There are plenty of write-ups on Nelson Mandela since his passing, but I’ve not found anything worthy of sharing. However, I could relate to a couple of points in this article by Ravi Zacharias that I could relate to.
In it he says “I am a Christian and I admire the courage and sacrifice of people such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Even if we are not all on the same page theologically, we are on the same page for the protection of people who are exploited or abused.” At this stage in my life, there is not much I can do towards protecting the exploited or abused, but I can reach out to them and offer a helping hand out of their misery. That is what Recon Center is all about. I gladly do this freely and sacrificially.
The second point I could relate to is of another man from South Africa called Ahmed Deedat, specifically in Ravi Zacharias sharing of Dr. Lee’s experience with Ahmed Deedat. Ahmed Deedat was a Muslim apologist whom I admired and followed diligently as a Muslim. While watching his very edited videos, I never saw anything like Dr. Living Lee’s response, which would have floored me then.
I saw Deedat’s bitter criticism of Christianity as a passion for truth and his malice towards those of a different view as an expression of the righteous indignation from God. While watching his debates, I often wondered why Christians could not see the errors he was pointing out in the Bible, and had determined to follow in his footsteps and take up this work of pointing out errors in the Bible at some point or the other in my life.
All this changed when I had a revelation of who the Lord Jesus is. Now, as a Spirit filled believer in Christ, answers to the once seemingly impossible challenges Deedad posed towards the relevance of Christ are answered with ease by the scriptures in the Holy Bible: The difference is that the answers are spiritual. Most of the debates that I saw were with those who only knew Christ academically; who had knowledge but no revelation from heaven upon which the body of Christ is built. Not only that, I now see that his usage of abusive language and his mocking of opponents were all tactics he used to incite anger because he could not declare victory any other way.
God willing, I will one day chronicle my own personal journey of discovery of the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures, which is Christ Himself.
Here is the link to Ravi Zacharias’ article: Nelson Mandela and the Human Struggle for Dignity and Freedom.