacharias left behind. That is not to mention “the scorn of the wicked” out there in the world, or the untold grief Mr. Zacharias’ wife and children must be going through right now.
I do not want to repeat the many good things that others have said in the wake of this mammoth scandal, but only add what I found missing in their musings.
It now seems very clear that Ravi’s travels abroad were at least in part a pretext to visiting his many massage salons, to see his young female massage therapists, some of whom must have offered him more than relief for his back. He once stayed for over 250 days in an apartment in Bangkok, with his young Thai massage therapist occupying another apartment in the same building. Both apartments belonged to Zacharias. Everywhere Ravi went, he was in need of a massage, because of a sore back, or so he assured his board at RZIM in Atlanta. He even took a therapist along with him on many of his trips.
What Scripture teaches us
Our first observation should be this. Since when was it acceptable for a Christian man to frequent massage salons, with young ladies massaging his body, while he is only covered under a bathroom towel? I find it striking that nobody is commenting on this. Why is it strange? Because what Ravi did was tantamount to dancing on the edge of a smouldering volcano. It is not for no reason that the ancient Romans named the brightest and hottest planet in our solar system Venus, the goddess of love, sculpted as a very seductive woman. You go too close, you burn.
The fact is, our Saviour would never have allowed, let alone advised, anyone of us to go there. Never. Mr. Zacharias behaviour came down to a flagrant abuse of his Christian liberty. Moreover, it was foolishness plain and simple. Oh yes, we are all broken people by nature, capable of anything (as many blogs and videos rightly remind us), but Scripture has very little sympathy for you and me if we act like fools.
If we are normal men, then one serious reading of Proverbs 2 or 5 or 7 would cure us from the folly of dancing on the edge of a volcano, or flirting with Venus. That is if we dare to heed the Holy Spirit’s warning in these passages. For how can Ravi’s love affair with massage salons possibly be reconciled with I Thessalonians 4? “It is God’s will… that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable”. Or with the Messiah’s call to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow him? What has happened to the apostle’s injunction to kill the deeds of the body through the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14)? John Owen once wrote a treatise on that verse called The Mortification of Sin. We would be well advised to take this old Puritan classic up and read it thoughtfully. It is a powerful book.
What has happened to that perspective? And what about all the other warnings in Scripture to shun even the appearance of evil? And the warning of our Savior never to cause one of these little ones to stumble through our own misconduct? Did Mr. Zacharias really read his Bible on his many trips? Did he really pray the Lord’s Prayer from his heart? Is this ever a warning to all of us, not to fool ourselves when we say we are “having devotions” or that we are “worshipping the Lord”.
Testimony from the Third Century
Long ago back in the third century, The Apostolic Constitutions (written by a Christian bishop for his flock), started off by telling the children of God “to do all things in obedience to God; and in all things to please Christ our Lord”. It called on them to “abstain from all unlawful desires and injustice”. The faithful were reminded that “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife…” for all of this is from the evil one and that “whosoever shall look on his neighbour’s wife to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart”.
Would you believe that the next paragraph in this third-century-advice from a bishop to his flock is then devoted to how men should never cause women to stumble by how they dress and appear in public? It instructs them: You, my brother, may not wound her heart “by thy beauty, and youth, and adorning” or you will be found guilty of transgression. The bishop tells his flock that they should meditate on God’s law day and night, for then they will not wander to unseemly places in the city. The book even goes so far as to give advice to men which books to read (there was New Testament canon yet) and to abstain “from all the heathen books”.
It then goes on also to give practical advice to a Christian woman, quoting extensively from Proverbs 31. She is lovingly counselled (among other things) against “painting her face” and encouraged to veil herself when walking in public. Most interestingly she is told to “avoid that disorderly practice of bathing in the same place with men; for many are the nets of the evil one.” She is also advised not to use the Roman baths in the middle of the day when it is busy, neither to go there too often, so as to avoid curious eyes. Christian women are to “demonstrate (their) piety by modesty and meekness to all without the church”.
But what do we say of all this? Many Christians today will probably shout: “Legalism!” Yet that was the Christianity that conquered an empire and produced so many martyrs. And that was a pastor who truly cared for his flock.
Contemporary Christianity
This is why I believe Ravi’s painful story is an indictment of contemporary Christianity in the West. By making justification, or at least the forgiveness of sin, the single most important theme in the Bible, we were all left very weak and vulnerable. Reducing the Bible’s message to God’s love for us, has much to do with this crisis. The word “righteousness” is mentioned ten times more in the Bible than the words for love. All of this meant that not His glory, and our neighbour’s common good, but my salvation, happiness and liberty, would be the most important themes in life.
