Evangelist Ray Comfort shared his compelling journey from New Zealand surfer to street preacher, revealing how a proper understanding of God’s law transformed both his salvation experience and his approach to evangelism. Comfort’s story began not with typical gospel presentations about God’s love, but with a confrontation with divine holiness that shattered his self-righteousness and drove him to Christ.

Born in New Zealand and converted in 1972, Comfort described himself as “extremely happy as a non-Christian” yet haunted by existential futility. His transformation came during a surfing trip when he encountered Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This verse pierced his conscience like an arrow, revealing that God sees thought life and judges according to His perfect standard.

This experience became the foundation for Comfort’s ministry philosophy, encapsulated in his famous teaching “Hell’s Best Kept Secret.” Using a medical analogy, he explains that offering someone a cure before diagnosing their disease is ineffective and often offensive. Similarly, presenting Jesus as the solution to life’s problems fails to resonate with people who don’t recognize their spiritual sickness. The gospel appears foolish to those who perish because they haven’t been awakened to their need for salvation.

Comfort’s approach follows Jesus’s method with the rich young ruler, who asked about inheriting eternal life. Rather than immediately offering salvation, Jesus pointed to the commandments, exposing the man’s failure to keep God’s law perfectly. This pattern—using the law to bring knowledge of sin—became central to Comfort’s evangelistic methodology. He argues that the moral law serves as a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ,” creating the necessary fear and conviction that drives people to seek mercy.

The evangelist emphasizes that modern Christianity has largely abandoned this biblical approach, instead presenting a “wonderful plan” gospel that focuses on life improvement rather than sin and judgment. This shift, occurring over the past 150 years, has filled churches with false converts who lack genuine conviction and transformation. These individuals respond to Christianity as consumers seeking benefits rather than sinners fleeing from wrath.

Comfort’s street evangelism demonstrates this law-to-grace progression in action. He typically begins conversations by addressing humanity’s universal fear of death, leveraging what Hebrews 2:14-15 describes as the fear that haunts people throughout their lives. By asking simple questions like “Do you think there’s life after death?” or “Do you consider yourself a good person?” he creates openings for deeper spiritual conversations.

His questioning method systematically works through the Ten Commandments, helping people recognize their moral failures. “How many lies have you told?” “Have you ever stolen anything?” “Have you ever looked at someone with lust?” These questions, while potentially uncomfortable, serve to awaken the conscience and demonstrate humanity’s universal guilt before a holy God.

The power of this approach lies in its ability to circumnavigate intellectual arguments and speak directly to the conscience. Rather than engaging in apologetic debates that often lead to contention, Comfort targets what he calls “the place of harmony”—the God-given moral sense that bears witness to right and wrong. When people honestly examine their lives against God’s perfect standard, they typically acknowledge their failures and begin to understand their need for forgiveness.

Comfort addresses common objections to his “fear-based” evangelism by pointing to Scripture’s consistent use of godly fear as a motivating factor. Jesus himself said, “Fear not him who can kill the body, but fear him who can kill both body and soul in hell.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” This biblical fear isn’t meant to terrorize but to create appropriate reverence for God’s holiness and justice.

The evangelist draws inspiration from historical figures like Charles Spurgeon, who declared, “I do not believe any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law.” Spurgeon understood that removing the law eliminates the schoolmaster designed to bring people to Christ, resulting in false conversions and shallow Christianity.

Comfort’s daily evangelism routine involves riding his bicycle with his sunglasses-wearing dog to local colleges, using the pet as a conversation starter. This practical approach demonstrates how believers can overcome natural fears about witnessing by having genuine concern for others’ eternal destinies. He compares evangelists to firefighters who overcome personal fear because they understand the urgency of rescue.

The discussion highlighted how COVID-19 unexpectedly aided evangelistic efforts by forcing people to confront their mortality. For many young people who previously considered death something that happened to others, the pandemic brought mortality into sharp focus, creating new openness to conversations about eternal life.

Comfort’s ministry, Living Waters, has produced thousands of evangelistic videos demonstrating these principles in action. His television program “The Way of the Master,” co-hosted with actor Kirk Cameron, has aired in 190 countries, spreading this law-to-grace methodology worldwide. The ministry’s YouTube channel contains over 3,000 videos with more than 323 million views, each containing the complete gospel message.

The conversation addressed the crucial distinction between law and gospel that Comfort sees as fundamental to both evangelism and Christian assurance. The law reveals sin and condemns, while the gospel provides the solution through Christ’s perfect obedience and substitutionary death. Understanding this distinction prevents both legalistic works-righteousness and antinomian license.

For believers struggling with evangelistic boldness, Comfort recommends studying his ministry’s approach through their extensive video library. Watching how conversations naturally progress from intellectual barriers to heart-level conviction can build confidence and provide practical models for witness.

The episode concluded with Comfort’s passionate reminder that eternal destinies hang in the balance. His motivation comes not from religious duty but from genuine fear for the lost and gratitude for God’s mercy. He challenges Christians to examine whether their lack of evangelistic urgency reveals a deficient understanding of both God’s holiness and the reality of eternal judgment.

Comfort’s message ultimately calls the church back to biblical evangelism that takes both sin and salvation seriously. By properly using God’s law to prepare hearts for grace, believers can present the gospel as truly good news to those who recognize their desperate need for a Savior.

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