‘Bible Answer Man’ Martin Dies

Baptist minister Walter Martin, who interpreted the Scriptures to a generation of radio listeners as “The Bible Answer Man,” died Monday morning at his home in San Juan Capistrano. He was 60.

Although the cause of death was not disclosed, in recent years he suffered from diabetes and arterial ailments.

Martin was founder and director of the Christian Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank in the Irvine Spectrum that publishes religious material and produces the radio show, broadcast weekday afternoons in more than 100 U.S. markets, including local KKLA (99.5 FM).

Martin was regarded as an authority on historical Christianity. His work reflected his mission, he once said, to confront “cults” and “unbiblical beliefs.” He often criticized groups that he believed had misinterpreted the Scriptures.

“He knew the Bible like the back of his hand,” said Hendrick Hanegraaff, chief executive officer of the institute.

Monday’s broadcast of “The Bible Answer Man” was devoted to a tribute to Martin, featuring Hanegraaff and Craig Hawkins, co-host of the radio show. Martin had last been on the program Wednesday.

Martin turned over leadership of the institute to Hanegraaff in October. Hanegraaff said that the institute would continue and that the radio show would remain on the air.

Martin founded the institute in 1960. Four years later, on a New Jersey radio station, he started “The Bible Answer Man.” In 1974, he moved the show to El Toro, where it began on KYMS-FM in Santa Ana. In 1980, satellite distribution began, reaching stations in Zaire, Burma and Canada.

Martin wrote several books, in which he criticized many Christian and Eastern religions, contending that they were either cults or had origins in cults. His most famous, “The Kingdom of the Cults,” sold almost 500,000 copies.

He also criticized many local religious broadcasters, including the Crystal Cathedral’s Robert H. Schuller, Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul F. Crouch and Gene Scott and such nationally known figures as Kenneth Copeland.

“I’m sure God has raised you up to be a real theological troublemaker,” an interviewer once said to Martin.

Although Martin often raised the ire of many groups, Billy Graham once called him “one of the most articulate spokesmen for evangelical Christianity that I know.”

Martin ran into a brief controversy several years ago when he appeared on Dennis Prager’s “Religion on the Line” on KABC radio in Los Angeles. Martin cited Scripture and other sources in blaming Jewish authorities of the time, rather than the Romans, for the crucifixion of Jesus. He insisted that he was not implying that Jews as a people were responsible for the execution.

Martin, although he defended his work as “the historic beliefs of the Christian church,” often stressed that he was not intolerant of other religious beliefs.

“I think I’m intolerant of hypocrisy and intolerant of evil, of evil practices and evil theology that is unbiblical,” he once said. “But of another person’s right to believe what they feel is true? I am not intolerant of that.”

Martin traveled around the country frequently, giving lectures at churches and appearing on TV talk shows. Still, he managed often to speak at his Capistrano Valley Church.

Martin was reared in the Bedford Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. He went to an Episcopal Church and attended a Roman Catholic school. He attended Shelton College, Adelphi University and Biblical Seminary and received his master’s degree from New York University and doctorate from California Western University.

Martin is survived by his wife, Darlene, and his children, Brian, Jill, Danny, Cindy, Elaine and Debbie.

Services for Martin are scheduled for Thursday at Capistrano Valley Church.