Ravi Zacharias in Utah

Ravi Zacharias is a world-renowned christian apologist spoke at BYU today and will be speaking at the LDS Tabernacle tomorrow.  Dr. Zacharias is like a modern CS Lewis. You can hear his talks live or tape-delayed at the following link:

http://www.rzim.org/rzim-news/ravi-zacharias-at-byu-and-the-mormon-tabernacle/

Dr. Zacharias spoke today on Christianity and the intrinsic worth of the human soul.  Ravi said that without Christianity, mankind would not recognize the value of each human soul.

One of the most memorable stories Ravi told was about Angola Prison in Louisiana.  This prision was transformed from one of the most dangerous prisons in the world to one of the safest by giving each inmate a knife and a Bible.

Ravi said that one of the inmates on death row asked if he would sign his book.  The inmate commented that he didn't mind spending the rest of his life in jail because if this is what it took to find Jesus Christ he wouldn't trade anything for the freedom he now felt in his heart.  He told Ravi to not pray for him but to pray for everyone else on the outside who think they are free but really are prisoners and have not yet found the feedom in Christ that he had found.

Ravi gave some advise about sharing the gospel and having gospel conversations. He said to: do your homework, take care not to engage a person emotionally (emotion will drown out reason), and ask the right questions.  However, he did confess during the talk that reason alone would not help us arrive at morality.  To that comment I would tell Ravi that is why Revelation is critical to true religion.  

Finally during the question portion, I enjoyed Ravi's comments on 3 significant  conversions recorded in the New Testament of Paul, Thomas, and James the brother of Christ.  Ravi attributed his own conversion to the tradition of Thomas preaching the Christian gospel in India.  Ravi said to persevere in our calling to preach the gospel because like the Christians who lowered Paul over the city walls in a basket, "we never know who we might have in our basket".