"What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind." - Ravi Zacharias This site is in its infancy. It's really only been up and running for a couple of weeks and already I've had Ravi Zacharias come up in two of my six posts. The very first time I ever heard an apologist speak was Ravi Zacharias responding to a questioner after one of his presentations (see my blog on that here). After binge watching every Ravi video and presentation I could find, I stumbled onto a Q&A that he and Dr. Hugh Ross did at Ohio State University years ago (see my blog on that here). Then I spent months binge watching videos and presentations by Hugh Ross as well. I was totally hooked. "Hooked" might have been an understatement. I became obsessed with learning as much as I could about Christian apologetics. These apologists seemed to have responses to questions that I thought were previously unanswerable. They had insight into how scripture fit with modern developments in science, philosophy, archaeology, geology, the arts, history, and other disciplines. They even had sound arguments as to how scripture led us to these developments. My mind was totally blown. Since I first encountered Ravi on YouTube three years ago, my life has changed significantly. I don't just mean starting a blog and beginning to articulate my own thoughts on these issues, but I've changed on the inside. I used to believe in the truth of Christianity because people who I respected told me I ought to. I took it on their authority that they knew what they were talking about when it came to God. Believe me, I'm not saying that that is a bad thing. It's exactly what a person should do if they don't know about a subject is first turn to those that do. That said, as I grew and my faith was presented with increasingly more intense challenges, I needed more. I still had many questions that I didn't know the answers to (and still do today). I'm compulsively curious and rather skeptical. So taking others' word for it only gets me so far before I become uneasy, and that's where I should have been working, seeking, and clawing to find more. I was just never optimistic that it would go well, and so I avoided it. It reminds me of a saying that one of my former pastors used regularly: "If you want o know, you have to go. If you won't go, then you'll never know." I was afraid of what I might find if I started scrutinizing my own faith. What if it wasn't true? Fear had begun to paralyze me intellectually. Ravi breathed life back into me as an intellectual believer. He showed me that it was worth the fight to get to deeper understanding and truth. He sparked that curiosity in me again and encouraged me to give it what I had to give. The intellectual paralysis was gone. I no longer believe in the truth of Christianity because other people told me it was true (though they were right all along). I now believe Christianity is true because I've looked at the evidence for Christianity very diligently, and that evidence is compelling. Nothing competes with it. Now my faith is stronger than it ever could have been otherwise. My relationship with God is stronger than I ever would have allowed it to be before. For the first time in my life, I want to share with people the truth of Christianity. I want to help them to find the answers to their questions. I want to help Christians realize the incredible evidence and truth that they have in their possession so that they can reach people too. I never wanted to do that before. Once you know how incredible and life-changing that evidence is, you want to share it with anyone who might be able to use it...and that is everybody. Ravi made a mission out of "Helping the thinker believe and the believer think." I had belief when I first encountered Ravi (though my confidence was dangerously low), but my thinking skills were atrophied, at least when it came to challenging my own beliefs. He helped me to fix that. My life was different after I saw that Q&A with Ravi. It was better, and it continues to get better every day because of what I learned from Ravi. I'm so thankful for him and to him.
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AuthorI'm Tim. I like studying Christian Apologetics and Music. ArchivesCategories |