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Si Interview of Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort (1949–present). Born on December 5, 1949, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Ray Comfort is an evangelical Christian minister, author, and television host known for his bold street preaching and apologetics. Raised in a secular Jewish family, he converted to Christianity at 22 after reading the Bible, inspired by its moral clarity. Initially a surf shop owner, he began preaching in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, earning the nickname “The Soapbox Preacher.” In 1989, he moved to the U.S., settling in California, where he co-founded Living Waters Publications with actor Kirk Cameron in 2002. Comfort gained prominence through The Way of the Master, a TV series and ministry teaching evangelism using the Law to confront sin, notably in open-air debates with atheists. He authored over 90 books, including Hell’s Best Kept Secret (1989), The Evidence Bible (2001), God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists (1993), and Faith Is for Weak People (2019), blending wit with biblical arguments. His films, like 180 (2011) and The Atheist Delusion (2016), have millions of views. Married to Sue since 1972, he has three children—Jacob, Rachel, and Daniel—and lives in Tennessee. Comfort said, “The Law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ.”
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In this video, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to share and discuss their ministry. They then share their personal journey of being led by God into preaching and how they discovered the importance of using the law in evangelism. They mention a sermon by Charles Spurgeon that inspired them to focus on the law's role in convicting sinners. The speaker also highlights the success and impact of their ministry, including reaching thousands of people through television and online platforms. Overall, their main focus is on reaching the lost and spreading the message of salvation.
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Obviously, of course, I want to thank you for taking the time to get together and hang out with us. It's a huge blessing. But just real quick at the beginning, could you share a bit about your walk with the Lord and how He brought you into this ministry? Yeah. I was opening up preaching for about 10 years. That's a really long sermon. And you probably know that I stumbled on the use of the law and evangelism. The thing that caused it was a portion of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. Take this and share this portion. This is what I read Spurgeon said. He said, Soul, you will find it a hard thing to go at war with the law. When the law came in peace, Sinai was altogether on a smoke, and even Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. What will you do when the law comes in terror? When the trumpet of the archangel shall tear you from your grave, and the eyes of God shall burn their way into your guilty soul. When the great book shall be opened, and all your sin and shame shall be punished. Can you stand against an angry law in that day? I remember looking at that sermon and thinking, boy, that's a little different from God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And so that was the seed thought. What is Spurgeon doing? And I thought, he's using God's law to cause a sinner to tremble and come to Christ. And I stuck that in the back of my mind. And then about two days later, I was reading Galatians. Galatians 3.24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But I didn't read it as that. In my mind, I read it as, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring Israel to Christ. That's how I read it. I thought, yes, just talking about history. And I thought, it doesn't say that. And I thought, wow, I wonder if it is legitimate to use the law as a schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ in a vandalism. So I ran out, found a sinner, experimented on him. The guy just got blown away. He just stood up and he said, I've never heard that put so clearly in all my life. And I thought, whoa. It just brought the knowledge to sin. It was a schoolmaster to teach him. And so I studied literature, Spurgeon, Wesley, and others that God used. Found the law was always there. And I thought, boy, I'm going to be separated as a legalist because I had a reasonably respected ministry. And if I start preaching this law stuff from the pulpit, they're going to say, legalist. But the exact opposite happened. Doors just opened up. Got invites to Hawaii. Passed from Hawaii. Was in Hawaii when I was. Listened to the teaching. Was convinced it was of God when he studied scripture. He wasn't convinced at first. And then he invited us to base our ministry in Southern California. And then doors opened up after three years. Waiting for three years. Doing dumb things like producing dumb books. I can't explain the stupid things I was getting into. I wrote a book called You've Got to be Choking. About the smog in L.A. It was just a cartoon book of skydivers