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Reflections on the Heartbreaking Fall of Ravi Zacharias – EN

January 23, 2021

NOT THE GREATEST APOLOGIST… BUT ONE OF THE GREATEST FRAUDS’
‘Demas, having loved this world, has forsaken me’ (2 Tim. 4:10). Is there anything more depressing for a Christian, especially a Christian leader, to see his close allies, his friends, his co-workers, deserting Christ and turning to the world?

We expect, and can almost cope with the hostility of the world – but other than my own sin, I know of nothing more discouraging and defeating than the fall of Christian leaders who I admired and was taught by.

Three years ago I became aware of allegations against one of those teachers, Ravi Zacharias. Having experienced personally, and seen the effects of gossip and allegations against a Christian teacher, I decided I could not judge. In other words because I did not have enough information – and because I trusted the organisation around Ravi – and because I hate trial by social media – I left it with the Lord. I knew nothing that was not already in the public domain – and some of those more intimately involved with RZIM reassured me. I even wrote an article explaining why we should not judge and how we should treat such allegations.

Last year I was asked to write a similar article over allegations of Ravi owning a couple of massage parlours. I have no intention of going into the details here – but I could not write the article – firstly because I would have nothing to add to the original one and secondly because there were unanswered questions which caused considerable doubt. The allegations are now at three levels – firstly that he misrepresented his credentials, secondly the new massage parlour accusations and thirdly a ‘sexting’ scandal. RZIM have dealt with the first, have appointed an outside investigation into the second, and the third was subject to a non-disclosure agreement. It was that final one which made me realise that there was something far wrong. You do not pay $250,000 to someone who allegedly is seeking to sue or bribe you if you are the innocent party.

Now some of those involved with RZIM are speaking out. Max Baker-Hytch, a tutor with the RZIM Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, wrote a five-page letter – which was leaked – expressing his disquiet at the way the whole situation was being handled. Another RZIM worker – Carson Weitnauer wrote a tragic piece on his blog.

Repeating pattern
I’m afraid the pattern is being repeated far too often. If we are Bible-believing Christians we are aware that the Bible teaches even our greatest heroes have feet of clay. But we must not excuse particular sins by a general understanding that we are all sinners. There is more to this. My view is that these cases are becoming all the more prevalent and harmful because we have not followed Biblical methodologies and principles. We have developed a network system where Biblical church discipline is ignored (largely because the church is ignored), where big donors far too often call the shots, and where celebrity culture results in ‘untouchable’ Christian celebrities. The fall of a leader within the church is a desperately sad thing. Believe me, I have seen more than enough of that to last a lifetime – enough to know that there, but for the grace of God, go I. But the fall of a celebrity leader – whose ministry is his organisation, is even harder, because by the time it becomes public it is usually way too late for any damage to be undone – and indeed the damage is intensified.

Several years ago Ravi came to speak at the launch of Solas – an organisation we set up to help communicate the gospel – (now lead by Andy Bannister the former RZIM Canadian team leader). He was good – but it was that event which convinced me we should not go down the RZIM model. It is not helpful to have an organisation centred on and named after one individual. I found the celebrity aspect more than a little disturbing.

Whilst I greatly appreciate the work of the Oxford Centre and many of the people associated with that – Michael Ramsden, Amy Orr-Ewing, John Lennox, and others – I felt that we were called to reach a different group of people. To put it bluntly, RZIM worked on the trickle-down theory – you reach the people at the top (the 5%) and it will trickle down to the rest of society. But even though I disagreed with that, it was a difference of emphasis – not a moral or strictly theological difference.

I was also surprised that Ravi (and hence RZIM) tried to steer away from the more controversial societal issues. For example it was only when the Same Sex Marriage debate was over that Ravi got involved – more to reassure his supporters in the US, than to have any influence. But again that was an issue of tactics rather than core principle. Perhaps Ravi was much more gentle than this pugnacious Scot!

But it was the reaction to the Bishop Curry wedding sermon which troubled me most. Ravi thought it was excellent and added ‘the world heard the gospel that day. Thank you Bishop Curry’. There was almost nothing of the gospel in that sermon – so why praise it in such a way? I was out.