If we really believe that God came down from heaven to live among us, to suffer and die on that cursed lonely cross, so as to redeem us from this present evil age for His Father, and to transform us fallen, broken sinners into temples of the Holy Spirit, so that we may eventually reign with Him in a new creation, then it makes a world of difference.
Saint Anthony
I once read the story of St. Antony of Egypt. He lived around the time when The Apostolic Constitutions, mentioned above, were written in the third century. I remember wishing I could meet that remarkable man, widely considered to be the father of the monastic movement. His story gripped me like few others. The teenage orphan Antony was afraid what the end of persecution, and the influx of the world, might do to the body of Christ in his hometown Alexandria. So, he gave away his huge inheritance (some of it to his sister) and went deep into the Egyptian desert, not far from the Red Sea, where he found a cave. As people came to look for him, he moved ever deeper and deeper into the desert, where he lived by keeping a vegetable garden and meditating on the Gospel. He eventually found a very special cave near a spring where he continued to live until his death at the age of 105!
Antony’s amazing wisdom and miracle-working prayers were sought out not only by disciples, but even by governors and the emperor of Rome. St. Athanasius of Alexandria later wrote his biography, a book famous for many centuries which was instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine.
What is my point? It is this. This is the Christianity we need when we are stressed and troubled. If you really need to relax, or if you struggle to cope, “go into the desert with just enough to survive”. Deprive yourself of the world, of its empty entertainment, its vain luxury and nice foods. Go sleep proverbially on the bare dirt, sing the Psalms and meditate much on Scripture, and give anything you don’t really need to the poor. And don’t do it thinking God needs it, or so that others may admire you for your piety, but only because you (and all of us) need it so badly! And if your back really hurts, go ask someone that would be no temptation to your flesh, to rub your back in with oil, and to pray to our heavenly Father to extend his healing hand to your weary body. But please don’t go Ravi’s way, which is the way of the flesh and the world, and which will only lead us right into the snare of the devil. And what applies for massage parlours, applies to a host of other things as well.
Worshipping the body
But there is one final observation to be made. We noted that Ravi’s tragic story is an indictment on contemporary Christianity. It is so for yet another reason too. In our search for relief from stress and pain, we have become used (ever since the days of John Lennon and Yoko Ono) to search out almost anything in quest or a cure. This explains the newfound excitement about yoga in the West, as well as our openness to all manner of alternative methods of healing from the East.
Someone has remarked that Westerners get converted to Eastern spirituality in search for physical wellbeing, while Easterners convert to Christianity, in their search for the living God. Yet, Indian Christian scholar Vishal Mangalwadi somewhere made this telling observation about yoga: “Before embracing yoga for your mental and spiritual wellbeing, ask yourself why it has never been able to lift India out of its misery!”
Ravi however seemed not to have been concerned about yoga too much. He promoted it, if I am not mistaken. He also promoted Ayurvedic massage and hoped many such therapists would come to America to promote it there. But here is what I read on www.elle.com about this form of massage, also called abhyanga aka: “Your therapist’s main goal is relaxation, and in India, the practice is tied deeply to the notion of self-care. Sneha is the root word for this type of massage in Sanskrit… which translates to mean ‘love’. Depending on your skin type, Ayurveda suggests performing abhyanga anywhere from once a week to once a day”.
Please note how this therapy is said to be embedded in the Sanskrit, one of the Hinduism’s most revered and ancient writings. The article’s title and subtitle read as follows: “So what is an Ayurvedic massage?” Answer: “It is based on a type of holistic medicine established 3000 years ago in India”.
There are certainly forms of yoga that are relatively innocent, but no doubt some schools in Hinduism promote rampant sexual promiscuity. Hinduism does not teach the radical contrast between good and evil like the Gospel does. Is it possible that Mr. Zacharias (in spite of his profound teachings) never really dealt with the dark remnants of a Hindu worldview in his own heart and life?
In the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, believers are warned never to go seek healing and cures at any cost, for this is exactly how the Evil One will get a foot in the door and even a human being in his power. Seeking healing at any cost may later prove to have been the first step back into paganism and eventually into the dark world of the occult.
Conclusion
One famous preacher’s tragic fall from grace has hopefully awakened us all to the folly of a self-centred Christianity and to the folly of worshipping our bodies and our health. Jesus once said: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”, but that freedom consists in the joy of evangelical obedience. Those who heed their Master’s voice, don’t seek physical wellness and mental relief at any cost anywhere, but only within their Father’s good will, while looking forward to the blessed day when all sin and suffering will finally forever be forgotten, in a glorious new creation where peace and righteousness dwell.
