Introduction
One of the first books that I read from Ravi Zacharias was his book "Has Christianity Failed You?" The goal of the book was to address many different ways that skeptics believe that Christianity has failed. He addresses each claim and turns the challenge on its head to demonstrate that in every case, it is merely a characterization of Christianity that has failed, not Christianity. He also shows how, unless God exists, many of the challenges brought by skeptics do not even make sense. Keeping with his usual approach, he not only addresses the intellectual questions, but he also addresses the disappointments and hurts of the questioners. He demonstrates that it is not the Christian worldview that has failed the test of truth but rather people who have failed the skeptic or even the skeptic who has failed to properly understand the Christian worldview. In today's post I have put together over forty of my favorite quotes from his book.Has Christianity Failed You?
"Is it the Jesus of the gospels that has failed you, or is it the church that bares his name that has failed you?"
"Too many have so humanized God and deified man that we can scarcely tell the difference any more."
"The implication in our disenchantment with Christianity is that God is not who we thought he was or who we thought he ought to be."
"Attempting to satisfy the passions that rage inside us and the longings that motivate us, we invent spirituality, lean on political solutions, create new villains, turn our backs on Jesus, and blame a thousand tyrannies-- but we never come to terms with the source of the problem deep within the heart and inclination of every human being."
"To reduce all religions to the superficial similarities among them and make those similarities definitive of the religions themselves does injustice to both the belief systems and the believers who subscribe to them and puts at risk nothing less than individual identity-- and spiritual life or death."
"Skeptics often cavalierly charge that those who believe in God only do so out of psychological need or emotional fear. How easy it is for them to choose to ignore the fact that many skeptics are skeptical about God for the equally distorting psychological reasons of hurt, pride, or just plain self-aggrandizement."
"If physics is the only reliable means of knowing anything with certainty, what does that say of the laws of logic, which are not properly in the category of science?"
"[Skeptics] have declared metaphysics unreliable and yet they have borrowed logic and reason from the world of metaphysics in order to prove their purely scientific explanation for the physical world!"
"Moral categories must exist with certainty; otherwise the very critique of God as being "immoral" is a self-defeating argument because if there is no morality, God cannot be immoral-- no matter what he does."
"[The 'new atheists'] are not open or willing to go where the evidence leads, unless that evidence sustains their own naturalistic assumptions. They have covertly reduced all philosophical thought and deduction to -- ironically-- faith."
"...humanity is but a by-product of the universe. And why would anyone care about the by-product when you still have the original? In naturalistic humanism, the universe is supreme, not humanity. "
"To be disappointed in Christianity, one really has to say, 'I am totally transcendent over reality and cannot see any ultimate purpose whatsoever'"
"To dismiss all of life as ultimately random is to also dismiss the mind with which I make such judgments."
"The seduction of the lie that God makes everything comfortable for us is precisely the reason many have been unable to face the tensions they experience in living the Christian life."
"The definition of relativism is that the value of any moment or idea is based on the circumstances that surround it or on the standard that is set by the majority. By definition, then, relativism is a slave to the moment. However, absolutes which are true regardless of circumstances or popularity, make it possible for precommitted certainties to be the basis on which to interpret a specific moment or issue, giving value to all moments without sacrificing any."
"Within this same imperfect physical frame are prompts that normally warn us that our natural desires for immediate gratification are really not for our ultimate good. How many times have we traded into dangerous terrain, knowing deep inside that what we are doing is not right, yet rationalizing and arguing our way deeper and deeper along the path? How often does the appeal to the eye outweigh the caution of the soul? How repeatedly do we fall for an enticement we know is a lie, convincing ourselves that this time it will turn out to be true? How many disappointments and regrets must it take to prove that Scripture is right when it states there is a way that seems right to a person, yet its ends are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12)?"
"When it comes to sexual fulfillment, we try to excuse our indulgence because of desire and opportunity, but we will prosecute someone else who helps himself to our possessions by virtue of that same desire and opportunity."
"Those who go through authoritarian, legalistic training often end up either unable to think for themselves or prone to rebellion, tossing away everything they had been taught was true."
"There is an immense difference between a worldview that is not able to answer every question to complete satisfaction and one whose answers are consistently contradictory."
"Christianity does not promise that you will have every question fully answered to your satisfaction before you die, but the answers it gives are consistently consistent."
"We have turned prayer into a means to our ends and seldom wait on God's response long enough to think about what he wants for us in that very moment."
"By reducing the evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to one particular gift, we have robbed people of the Holy Presence that prompts us in prayer, prays for us when we don't have the words to pray for ourselves, and comforts us in our times of need."
"I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept Him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him."
