VOLUME 22.4 I WWW.RZIM.ORG JTHUE MAGSAZINET OF RATVI ZAHCHARIIASN INTERNKATIONIALN MINISGTRIES The Lamb and + the Führer CLAY VESSELS PAGE 14 PAGE 2 IF GOD, WHY SUFFERING? PAGE 18 DEEP QUESTIONS PAGE 29 Just Thinkingis a teaching resource of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and exists to engender thoughtful engagement with apologetics, Scripture, and the whole of life. Danielle DuRant Editor Ravi Zacharias International Ministries 4725 Peachtree Corners Circle Suite 250 Norcross, Georgia 30092 770.449.6766 WWW.RZIM.ORG TABLE of CONTENTS 22.4 VOLUME 2 18 The Lamb and the Führer If God, Why Suffering? Ravi Zacharias listens in on an Vince Vitale shares an article adapted imaginative post-suicide conversa- from the book he co-authored with tion as Adolf Hitler meets Jesus Ravi Zacharias, Why Suffering?: Christ and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Finding Meaning and Comfort the afterlife. An excerpt from Ravi When Life Doesn’t Make Sense Zacharias’s new graphic novel. (FaithWords: October 2014). 29 14 Deep Questions Clay Vessels “We are living in an era when Jill Carattini describes how apologetics is indispensable,” writes what began as a church’s simple Ravi Zacharias, “but at the same art workshop transformed not time, we need a Christian apologetic only its communion sets but the that is not merely heard—it must hearts and minds of their creators also be seen.” and recipients. The Lamb and the Führer By Ravi Zacharias “I want to raise a generation of young people, imperious, relentless and cruel.” With these words, Adolf Hitler spilled the blood of millions of people, his own as well as others, when he set himself as a god in the minds of his people. But nearly two thousand years before him, another walked this earth whose name is symbolic of love, peace, and life. [2] JUST THINKING•RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES [ A l i f e a n d d e at h c o n v e r s at i o n ] JUST THINKING•VOLUME 22.4 [3] The following is an excerpt from the graphic novel of The Lamb and the Führerby Ravi Zacharias (Kingstone Media: June 2014). Artwork by Jeff Slemons. Used by permission. s I traveled through the sites individual worth, supreme goodness, of the carnage of the Second power, truth, peace, and life in Jesus World War, I was reminded Christ. In the face of Bonhoeffer we afresh of the horror and the see anguish, helplessness, and a will to extent of human pain and change evil for good. suffering inflicted on so many by It was not difficult to find Hitler’s one man and those willing to follow him. own words of self-justification for his The concentration camps, the Gestapo actions. It was not that difficult either to offices, and the gas ovens still speak find Bonhoeffer’s words that described today of the incalculable price that the soul struggle he faced. But what was paid. Any words that try to describe would Jesus have said when ethics comes it become dwarfed because the story is into conflict with an ethic that chose to so monstrous. kill to stop the killing? That part was There is no name today more harder, and it is in those words alone synonymous with power, wickedness, that the huge reality of those issues can and unprecedented violence than his. be grasped. But nearly two thousand years before So enter with me into Hitler’s bunker him, another walkedthis earth whose and listen in as the Führer, gun in hand, is name is symbolic of love, peace, and life. about to end his life (synonymous in his His was a name also associated with the mind with Germany itself), knowing that spilling of blood—His own, shed for the his Third Reich did not last a thousand sake of the world. He endured hell to years or bring a Final Solution, but in fact open the way to heaven. What would a resulted in the destruction of his own conversation between these two be like? country and much of Europe. How could There were voices in Hitler’s day that good people have followed such an evil tried to stop him. One was Dietrich man? What is the origin of such violence? Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, who went How does blood recompense for blood? so far as to be part of a plot to assassinate Listen as Jesus, Hitler, and Bonhoeffer Hitler. Bonhoeffer believed that for the engage in a life-and-death discussion. sake of the world, Hitler had to be It is my earnest hope that, in a removed, and he paid for that conviction world now full of violence, the voice of with his life. Jesus will be heard again calling men and In this conversation that we imag- women to submit to His sacrifice so that ine between Jesus and Hitler, Bonhoeffer we will not continue to sacrifice our own joins in because he brings into focus the sons and daughters on the battlefields of reality of the struggle that good men and human ego and ideological conflict. women faced under national socialism. Violence, racism, power, lies, death, Ravi Zacharias is founder and president philosophy, evil are all given a face of Ravi Zacharias International here. But then there is the face of love, Ministries in Atlanta, GA. [4] JUST THINKING•RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES JUST THINKING•VOLUME 22.3 [5] [6] JUST THINKING•RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES JUST THINKING•VOLUME 22.3 [7] [8] JUST THINKING•RAVI ZACHARIAS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES