Kevin is the Co-Founder and President of The Institute For Christian Apologetics and the National Director of its Countercult-Division, Mount Carmel Outreach.

Rev. Johnson has a heart for apologetics as his family was deeply affected by what the Bible calls "doctrines of demons" (1Tim. 4:1). He knows first hand the emotional and spiritual pain that cultism and occultism can cause. A brief description of that tragic involvement and Christ's wonderful intervention follows:

Kevin is only the second generation born in America on his father's side as his grandparents both came from Sweden. On his mother's side, his ancestry goes back in America before the Civil War with stories of family who fought on both sides of that conflict. Both sides of his family told stories that were full of spiritism. Kevin's paternal grandfather, Carl Rudolph Johnson was a spiritist medium attending a local spiritist "church" only later to become a "Oneness" Pentecostal minister denying the Trinity. Kevin told him that he, "had jumped from the frying pan into the fire!" Before he died at Kevin's house at age 92, he was a Trinitarian believer, and loved the true Jesus with all his heart!

Carl's wife, Signe Johnson (whom Kevin never knew), was also involved in seances at their home. She would talk of seeing the spirit of a little girl she assumed was her baby that she had lost. Being bed-ridden for twenty years, she asked Kevin's grandfather to cut an apple tree down, because it blocked her view of her granddaughters playing in the yard. She asked for this even though she loved to watch it blossom. He refused on the grounds it was their best producing fruit tree. So, she cursed it by telling him it would be dead come next spring. When the next spring came it blossomed beautifully and then died!

Signe later became one of thirteen founding members of Alpine Lutheran Church in Rockford,IL. She was bedridden the last years of her life and yet was considered someone who would cheer you up when you went to visit her. Her own pastor said this about her.

Kevin's mother, Theda was raised Nazarene and Her Aunt "Fairy" was a Nazarene tent evangelist. Her father was a Missionary Baptist whose last words on earth were:"Take Me Jesus!" So, she had some strong godly influences in her life. She had Kevin memorize the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed before he attended first grade and taught him to read so he could read his Bible books. Theda and Sig gave Kevin the Maxwell Series Bible Books for children and also gospel records.

Sadly, she also got involved in seances and the spiritist church. Not long after her 29 year old marriage to Kevin's father ended in divorce, she went through an emotional struggle where she contemplated suicide. On the other side of this turmoil, Theda rediscovered her childhood faith in Jesus and laid claim to the title of Born Again Christian!

Kevin's father, Carl Sigurd Johnson, though having a genius level I.Q., and having been an acolyte as a boy in the Episcopalian church was later:

immersed in Rosicrucianism for 13 1/2 years;
president of a local chapter of Silva Mind Control;
a hypnotherapist who had an article written about it in the local paper;
a student of the occult who went to the Phillipines to study"psychic surgery" with Tony Agapao (he shared his thoughts and slides on this on the campuses of Northwestern College in Roseville, MN and Notre Dame University );
a teacher who lectured on "Orthomolecular Psychology" and nutrition for ten years as a visiting lecturer in the psychology classes at a local college.
Kevin's mother attributes the demise of his parent's relationship to the effect occultism had on Mr. Johnson's personality. She said he became secretive and overly serious, bordering on the morose. This was a huge change from his normal outgoing gregarious self.

Owning a Mr. Steak Restaurant for 14 years allowed him the freedom to travel. Before Sig died in 1982 he had gone to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Greece with Dr. Charles Hollis, studied Bible prophecy extensively, and accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord! He became a dramatic and vocal witness to the life changing nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told Kevin that he had learned more about the true God from him than from any other source which Kevin considers to be one of the major blessings of his life!

True to form, Sig was studying Hebrew the last 6 months of his life in 1982, before succumbing to a ten year fight with leukemia. His normally outgoing charismatic personality had been freed even more by Jesus, which contributed to his funeral being quite large. Even in death he was witnessing for his Lord. His casket had the American flag draped on top (he had been a professor of Aviation Electronics at Jacksonville, FL in WWII), the Christian flag at his head and the Israeli flag at his feet ( the local Jewish synagogue he was studying Hebrew at contributed their flag). He had a real heart for the Israelis, always saying, "They've got real guts!"

One of Kevin's sisters had been a practicing witch in Minneapolis, and went through the process of having demons cast from her there. She too is a born again Christian now, and put her son through 12 years of Christian school as a single Mom. She maintains her faith even though her only child went home to be with the Lord at age 25 after a tragic motorcycle accident.

Kevin Becomes A Christian

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Kevin trusted Jesus as his Savior after his parents 29 year marriage ended and a friend committed suicide with a gun. He was faced with an overwhelming depression triggered by questions for which he had no answers.