and that getting caught up in the clouds. It didn't make it through because of the smog. It's just silly things like that. So I think God said, Angel of the Lord, get in there and do something for company. He's gone nuts while he's waiting. So then doors opened up. Dave Wilkerson and Bill Gothard and others. But the big boost came when Kirk Cameron called our ministry three years ago this month. And God transformed him overnight through the teaching to a point where he said, I want to give my celebrity name to this ministry to get the teaching to the church. And probably about 15 times over a period of a year on the phone he said to me, How can we get this teaching to the church? How can we do it? And I just said to him, Welcome to Club Frustration. I've been trying to get it for 20 years. But the big breakthrough came when we got the teaching onto TBN, Christian television. And Kirk preached Hell's Best Keep Secret word for word. Our website got over a million hits in one day. And from there it's just exploded. TBN said their ratings went through the roof. Would he come back and host the show? And he said, No, but I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll produce a television show that brings these principles out. And we'll make it available to you independently. And so that's what we did. And it won People's Choice Award, 2004 People's Choice Award. And we're into the second season and planning a third. And for me it's so exciting because God knows for years I've looked at huge crusades where a well-known evangelist or whatever would stand up and preach to 80,000 people in a combined church crusade. And I'd think to myself, that crowd of 80,000 people in the stadium is made up of combined churches. There's probably 200 churches there with a certain amount of people from each supporting this crusade. So odds are probably 10% are unsaved. So wouldn't it be better to preach to the 90% that are Christians and say, Why aren't you evangelizing? Challenge them as their moral responsibility. Equip them. And then preach the gospel of the 10%. Because Bill Brighton's book, The Cunningham Revival, said only 2% of the contemporary church share their faith regularly with others in the U.S. So that 90% needs to be stirred up to do what they should and to realize that if you let a child drown beside you, it's called depraved indifference. And how 98% of the church is guilty of the sin of depraved indifference and the need to be challenged. So that's what I wanted to do. But what God's done is exceeding abundantly far above all I could ask or think. Our program just isn't going to 80,000 people. It goes to 70 countries. And it's been repeated four times on TV just this year. And five other major networks have picked it up. So it makes me smile because I could never have gone onto Christian television and said the things I'm able to say. And that's because it's comfort wrapped in Cameron. It's jalapeno coated in candy. Cameron, movie star. Come in. Who's this guy with you? It doesn't matter. We like you. So it's been a wonderful blessing and something that makes me continually smile at what God's done. Can you turn this on now? It's on. Oh, good. I think it goes into it, segues into it, but how you're talking about how Bill Bright commented that maybe less than 2% or 2% of Christians actively share their faith on a regular basis. From many men of God in the past, even like Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, Bhagat Singh. I don't know if you're familiar with him. But they gave some numbers where on the average they'd said about 5% of Christians are saved. In America, talking about specifically. Do you think that could be true? What would explain the reason so many Christians who claim to be Christians are living like the world? Yeah, what we've done is open the straight gate and said it's wide and easy to become a Christian. When Jesus said the opposite. He said, agonize and strive to enter the straight gate. And when Peter said, how many will be saved? Jesus said, few in the world will be saved. And I think it's interesting if you look at that scripture. Strive to enter the straight gate, for straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life. And few that be that find it. And then Jesus said, because broad is the road that leads to destruction or the path. So people that don't enter the straight gate go into the wide gate. It's false conversion. And there are multitudes out there that say, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I love the Lord. And they'll blaspheme in the next sentence. Their lives don't match their claims. And it's something that should greatly alarm all of us that are Christians. And we've got a program coming out called True and False Conversion that we deal with the whole thing and speak to it. And show people being interviewed that say, I'm a Christian. Blank, me blank. Blame their living and lust. All sorts of things. Just terrible stuff. And what's happened is that the contemporary church has lost the fear of God. We have seeker-sensitive churches that drop anything offensive. Christians that say, well, you know, people