Today I got an email from RZIM concerning the investigation into Ravi Zacharias' immorality. The report included the text of the report itself done by Miller & Martin PLLC.

I read the entire thing - 13 pages long. The essence of it is that "Yes, he was an adulterer - not with just one woman but many."

The question comes "Why? How could he do such awful things?" I still do not know the answer to this question but the following statement is very telling: (page 6 reads) "Mr. Zacharias used religious expressions to gain compliance, as she was raised to be a person of faith. She reported that he made her pray with him to thank God for the “opportunity” they both received. She said he called her his “reward” for living a life of service to God, and he referenced the “godly men” in the Bible with more than one wife. She said he warned her not ever to speak out against him or
she would be responsible for the “millions of souls” whose salvation would be lost if his reputation
was damaged.

A number of aspects of this account involved similar behavior and escalation as the accounts of other therapists who would not have known each other and who treated Mr. Zacharias..."

RZIM issued a letter of supreme regret, apology. I think they are handling it very well - as far as I can tell are being transparent.

So many lessons to be leaned from this episode...and my heart goes out to his wife and children.

So sad, so tragic...

Sandra

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Sandra Miller

Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker, Bill Gothard, Bob Coy, Dave Reynolds, Doug Phillips, Jimmy Swaggart, Mark Driscoll, Robert Tilton, Joshua Duggar, just to name a few of our fallen.

The Bible warned us, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world (1 John 2:15-16).

Every fallen pastor in history repeated the same fatal mistake. They got caught up in a love for the world.

That love manifested in one of three ways: the desire of the flesh (sex/addiction), the desire of the eyes (covetousness/money), or the pride of life (power).

Fallen pastors allowed the temptation of sex, money or power to erode their soul until it crumbled.

We’re all just one poor choice away from falling. If we are ignorant, we will repeat the same mistakes. May their mistakes be a warning to us all. I think it was Charles Spurgeon, that once told his students, that if they could be happy doing something besides ministry, they should do it.

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Bill

"The question comes "Why? How could he do such awful things?" I still do not know the answer to this question..."

"Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11

Spiritual pride almost always ends up with sexual immorality and covetousness. Common pattern in Scripture and in current life. There are a lot of people around these leaders who could have loved and discerned these mens' pride long before the other sins took root. IF brotherly love had been around Ravi then he, his family, the ministry and those who followed him would have been spared great sorrow and discouragement and spared the Lord much grieving. Perhaps there were some around him that loved him and the Lord's honor enough to intervene and stop him in his pride and it's just not reported. In most cases though, there wasn't enough love in brothers to do this.

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Robert

Robert,

According to the report, there were employees of RZIM who would question Ravi and he would respond in anger or "be sent to Siberia". This alone should have been enough to warrant a serious investigation but it did not happen. Still, in reading this report, I cannot help but wonder if his wife did not suspect something was amiss and if she did and did confront Ravi how did he respond? If she had gone to others with her concern, how would they have responded? Would they have believed her? Too many times the answer would have been "no".

There seems to me to be an acceleration of exposure of unrepentant sin among religious leaders. You have the moral sins and then you have the prophets who prophesy future events but they were proven 100% wrong. The LORD is telling us something - are we listening? Amir Tsarfati addressed this issue in a recent podcast - these prophets are alienating many, destroying their faith: "if these prophets were wrong what is to say the expectation of a rapture isn't wrong too?"

In any case, a lot of people have been hurt - my heart goes out to Margie. Sin destroys - every time.

Sandra

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Sandra Miller

""if these prophets were wrong what is to say the expectation of a rapture isn't wrong too?""

Well...these "prophets" were wrong because they did not hear the Word from God. They prophesied falsely.

And the expectation of a rapture is wrong too,because it is not taught in the Word of God. It is falsely taught. It became the predominant view after Cyrus Ingerson Scofield's reference Bible was published in America in 1909.

Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom. Those who are His have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God's Son Jesus the Christ.

Rejoice in this...that the second death has no power over you if you have been born from Above!

Alleluia...Amen.