“I have never seen such uncertain times,” said Zacharias, who spends more than 200 days a year travelling the world preaching the Gospel. “Our youth are extremely troubled, wondering where this is going to lead.”
Almost a thousand Christian leaders, Parliamentarians and government officials attended the breakfast, an ecumenical event co-hosted by the Speakers of the House of Commons and the Senate, and featuring Scripture readings from representatives of the three major political parties.
Zacharias warned that underlying all talk of laws and policies are fundamental assumptions about what it means to be human, and while there might seem to be similarities, there are deep variances. The Judeo-Christian worldview offers a unique difference that is grounded in the notion of God, the Creator, who makes man in His image and likeness, he said.
“We are not random products of time, matter and chance,” he said, stressing that evolution is not a theory of origins, but a theory of processes. Even scientists now say any earthbound explanation of human origins is impossible, he said.
“The Bible says, ‘In the beginning, God . . .’ ” he said. That we are created in God’s image means “you have intrinsic worth” and “reflective splendour.” That intrinsic worth means “I have no right to violate you,” Zacharias said. “You have intrinsic worth even if I disagree with you.”
If one denies the need to love God, one is unable to love one’s neighbour as oneself, he said.
If a man lops off the head of another with a sword, “he is violating the cardinal dictum of God: your brother is created in the image of God.”
In addition to Creation, there are Incarnation, Transformation and Consummation, he said. In the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, God reveals the supremacy of love.
“If you don’t have a transcendent moral reference, everything becomes subjective,” he said.
He spoke of the danger of relativism and unchecked pluralism on an understanding of human worth.
All the other forms of love become meaningless without God’s love, he said.
“What we need more than ever is for young people to understand that somebody loves them. In the Incarnation we get that.”
In Transformation, we come to understand “I need to change, I need to be transformed,” he said. “The problem is not out there but here within me.”
Born in India, and coming to Canada when he was 20, Zacharias recalled how when he was 17, he was “on a bed of suicide” and dangerously dehydrated. His mother read to him from the King James Bible the words where Jesus said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
Those words turned his life around.
“Finally, Consummation,” he said. “We have a hope that takes us beyond the grave.”
Zacharias also related the story of famed football coach Luigi “Lou Little” Piccolo, who once had been consigned to the benches for every game. He asked for permission to attend his father’s funeral and upon his return, he pleaded with his coach to allow him to play in the next game. He played such an amazing game that afterwards the coach asked him if he had done it for his dad. Piccolo explained to him that his father was blind and now for the first time, he could see him play.
“That’s what it means to be created in the image of God, for the purpose of being in glorious fellowship with Him,” he said.
House Speaker Andrew Scheer told the gathering he was especially touched by Zacharias’ remarks and the difficulties facing the world. We see the challenges of relativism and unchecked pluralism “even in countries with strong traditions of religious liberty.”
“Even in Canada those values are under attack,” he said.