Within the past week, everyone in the Christian world has been grappling with the release of the 12-page report involving sexual misconduct from someone who claimed to be an ambassador of Christ. Nearly everyone in Christendom is talking about the man. I do not find myself to jump at length on this bandwagon (I already alluded to this a few weeks ago) since I had less dealings with Ravi’s teachings. He was well-known, but I never bought any of his books nor frequently listened to his messages. From the few times I heard the man on the radio, he quoted many philosophers and Catholic theologians which to me was a red flag. I was delivered from Catholicism and to continually drink nuggets of wisdom from someone who is known to be mired in the most blatant promoter of idol worship in Christendom is indicative of the absence of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Can I tell you something? I am most interested to know about the personal insights the Holy Spirit has given a believer, of course in concert and not deviating from what is already revealed in Scripture. As a Christian, you are witnessing to the world about your personal walk with the Lord, not how a famous “so and so” thought. God gave each and every person the faculty of reason. It is easier to convey and defend our personal convictions. There is a natural flow of certainty with knowledge that has been given to you by the Holy Spirit as opposed to something you adopted from someone else. Quoting Scripture is exempt since this is the very model Jesus gave us.
“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Matthew 4:4
Jesus said, “It is written.” If we are truly His followers, we follow His way. We quote Scripture.
The Reign of the Slander Commander
No Christian is immune to slander. Even Jesus was slandered when He walked on earth. He also warned His believers that what the world did to Him, they will also do to His followers (John 15:18-20) which brings me to my own account. Awhile back, I had a private email conversation with another blogger from WordPress and she did not like that I confronted her about promoting material she didn’t herself believe. I also warned her not to use extra-biblical sources to defend her position. She got offended which made her write a slanderous post about me. I wrote a counterpost to address her beliefs. She was initially suggesting that I write a counterpost to a man whom she had an exchange in WP. I found no need to do so since he believed the same thing I believed about the Pretribulation Rapture. I got reminded of this exchange since I recently searched my WP handle on the internet and her post came up on the search engine result.
This was clearly a “She said, She said” scenario reminiscent of Solomon’s time about two women arguing their case (1 Kings 3:16-28). Some people can easily be deceived by one’s testimony, but the discerning will see past the charade. There is one way for people to gauge who is telling the truth. The person who accused me of promoting lies about her mainly has borrowed content on her blog. This can be problematic because you will never truly know what a person believes since she is hiding under someone else’s theology. In the beginning, she promoted my blog and when things went sour in her estimation, she was intent to destroy my reputation through slander. I have been accused of many things because of my biblical stance and every single Christian here or on any other platform should not be ashamed if this were the main ground of accusation. My blog content speaks for itself.
In this day and age, no fraud can hide on the internet. Before the slander commander tries to make a roast turkey out of me, here’s an important disclaimer. I own the domains modconspiracy.com (since 2005) and johnthreexvi.com. The only social media platform I’m active in is WordPress. Any other social media presence bearing the likeness of these handles DO NOT belong to me. I have recently registered johnthreexvi.com and found out that there is someone else with the handle JohnThreeXVI who happens to have a Twitter account. That person is not me.
While God allows accusations to stand for a time like what happened to Joseph (Genesis 39) as a test, it is every Christian’s duty to stand true to their profession of being a follower of Christ without dragging His name. We all could learn the valuable lesson presented to us from Mr. Zacharias’ bombshell report. No Christian should engage in any fakery and phoney baloney.