In 2009, apologist Matt Slick published an entry on annihilationism in his online dictionary at CARM.org.1Matt Slick, “Annihilationism” [dictionary entry], CARM.org, 10/12/2009 (accessed 2/2/2021), https://carm.org/2009/10/12/annihilationism/. CARM stands for Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. “Annihilationism is the teaching,” Slick claimed, “that when a person dies, he is annihilated.”2Ibid.; emphasis added. Unfortunately, this is false and misleading. A year later he repeated the caricature in an article purporting to debunk annihilationism, in which he wrote, “Annihilation is the teaching that the non-Christian ceases to exist after death,” either “automatically” or “after an appropriate amount of time of suffering.”3Matt Slick, “Is Annihilationism True?” CARM.org, 10/30/2010 (accessed 2/2/2021), https://carm.org/annihilationism/is-annihilationism-true/; emphasis added. Conspicuously missing was any awareness that evangelical annihilationists believe this to be the fate of the lost only after future resurrection and final judgment, not when a person dies. We don’t deny the resurrection of the unsaved, which is part of Christian orthodoxy. We affirm these things regardless of whether the souls of the deceased continue to consciously exist between death and resurrection. I myself didn’t realize that at the time—and neither, of course, have many visitors to Slick’s website ever since. Continue reading “Keep CARM and Carry On: Responding to Matt Slick and CARM.org (Part 1)–What is Annihilationism, Really?”
| ￪1 | Matt Slick, “Annihilationism” [dictionary entry], CARM.org, 10/12/2009 (accessed 2/2/2021), https://carm.org/2009/10/12/annihilationism/. CARM stands for Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. |
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| ￪2 | Ibid.; emphasis added. |
| ￪3 | Matt Slick, “Is Annihilationism True?” CARM.org, 10/30/2010 (accessed 2/2/2021), https://carm.org/annihilationism/is-annihilationism-true/; emphasis added. |