At age 17, Kevin was in a successful local rock band known as "Flight" who was sharing equipment and a practice room with members of a music group now known as the platinum recording artists Cheap Trick. Even though he had all the trappings of "success" for a teen (as defined by the world) he was miserable and tormented when alone with his thoughts. God would not let Kevin stop thinking about who could be trusted to give answers to questions like: Is life better than death? Is one thing better to do than another? What is to stop what snapped inside of my friend (who killed himself) from snapping inside of me? Is there such a thing as love -and if so, what is it? Do I love my girlfriend or is it just a chemical reaction? and Are we nothing but genetically programmed animals in a meaningless evolutionary joke?

In 1971 after reading the Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, which he found on his dad's "prophecy shelf" alongside of Edgar Cayce, Jeanne Dixon and Ruth Montgomery, and being witnessed to and prayed for by a number of people, (along with some other very peculiar events) Kevin turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He told Jesus that He is "the most important thing in the universe" because only He can be trusted to ascribe the proper value (meaning) to all human actions and thoughts. Kevin thought of them as "blank price tags" that only Jesus was qualified to write on. This is because only Jesus knows all things and is beneficient toward us in that knowledge.

Jesus can't be surprised by our failures and is able to "get inside of us" (Rev. 3:20) and grant us mental stability. "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of a sound mind" 2 Tim 1:7. The moment Kevin believed, and then prayed, the awful gloom and depression lifted never to return with such increrdible depths of despair. Jesus forgave him of all his sins and came to dwell in his heart.
This is true peace!

Attended:

Guilford High School Rockford, IL Graduated 1973

Northwestern Bible College Roseville, MN 1974-75;

Blackhawk College, Moline IL. 1975-77;

Trinity College, Deerfield IL. 1983;

And International Seminary; Plymouth, FL 1987

Degrees And Honors:

Associate of Arts: Blackhawk College
Phi Theta Kappa National Honors Society
ThB: International Seminary
Ordained To Christian Ministry: Cornerstone Ministerial Association 1977 and International Seminary 1987
One of 75 Semi-Finalists to win Certificate of merit out of four million contestants in The International Songwriters Festival of 1982
President of The Institute For Christian Apologetics and National Director of Mount Carmel Outreach since 1984
Asked to attend the first invitation only First Conference Of Evangelical And Jewish Leadership International held in 1991 in Los Angeles, California
Asked by Pat Matrisciana to be on Jeremiah Film's Advisory Council
Included in The 1999 Millennium Edition of The National Registry Of "Who's Who In America" which is kept in The Library Of Congress In Washington D.C..
Editor's Merit Award International Society of Poets.

Achievements:

Co-Founder of The Institute For Christian Apologetics
Founder of the first full-time branch of Mount Carmel Outreach
1989 Co-Chaired and was on The Steering Committee with Eric Pement, Senior Editor of Cornerstone Magazine in Chicago and Dr. Gordon Lewis, Professor Emeritus for Denver Seminary for the largest conference ever held in The Midwest on the Cults and the Occult known as The Rockford Conference On Discernment And Evangelism
Co-Led Christians United For Israel's Dr. David Allen Lewis' 50th tour to Israel.
Co-Hosted radio show Contact Illinois with now Congressman Don Manzullo.
Co-Founder and Producer of Perspective Underground radio program that is heard internationally on Audiocentral.com and broadcast on WFEN radio network. in Madison, WI and Rockford, IL.
Since 1984 has taught and led a weekly interdenominational Christian discussion group at First Evangelical Free Church in Rockford, IL .
1975-80 Co-writer and performer of The Knights Of The Lord's Table album which featured the original music of Kevin and Joseph Ravitts and the performances of Grammy Award winner Randy Goodrum, Kenny Rogers' drummer Bobby Daniels, Michael Johnson, Engineer Travis Turk and Producers Randy and Monty Matthews.
Appeared in four internationally released videos of Jeremiah Films
Appeared as the featured guest on The USA Radio Network's Point of View Show; Moody Network's Prime Time America; and numerous times on Chicago TV 38's Emmy Award winning program Just Between Friends with Jerry Rose.
Testimony was dramatized and shown repeatedly on The 700 Club.
Contributed research and writing on seven sections of Dr. H. Wayne House's Cults Charts Book featured on Zondervan Press.
Secured Apple Canyon Christian Center which features 5 Acres And 7 Buildings as national ministry headquarters for The Institute For Christian Apologetics
Taught Apologetics for two years at Luther Bible College, Rockford, IL
Has led seminars on many college and University campuses including chapel speaker at Trinity College Deerfield, IL, Judson College and The Moody Bible Institute graduate school.
Featured on Panel discussion in Indianapolis Cult Conference with Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. James White, Author Dave Hunt, Author/Mormonism Expert and Evangelist Floyd McElveen, Author Gary Kah, and Cult Experts Dan and Agusta Harting.
1n 1999 was featured on a panel discussion at the Prophecy 2000 conference in Springfield, MO with Israeli military strategist General Shimone Erom, IDF Leutenant Avi Lipkin, Doctor Ajil from Nigeria (who heads the largest Bible college outside the United States), Members of the C-4 UFO investigation group from Florida and author and prophecy expert Dr. David Allen Lewis.

Kevin is the husband of Julie and the father of five boys and one girl.