But none of that prepared me for what has now been revealed. We wait for the results of the inquiry into the massage parlours, but the rest of the evidence seems overwhelming. I feel heart sorry for the faithful workers and speakers in RZIM.

As Carson Weitnauer lamented about his former mentor: ‘The realisation that Ravi Zacharias was not the greatest apologist of his generation, but rather one of its greatest frauds – has felt like a catastrophic betrayal.’ The saddest thing is that it is not just a failure of a system, or a betrayal of an organisation, or even of family – but it is a betrayal of Christ. That does not negate the good work that Ravi did, nor invalidate the gospel he preached – but it does make it harder for those of us who preach that gospel. It is heartbreaking. I hope and pray that RZIM will survive, or that out of the ashes something new and even better will arise. Lord, have mercy!

Is Your Church Carrying Too Much Deadwood – EN

My name is David Robertson and I am currently working in Australia with Sydney churches as an evangelist, having been the minister of St Peters Free Church in Dundee Scotland for 27 years.    (the church is famous for being the original church of Robert Murray McCheyne)…

I am married to Annabel and we have three children – Andrew who is married to Caireen and is church planting in Charleston, Dundee  (together with grandsons Finlay and Lewis and Elianna), Becky who is married to Pete in Australia (and our beautiful granddaughters Isla and Evie), and Emma Jane who has married to Chris and works as a prison nurse in Edinburgh.

I do a lot of writing – in newspapers, magazines, on the net and also books.  I am the author of Awakening (the life of Robert Murray McCheyne); The Dawkins Letters;

Quench (cafe evangelism) Magnificent Obsession and  Engaging With Atheists. My latest book is called A.S.K

I am interested in history, politics, theology, music, sport, art etc.  I am a ‘big picture’ person who likes to look at things in a wide context – especially the growth, decline and renewal of the church in the West….my blogs will reflect these interests – some will be published articles, or articles that are on other websites – such as the City Bible Forum, and Christian Today and The Australian Presbyterian – for whom I write a weekly column).  I will also put online all newspaper letters and articles that I have published.  When I travel I like to write a travel blog as well.  I have a great burden for the church in my native country but also throughout the world –  and this is reflected in what I write.  For me writing is a form of thinking out loud and trying to work out things.  I often get things wrong and appreciate correction. I don’t claim any particular wisdom or expertise and value immensely the insights of others.   One piece of advice in reading these – please don’t read between the lines.  I write what I think (at least what is appropriate for the public arena!) and I try not to speak in code!  There is no ‘in between’.  Please don’t read into what I say what is not there!

Contrary to rumour I am not a communist, nor a liberal, nor a fascist, nor a Jesuit….I’m not sure what label fits! My supreme passion and interest is Jesus Christ.  To him I owe everything.  I live for him and I serve him.  My only hope in all this writing is that you will share, or come to share that passion.  In Christ alone my hope is found….

The ‘wee flea’ name comes from a series of interactions I had on the Dawkins website.  He banned me from his site under my own name and called myself, Alaister McGarth and John Lennox ‘fleas living of a dogs back’.  I promptly started reposting under the name ‘the wee flea’, and Dawkins, not being aware of Scottish church history or the nickname of my denomination (the wee frees), let it go by for a few weeks…until I was outed…and banned again! Anyway I kind of liked the name…enjoy the blog…

This personal testimony will help you understand where I am coming from:

http://theweeflea.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/the-shelter-of-the-most-high-new-year-old-hope-a-personal-testimony/

You can also hear this profile interview on Premier Christian Radio which is really a personal testimony

If you so desire you can follow me on Twitter – @theweeflea

And if you are into Facebook then just look up David Andrew Robertson

For some reason a lot of people read this blog and many want to comment.  I welcome comments, including critical ones, but please note I normally don’t publish anonymous ones and I can’t publish all that I get….

