On the second day of the International Conference “Christian Responses to Global Health Issues” (CRGHI), December 3, 2015
On the second day of the International Conference “Christian Responses to Global Health Issues” (CRGHI), December 3, 2015, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, author and speaker who is used by God for over 35 years to serve and teach in a variety of both government and educational institutions in different countries. As the first speaker, Dr. Ravi gave a lecture on how and what it really means to be human, from the perspective of Christian faith, as the basis for the medical professionals to see someone in their entirety in order to provide the holistic ministry of healing.
He began his discussion by reading the Word of God taken from Psalm 8: 1-9 passage titled ‘Despicable human as noble beings’, which briefly shows admiration of psalmist (author of the book of Psalms) upon the majesty and glory of God that is given, heed and make man as almost the same with Him. Dr. Ravi said that there are some things that must be understood in us human.
The first humans on earth are not by accident, not because the radar of time, or atomic accident. Man must realize that they?re created with a specific purpose; humans have intrinsic value that is not shared by other creatures complete with body, soul and spirit. “Man is ‘IMAGO DEI’, which is created in the image and likeness of God. Millions of DNA and nerves in our bodies, so miraculous that everything in our body and it is unable to be understood only by human theories and it signifies that we have intrinsic value. We have God’s moral framework,” he said.
Second, human beings as creatures should reflect the glory of God, “reflect splendor”, reflecting the glory of God in everything that we do. It can also be demonstrated by following the commands of God in particular two important commands that God gives is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as you love yourself’. Furthermore, he also shared the importance to understand the meaning of love, ‘love’, from the Christian point of view, because understanding the world of love is very far from the true meaning. Dr. Ravi said, there are four types of love that God provides, namely Agape, Stroge, Philia and Eros. Agape is love of and from God (vertical), while the other three are horizontal love, includes love for family, friends / friend and romantic love.
He further said, the world misinterpret love just for the romantic side, and not equipped with Agape love, the result is a lot of people interpret that love is about sexual desire between lovers, and this affected the emergence of dangerous diseases. “Supposedly, the love we give must be based Agape love, so love the other three remain in the right corridor and in accordance with what God has bestowed upon us,” he said.
Dr. Ravi said that most emerging diseases are due to a lack of realization on human, who they are and what is their purpose. He encouraged and hoped the participants, which is a medical personnel, to pay attention to this when providing care for patients. Namely, to treat the whole person in body, soul and spirit with a love that is based Agape love. “Body and soul is temporary, while the eternal is the spirit, try to touch as well a person’s spirit and share the love of Christ at the time you provide treatment and healing,” states Dr. Ravi Zacharias.
More than 2000 people attended the Grand Chapel of UPH in the seminar which Dr. Ravi Zacharias speaks on the second day of the international conference CRGHI. The conference was also broadcasted live-streaming at several locations in the UPH to be witnessed by faculty and students. This session can also be watched via YouTube which can be accessed through www-dev.uph.edu and TV Media Channel Khairos Firsti Media for the public. By day, the conference is continued by keynote Mike Soderling, who presented the theme ‘Christian Response to Medical Care in Resource-Constrained Environment and Economically-Challenged’. (fc/mf) UPH Media Relations
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