I'm trying to be open minded. I do ask though if you know of any dangerous doctrines held by Ray Comfort?
I am reading it now. My searches online reveal a man that seems a typical evangelical "church reformer." A type of template for evangelical leadership I have been looking into for years.
I read and then skimmed and read again sections of the book up to his chapter on how to do evangelism. Mainly because I already know much of the information presented. I have to see how this evangelist you and some others on BB adore teaches us to do things. I am making note of things I find outside the realm of the bible, an opinion I'm afraid you may find heretical.
Right now I still want to ask: why not go to the Law of Christ such as found in the moral teachings of the New Testament? God will not judge them only on the much easier Commandments, He will judge us by the much harder exhortations found all throughout the New Testament from the Sermon on the Mount to the epistles. We are to live like Christ morally. Also in my past evangelism it seems people understand that adultery in your heart and murder in your heart are wrong and accept the grandiosity of their sin to God very quickly. I'll keep reading for now.
I will partially answer your question here. I have no clue of the man's doctrines. And I refuse to read or listen to anything by him. The reason is that I saw him debating Creation versus Evolution, and the man proceed himself to be a complete idiot incapable of coherent arguments.
As a quick for instance, he tried to use the song "Moonlight Sonata" as proof that the moon had it's own light. Which is a stupid argument firstly, and incorrect secondly.
Based on this, I refuse to listen to / read anything he had to say.
As I have said many times and continue to say I am not WOTM Only I am WOTM Preferred. When I was in South Carolina in September and evangelizing with a certain church I met a WOTM Only evangelist. He would not take any tracts that were not law based as thats the only way he would evangelize. I disagree but did not say anything.
I believe Ray Comfort to be a Christian and one gifted as an evangelist.
But he has exceeded his knowledge, training and gifting. Here are a couple of issues (there are more which are detailed in a past thread about Ray Comfort and TWOTM).
WOTM has grown from an evangelistic program (such as EE) into a para-church organization that has the ability to usurp the role of the local church in fulfilling the Great Commission.
The danger is the extent it has contributed to the “street-preaching movement” (a movement that interprets the Great Commission as being individualistic and works outside of the authority and supervision of a local church). This is an unbiblical approach to evangelism as there exist no accountability to the Body of Christ and no means of discipleship.
Ray Comfort teaches false doctrine. He has grown from being an evangelist to seemingly being an expert in every field. In truth, he has no training for what he purposes to teach. He misinterprets passages (sometimes it seems intentionally) to support his agenda. He has stated (in “The Way of the Master”) that the gospel is powerless without the Law; that most converted without the use of the 10 Commandments are false converts because they have a gospel with “no teeth”. This is false doctrine, and in fact one that Scripture itself condemns.
Ray Comfort holds to "another gospel", one that is based in the Mosaic Law. This is due, I believe, to a misapplication of a few verses. I have no issue at all using the Ten Commandments to explain sin (it is an outstanding idea, if the one to whom you are speaking believes the Ten Commandments are God's law). There is a danger of false converts, but there is an even greater danger of this false teaching influencing the church body.
The dangers include disregarding local church authority, encouraging false doctrine, and teaching another gospel.
Or his infamous banana illustration. That was stupid to the 10th degree, and gave atheists a good reason to ridicule Christians (which they did).
God made the banana with an easy open wrapper, it's shape is perfect for the hand, it curves up to the mouth, the perfect energy snack on the go....he didn't know that they were cultivated that way and natural bananas are not so user friendly.
Reminds me of WKRP Cincinnati when Mr. Carlson had the turkeys thrown out of the helicopter for Thanksgiving, not knowing they wouldn't fly.
Ray Comfort has become the village idiot because he has exceeded his gifting. This is something that we should all notice because it serves as a warning. We are gifted to work within the Body of Christ, to fill a role.
The bottom line is his usurpation of the primacy of the local church and violation of the accountability to the local church has identified him to be the very worst that Neo-Evangelicalism has to offer.
Wait a minute here. The street preachers movement sees the importance of Mark 16:15 and seeks to obey it. MOST churches do not do street evangelism or street preaching and therefore people are just out preaching the gospel because their churches are not being obedient.
When I was in SC in September I ran into a number of street evangelists and 3 churches out witnessing. One saw the importance of street preaching and practiced it, but the other 2 did not believe it was effective and did not street preach. However they were
still out talking with people.
If churches would get on board with street evangelism and street preaching and be obedient to Mark 16:15 then there would be no need for lone ranger evangelists.
Yes, the street preacher movement does see the importance of Mark 16:15 but they misapply it. The movement itself is a type of heresy. Your belief that local churches are unfaithful as they don't adopt your method of evangelism does not justify your unfaithfulness.
I have a friend who identified an issue with Baptist churches. He found them not to practice what they preach. So he became Mormon.
Do Kingdom work Kingdom ways. There are no lone ranger evangelists in the Kingdom of God. His people are the body of Christ and His evangelists are given to the churches to function within the body.
If churches, and church members, would get on board with the great commission and discipling new converts and be obedient to Matthew 28:19 then there would be no lone ranger evangelists.
The Way of the Master seems to teach that a sinner needs to confess and repent of all known sins before coming to Christ, and that once saved, need to really toe the line.
What happened to coming "Just as I am?"
More importantly, the Great Commission is a command given to the church to disciple. It is more than telling others the gospel message.
Ray Comfort is not much different from Joel Osteen. Both have an altered gospel, both misuse Scripture for their own purposes, but God has used both to draw people to Himself. I suspect a man once saved, if truly discipled, would leave either "ministry".
I have been looking for examples of “street preaching” in the Scriptures, and can only find it when prophets declared a revelation from God such as Jonah.
I suppose one could point to Peter explaining the phenomenon of Pentecost, but that was not repeated, was it?
JonC I have a challenge for you. Contact 3 churches that are pro WOTM, pro tracts, pro street preaching or what not and debate them. They may not be pro WOTM but they need to be in favor of tracts and street preaching.