Benutzer:OmegaWalksForever/Ray Comfort

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Ray Comfort.

Vorlage:WOTM Ray Comfort (born December 5, 1949) is a New Zealand-born minister and evangelist. Comfort is the founder of Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California, and has written a number of Christian books. Comfort lives with his wife Sue in Southern California, and they have three adult children Jacob, Rachel, and Daniel.

Early life and conversion

Born ethnically half-Jewish (via his mother), Comfort was raised with next to no religious experience. 
In 1989, he accepted an offer from Hosanna Chapel (of the Calvary Chapel fellowship) in Bellflower, California, to begin full-time ministry in the United States.

Open-air preaching

In his time in the United States, he has conducted open-air ministry in a variety of venues in southern California. At first, he worked in MacArthur Park, giving out sandwiches and preaching to the homeless there. At the same time, he led weekly outings to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica Friday nights. Most recently, he began in April 2006 open-air preaching at the base of the Huntington Beach pier Saturday afternoons.

For roughly two-and-a-half years, Comfort and his son-in-law LWP general manager Emeal "EZ" Zwayne would most weekdays open-air preach at the Bellflower courthouse a few blocks from their ministry. However, on September 30, 2005, Comfort and Zwayne were approached by two county police officers, who informed them that "Judge William A. MacLaughlin issued a court order forbidding public speech on the public property of any courthouse in Los Angeles County" (the judge had issued the order on September 13, 2005). They have sued the county for $25 and are being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund.

Current ministry

In late 2001 and early 2002, Comfort paired up with celebrity Kirk Cameron to launch a ministry called The Way of the Master to teach Christians how to promote their faith "simply, effectively, Biblically ... the way Jesus did". Comfort and Cameron were also involved in rewriting some key scenes in the movie Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, which co-starred Cameron.

He believes that evangelizing the lost is the main reason that the Christian Church exists and that many of the evangelistic methods used by the church over the last century have produced more false Christians than true. The key component is using the Moral Law of God (The Ten Commandments) to show people their sin before presenting the gospel of Christ to them. (See Biblical Evangelism for a more detailed look into this.) His realization of this concept led to him in the mid-1980s to formulate two sermons entitled "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversions."

He currently continues in itinerant ministry as a preacher and speaker at many churches and evangelism seminars, including "Worldview Weekend" events. He is also a frequent guest at "Evangelism Boot Camps," sponsored by The Great News Network, a spinoff ministry from Living Waters and run by Darrel Rundus, and is also a co-host on The Way of the Master Radio several times a week alongside daily host Todd Friel.

As well as co-hosting The Way of the Master Radio Show he is, together with Cameron, the co-host of The Way of the Master Television Show, since December 2003. The show has aired two thirteen-episode seasons, and is currently filming the third season, expected to air in 2007.

On March 17, 2006, Martin Bashir interviewed Comfort and Cameron about The Way of the Master on a segment of Nightline.

He has recently challenged popular late-night talk show host and political satirist Bill Maher to a public debate on Intelligent Design versus Evolution but this is yet to take place.

Comfort has experience debating atheists. At the 27th National Convention of American Atheists in Orlando, Florida on April 13 (Good Friday), 2001 Comfort debated Ron Barrier, the National Spokesperson for American Atheists. Initially, Comfort offered to speak, but after reading his book God Doesn't Believe in Atheists, Barrier declined. Sometime later, Comfort communicated this fact on the AA Internet message board, calling the spokesman a "chicken," which led to other members of the message board calling for the debate. Barrier eventually acceded to their request. Despite the naturally hostile crowd, Comfort later stated that "[t]hey laughed at my humor, and although there was unified mockery at some of the things that I said, I was able to go through the Ten Commandments, the fact of Judgment Day, the reality of Hell, the Cross, and the necessity of repentance, and no one stopped me."

Supporters

Comfort's ministry has been commended by several evangelical leaders, including Franklin Graham, Josh McDowell, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Bill Gothard, David Wilkerson, Joni Eareckson Tada [1]. He has written for Billy Graham's Decision magazine and Bill Bright's Worldwide Challenge. His literature is used by the Moody Bible Institute, Leighton Ford Ministries, Campus Crusade for Christ, Institute in Basic Life Principles, and the Institute for Scientific & Biblical Research. He has also written roughly fifty books and is a regular platform speaker at Southern Baptist State Conferences. His videos were seen by over 30,000 pastors in 1992, and he has spoken in more than 700 churches from most denominations.

Books

Comfort has written over fifty books . Some of the more recent works include:

• Intelligent Design vs. Evolution - Letters to an Atheist (2006), a collection of correspondence between Comfort and atheist James D. Franz.
• Springboards for Budding Preachers (2006), a transcript of Comfort open-air preaching with his son-in-law Emeal "EZ" Zwayne.
• The Way of the Master (2006), which was republished by Genesis Publishing Group expanded and with a new cover (and a complementary CD of his sermon "Hell's Best Kept Secret"), as opposed to the 2004 version by Tyndale House. The 2004 version itself was an revised and updated version of Revival's Golden Key, which itself was a revision of God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life.
• The Way of the Master Minute (by Comfort and Kirk Cameron) (2006)
• How to Live Forever ... Without Being Religious (2006), a version of the Gospel of John with Comfort's commentary.
• Whitefield Gold: Pure. Refined. (compiled by Comfort) (2006)
• Spurgeon Gold: Pure. Refined. (compiled by Comfort) (2005)
• Overcoming Panic Attacks (2005)
• What Did Jesus Do? A Call to Return to the Biblical Gospel (2005)
• How to Bring Your Children to Christ ... and Keep Them There (2005)
• What Hollywood Believes: An Intimate Look at the Faith of the Famous (2004)
• Hell's Best Kept Secret (updated 2004)
• The School of Biblical Evangelism Textbook (2004)
• 101 Things Husbands Do to Annoy Their Wives (2004)
• Out of the Comfort Zone: The Authorized Autobiography (2003)
• God Doesn't Believe in Atheists (2001)
• How to Win Souls and Influence People (1999)

External links

• LivingWaters.com, the ministry of Ray Comfort - his official Web site, the evolution of the old site RayComfort.com.
• The Way of the Master - the Web site for his ministry with Kirk Cameron.
• Comfort teaching "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion."
• The Way of the Master Radio - the Web site for the radio show he co-hosts with Cameron and Todd Friel.
• Ray Comfort at the Christian Answers Network.
• Video from poetv.com Ray Comfort's views on the banana. (spread around the internet because of its unintentional humor)