Matt Slick

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Matthew J. Slick is the creator and webmaster of the Christian website "Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry" (CARM), and is the host of a related radio program in Boise, Idaho entitled "Faith and Reason". Slick is a Protestant presuppositional apologist, debater and a leader in the counter-cult movement. He considers it his mission to "answer opposition to the Christian faith," which in his view includes all non-Christian worldviews and non-Protestant denominations of Christianity, including Catholicism (though he believes many individual Catholics are saved) and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormons).

Contents

[edit] Biography

Slick describes his upbringing as "nominally Christian," and asserts he was "mixed up in the occult" during that period. Slick graduated from Concordia University in Irvine, California with a Bachelors in Social Science in 1987 and from Westminster Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity in 1991, at approximately age 35. Slick's interest in apologetics and cults began after he was "outraged" by a quote from Joseph Smith. Slick has written a short autobiography on CARM. Slick is married with children, and has lived in Boise, Idaho since August 2004.[1]

[edit] Religious views

Slick is an Evangelical Christian. More specifically, Slick describes himself as "a five point Calvinist, amillennial, post-tribulation rapture, pseudobaptist (not for salvation), non-cessationist, and covenantal."

[edit] Radio show

In January 2006, Slick launched a daily one hour radio show. It is aired on 790 AM in Boise, Idaho and is also broadcast over the internet via "Faith and Reason." On the show, he interviews guests, takes live calls, and teaches on various apologetics topics.

[edit] Works

[edit] Books and writings

Slick has written a book entitled Right Answers for Wrong Beliefs, ISBN 1-85240-279-2 (2002 Sovereign World) as well as a 1,125 page notebook that contains much of the information from his website. He also publishes the entire content of the CARM website on CD.

[edit] Webpages

Slick is the founder and president of CARM. He is also an administrator on the discussion forums at CARM. He created CARM, a non-profit organization, to be a resource for information on groups he considers to be cults and on other issues relating to Christianity. He also operates the Calvinist Corner, which gives information relating to Calvinism and his personal beliefs.

[edit] Criticism

Some aspects of Slick's ministry have been briefly touched on by Douglas Cowan in his critical, sociological survey of the Christian countercult movement.[2] Slick issued a written response to Cowan's article,[3] and he claims to have left a message offering to discuss the issues with Cowan in person and to have not received a response.[4]

In addition, several online articles present detailed counterarguments to some of Slick's articles on CARM's website,[5] and Slick has replied to them also.[6]

In 2001, Slick received some criticism when he closed down CARM's Universalist Internet forum and banned all discussion of Universalism from the other CARM forums, citing examples of derogatory statements by some Universalists.[7] In 2004, John W. Ratcliff created in protest an alternate set of discussion forums with the parodic name Atheist Apologetics Research Ministry because he believed atheists were being excluded from expressing their opinions freely on the CARM forums. [8] [citation needed]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. CARM convention 2004. Retrieved on June 12, 2005.
  2. ^ "From Parchment to Pixels: The Christian Countercult on the Internet"
  3. ^ "Cesnur knocks CARM"
  4. ^ "Wikipedia on Matt Slick"
  5. ^ Katholon. Slick's Sleight of Hand. Retrieved on August 18, 2005. Biblical Studies. Matt Slick. Retrieved on August 18, 2005.
  6. ^ "Another response to criticism of 'Is atheism viable?'", "An answer to another response to the Transcendental Argument", and "Response to Response to Answers to positions held by atheists"
  7. ^ See Samples of Universalist Posts from the Universalism discussion board.
  8. ^ See Statement by John W. Ratcliff on the origins of AARM.

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

Cowan, Douglas E., Bearing False Witness? An Introduction to the Christian Countercult, Westport & London: Praeger, 2003.

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