We are alive at a time when people tend to accept everything as true, as long as they do not affirm it to be factual. In the name of "open-mindedness," our contemporary culture accommodates anything from Eastern mysticism to the New Age religious studies. Although as Ravi Zacharias clearly reveals, such undiscerning reception of everything spiritual is not right. In his book, he reveals the significance of Jesus Christ as the true God owing to the overall weight of his arguments. Zacharias talks to our reasoning and discernment, especially of the heart. His global perspective and chronological background enables Zacharias to speak volumes and with great personal passion.
Through seven compelling chapters, the book’s structure reveals and truly reflects the author’s heart. The author, Ravi Zacharias, is an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian defender. An apologist of customary evangelicalism, Zacharias is the author of a number of Christian books, among them an award winner book titled, Can Man Live without God. Ravi Zacharias is the leader and pioneer of the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Their worldwide outreach started from modest roots in 1984 and comprised of fielding a group of peripatetic speakers who functioned from offices situated around the globe counting the U.S., Romania, the UK, India, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore. The trademark of Ravi’s heart is his powerful evangelistic and apologetic persona that is evident from the standpoint of compassion.
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Not every religion, evidently and basically, can be factual. In every chapter, Zacharias reveals an outstanding assertion that Jesus made and then compares the legitimacy of Jesus with the founders of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam with convincing, approaching and passionate confidence. In addition to a remarkable span of reading and study, he tells his personal journey from misery and purposelessness to his finding that Jesus is who He said He is. This is the authors’ purpose and approach to this magnificent and revealing read. To show that Jesus Christ is God and that he came to save the lives of the lost, he speaks to virtually all audiences in his simplified yet revealing language. Theoretical Foundations and Review of the subtitle of this book called Jesus Among Other Gods is simple. His claim was that this message of Jesus as the savior is factual and absolute. This caption shows the ultimate declaration regarding Zacharias’ stand on his faith of Christianity. The essential figure of Christianity, Jesus Christ, is exceptional to the rest of the world’s religious figureheads. Zacharias simply puts it that not every religion is the same and not all refer to the true living God. Every religion defines who God is and who he is not. These religions define their truths according to their uncompromising commitments resulting to a definitive life purpose (Zacharias, 2000). Since Zacharias was brought up in India, when he argues for the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, there is tremendous weight than someone who has been brought up in a Christianity backdrop.
The first case concerning Jesus is the query of his origin—that is, where is Jesus Christ from, or where is his dwelling? This was an ordinary question concerning Jesus at the start of His ministry concerning the world. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth, which was an area that was highly despised as John 1:44-45 clearly depicts. According to the societal organization of those days, Jesus’ parents were equally unimportant. Nevertheless, as his ministry spread, Jesus said that God, who is the incomparable heavenly Father, was his Father subsequently making heaven his home. These claims were startling at that time, and it is only now that people understand the hidden meaning. No spiritual leader of any major global religions has made such kind of declaration. This in itself shows the supremacy and sovereignty of Jesus as the one true God.
Secondly, Zacharias clearly shows the wisdom, passion and authority in which Jesus presents his case. In the Bible, one controversial statement of Jesus is detailed in John 2:19. This is where Jesus talks about destroying the temple and building it once more in three days. The cynics at the time of Jesus requested miracles to prove the authority he had for what he said and did. For more than two thousand years, not much has changed; skeptics continue to seek authoritative signs. Nonetheless, the irony, as Zacharias soundly notes, is that the human heart has the tendency to comprehend any proof given at a particular point in history, and when this is not enough, people always demand something else (Zacharias, 2000). Skeptics always bombard Christians with questions of their faith and at the same time praising those who rely on their own reasoning. In addition, people who have doubts are always the unnecessarily religious ones. Their perception of the entire cosmos is stupefied in that they think the universe is “just there” and has no meaning whatsoever. However, true Christians acknowledge the tension that exists between faith and reason and this was apparent in the mind of Jesus. Zacharias simply puts that Jesus affirmed us as the Temple of the Spirit of God, subsequently making us His temple. This is why Christians do not need to pray in a definitive way, like observing a particular direction or other rituals of prayer. There are no exceptional positions needed nor particular times of prayer and other limitations to control our communion with God. In short, Zacharias puts the relationship between the believer and God in Christianity as personal. Christians carry the temple with them (Zacharias, 2000).
The third and most significant case is whereby Zacharias presents Jesus as true evidence of the subsistence of God. Zacharias similarly stresses the points regarding advanced testimonies of God’s continuity. Such testimonies are arguments pertaining to the cosmos and the vastness of God’s magnificent power. In this, one clearly sees that Jesus is certainly the ultimate instance of the communication of God. Next, Zacharias explains in a foolproof way the true word of God as evident in the Bible. Zacharias displays great compassion on those who do not believe in the last chapter of his book. Inasmuch as he does not rebuke them, he presents a prayer and a rough consideration for them to change their ways and find true light.
However, in light of all this, Zacharias's new work is superficially fascinating. Zacharias, a Christian defender who grew up in India, does reveal infrequent insight into Eastern religions. He asserts that in spite of the present Hollywood association with Buddhism as a simple faith of sympathy, in numerous ways Buddhism is, in fact, a multifaceted system, that has 227 disciplinary policies for men and 311 for women (Der-lan Ye, 2006). Yet for the majority, Zacharias is in conversation here not with Eastern religions but with largely Western critics. He seeks to resolve old agendas with Darwin and Hume, bringing up exhausted debates over the temperament of evil and the squabble from intent without totaling anything new to the conversation. His theodicy and approach will be persuasive only to dedicated Christians, and his application of Scripture is entirely gullible They include moving flashes of humanity as Zacharias describes anguishing people he has come across, but in totality, he is modest to advance the inter-religious discussion.
In the book Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias reveals that he is one of the most academically talented as well as religiously responsive writers of today’s foremost apologists for the Christian belief. Zacharias makes lively the exceptional authority of the claims of Jesus about himself and the total significance of his message nowadays for the human circumstance.
References
Der-lan Ye, T. (2006). THE WAY TO PEACE: A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE. International Journal of Peace Studies , 11(1), 92-109.
Zacharias, R. (2000). Jesus among Other Gods (1st ed.). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.
