Zacharias, R. and Vitale, V. (2017). Jesus among secular gods: The countercultural claims of Christ. New York: FaithWords.
When I counsel executives or boards of directors I challenge them to set their organizational goals just out of reach. They should be able to see them and reach for them, but if they are too easily grasped, then I tell them that those goals weren’t set high enough.
This is the same way I view my sitting under the teaching of Dr. Ravi Zacharias. He doesn’t know me, but I could spend a week with him being challenged intellectually to the point of cranial pain; but, in fairness, I’d never get there. Perhaps like me you attended a Promise Keepers conference in the 1990s and the Holy Spirit slammed you like an out of control bus. What did you do in response? You ran after that bus so that you could get in front of it and let it slam you again. When the Spirit convicts, it’s at least assurance that He’s there. You will get the same experience reading this book.
I have begun my review this way because I know of so many people who shy away from Ravi because of precisely this point. Why do we engage a personal trainer at the gym to lead us to the point of a “good” muscle failure and pain? If that is for our benefit, then why do we not also engage those who would challenge us intellectually? David Hazard (via J. P. Moreland), who is quoted on this website, puts it this way: “But a flabby mind is no badge of spiritual honor. And today’s deadly philosophies are not the result of human intelligence and thinking, but rather, thinking that is unyoked from the true knowledge that comes from above, from God.”
We are asked to be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us for the reason for the hope that we have. We go to Church, attend Bible studies, participate in small groups, and share our time, talent, and treasure with those people and things that edify the body of Christ. But I’m going to tell you that you still need to exercise your mind to combat the forces that threaten your family—ideas and arguments and pretensions and things that set themselves up as an affront to God. These are intellectual constructs—things of the mind. Are you a parent who felt disarmed intellectually while recently engaging your college student son or daughter on the basic foundational principles of the faith? You needn’t feel disarmed any longer.
In Jesus Among Secular Gods: The Countercultural Claims of Christ, Ravi and his co-author, Dr. Vince Vitale approach you with the bedside manner of seasoned physicians. The thundering velvet Truth of the cultural patient’s prognosis may slam you, but you’re left looking for that bus. Atheism and its major acolytes of scientism, hedonism, relativism, and others are found in the X-Rays of reality, and yet are dissected by these skilled philosopher-surgeons before your eyes. Let’s face it. You wouldn’t have studied these alternative worldviews of your own volition. These personal trainers made you look there. You’ll be relieved at the clarity you find.
I wasn’t as familiar with Vince Vitale, Ravi’s young director of the Zacharias Institute, but I found him equal to the task and intensive. Here’s one of the young captains, I thought, whose capable hands will hold the culture’s future. And yet I was blown away by his chapter on truth. If you have worried that your recent posts on social media have caused harm, or you have pursued love and found it untruthful, or you are a student on this website and have feared that you may have been involved in the weaponization of truth, you need this chapter. Of course, to get there, you should engage the prior seven chapters as well. Vince’s credentials belie his age, yet his pen wields the scalpel of a great young philosopher. These two have collaborated on another book, Why Suffering, and that book is soonest on my required reading list.
As best as I can discern, the intellectual battlefield, the battle for truth, is the main thrust of the enemy’s attack. I believe we have yet to engage Satan in the necessary strength. Christians may well understand the nature of the conflict on the moral and volitional battlefields, but they likely equate intellectual battle with being assigned to the worst duty. Would you like to know more about these battlefields? Sign up for The Basic Course on this website here.
Rank and file Christian warriors may not tread on the intellectual battlefield knowing that the human rational process is fundamentally flawed, can’t be trusted, and is often viewed as the range of the liberal academic cultural elite. Many of us may feel woefully prepared to engage in intellectual battle. Then, let’s prepare for it.
Get a copy of this book. It will soon appear on our revised reading list. Plan on taking some time with it. A rote level of learning may not get you very far in apologetic discourse. You’ll enjoy it more if you have the time to read for understanding and comprehension. But, read it.
Being a more proficient apologist is one of my goals, but I’m not there yet. This book and others like it allow me to see that goal and reach for it. It may be just out of reach, but that’s where it’s supposed to be.
Their book is available on Amazon as well as Ravi’s website, www.RZIM.org.
Hardcover, $24.00