Robert Passantino
| Robert "Bob" Passantino | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | August 11, 1951 |
| Died | November 17, 2003 (aged 52) |
| Resting place | Westminster Memorial, Westminster, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Subjects | Christian apologetics, philosophy, Christian countercult movement |
| Spouse | Gretchen Passantino |
Robert "Bob" Passantino (11 August 1951 – 17 November 2003), was an Italian-American Christian author and journalist who wrote on subjects related to Christian apologetics, philosophy, and the Christian countercult movement.
Passantino lived and worked for most of his adult life in Costa Mesa, California, and received instruction in Christian teaching and practiced as a professing member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. He emerged as an apologist for faith in Evangelical Christianity during the 1970s. He and his soon-to-be wife, Gretchen, had already begun to collaborate in a ministry of Christian evangelism toward adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses when they became acquainted with the Baptist pastor and countercult writer Walter Martin. Martin was the founder of the apologetics ministry Christian Research Institute. In 1974 Martin relocated the Institute from New Jersey to southern California where he re-established his ministry in association with the Melodyland School of Theology. Martin officiated as the minister at the marriage ceremony of the Passantinos.
The Passantinos assisted Martin in the ministry of the Christian Research Institute for approximately five years from 1974 to 1979. In that context Martin privately taught them the rudiments of the discipline of apologetics and of investigative reporting in countercult ministry. During the 1970s and 1980s Gretchen served as an editorial assistant in preparing revised editions of some of Martin's books such as The Rise of the Cults,The Kingdom of the Cults and The Maze of Mormonism. As a couple, the Passantinos began to develop their profile as speakers in evangelical churches delivering presentations about cults and general apologetics questions concerning the existence of God and the historicity of the Bible. Together they then branched out from working at Christian Research Institute and began to operate their own apologetics and countercult ministry known as Christian Apologetics: Research and Information Service (CARIS). This ministry subsequently was renamed as Answers In Action.
They founded Answers In Action with the intent to help both Christians and non-Christians apply logic and reason to religious inquiry and to assist in answering questions about apologetics, religion, philosophy, evangelism, and theology. Robert's approach to religion was to "represent their belief system as accurately as you would have them represent yours."
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