Ravi Zacharias, a well known evangelical preacher who gained substantial popularity in the white evangelical subculture died on May 19 at the age of 74 at his home in Atlanta.
Zacharias was an Indian-origin preacher, who has also written a plethora of books and has served a number of lectures widely at colleges on Christianity and faith.
The cause of death was reported to be complications from the aggressive form of bone cancer that he had been struggling with. The statement was issued by Zacharias International Ministries, the evangelical organisation that he founded in 1984 in the suburbs of Atlanta.
Zacharias has not just published over 25 books, he has also edited quite a few of them and was frequently found giving lectures in the University halls. The show conducted by him “Let My People Think” further enhanced his global presence. He also travelled internationally for talk shows and radio shows.
Even thought Zacharias has never been part of any kind of political campaigns, he has actively befriended a number of politicians, including conservative Republicans. He is also known to have worked as a mentor for Nikki Haley, who is the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to UN.
“His fan base included leaders in many high-profile places, yes, but he’s one of those rare evangelical leaders from his generation who is actually known for being an evangelical who evangelised, rather than an evangelical who did politics,” said Michael Wear, who worked with Barack Obama’s faith outreach campaigns.
Zacharias, who is ordained both by the Christian and Missionary alliance, gained a lot of popularity over the course of three years, when he was just 37.
Soon after, he became one of the most sought after evangelists that promoted apologetics and even began building a ministry based on what they call is the intellectual arguments for evangelical belief rather than the direct appeals to faith.
Zacharias was born as Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias on March 26, 1946 in Chennai, India. He later grew up in New Delhi. While his mother was a teacher, his father worked as a civil servant. They had a Hindu background and growing up, they used to celebrate Hindu festivals. But, during Christmas and Easter, the family visited the local church.
He has even labelled himself as the septic of faith claiming that he committed suicide at the age of 17 when he felt overburdened because of his academics.
When he was in hospital, a worker there gave him a Bible, which he asked his mother to recite to him.
The entire family later migrated to Canada in 1966 where Zacharias worked as a banquet manager in a hotel. He later graduated and then acquired his master’s degree in 1976 from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
He later worked as the professor or evangelism at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York from 1980 to 1984.
Gradually, Zacharias was able to extend his ministry to 250 employees scattered across 15 locations globally. The ministry later listed $25 million revenue in 2015. His daughter, Sarah Zacharias Davis serves as the Chief Executive in the ministry.
