Jesus Christ - Can Man Live Without God: Contemporary Classics

OTHER BOOKS BY RAVI ZACHARIAS

Can Man Live Without God

Cries of the Heart

Deliver Us from Evil

Jesus Among Other Gods

CAN MAN LIVE WITHOUT GOD

Copyright 1994 by Ravi Zacharias. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37216.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations used in this book are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Scripture references indicated KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture references indicated NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publisher. Used by permission.

ISBN 978-1-4185-1471-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zacharias, Ravi K.

Can man live without God / Ravi Zacharias.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-8499-3943-7

1. Christianity and atheism. 2. Apologetics20th century. 3. AtheismControversial literature. 4. Jesus ChristAppreciation. I. Title.

BR128.A8Z33 1994

239dc20 94-34205

02 03 04 05 06 PHX 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Margie,

a treasured gift from God,

a beautiful life lived for Him.

CONTENTS

by Charles W. Colson

Introduction

6. In Search of Lower Meaning

11. Crossing the Bar

16. The Believers Treasure

I AM an inveterate tape listener. I have a tape on whenever Im driving, sometimes when Im working around the yard, or even occasionally while organizing papers on my desk. Over the years, I may have listened to thousands of Christian tapes.

But seldom have I heard any that impressed me as much as Ravi Zachariass presentation at Harvard entitled The Veritas Series. Ravi put the case for Christianity appealingly, understandably, and convincingly before some of the best and brightest American students. He fielded questions deftly.

I listened to the series twice, then called his office and suggested that it ought to be turned into a book. Hence, I may hope that my suggestion had something to do with the appearance of this volume. I believe it is one of the most critical that could be written in our time.

Most of us fail to realize that the battle of ideas being waged in modern Americaeuphemistically known as the culture waris merely a symptom. We Christians invest enormous amounts of energy running to fight this battle here or that battle there. But we can never win the culture war that way.

What we have to do is attack the deeper cause of the cultural conflict. We have to dig down to the philosophical roots of the battles we are fighting. The truth of the matter is that over the past thirty years, the American mind has been transformed dramatically.

One of the most telling examples is our view of truth. In the 1960s, 65 percent of Americans said they believed the Bible is true; today that figure has dropped to 32 percent. Even more dramatically, today 67 percent of all Americans deny that theres any such thing as truth. Seventy percent say there are no moral absolutes.

This confusion over truth is the fundamental crisis of our age.

What good does it do for us to say, The Bible says..., if two-thirds of our listeners dont believe the Bible is true? What good does it do for us to say Jesus is the truth if two-thirds of the American people believe there is no such thing as truth? This is not to deny that the Word of God has the power to convict even the hardest heart. But if Christians are to be heard by the modern mind and make effective inroads into our culture, we must first develop what Francis Schaeffer called a cultural apologetic: We must defend the very concept of truth.

That is precisely what Ravi Zacharias does in this bookand he does it brilliantly. He presents an apologetic defense of the Christian faith that is powerful and compelling.

It has always frustrated me that many Christians shy away from intellectual arguments. Many deem an intellectual defense unspiritualas though all that matters is our religious experience, as though arguing on intellectual grounds weakens our faith.

But anti-intellectualism is not more spiritual. The Bible explicitly commands us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. If we fail, we will find it increasingly difficult to present the gospel, and we will lose our influence in the culture.

What is needed is for lay Christians to be equipped with the kind of logic and analysis you will find in these pages. Then we need to sit down with our secular neighbors to defend truth and the historicity of the Christian faith.

I hope you will not read this book lightly and lay it aside. Study it. Become conversant with its arguments, and use what you learn here to advance the cause of truth with your neighbors.

The culture in which we live is nearly lost. But often at the darkest moments, God raises up peopleindeed prophetsto speak to our age. Ravi Zacharias is just such a man for these times. I hope and pray he will equip you for the good fight that we wage.

CHARLES COLSON

A RECENT acknowledgment I read began with the words This book comes to publication trailing clouds of the kindness of others. Those gracious sentiments well represent what follows in these pages as well. There are many whose kindness has resulted in the publication of this volume. Naturally I cannot single out each one by name but do want to at least make special mention of those who have played a key role in bringing this about. First I would like to thank the students of Harvard University and Ohio State University who attended the lectures I delivered there. The extraordinary planning and organizing of the meetings merits my sincere appreciation to the groups that invited me and hosted the forums.

My gratitude is also due to Charles Colson for planting the idea in my mind to carry this material into print. His suggestion got this effort under way.

The process of transcribing the spoken material demanded hours of painstaking and meticulous work, which Karen Mayhem carried out with the utmost of competence. Her efforts provided a vital link in the chain. My sincere thanks to her are well in order.

I would also like to express my appreciation to all my colleagues whose own sacrifice in my absence was made without complaint. Of special mention in this list is Dan Glaze, my perpetual encourager, who led them in their support. Also in that group is my research assistant, Danielle DuRant, who kept a close eye for me on all related subject matter and served a vitally important role. She has diligently labored, particularly in the final stages of this manuscript. I am also deeply indebted to Joan Houghton for her skilled and kind help in meeting the demands of the language. She has been an outstanding teacher.

Throughout this effort the entire W Publishing Group staff I worked with have been exemplary in their courtesy and encouragement. Kip Jordon and Joey Paul have been kind friends and wise counselors. Their experience and accessibility have become a wonderful resource for me.