David

James Edwin Orr was born January 15, 1912, in Belfast, Ireland, to William Stewart and Rose (Wright) Orr. William Orr, who was a jeweler, had United States and British citizenship, so his children did as well. There were eventually to be five children born to William and Rose Orr, with one child dying in infancy (Louise at 3 years of age) and another as a young man (Alan at 25 years of age). The day January 15 would become even more meaningful than simply a birthday in the life of J. Edwin Orr; on that day he was born, converted, married, ordained, and became a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force.

At the age of nine, J. Edwin Orr became a Christian through his mother’s influence but his faith was not very active as yet. In 1922, his father and baby sister died and the family began to suffer from difficult economic circumstances. Orr enrolled in the College of Technology, Belfast, and eventually passed University of London Matriculation exams in five subjects. But the illness and then death of older brother Alan made him the family breadwinner. He worked as a clerk in a bakery for the next few years.

Orr and a friend began to feel a strong call to evangelize in 1930 or 1931 and began to hold open air meetings in the streets of Belfast. In 1932, he was involved with a city-wide evangelistic effort organized by Christian Endeavor. This increased his desire to preach and lead people to Christ. By late 1933 he felt God wanted him to be an itinerant evangelist. Despite skepticism and discouragement from family and friends, he set out from Belfast in September to follow this call. He went to London and gradually began making contacts with Christian leaders as he spoke in various churches. With London as his base, he preached throughout the British isles for the next two years. Then he began to travel farther to preach. In the first part of 1935 he traveled to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Soviet Union, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, and Belgium. Then a few weeks later, after a return to London, he traveled through Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Palestine, Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal.

In September of the same year he sailed for Canada. He began preaching when he arrived in Newfoundland and continued in Ontario at the Peoples Church in Toronto and then in Winnipeg. He went on to Saskatoon and British Columbia. Then he began an evangelistic tour of the United States that involved visiting all forty eight states in the next three months, including preaching at Moody Church at the invitation of H. A. Ironside. In February of 1936, he held meetings at Wheaton College in Illinois.

He continued his whirlwind progress in 1936 by going to New Zealand and Australia and then on to South Africa and Rhodesia. In October, he returned to London and planned take a rest. He traveled with Stanley Donnan and Evan John to Norway. After speaking in Oslo, he left his friends and went north to Narvik, seeking quiet. But Christian leaders in that city asked Orr to lead meetings there as well. Eventually he did manage to get some time to himself and decided to ask Ivy Muriel Carol Carlson, a young woman he had met very briefly in South Africa, to marry him. He telegraphed her and set out for South Africa. After a quick courtship, they were married on January 15, 1937. At his wedding reception, Orr gave an evangelistic invitation and counseled inquirers. The couple then returned to London, where Orr spoke at meetings commemorating the centennial of evangelist Dwight L. Moody’s meetings in that city. The couple eventually had four children: Eileen Muriel, who lived three months and died in 1938; Carolyn Astrid born in Toronto in 1939 (later Mrs. Larry D. Booth); Alan Bertran born in Chicago in 1942; and David Arundel born in Oxford in 1946.

Besides his travels, Orr had been busy turning out autobiographical volumes relating his experiences around the world and describing the Christian life. Among some of these early titles were Can God-? (1934), This Promise Is to You (1935), Times of Refreshing (1936), Prove Me Now (1936), This is the Victory (1936), All Your Need (1936), If Ye Abide (1936), Such Things Happen (1937), and The Church Must First Repent (1937). He also edited some books by Andrew Gih in the late 1930’s.

In 1938 Orr formed the Revival Fellowship Team of young preachers such as Stanley Donnan, Brinley Evans, and Andrew Gih and led them in a series of mass evangelistic campaigns in Ulster and Australia. Then he and Gih made an evangelistic tour of the portions of China not occupied by the Japanese. They also made a film of the tour. Most of 1939 was spent raising funds for war relief for Chinese orphans. He continued to write, publishing Telling Australia and Through Blood and Fire in China, both in 1939.

