Ravi Zacharias Dead at Age 74
Evangelist and Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias passed away on Tuesday, two months after he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
“My dad, at 74, has ‘join[ed] with the triumphant saints that sing [his] Savior’s praise,'” daughter Sarah Davis wrote in an update on Zacharias’ website.
“We who knew and loved him celebrate his life, and more importantly, his Savior.”
“My dad’s humility, grace, tenderness for people, and above all love for the Lord are forever imprinted on my mind, my heart, and my life,” Davis wrote.
On March 12, Zacharias announced that a biopsy taken during his back surgery revealed he had a malignant tumor on his sacrum — a rare type of cancer called Sarcoma.
On May 8, Davis shared the heartbreaking news that doctors had done all they were able to do, so Zacharias and his family would return home “where our family can be together for whatever time the Lord gives us.”
Following the announcement, Zacharias’ organization, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, tweeted asking Christians to share their most treasured memories of him using the hashtag #ThankYouRavi.
Among those who shared their memories were former football star and current MLB prospect Tim Tebow, Lee Strobel, Christian rapper Lecrae and Australian-born Christian author and activist Christine Caine.
Zacharias was born in India and raised in an Anglican family, but said that he converted to Christianity while reading the Bible in the hospital after a failed suicide attempt as a teenager, Christianity Today reported.
He was an evangelist for the past 48 years and founded the organization RZIM in 1984.
“Even in his final days, until he lacked the energy and breath to speak, he turned every conversation to Jesus and what the Lord had done,” Davis wrote Tuesday.
“He perpetually marveled that God took a seventeen-year-old skeptic, defeated in hopelessness and unbelief, and called him into a life of glorious hope and belief in the truth of Scripture — a message he would carry across the globe for 48 years.”
He edited or wrote over 25 books on theology, apologetics, comparative religion and philosophy, according to the RZIM website.
His ultimate mission was “to present and defend the truth of Jesus Christ that others may find life in Him.”
Davis pointed to John 14:19, which reads “Because I live, you also will live” and will be etched on Zacharias’ gravestone.
“Today, my beautiful father is more alive than he has ever been,” she wrote.
“We thank God for him and recommit our lives to sharing this truth with all who will hear, until He calls us to our eternal home.”
The family will have private graveside service and later provide details for a public memorial service that will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, and streamed online.
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