"Christianity is not a political theory. It is not even a cultural theory. It is, at its root, all about changing the heart of each man and woman, boy and girl, so that we begin to think God's thoughts and act in accordance with his character."
"In the gospel message, the beginning of change occurs in the heart of each individual. This heart change makes a difference in the home, then in the community, and ultimately in the nation-- and in turn it shapes the future of a cultural ethos."
"The inherent danger within all of us is that no matter what God does, someone will wish he had done it differently. The gift of faith is precisely what makes it possible to accept that God works in his own way (which is not always our way), in his own time, and for his purpose."
"We have mistaken attendances at church for success and are blind to the desolation within. It is the role of church leadership to sense the heart of God and lead the people toward God-- not to build big churches that become monuments to their skill at tickling the ears of those who gather and to their ability to give people what they think they want so they leave feeling satisfied that they have 'gone to church'."
"The reason for all the bloodshed in the world is that somebody somewhere has deemed ideology more valuable that human life. This is the endgame of rationalism, where ideas are more important than people. In this kind of environment, the most violent idea wins the day."
"This cruel world that celebrates relativism will still burn someone of a different political stripe at the stake for their violation of a moral absolute..."
"Faith is that aspect which is built on a relationship between the truth we know and the truth we have yet to learn, as we enlarge our knowledge into the unknown."
"It is always prudent to be cautious before trusting someone, because you don't always know whether they deserve your trust until it is too late. It is often not until the end of the journey that you learn the true character of your companion."
"The very condition of humanity worldwide reveals a bent toward that which is destructive."
"When I do things my way, I exhaust pleasure very quickly. It is not that Christianity has failed to teach me how to delight in God's presence; it is that I have failed by seeking pleasure through godless ways or by resisting God's provision for me because it is not what I want."
"Marriage has been redefined because God's place has been redefined. Commitment in marriage has suffered because our commitments to God has suffered."
"The truth is that there are valid arguments for the existence of God. There are arguments raised by atheists that present serious challenges for those who believe in God. There are experiences that people have that demand explanation. There are struggles on both sides of the issue. So the bottom line becomes this: Which side of the argument best takes into consideration all of reality without amputating any of it?"
"Simply put, the presence of God is manifested even in the created order. Its vastness and intelligibility speak of the grandeur and of the specific complexity that God has put into this world."
"There is no limit to argument and counterargument. Arguments are like weapons. Each time a new weapon is designed, a defense or a counteroffensive against it is designed- which is why the arms race, like the argument race, is never ending."
"If one understands the purpose of prayer-- and, more to the point, the purpose of life-- the unanswered prayer becomes endurable in light of the bigger picture."
"God has spoken in the glory of his law. None of us like the concept of law because none of us like the restraints it puts on us. But when we understand that God has given us his law to aid us in guarding our souls, we see that the law is for our fulfillment, not for our limitation. The law reminds us that some things, some experiences, some relationships are sacred. When everything has been profaned, it is not just my freedom that has been lost-- the loss is everyone's. God gave us the law to remind us of the sacredness of life, and our created legal systems only serve to remind us of the profane judgments we make."
"The departure of so many church leaders from the teachings of Jesus has led to a kind of death. The handwriting is on the walls of our homes, our communities, and our nations. Solomon, Jeroboam, Rehoboam-- one after the other-- led their people into seductive and false beliefs. Gradually, they believed things about God without believing God himself, until child sacrifice became the preferred act of worship. Once the Book of the Law was lost, generations passed before it was found again, lost in the debris of the house of God. Mourning a similar degradation, Jesus wept over his beloved city: 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate' (Matthew 23:37-38)"
"God has disclosed himself in descriptive terms that give us enough information to be able to know who he is, and he has hidden enough of himself for us to learn the balance between faith and reason."
"God's made you for a purpose. All the tiny little purposes become purposeful because your life itself has purpose. If you don't have ultimate purpose, all these tiny little purposes are nothing else but ways to tranquilize your boredom."
"Only the body of Christ, the church, has a Savior whose body was broken and whose blood was shed to bring pardon and healing to the bruised and broken, the fallen and defeated. Only the church that understands the message of forgiveness will reach out to those around it rather than condemning them."
Conclusion
I wish that I could have quoted the book in its entirety in this post. Ravi Zacharias covered lots of deep challenges and deep hurts yet he wrote in a way that was easy to follow and could not be put down. If you believe that Christ has failed you, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy and read the book carefully, thoughtfully, and prayerfully.
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It is by the grace of Jesus Christ that Ravi Zacharias leaves a tremendous legacy. For more resources by Ravi, please see these links:
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)
RZIM's YouTube Channel
Ravi Zacharias- Now With Jesus
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