A Letter from Ravi Zacharias about "Why Jesus"
Over the past forty years, movements like the New Spirituality, riding on the winds of cultural rebellion, came together to make a “perfect storm,” thrusting open the doors of so-called “human potential.” The goal was to redefine the very essence of what the hunger for God was all about. In secular terms, the pursuit in culture had led to the search for ultimate prosperity and autonomy. What was assumed was that man was the measure of all things. Now in the new spirituality the path is littered with religious jargon but the end goal is still the same: self-deification.  Where did the message of Jesus fit into all this? Simple: redefine him to suit our fancies and make him merely one offering in the smorgasbord of spiritual choices. He became just another guru, just another path to nirvana. God was redefined, Jesus was redefined, truth was redefined, the self was redefined, and the good news was that we did the defining.
In my new book, Why Jesus, I trace the impact of this storm, taking it back to its roots. It did not begin in the 60s and 70s. Oh yes, that’s when it was made popular. We heard of the dawning of “The Age of Aquarius,” then later of Rhonda Byrne (The Secret), and a plethora of other ideas by Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and Marianne Williamson. But the roots went deeper. From the Gnostics of old, from Greece to India to China, the various pantheistic philosophies were cleverly marketed in “new” terms by the icons of our time and we, the viewers, were to welcome the news that we were indeed divine. Some just happened to be more divine than others. And they were doing the marketing. From Oprah to Chopra, suddenly, we were to shut our minds and get the thrill of new levels of being and consciousness. We opened the world to spirituality without God because the incarnations were now on the screen. The swamis and the gurus enchanted the popular consciousness and old terms made current invaded the realm of religious discourse, such as karma, mantra, tantra, and chakra. It all sounded so esoteric and alluring. Jesus was made into just another guru if that was your westernized preference. But really, for depth and spirituality the East, all along, had the answers. What are the cleverly designed attractions of this way of thinking? How did such absolutes get smuggled in under the guise of relativism and personal “made-to-measure spirituality”? That needed the cultural elite. But there was a big problem: even as we boasted of new attainments, the gap between our hopes and our attainments were huge. Disillusionment loomed large. Institutions once trusted were crashing under the weight of human depravity. Questions remained unanswered. We were not doing very well as gods. Into this mix, the message of Jesus is so resoundingly refreshing. The Bible says He is greater than Solomon, greater than the temple, and greater than Jonah. He is the source of wisdom, spirituality, and the miraculous transformation of the human heart. That is why this book was written. I hope and pray it will meet a critical need both in society and in our churches. It is my prayer that it will be a tonic for those who are honestly searching, but have lost sight of the person, work, and teaching of the one who offers his life-transforming message. I look forward to hearing from large numbers of the real need that has been met in reading these pages. Without Jesus Christ, I see no hope for all humanity. His message is both beautiful and true—and utterly unique. Why Jesus has been penned for such a time as this.
God bless you friends. 
Ravi For more information about Ravi’s new book visit www.rzim.org/whyjesus
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For thirty-four years Ravi Zacharias has spoken all over the world and in numerous universities, notably Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford University. He has addressed writers of the peace accord in South Africa, the president's cabinet and parliament in Peru, and military officers at the Lenin Military Academy and the Center for Geopolitical Strategy in Moscow. He has been privileged to bring the main address at the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, an event endorsed and co-hosted by President George W. Bush, and at the Pentagon. Additionally, Mr. Zacharias has spoken twice at the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York, which marks the beginning of the UN session each year, and at the invitation of the President of Nigeria, he addressed the delegates at the First Annual Prayer Breakfast for African Leaders, held in Mozambique.
Mr. Zacharias was born in India in 1946 and immigrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. While pursuing a career in business management, his interest in theology grew; subsequently, he pursued this study during his undergraduate education. He received his Masters of Divinity from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. Well-versed in the disciplines of comparative religions, cults, and philosophy, he held the chair of Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary for three and a half years. Mr. Zacharias has been honored by the conferring of a Doctor of Divinity degree both from Houghton College, NY, and from Tyndale College and Seminary, Toronto, and a Doctor of Laws degree from Asbury College in Kentucky. He is presently a Visiting Professor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University in Oxford, England.
At the invitation of Billy Graham he was a plenary speaker at the International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983, 1986, and 2000. Mr. Zacharias has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, where he studied moralist philosophers and literature of the Romantic era. While at Cambridge he also authored his first book, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (Baker Book House, 1994, 2nd ed.), which in 2004 was updated and republished by Baker as The Real Face of Atheism. His second book, Can Man Live without God (Word Publishing, 1994), was awarded the Gold Medallion for best book in the category of doctrine and theology. Deliver Us from Evil (Word, 1996) followed with an accompanying video series. Cries of the Heart (Word, 1998) was his fourth book. His first children's book, The Merchant and the Thief (Chariot Victor), was released in 1999, followed by The Broken Promise (Chariot Victor, 2000). Jesus Among Other Gods (Word, 2000) was nominated for a Gold Medallion. The first in a series of great conversations, The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha was released by Multnomah in 2001, and the second, Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks with Oscar Wilde, in 2002. Mr. Zacharias' very personal response to the September 11th tragedy is Light in the Shadow of Jihad (Multnomah, 2002). Recapture the Wonder was released by Integrity Publishers in 2003 and I, Isaac Take Thee, Rebekah, a book on marriage, in February 2004 by the W Publishing Group. His latest work is Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows (with R.S.B. Sawyer) published by Zondervan (2006). Several of these books have been translated into many other languages including Russian, Arabic, Korean, and Thai.
Mr. Zacharias is listed as a distinguished lecturer with the Staley Foundation and has appeared on CNN and other international broadcasts. His weekly radio program, "Let My People Think," is broadcast over 1500 stations worldwide, and his weekday program, “Just Thinking,” began airing in November 2004. He is president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional offices in Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Zacharias and his wife, Margie, have three grown children.
Updated 9 March 2006
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