Monday, December 30, 2019

Matt Slick Unknowingly "Plugs" a Roman Catholic Apologist


I just recently received an email from Matt Slick (as I am subscribed to the CARM email list):

Dear Friend,
Here is just one example of how God has used CARM.
Tom wrote to us to let us know about his experiences with CARM.
Tom said,“Through my encounter with CARM a seed was planted which was watered by various other ministries and churches over the years before God made it grow.” Praise God!
Tom grew up in a Bible-believing religious home. However, the previous five generations on both sides of his family were members of a non-christian cult called The Christadelphians. During his years with this group, he did not know Jesus as his Lord and Saviour but he was interested in proving that the group’s unusual doctrines were biblical. These doctrinal positions included a denial of the deity and pre-existence of Christ, interpreting the devil as an allegory rather than a real personal being, and minimizing the present work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers.
He believed Christians outside the Christadelphian community were willfully ignorant of the Bible. One day he discovered the CARM website and was shocked to see it countered Christadelphian teaching with biblical reasoning. This led Tom to a path of study and reflection and eventually the realization he was trusting a system of man-made doctrines for salvation rather than trusting the Lord Jesus Himself.
Today, like his namesake the apostle Thomas, he confesses Jesus as "my Lord and my God." Now living in Cape Town, South Africa, Tom is studying toward a degree in theology by distance learning with King’s Evangelical Divinity School in the UK. He is also reaching out to others lost in the Christadelphian community.
To God be the glory for drawing Tom to His Son. Praise God for CARM and the other ministries He used to reach him. Tom went on to say,
“God works through His people and I believe CARM was one of the ways He reached out to me.”
Partners like you make everything we do possible. We are here through His grace and those He leads to support us financially and with their prayers. This is a critical time for CARM. We have a number of new initiatives and a significant amount of new content and resources we would like to add to our site. Your support today can help make that possible.

The problem? “Tom” is Thomas Farrar, who is now a practising Roman Catholic and has moved into defending unique Roman Catholic theology and critiquing core Protestant tenets such as sola scriptura (e.g., We Have an Altar: The Call to Eucharistic Worship in Hebrews 13:9-16; Simon Peter, Chief Steward of the King's Household: An Exposition of Matthew 16:17-19; you can also read Tom's conversion story at Journeys from Christadelphia to orthodoxy: My story) According to Slick, however, Roman Catholicism is apostate and Tom will, if he continues to believe Roman Catholic theology, spend eternity in hell. Perhaps Slick should do a bit more research into individuals he props up as examples of the work CARM engages in, especially in the context of looking for funds to support this organisation.