Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias (born 26 March 1946) is an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian apologist. A defender of the Christian Faith,[1][2] Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God? in the category "theology and doctrine"[3] and Christian bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad[4] and The Grand Weaver.[5] Zacharias is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and host of the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking

Early life and education

Zacharias was born on March 26, 1946 in Madras, India. His family moved to Delhi when he was quite young and he grew up there.[7] His family was Anglican,[8] but he says that he was an atheist until the age of 17 when he tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While he was in the hospital, a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and told his mother to read to him from John 14.[9] Zacharias says that it was John 14:19 that touched him as the defining paradigm: "Because I live, you also will live." He said that he thought, "This may be my only hope: A new way of living. Life as defined by the Author of Life." and that he committed his life to Christ praying, "Jesus if You are the one who gives life as it is meant to be, I want it. Please get me out of this hospital bed well, and I promise I will leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth."[10]

In 1966, Zacharias immigrated with his family to Canada, earning his undergraduate degree from the Ontario Bible College in 1972 (now Tyndale University) and his M.Div. from Trinity International University. In 1990, he did a two to three-month sabbatical at Ridley Hall, a Church of England theological school in Cambridge.