In late 1939 Orr and his wife traveled to Canada, where he served briefly as associate pastor of the Peoples Church. He decided that he needed further education and began studying at Northwestern University in Chicago. On January 15, 1940, he was ordained in the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. He continued to preach and write, making a tour of the West Indies and Central America in 1940 and publishing Always Abounding. He got his M.A. from Northwestern in 1942, the same year his mother died in Ulster. Toward the end of the year, he enlisted in United States armed forces and went to attend chaplain’s school on the campus of Harvard University. The following year, he got his Th.D. from Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago and began his service as an air force chaplain.

He saw extensive service during the war, serving with the 13th Air Force in Bismark Archipelago, New Guinea, and being involved in campaigns in Borneo, the south Philippines, Luzon, and China. He earned seven battle stars and finished with the rank of major. He wrote about his military experience in I Saw No Tears (1948).

When he was discharged in 1946, he hitchhiked across Korea, China, and India to Cairo and then to Durban, South Africa, where he rested two months with his family. He then sent his family to England by troopship and traveled through the Congo to West Africa. From Dakar he crossed the Sahara and traveled on to England. He picked up his education again and was at Oxford from 1946 to 1948, doing resident study for his doctorate, which he received in the latter year. His dissertation was published in 1949 under the title The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain. The year 1952 saw the publication of The Second Great Awakening in America. Later he received a D.D. in African History from the University of South Africa (1969), a Th.D. from Serampore University (1970), and a Ed.D. from Th.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (1971).

In 1949 he established a permanent residence in southern California and began a series of speaking tours and evangelistic meetings on college and university campuses. First he preached across the United States and then, from 1949-1951, in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. He made a brief visit to Brazil in 1951. The response caused him to be invited back for a full scale campaign in cities throughout the country. There followed meetings in South Africa (1953) and India (1954). He and Mrs. Orr led a team evangelistic effort in Australia and New Zealand from 1956 to 1957. Other members of the team included Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Doing, Mr. and Mrs. Max H. Bushby, Rev. and Mrs. William Dunlap, and Corrie ten Boom. The following year, Orr again held meetings in India. Other countries where major meetings were held in the next few years included Great Britain in 1961, where he spoke with young theological students about spiritual renewal; Norway, Sweden and Denmark in 1962; university meetings in the United States in 1962 and 1963.

In 1966, Orr became a professor at Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission, a position he held until 1981. Besides his teaching and writing, he greatly stimulated the study and understanding of revivals and evangelism through his founding in 1974 and continuing leadership of the Oxford Reading and Research Conference on Evangelical Awakenings. This conference of scholars met every summer to hear and present papers on revivals. His own writing continued unabated.

Besides his writing, teaching, and preaching, Dr. Orr had great impact on evangelicals around the world through his friendship with other leading Christians. He was an advisor of Billy Graham’s from the start of that evangelist’s career, a friend of Abraham Vereide and helped shape the prayer breakfast movement that grew out of Vereide’s International Christian Leadership, and he was a important leader in Andrew Gih’s Evangelize China Fellowship.

Dr. Orr suffered from heart trouble in his later years, and died the morning after presenting a lecture at a conference in 1987.

https://jedwinorr.com/

True passionate preaching is the flower and fruit of passionate praying. The fiery preaching that transforms the Church and the market place is first kindled in the secret place. This truth is powerfully illustrated through the life of W. P. Nicholson. In the early 1920’s, Northern Ireland passed through a period of great strife and bloodshed. These were times of great despair and apprehension. Fear gripped the heart of many and even spread to the churches and religious community. “In the mercy of God, an intervention came from an unexpected source. There began a series of evangelistic campaigns, which in the course of the following years had a profound effect upon the religious and communal life of the Province.” The evangelist used of God during these meetings was W. P. Nicholson. He was a fearless individual, peculiar to some and offensive to others. Nicholson didn’t care what others thought of his manner of speech or methods. He had been taught by God Himself in the secret place and as a result was quite unique in his preaching and dealings with men. To be all-out for the Kingdom of God and it’s interests was his passion. Burning zeal was the chief characteristic of Nicholson’s whole life and ministry.

