- Another intellectualand spiritual heavyweight
is Dr. Corne Bekker,
Dean of the Regent School of Divinity.
And he joins me now to talkabout the legacy of Ravi.
Dr. Bekker, talk about the impact
that his ministry had onthe church and the world.
- Thank you so much George,it's certainly a privilege
to be here.
So, evangelicals leftthe intellectual sphere
at the beginning of the 20th century,
and one of the mostextraordinary things happened.
There were a number of voices
that stepped back with great force,
and Ravi was certainly one of the leaders
amongst that movement that taught us,
that as Christians
that believe in theinerrancy of God's word
that we don't have
to step back from theacademic conversation.
- And for Ravi, his emphasis was
about utilizing the dual duality of reason
and knowledge in the Christian life.
Why was that so important?
- Well, it's really important
because Ravi of course wasfollowing in a long line
of scholars and theologians
that have done this for centuries.
If we think for instanceabout the Apostle Paul
and his letter to the Colossians,
it says that, "Christ isthe epitome of all wisdom."
If we think of Anselm of Canterbury,
11th century churchleader that said listen,
"You don't have to throwyour faith out when
" it comes to reasoning."
In essence, he said I believein order to understand.
And Ravi is like a rise followed in
that long great faithful tradition
of theologians that said,
"Spirituality and study arenot enemies but friends,
"they work together."
- I'm curious, what are some of sort
of the intellectual barriers
that people maybe cannot push through
when accepting the tenetsof the Christian message?
- I think one of theprimary issues has got
to do about the nature of God's word.
But Ravi did somethingreally extraordinary,
he spoke about having a comprehensive
and a unified world view
that he structured aroundfour great questions.
Where do we come from?
Why are we here?
What is our purpose?
How do we live a moral life?
And finally what is our ultimate destiny?
And Ravi showed that together
with a robust belief in God's word
as well as engagement were signs
that these questions couldbe reconciled for Christians.
- Last question here real quickly,
how can churches and ordinaryChristians take steps
to learn more about the faithand then more importantly
to defend it with conviction?
- Three very importantthings that Ravi taught us,
number one robust faith,
secondly great moral courageto the ask deep questions
and lastly to not shy away from engaging
with people who do not.
