Earlier this year, well-known Christian apologist, speaker, and teacher, Ravi Zacharias passed away after a years-long battle with cancer. In the eyes of many, the world had lost a great man of God who sought to fight the good fight and defend Christianity against the onslaught of attacks from the unbelieving world.

It didn’t take long for allegations of sexual misconduct to begin to pop up. In fact, these allegations began long before Zacharias had passed. Zacharias had been accused of a sexting scandal where he allegedly paid off the victim the keep her mouth quiet about it.

But after his passing, more allegations of other sexual misconduct surfaced. Zacharias was accused by a former business partner of sexual misconduct with women who worked in a spa chain they owned together. According to a report, Steven Baughman, an attorney who had been following the allegations against Zacharias, stated, “…based on my recent interview with one of his business partners and with two women who worked in the spas, what he did in those massage rooms was not just sexual, but sexually abusive.”

Since then, Ravi Zacharias Ministries launched an independent, third-party investigation into the allegations and, while they stated they didn’t plan to comment on the investigation until it was completed, they released a statement earlier today citing preliminary result that showed the allegations to be true, stating, “while the investigation remains ongoing and is not expected to be completed until January or February, yesterday we received a brief interim update on the investigation we felt we needed to share (attached). Sadly, the interim investigation update indicates this assessment of Ravi’s behavior to be true—that he did indeed engage in sexual misconduct.”

The statement continued,

“This misconduct is deeply troubling and wholly inconsistent with the man Ravi Zacharias presented both publicly and privately to so many over more than four decades of public ministry. We are heartbroken at learning this but feel it necessary to be transparent and to inform our staff, donors, and supporters at this time, even while the investigation continues. We will speak more comprehensively to all concerned after the completion of the investigation.”

While we applaud Ravi Zacharias Ministries for their transparency and honesty during this investigation, the fact that this wasn’t taken seriously by either the ministry, or those outside of the ministry who platformed them, before his passing, speaks volumes of the level of discernment in the Christian community. Ministries such as Reformation Charlotte and Protestia repeatedly warn Christians about the pervasiveness of worldly influence in the Church, yet, repeatedly, it’s always too late before the Church responds.