He wielded the Sword of the Spirit
Nicholson used to say that when a mission was begun it was not long before they had either a riot or revival. Sometimes we had more riot than revival, but never a revival without a riot.
“Nicholson used to say that when a mission was begun it was not long before they had either a riot or revival. Sometimes we had more riot than revival, but never a revival without a riot.” Nicholson wielded the Sword of the Spirit with a fury. His hearers were always affected one way or another. Some through his preaching were brought to humble repentance, while others resisted God’s Word with indignation.

Two favorite themes of Nicholson were “God’s love” and “God’s hell.” W. P. Nicholson always preached the love of God with all the warmth and tenderness he could muster; but for those who rejected this Good News, he offered the only alternative, GOD’S HELL. He preached on every aspect of hell with such zeal and passion that his hearers claimed to be able to almost smell the burning sulphur. Still others, under deep conviction and anxiety, dripped with sweat and unconsciously shredded the hymn books they held in their laps.

Through this kind of fervent preaching, God brought entire communities face to face with the question, “What shall I do with Jesus?” One elderly man who had recollections of the Ulster Revival of 1859 said that some of the effects of Nicholson’s meetings even exceeded what happened in ‘59. Another commentator on Nicholson’s work said that he had seen nothing like it since the days of D. L. Moody.

He was a man of deep prayer
Apart from prayer such revival power is unattainable. Mr. Nicholson was always a man of deep prayer. “Prayer might be called his habit, for he loved to pray. His campaigns had nights and half nights of prayer. Praying in the Spirit kept him in the spirit of prayer. From the prayer closet he mounted the pulpit – endued.” Mr. Lindsay Glegg wrote of W. P. Nicholson, “The secret of his power was no doubt in his prayer life. He stayed at our home . . . and he was up in the morning at six o’clock but he never appeared until twelve noon; he spent the hours wrestling with God in prayer. By his own special request he was not disturbed by telephone or visitor, however urgent.” On another occasion the sheets of his bed were found to be torn to shreds. Mr. Glegg again commented; “What had happened was that he unconsciously, agonizing in prayer had ripped the sheets into strips . . .” Yes, prayer was surely the secret of his powerful life and ministry.

Perhaps the sweetest fruit of Nicholson’s prayer life was the deep

I do not know anyone in the world that I know better than the Lord. I do not know my wife or my mother the way I know the Lord. I do not know the best friends I ever had the way I know the Lord. We walk together, my Lord and I, because we are in fellowship, and there is nothing that I have but is Hisfamiliarity that was produced between himself and the person of Christ. In Nicholson’s book, On Towards the Goal, he writes, “I do not know anyone in the world that I know better than the Lord. I do not know my wife or my mother the way I know the Lord. I do not know the best friends I ever had the way I know the Lord. We walk together, my Lord and I, because we are in fellowship, and there is nothing that I have but is His.” Truly this is the essence and heart of revival, an intimate visitation and fellowship with Jesus Christ. Lord, will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice and delight in You? (Psa. 85:6).
References Used: All for Jesus – The Life of W. P. Nicholson by Stanley Barnes, W. P. Nicholson Flame for God in Ulster by S. W. Murray, God’s Hell by W. P. Nicholson

© David Smithers

Nicholson, William Patteson (1876–1959), evangelist, was born on 3 April 1876 in Cottown near Bangor, Co. Down, one among seven children of Capt. John G. Nicholson, merchant seaman, and his wife Ellen (née Campbell). The family was devoutly presbyterian; two sisters and a brother became missionaries. Nicholson was brought up in Belfast and educated at Fisherwick presbyterian school and the Model School on the Falls Road. He went to sea aged sixteen, spending four years on the barque Galgorm Castle. He reacted against his upbringing and lived a life of drunkenness and debauchery, but remained haunted by fears for his salvation. His unease intensified when he left ship at Cape Town and worked as a miner and railway builder in the Kalahari Desert, seeing associates die of blackwater fever.

Nicholson returned to Bangor in May 1899. On 22 May he was ‘born again’. For seven months Nicholson remained haunted by timidity and spiritual emptiness. Then he came under the influence of the Rev. J. Stuart Holden, who taught ‘holiness doctrine’ (that after conversion believers should experience a second spiritual transformation, ‘receiving the Holy Ghost’). Nicholson felt God wanted him to proclaim faith; he joined the weekly Salvation Army procession, an object of widespread ridicule. He always thanked God this cured him of respectability.

