Quotes from "Light in Dark Places"

I've been collecting quotes for over thirty years and I'm often asked for copies of the quotes I use. A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending RZIM's Summer Institute at McMaster Divinity College entitled "Light in Dark Places." In this post, I'll provide some of my favorite quotes from the week, organized by speaker. I have included quotes at the bottom of the article from some others that were quoted by the conference speakers. I hope you enjoy them.

Lee Beach
"A life beautifully lived is the most powerful argument we have for Christ."

Stuart McAllister
"Something unexpected happened - the resurrection - and it has changed the nature of reality."

"Looking good and feeling good has replaced doing good and being good."

"Western culture will sing its last song, in the words of Frank Sinatra, 'I Did it My Way.'"

"We all want judgment for the other person, but mercy for ourselves."

"The church is a cradle to help God's people be God's people."

"If your faith isn't worth dying for, it's not worth living for."

"You can either be rebels without a pause, or rebels with a cause."

John Patrick
"If Newton had not had his God, he would not have gone looking for his laws."

Anna Robbins
"Our network of relationships forms our identity."

"Everywhere is somewhere in God's kingdom."

"I don't have the truth; the truth has me."

Michelle Tepper
"God exercises his mercy and upholds his justice at the cross."

"Often when we say we want justice, what we really mean is that we want revenge."

"Only the author of life has the right to define the meaning of life."

Steven Studebaker
"Neither ignorance nor selfishness are Christian virtues."

Ravi Zacharias
"There are four absolutes that converged on a hill called Calvary: evil, justice, love and forgiveness."

Others:
"The laws of nature are written by God in the language of mathematics." - Galileo

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein

"Comparison is the mother of clarity." - Os Guinness

"God is never late, never in a hurry, and always on time." - Selwyn Hughes

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

"A humanly speaking hopeless situation is irrelevant when God's involved." - Tom Tarrants

"Everyone says forgiveness is a great idea, until they have something to forgive." - C.S. Lewis

"Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead men live." - Michael Green

"Human beings are logical - but slowly." - Unknown

"Our past may explain us; it does not excuse us." - Unknown

Please feel free to share your favorite quotes in the comments section.

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Light in Dark Places

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague and I attended a week long conference put on by RZIM and hosted by the McMaster Divinity College. The theme was "Light in Dark Places." The experience can best be described as drinking from a fire hydrant. I'm still processing a lot of what I heard, but I'd like to highlight a few of the takeaways from the 32 sessions, some of which are likely not what you'd expect from an apologetics conference.

• Personal growth requires investment.

This is not an earth shattering revelation, but a gentle reminder that real growth comes at a cost. That cost may be monetary, as in tuition, conference fees, materials, etc. But it also involves, perhaps even moreso, an investment of time and energy.

I'm reminded of a conference I attended a few years ago during which someone spoke of the idea of leverage and creating space. If something is worth learning or doing, and there are only so many hours in a day, therefore something must be sacrificed in order to make it happen. That may mean getting up a little earlier each day or spending less time with television or whatever it is that wastes your time.

Author and speaker Charles Swindoll, many years ago, made the decision to rise one hour earlier each day and to spend that time in writing. He has now written more than seventy books and become one of America's most respected pastors. An hour a day is a powerful thing. What changes do you need to make to allow your top priorities the time they deserve? 

• There's no substitute for reading.

I have a lot of books. Almost every visitor to my office comments on my rather large library. Yet when I attend conferences such as these I invariably add another 10-20 books to my must-read list. Information is power, and to be able to have that information at your fingertips is invaluable. I find myself humbled in the presence of men and women who have such a great grasp of their subject that they are able to recite from memory a seemingly endless supply of pertinent information.

This is not intended to shame anyone - not all are cut out for academia - however, each of us should take advantage of our opportunities. As Mark Twain said, "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." It has been said that one hour of study per day in any subject will make you an expert in a couple of years. Try it with something you're interested in.

For those of you who commute, aren't audio-books just the greatest thing since sliced bread? Pop a CD in or download a podcast and make use of that time to expand your mind and your horizons.

• How you live your life matters.