don't understand what repentance means. Well, tell them. Don't dumb down to them. Educate them. Lift them up and say, repentance is this. And so they drop words that offend and words that non-Christians don't understand. Well, there's the offense of the cross, the offense of the name of Jesus. We didn't drop that. So I think we need to get the fear of God back into the church. And the way to do that is to preach the law. It tends to do that when you realize God's holiness and His perfect standards. Which are exemplified in the law. It tends to produce the fear of the Lord in your heart. And makes you realize that all His judgments are righteous and true altogether. And we have to stand before Him on the day of judgment. And I've been living in Ezekiel 33 for the past three or four nights. And it's just so powerful. You know, you say to the wicked, when God says to the wicked to warn them. And you don't, then you're guilty of His blood. We're to lift up our voices, the trumpet. And show these people their transgression. And to warn them. And it says, turn. Turn from your ways. It doesn't say change your mind. Which is what repentance is defined as by many contemporaries. Just change your mind. No, it means turn from your wicked ways. Let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man's thoughts. So there needs to be some thunder of Sinai and flashes of lightning to bring the fear of God back into the church. And it's the law that does that. Do you think there's a need for a revival in the church? I mean, we're kind of talking about that. Yeah, absolutely. What are the reasons though? What are a couple of the reasons that you think? I know we've touched on all this stuff. Yeah. Or I think maybe better yet, I think we're all agreed on that there's a need for a revival in the church. What you're talking about. Yeah. But what do you think are some of the ways that could be used to bring that? Bring about a revival? Yeah. Yeah, I love what A.W. Pink said. He said, It is true that many are praying for worldwide revival. But it would be more relevant and more scriptural for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers. He will preach truths which are calculated to bring about a revival. And what we have is a lot of Christians say, We need revival. And they look on revival as being a sovereign move of God. And so they give the job of taking the gospel of every creature back to God and says, We're going to stay here and pray. And so what we've got to do is put legs to our prayers and realize that if we say, God, send revival, but we don't preach the gospel, we're saying, God, we know the gospel is the power of God to salvation, but we'll stay here and pray. We know how will they hear without a preacher, but we'll stay here and pray. Because it's easier to talk to God about men than to talk to men about God. And so we've got to discipline ourselves to take the gospel of every creature as we're told to. And there's so few Christians that do that. Still laborers are few. There's a lot of talk, obviously, about revival sweeping across North America and the world. And God's always moving. God's always working. God's word's going forth. But there's an opinion that the church is closer to God's judgment than it is to revival. Would you agree or disagree with that? A lot of people say revival is a whole lot of Christians praising the Lord. But revival is when a nation is transformed by the power of the gospel. And if the average church made as much noise about God on Monday as they do to God on Sunday, we'd see revival. They tend to be praising the Lord, hands raised, and not lifting their hands out to the unsaved and pulling them from the fire on Monday. I remember sitting in a plane once and two girls walked down the plane wearing gospel t-shirts. And I said, are you gospel singers? They said, yes, we're Christians. I said, oh yeah. And she put her earphones on and I sat there waiting for her to witness to me for about an hour. Nothing happened. So I tapped her. I said, what are you doing? Listening to music. I said, how can I get to heaven? She said, I don't know. You don't want to go to hell and then put the earphones back on. And I thought, boy, that's just typical of the contemporary church. They just love the music. They love the fellowship. They love everything except obedience to God's word. And so those that are like that need to examine themselves and see if they're in the faith and then begin desiring to see true revival and bring it about with God's help because the power is in the gospel, the transformation. We know a brother in Christ that has the burden to see every church get active on the streets of their city daily and track distribution and preaching and caring for the homeless. Do you think that's too extreme? Should everybody be doing that? I love what Spurgeon said. He said, more of a case has to be made for staying in the church than preaching outside it. And I thank God the disciples didn't stay in the upper room and have a glory session, a healing meeting or a worship service. They went up in the air like they were told to. And so definitely we need to break