Ravi Zacharias
February 3, 1999
7:15 pm
Message Summary
The theme of Ravi Zacharias' Founder's Week message was: What the Bible means when it refers to people as "lost." Speaking to a packed sanctuary and those listening in overflow seating, Zacharias said that a passion for souls is based upon one fundamental assumption, "Recognition that humanity is lost in such proportions that it is inescapable, yet often unrecognized."
Zacharias said that the post-modern mindset is marked by confusing, often conflicting ideas; noting that society hails progress but has no means of defining or measuring it, society talks of justice and morality but has no idea of what life is really meant to be like. He addressed the belief that man is nothing more than a random mutation of the earth's making, and of no inherent value. Quoting World War II concentration camp survivor Victor Franco, he said that the gas chambers were not truly products of the German war machine. Instead, they were prepared at the desks of nihilistic professors and scientists who promoted naturalistic ideas of man's creation.
Zacharias presented four aspects of man's depravity:
1) choice of rejection
2) alienation
3) domination
4) condemnation
He said the Christian response to this situation would be to remember that Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. If this perspective is acted on there is:
1) trust
2) reconciliation
3) freedom
4) forgiveness
Man has two choices, to reject God's Word or to trust in Him.
Student Response
Ravi Zacharias is my one of my role models. His spiritual approach to the intellectual realm never ceases to push me to the edge of my seat. The breadth and depth of his knowledge is often astounding. I was especially impacted by his assertions about the true force behind the nazi death camps and the pervasive nature of nihilistic philosophy. It is amazing how fast his message went. I felt like he had only been talking for five minutes.
—Lisa Ann Cockrel, Junior, Communications major