I'm going to finish off with this one. No doubt many of the thoughts I'm currently processing will find their way onto future blogs, but this is important. I know a lot of people who like to argue. I know a lot of Christians who seem to think that they can bully someone into the Kingdom of God through the sheer weight of their intellect. They're wrong. It is a truism that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Apologetics is really about people. It's about helping people in their search for truth. Sometimes it's easy to forget that we are dealing with people, not just facts. As 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." To quote Lee Beach, one of the conference presenters: "A life beautifully lived is the most powerful argument we have for Christ."

Jesus said, in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” A close examination of the life of Christ is paramount to anyone planning on participating in furthering His Gospel. His was a life of service, of humility, of compassion and sacrifice. When He invited us to join with Him in His cause He didn't offer the perks of power - prestige, wealth, popularity. Rather He said “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

We'll give the last word to Stuart McAllister - "How you live speaks volumes to others." Go shine a light in a dark place.

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Book Review: Unspeakable - Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil

Book Review: "Unspeakable - Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil," Os Guinness, New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005. 242 pages.

I have had Os Guinness' books on my bookshelves before, but I had never taken the time to read them. Then I had opportunity to hear him speak at the RZIM Summer Institute in 2012 and realized I needed to start reading his work. He is a man with a brilliant mind and a great grasp of history. In "Unspeakable," Guinness takes on one of the most challenging issues we face as human beings, that of evil: it's source, its substance, its remedy. A daunting task to be sure.

It's difficult to know where to begin with this review - I can't imagine how challenging it would have been to write the book. To each of us, this subject is uniquely personal. We all have, or will, experience or witness evil and suffering in our own lives. As Guinness says: "One of the effects of globalization today is that our eyes vastly outreach our hands and our pockets. We always see more evil and suffering than we can possibly respond to."

Os builds his book around seven questions:

1. Where on earth does evil come from?
2. What's so right about a world so wrong? (Or "why me?" or "where's God?)
3. Are we really worse or just modern?
4. Do the differences make a difference?
5. Isn't there something we can do?
6. Why can't I know what I need to know?
7. Isn't there any good in all this bad?

Throughout the book Guinness explores these questions through the lens of different worldviews, taking pains to respectfully share each point of view. He makes three arguments throughout the book: "that there are important differences between the various answers to evil; that these differences make a difference; and that the differences make a difference not only for individuals but for societies." 

His thoughtful and reasonable approach provides a great deal of insight into an issue which has long been discussed, but not understood. He destroys the modern myth that most evil is perpetrated by people of faith. In fact, the twentieth century was the bloodiest in the history of the world, largely due to the atheistic regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and the like. But the biggest question arising out of the discussion is number 5: "Isn't there something we can do?"

 Guinness provides three features to a biblical response to evil and suffering:

1. There is an acknowledgement that evil resides in each of our hearts.
2. There is a commitment to forgive the evildoer appropriately, though without condoning the evil deed. (Witness the success of this approach in post-apartheid South Africa.)
3. The commitment to take a practical stand against evil and injustice.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The bottom line to all of this is that each of us are challenged to take a stand against evil - that begins in our own hearts. This book shares many brilliant examples of brave men and women who have dared to stand and who made a difference against evil. Let me conclude with a quote from one of the giants of the twentieth century, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with lying. Between them there is the closest, the most profound and natural bond: nothing screens violence except lies, and the only way lies can hold out is by violence. Whoever has once announced violence as his method must inevitably choose lies as his principle... The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let the lie come into the world, even dominate the world, but not through me." (Nobel address, 1970)

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Aren't All Religions Equally Valid?

This is a guest blog by Dr. Andy Bannister, the Canadian Director and Lead Apologist for RZIM Canada. Andy holds a PhD in Islamic studies. He has spoken and taught at universities across Canada, the USA, the UK and further afield on both Islam and philosophy and is a Visiting Lecturer for the London School of Theology. This article was originally published in the RZIM newsletter "A Slice of Infinity."


One of the most common accusations flung at Christians is that they are arrogant. "How can you believe that you're right and Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims—all the thousands of other religions—are wrong?" Isn't it the height of arrogance to claim that Jesus is the way to God? A way, possibly. But the way?

