Ravi Zacharias berichtet in seinem Buch Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows von der Einladung auf der Evangelisten-Konferenz in Amsterdam zu sprechen und von seiner Begegnung mit Billy Graham:
[…] Dr. Graham wanted me to speak to a gathering of four thousand other itinerant evangelists, “the cream of the world´s evangelists.” It was an unbelievable opportunity, and a humbling one.
The topic I was asked to address was “The Lostness of Man.” I had always spoken from an outline, and the message I put together was based on Romans 1. But Dr. Graham insisted that everyone who preached write our their sermons beforehand in their entirety, so they could be interpreted simultaneously into several languages.
[…] It was such an extraordinary setting; all around me, I saw religious leaders connected in an intricate network – Bill Bright, Luis Palau, Michael Green, John R. W. Stott. Many political leaders also graced the occasion. Finally, as I was having a bite of lunch, Billy Graham walked up to my table and extended his hand.
“You’ve got a powerful sermon, Ravi,” he said, “one of the finest I’ve ever read.” You can imagine the thrill that rippled through Margie and me over this man’s comments about my sermon. I later learned that, in his kindness, Dr. Graham says this to everyone. But that’s the kind of man he is – he wants to encourage. Whatever the other person has done, it is “the best I have heard.”
Hier der Vortrag “The Lostness of Man”:
Nach Amsterdam 1983 wuchs in Ravi Zacharias die Überzeugung, dass im Bereich der Apologetik zu wenig getan wurde:
What I had seen and heard in Amsterdam had shown me that there still was not much out reach to the intellectual, nor where there many evangelists who had the training or access to reach those opinion makers of society. The combination of a proclaimer and apologist was very rare, especially the cultural evangelist-apologist.
Schließlich kam es so im Jahre 1984 zu der Gründung der Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). In diesem Zusammenhang macht Zachrias eine wichtige Feststellung:
More important, if you have not learned to pay the smaller prices of following Christ in your daily life, you will not be prepared to pay the ultimate price in God’s calling.
aus: Ravi Zacharias: Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows, S.192f, S.195, S.199