down the walls of the church and get out there. Instead of being a whole lot of monks and monkettes fellowshiping together in this monastery without walls that we call a church. We preach the gospel every day out here in the courts. To count that just a wonderful privilege and we come back. We call it dragging feet, clicking heels ministry. Every day we've got to preach we're dragging our feet. You get the negative thoughts. Every day we come back clicking our heels. People listen and it was great. Got a heckler this morning. Some guy was saying blankety blank. He said, this isn't church, it's court. I said, it is church. He said, church is on Sunday. I said, no it's not. Church is on Wednesday today. So it's a great privilege we have and it's something we need to take incredibly seriously. Because we have a moral obligation to those that are around us to take the gospel to them. I think of what Paul said to Timothy where he said, nowhere does scripture, correct me if I'm wrong, does it say that Paul was gifted as an evangelist, but Paul told him to do the work of an evangelist. Yeah, just do it. Just do it, right. Absolutely. I guess maybe the last thing is, I'm real familiar with, Greg's kind of familiar with your ministry. I'm really familiar with it. You can tell because you're finishing my sentences. Is there, like you said, the last few days have been Ezekiel 33. Is that, what's the Lord been showing you personally just today? Where do you find your heart, your mind being drawn to as you look into the Lord? What's going on in your heart today? Just the same as always. I just do everything I can, every ounce of energy. Every ounce of energy I have to reach the lost in any way I can. We have new books coming out. One's called How to Bring Your Children to Christ, or Child of Christ, and keep them there. I know we can't keep our children there. That's the job of the Lord. We can't bring our children to Christ, but to say how to faithfully preach the gospel, the seed of God's word, and have God water it in His faithfulness, save those that call upon His name, and then He'll keep them through the power of His Holy Spirit. That was a bit long for a book title. So we cut it back to that. And there's another book coming out called What Did Jesus Do? And it's the unscripture nature of the seeker-sensitive message and how Jesus preached future punishment law. James preached future punishment law. Jude did. Peter did. All these stories. Book of Acts, people have written to me and said, No, we're in the Book of Acts. It's the law used. So I send back examples. And they go, Oh, I'm sorry. There it is. I used to have a Beatle V-Dub, and I didn't see any on the streets until I got one. Then when I got one, everywhere I looked, there they were. It's because I had a mind to look for them. And it's the same with once you understand the function of the law, then you see it everywhere in Scripture. You see Jesus using it. You see Peter and Paul and James. And so that's what's in my heart, to equip Christians and challenge unsaved people and reach out to them. Because the key to reaching out to them is through Christians. I like what D.L. Moody said. He said, I'd rather send 1,000 to work than do the work of 1,000. Just stir up all that potential that's out there. Because it is the last time. I was watching the news this morning, and it was like the newsreader came on and said, Good morning. Here is the news. Nation is rising against nation. Kingdom against kingdom. There are earthquakes and floods. Famines and pestilences. I mean, it was one after the other. I might as well just read Scripture. And so we've just got to see of all the generations that we have a tremendous responsibility to be faithful to what God's called us.
Si Interview of Ray Comfort
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Ray Comfort (1949–present). Born on December 5, 1949, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Ray Comfort is an evangelical Christian minister, author, and television host known for his bold street preaching and apologetics. Raised in a secular Jewish family, he converted to Christianity at 22 after reading the Bible, inspired by its moral clarity. Initially a surf shop owner, he began preaching in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, earning the nickname “The Soapbox Preacher.” In 1989, he moved to the U.S., settling in California, where he co-founded Living Waters Publications with actor Kirk Cameron in 2002. Comfort gained prominence through The Way of the Master, a TV series and ministry teaching evangelism using the Law to confront sin, notably in open-air debates with atheists. He authored over 90 books, including Hell’s Best Kept Secret (1989), The Evidence Bible (2001), God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists (1993), and Faith Is for Weak People (2019), blending wit with biblical arguments. His films, like 180 (2011) and The Atheist Delusion (2016), have millions of views. Married to Sue since 1972, he has three children—Jacob, Rachel, and Daniel—and lives in Tennessee. Comfort said, “The Law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ.”