Since I've relocated my blog, I thought I would repost my first blog entry:

May 10, 2006

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Walter Martin Ministries site. For those of you who don’t know anything about me, I’m the eldest daughter of Dr. Walter Martin, the Original (and some might argue the only) Bible Answer Man.

We hope to be making many changes in the site in the coming months, including an internet radio broadcast addressing your questions and comments; a blog where we can get to know you, and you can tell us what you think (that might be a bit dangerous); an online game site for kids, based on my book Jack Star and the Secret Door; and hopefully, a brand new, total revamp of the site. Programmers, care to donate some time? Graphic Artists? Thanks to all of our wonderful supporters, our traffic on the site is in the 250,000 hits per month range, and we are grateful. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

If you have a question, Kevin and I will do our best to respond to it, but we encourage you to brush up on your Google skills and do some footwork first. Unfortunately, I am not the Bible Answer Woman, and unlike CRI, with its millions of donations and flashy golf tournaments, we are short on staff and funds. If any of you would like to pay $15,000 to play a round of golf with me, please let me know. (I don’t play at all so you’d have an easy time of it.)

Seriously, though, I’m starting this blog because so many of you have written in with questions and comments, and I thought it would be great to share those comments with everyone coming to the sight. I also have a few opinions I’d like to share. Hopefully, this blog will encourage freedom of speech, but only if that speech is reasonably nice. Our site, by its very nature, draws people of all different backgrounds. We may disagree with each other’s theology, but let’s do it politely, okay? If you hate my father, get it out of your system and move on to more important things. I’m not a masochist, so don’t expect me to put up with character bashing. If you love my father, please feel free to comment ad infinitum.

I think that covers the intro, so on to a little bit about me. I’m currently working on my Master’s degree in Humanities with an emphasis on History, and a sub-emphasis on the History of Religion. How’s that for a mouthful? Anyone with a postgraduate degree knows you get pigeonholed fairly quickly in graduate school. I love theology (my BA is in Old Testament Literature), but God called me to the field of History and that is where I will stand—supported by theology—in the defense of the Faith. My husband, Kevin, is the theology wiz around here, and the computer genius responsible for everything on the Walter Martin site. I am also under contract to a large Christian publisher for a work I’m very excited about. I wish I could tell you more now, but believe me, it’s amazing. My father would be delighted. Hang around here, and you’ll find out more about it (as soon as I have the okay to talk away).

Finally, I was reading my devotions the other day and came upon this wonderful quote from Augustine (354 – 430 A.D.). For those of you who know little about him, here is a bit of history:

St. Augustine’s influence on Christianity is thought by many to be second only to that of St. Paul, and theologians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, look upon him as one of the founders of Western theology. . . . (His mother) brought him up as a Christian, but he gave up his religion when he went to school at Carthage. There he became adept in rhetoric. In his Confessions he repents of his wild youth in Carthage, during which time he fathered an illegitimate son.1

After years of rebellion and discontent, Augustine repented and was baptized on Easter, 387 A.D. In this modern age of rebellion, when so many in the Church ignore or betray their first love; when too many pastors whisper a watered-down Gospel from the pulpit for fear of offending someone; when Christians worship openly with the enemies of Jesus Christ, the refreshing voice of Augustine can still be heard calling us back to our first love. He, too, had wandered far away:

"Too late came I to love You, O Beauty both ancient and ever new; too late came I to love You. Behold! You were within me, and I was out of myself searching for You. You, indeed, were with me, but I was not with You. You called to me; yes, You even broke open my deafness. Your beams shined unto me and cast away my blindness. You blew upon me, and I drew in my breath and panted after You. I tasted You, and now I hunger and thirst for You. You touched me, and I ever burn again to enjoy Your peace."2

I pray that all of us who truly love Jesus Christ may hunger, thirst, and burn to love him more.

Jill Martin Rische

"Beloved . . . contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." Jude 3


1 http://www.bartleby.com/65/au/AugustnSt.html, May 10, 2006.
2 http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/Prayers/augustine.html, May 10, 2006.