On May 19, 2020, notable Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias lost his battle with cancer at the age of 74.
Zacharias’ obituary reads:
Ravi Zacharias, who died of cancer on May 19, 2020, at age 74, is survived by Margie, his wife of 48-years; his three children:—Sarah, the Global CEO of RZIM, Naomi, Director of Wellspring International, and Nathan, RZIM’s Creative Director for Media; and five grandchildren.
On May 8, Ravi Zacharias family announced that a tumor on the apologist’s sacrum had metastasized and while the original tumor itself had shrunk, the metastatic cancer was not responding to treatment. His outlook was grim.
We have just learned that while the tumor in my dad’s sacrum has been responding to the chemotherapy, the area where the cancer metastasized has actually worsened. His oncologist informed us that this cancer is very rare in its aggression and that no options for further treatment remain. Medically speaking, they have done all they are able.
Zacharias is known best for his ministry apologetics and training at his Institute where he and his staff have trained hundreds over the years. We recognize that Zacharias spent many years defending the gospel and leading many to Christ.
In 2018, it became public that Zacharias had been involved in a years-long “sexting” scandal and an emotional affair with another woman other than his wife. Zacharias admitted that he was caught up in the emotional aspect, privately in conversation with another woman who had been sending him nude pics of himself, but denied that it ever went any further than that.
Other allegations were made against Zacharias by a retired Detective Constable from the Ontario Provincial Police after 34 years of service that Zacharias, while a minister, pressured a teenage girl to have an abortion “if our careers are to survive.” To our knowledge, Zacharias never addressed these allegations.
During his recent years in ministry, Zacharias turned his ministry largely in the direction of social justice and wokeness — following the trends of culture and the world. Last year, Zacharias invited gay Anglican priest, Sam Allberry to speak at one of his events where he allowed Allberry to say that Jesus had “body dysphoria,” therefore, he was able to identify with transgender people who experience “gender dysphoria.”
Sadly, while Zacharias had many good years of ministry, he spent much of his later years deconstructing Christianity and joining the rank-and-file social justice branch of Christendom and the likes of The Gospel Coalition and other sub-biblical movements. We are sad to see that Zacharias and his family suffered through this but we know that God is sovereign over all things.