This issue haunts many Christians and makes us reluctant to talk about our faith. We don't want to appear arrogant, bigoted, or intolerant. This pluralistic view of religions thrives very easily in places like Canada or Europe where tolerance is valued above everything else. It's very easy to slip from the true claim—"all people have equal value"—to the false claim that "all ideas have equal merit." But those are two very different ideas indeed.

Let's take a brief look at the "all religions are essentially the same" idea. Suppose I say that I've just gotten into literature in a big way. This last year, I've read William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Tolkien, but also Harry Potter and The Very Hungry Caterpillar—and I've concluded that every author is identical. Would you conclude that: (a) this is the most profound statement on literature you've ever heard? Or would you conclude (b) that I don't have the first clue what I'm talking about? I suggest that you'd probably choose (b). Now, what about the statement "all religions are the same"? Doesn’t it likewise suggest that the person making it hasn't actually looked into any of them? Because once you do, you realize it's not that most religions are fundamentally the same with superficial differences but the reverse is the case: most religions have superficial similarities with fundamental differences.

A further problem with the idea that all religions are essentially the same is that it ignores a fundamental truth about reality: ideas have consequences. What you believe matters, because it will effect what you do. To claim that all religions are essentially the same is to say that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere—and this neglects the fact that you can believe something sincerely and be sincerely wrong. Hitler held his beliefs with sincerity—that doesn't make them true.

However, truth, by its very nature, is exclusive. If it is true, as Christianity claims, that Jesus was crucified, died, and rose from the dead, then it is not true, as Islam claims, that Jesus never died in the first place and that somebody else was killed in his place. Both claims cannot be true. Truth is exclusive.

But just because truth is exclusive, that doesn't make truth cold and uncaring. Truth for the Christian is personal. The Jesus who said "I am the only way" also said "I am the truth." In other words, ultimate truth is not a set of propositions but a person. As the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:12, "I know whom I have believed." Not what I have believed or experienced but whom. Jesus Christ.

To ask why we think that Jesus Christ is the only way is to miss the point entirely. Jesus does not compete with anybody. Nobody else in history made the claims he did; nobody else in history claimed to be able to deal with the problems of the human heart like he did. Nobody else in history claimed, as he did, to be God with us. To say that we believe Jesus is the only way should have nothing to do with arrogance and everything to do with introducing people to him.

Andy Bannister is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Toronto, Canada. 

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1000 Days In Jail

Many years ago I had opportunity to visit a childhood friend in Kingston Penitentiary, one of Canada's most notorious prisons. It's not a nice place. I've never been imprisoned. For that I'm thankful. I don't know how I'd handle it - being deprived of my freedom, an enforced separation from my family and loved ones.

I particularly don't know how I'd handle it if I were imprisoned unfairly, like Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. This Pastor marks 1000 days in an Iranian prison today. His crime? Converting from Islam to Christianity. Not only is he in prison, but he is on death row. In the Iranian system, once convicted, you can be taken at any time and executed. It is likely only the attention of the Western media that is keeping the Iranian "justice" system from carrying out the sentence.

The latest word that we have is that the Iranian courts have set a new trial date for him, the reason is uncertain. Speculation is that they will change the charges to something relating to threatening national security in order to deflect attention away from the religious persecution. Nadarkhani is only the most visible of those suffering for their faith in Iran.

Remarkably, in the midst of great persecution, there have been more conversions to Christianity in the past 15 years in Iran than in the previous 300 years. This is according to RZIM, which regularly ministers in the Middle East. There have been many stories of Muslims having visions which lead them to convert to Christianity.

At a recent conference, Christian Iranian leaders felt lead to commit themselves to share the Gospel with 5 new people every day. One couple was traveling across Iran and stopped to fill up their gas tank. They had shared the Gospel with 4 people. There was an armed man who looked menacing, leaning against the wall of the gas station. The wife looked at her husband and said, "there's number 5." He responded in the negative and cast doubts on her sanity. He pumped and paid for the gas then got in the car to leave.

As they pulled away, she once again told him "that is number 5." He said to her, "would you like a dead husband?" She said, "I'd rather have a dead husband than a coward for a husband!" Like any of us would do, he turned the car around and went back. He took a Bible from the car and walked over and presented it to the man. He began to weep. In a vision, he said Christ appeared to him and told him to come to this place and wait - someone would come and give him the book of life. He had been waiting for two days!

