by Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – A California evangelist says Christians need to be bolder when it comes to confronting people about their sin and their need for a savior.
It was 13 years ago when Ray Comfort moved his ministry, Living Waters Publications, from New Zealand to Southern California. Since then, Comfort has traveled to thousands of churches, teaching Christians how to effectively share their faith.
He points out what he sees as a major flaw in modern evangelism — pointing people to Jesus without first convincing them that they have a fatal disease called sin.
“Something like eighty or ninety percent of those who make professions of faith fall away under the sound of modern evangelism,” he says. “But what we must do is do what Jesus did — prepare the way for the gospel with the Ten Commandments … convince of the disease so people appreciate and appropriate the cure of the gospel.”
Catholics can learn a great deal from Comfort’s ministry. The organization sent out 4.3 million gospel tracts last year. The 51-year-old Comfort spends Friday nights along the streets of Santa Monica, preaching to crowds along the Third Street promenade — the third most popular tourist spot in Southern California. He says he always tells people the cure for the fatal disease of sin is found only in Jesus Christ.
“We are condemned, and we’ve all broken the Commandments,” Comfort says. “If we look with lust, Jesus says we’ve ‘committed adultery in the heart.’ If we hate someone, the Bible says we’re a ‘murderer.’ If we tell fibs and white lies then we’re ‘liars,’ and ‘all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.’ If we steal anything, irrespective of its value, then the Bible says we are ‘thieves’ and no thief will ‘inherit God’s kingdom.’ ”
“The Commandments reveal that we are sinners, but we’re able to bring the good news that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,” the evangelist says.
Comfort has a new video titled In Season, Out of Season, which takes viewers on location as he street preaches in California, New Zealand, and other locations.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