Nicholson became a railway clerk and lay evangelist. In December 1901 he entered the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow (inspired by the revivalist missions of Dwight W. Moody). After graduation in 1903 Nicholson became an evangelist with the Lanarkshire Christian Union, preaching to working-class audiences. Here he perfected his brash, uncompromising, humorous oratory and his techniques of self-advertisement. In 1907 Nicholson married Ellison D. Marshall of Bellshill, Lanarkshire, a gospel worker. They had two daughters and a son. In 1907 he preached in London, subsequently travelling to Australia and America with the Chapman/Alexander mission.

On 14 April Nicholson was ordained by the Carlisle (USA) presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church. This was undertaken to bolster his credentials as a travelling evangelist rather than from strong denominational attachment. His missions were interdenominational, linked to all the principal protestant churches. Nicholson believed those dissatisfied with their church should derive extracurricular sustenance from orthodox evangelists rather than seceding. He later acted as pastor in a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church without formally abandoning presbyterianism. In 1918 he was recruited by the fundamentalist Los Angeles Bible Mission as an evangelist for its extension programme. Thereafter Nicholson’s principal residence was in California, although he resigned from the Institute in 1924; as in unregenerate days, he felt he was born to wander and could not settle in one place. (His son later worked with the Mission, retiring in 1967.) In October 1920 Nicholson revisited Bangor during a mission in Scotland. His preaching aroused mass enthusiasm reminiscent of the 1859 revival. He returned in January 1921; a series of missions across Northern Ireland produced thousands of converts. Nicholson preached a hellfire gospel, denouncing alcohol, tobacco, cinema, cosmetics, ‘long-haired men and short-haired women’. His provocative language and showmanship resembled a particularly outrageous stand-up comedian.

Nicholson was unusually effective in appealing to working-class men (he also addressed women who ‘manicure your nails on the washboard’). Churches filled to twice their capacity, apparently irrecoverable debts were paid, crowds of shipyard workers went across Belfast (even outside it) to hear him. Responses were intensified by contemporary political instability, bloodshed, and turmoil. Nicholson’s 1920 Shankill Road mission was conducted to the sound of gunfire; his early 1923 missions in east Belfast allegedly reduced sectarian violence. He returned to California in June 1923. Even critics noted a sustained rise in communicants. ‘He is filled with vulgarity and with Holy Spirit’, commented one clergyman, ‘and how a man can be filled with both at the same time I do not know.’

In 1924–6 Nicholson gave another series of missions in Ulster (he also spoke in Dublin). These proved extremely divisive. Nicholson provoked criticism in some church circles by his vulgar humour and uncompromising language. He retorted that the mission did well when publicans and Pharisees attacked it; T. C. Hammond (qv) commented that if Nicholson was vulgar, so were Isaiah and Elijah. Nicholson attacked theological modernism as believable only by ‘fools and theological professors . . . calling Mary a Jewish prostitute and Jesus a bastard’. This provoked fundamentalist–modernist controversy within the Irish presbyterian church; several Nicholson associates accused Professor J. E. Davey (qv) of heresy. Davey’s acquittal led to the secession of the Irish Evangelical (later Evangelical Presbyterian) Church, while the fundamentalist Bible Standards League campaigned within the church throughout the interwar period.

Ellison Nicholson died in 1926 during a mission in Australia. In 1927 Nicholson married Fanny Elizabeth Collett, a nursing matron. He continued to travel the English-speaking world as a preacher. He gave further missions in Northern Ireland in 1928, 1936, 1937, and 1946. His last series of Northern Ireland missions (1958) was a self-conscious farewell tour. He had developed a heart condition in the 1920s; by 1958 his health was so weak he was warned against preaching. In autumn 1959, while the Nicholsons were returning from America to retirement in Bangor, he suffered a heart attack and was put ashore at Cork. W. P. Nicholson died 29 October 1959 in the Victoria Hospital, Cork, and is buried in Clandeboye cemetery, Bangor.