The point is that the Gospel will not be stopped. Nadarkhani's response when he was asked to recant to save his life was simple: "I cannot!" His situation, and that of thousands of Christians imprisoned worldwide, is a silent rebuke to lukewarm Christians everywhere. Jesus didn't call us to go to church when we feel like it, as if that made us Christians. He said, "Take up your cross, and follow Me!"

Remember Youcef Nadarkhani and his family today - and take the time to pray for him and his family, as well as suffering Christians around the world. Pray that where the Gospel message is banned, doors of opportunity would be opened. And pray for yourself, that you would be faithful to bloom where you have been planted.

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Thoughts on Suffering and Hope

Today I had the chance to listen to some great teachers talk on the subject of hope, and more specifically, hope in tough times. I wanted to try to share some of those thoughts with you.

I have seen a few things in my lifetime. I have witnessed suffering and had a little of my own. Nothing I have seen compares to what I have heard about today. There are some very sad stories in our sometimes ugly world. But even amongst the suffering, there are incredible stories of hope.

I heard today from two young women whose life experiences have allowed them to see and hear first-hand what I have only read about in newspapers. The first was Amy Orr-Ewing, Director of Programmes for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and Training Director for RZIM Europe. Amy has had opportunity to minister around the world, even smuggling Bibles into Taliban territory, her group placing one in the hands of a leading Taliban Imam.

The story that she shared that struck me today, however, was of an Anglican archbishop in Africa by the name of Benjamin Kwashi. He has the unenviable task of ministering in a particularly volatile region in Nigeria. You may have seen him in the news as Christians in the City of Jos were attacked and killed by Islamic militants on numerous occasions in recent years.

It is a dangerous place to be a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A few years ago, militants came to his house to find and kill the archbishop. Not finding him home, they instead brutalized his wife, Gloria, in unimaginable ways. He came home to find his wife in this state. She spent a number of months in the United States in recovery, including surgery to restore her eyesight. After her physical recovery, he asked her what she would like to do, was she willing to return to this dangerous place? Her answer was yes, there was work still to do. She returned to the scene of this brutality to continue to share the Gospel.

Some time later her husband was alone when, once again, the militants came to try to finally silence this leader of the church. They brought him into the yard to take his life. He asked if he could be allowed a few moments to pray to his God - his attackers agreed. In African style he raised his hands and began to pray loudly. He prayed for several moments and waited with his eyes closed for several more, expecting death. When he finally opened his eyes he found that he was all alone. His son came home just at that time and asked his father what had happened. He had just crossed paths with thirty armed militants who were running away in terror. What they had seen God knows, but the archbishop continues his ministry - there is hope in the darkness, and the church grows. Among other things, the Kwashis accommodate 50 orphaned children in their home whom they feed and educate. A further 150 children, housed nearby, are also educated in the compound.

Naomi Zacharias has worked for Coca-Cola as well as interning in the Executive Office of President George W. Bush. Her interest in global issues regarding children and women lead her to become the director of RZIM Wellspring International, an organization helping to equip organizations aiding women and children at risk around the world.

Naomi spoke of the plight of women caught up in the web of human trafficking, and the challenges of trying to help them. She has gone to places where 40-50% of the children are sold into the sex trade. She articulately speaks of the humanity of each of these people. They are not simply statistics, they are individuals, each with their own story, each worth redemption, and that we are all called to try to make a difference, even if it doesn't seem like we are making progress.

As C.S. Lewis said, “Sorrow turns out to be not a state, but a process." There are times when all that we can do is to be with someone in their pain; to hear their story - to help to restore their dignity. As Christians we must remember that, even when it seems dark, this is not the end, and there is still more of the story yet to be lived out. Our role is to love and to care and to share. As Naomi said today, "Heaven is the happily ever after but until then, we live in some very hard realities."

So, why persevere? Why keep fighting when it seems as though the odds are overwhelming? She gives two reasons for us as believers:

1. We persevere because it's right.
2. We persevere because people matter.

This is true regardless of the issue. Here's the question of the day: what can you do - today - to make a positive difference in someone's world?

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