Ray Comfort's False View Of True Conversion

by David J. Stewart | October 2019

       Evangelist Ray Comfort (born 1949) is one of the world's most beloved preachers. I admit that I like Ray's New Zealand accent, and I agree with his emphasis on the LAW of God to show men their sinnership, and I think he is a very sincere man. However, as a born-again Christian I believe biblically that Ray gets the plan of salvation wrong. That means Mr. Comfort is not a true convert himself.

In 1983 Ray Comfort preached a famous sermon called, “TRUE AND FALSE CONVERSION.” The following are some quotes from Ray's sermon (which you can find and read online)...

...A friend of mine, he once came to me, he said, “Ray, there’s something wrong with my Christian life.” He says, “I’m kind of lacking in the zeal you guys have got.” And I say, “Hey, Richard, have you got love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, and temperance?” He said, “Well, no, I haven’t got eight of those fruits.” There’s only one that he had. And I said, “Well, Richard, by your own confession, I don’t see any grounds for you to call yourself a Christian.” (Page 9 of 12) [emphasis added]

Kindly, Ray Comfort is wrong to associate the “fruit” of the indwelling Holy Spirit with being saved. This type of errant thinking has infiltrated the churches today, which is totally unbiblical. In the preceding situation, Richard may indeed have been unsaved, but his lack of love, joy, peace, goodness and the other fruit of the Spirit are not evidence of it. Forgiveness of sins is a free gift, that does not require evidence to prove you have it. It could be that Richard was a carnal believer. 1st Corinthians 3:1, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”

Mr. Comfort continues:

Now he did actually have another fruit of the Spirit at that particular time. He exercised the fruit of self-control, because afterwards he said he wanted to re-arrange my face. But he didn’t. He went home, he examined himself to see if he was in the faith, concluded he wasn’t, repented before Almighty God, and within three months he was such a fruit-bearer our church put him in charge of our coffee bar outreach ministry. That’s why the Bible says examine yourself and see if you’re in the faith. Colossians 4:5 says, “Walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time.” Now I used to think “them that are without, that’s the ungodly. That’s the secular society.” No, a stony ground hearer, a false convert can be within your church, within your youth group, and without the body of Christ. ... (Page 9 of 12) [emphasis added]

There is no mention above of believing the Gospel, only of repenting. That is not the plan of salvation. Ray teaches a false plan of salvation that says if you have faith, but have never repented of your worldliness and sins, you are not saved. So according to Ray Comfort, Richard wasn't saved because he admitted to not having the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But all that means is he either wasn't walking in the Spirit at the time, or else indeed maybe is not saved. We do not know, nor can anybody else know, except God and the individual. Ray is teaching a counterfeit gospel message of partial faith in Christ plus works. He further states...

I mean, we’ve got to start taking Scripture seriously. I do not welcome people into the faith until I see fruit. It doesn’t matter too much nowadays, in one sense, but wait till severe persecution comes. Wait till people have machetes, that Christians are actually preaching the whole counsel of God, and we’re hated for His name’s sake. They’re suffering persecution because they’re living Godly in Christ Jesus. (Page 9 of 12) [emphasis added]

The preceding is totally unbiblical. What saith the Scripture? Acts 2:41, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Wow! There were 3,000 souls saved in just ONE DAY, on the Day of Pentecost. There was no time to inspect each person for “fruit” as Ray Comfort teaches. The idea that a person cannot be received into the faith until they shew forth fruit is a Satanic teaching. Many unsaved people exhibit goodness, love, joy, peace and can easily imitate the fruit of the Spirit. Most unsaved religious people are comfortable in their deception. In Acts 10:1b-2 we read about “a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.” Cornelius didn't get saved until Acts 10:44 when he believed. Cornelius was an unsaved religious man. Anything that an unsaved person can imitate cannot be used as evidence of salvation. Ray Comfort is wrong to require people to prove their salvation by works first, before he will receive them into the faith. That is not the Bible way. The apostles recognized the 3,000 people who professed faith in Christ on the Day of Pentecost as saved. I do not recommend Ray Comfort's ministry at all, lest you be corrupted by his junk theology.

In this helpful YouTube video titled, “Exposing Little Devil Ray Comfort,” he refers to some of the lyrics from the hymn “Amazing Grace” to support his heresy that we are saved “through faith” and not “by faith.” That is ridiculous! As Christians we don't get our doctrine from hymns or mortal men; but rather, only from the inspired eternal Word of God (2nd Timothy 3:16-17). Ray Comfort is a false prophet! Kindly, Ray very often refers to Charles Spurgeon, William Booth, John Wesley and other men as secondary authorities. Ray Comfort does this because he cannot support his heresies with the Word of God. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” As you just read, the Bible says we are saved “BY FAITH.” Sometimes the Bible says “THROUGH FAITH” (as in Ephesians 2:8-9). Ray Comfort is teaching a strange doctrine! There is no distinction in the Bible between “through” or “by” concerning faith. We are saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1st Peter 1:18-19). In 1st Corinthians 1:21 God promises to “SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE,” whether it be in faith, on faith, over faith, under faith, through faith or by faith. Faith is faith!!!

Ray Comfort teaches strange doctrine not found in the inspired Word of God. In the following recount of an incident, Ray concludes that a church member was not saved because of his hot temper...

You see, the Bible speaks of false brethren twice in Scripture. It speaks of false apostles, false prophets, false teachers, and false conversions. And hardly ever do we hear teaching on them.

I wished a number of years ago I had a video camera when this incident took place. I was going to cross the street, and suddenly I heard “bzzt bzzt,” and I looked down the road. There was this car in the middle of the road and it sounded like there was no muffler on the thing, and the guy was driving like an idiot. So I jumped back off the road onto the sidewalk. I thought I might get run down.

The car went past me, and suddenly the guy saw who it was. He recognized me. The guy who was driving the car was the classic stony ground hearer, a false convert. I’d heard that this guy had already threatened pastors in another assembly, so I had marked him. He saw me, slammed on the anchors of his car, backed up, jumped out, and says, “Hi, Ray.”

Now I wish you could have seen him. He had three Jesus stickers on the front windshield of his car. He had a big cross around his neck hanging in the forest of a hairy chest, shirt undone to his navel, and he was full of Christian clichés, and he wanted to see me for counsel. I was busy that year.

You see, a false convert wants your time. He is a tool of the devil to wear out the saints. Remember, Satan wants to wear down the saints? They are hearers of the Word, and not doers. And what they do is because they lack inwardly depth of root, they have branches and leaves.

Now I believe in Jesus stickers. If someone wants to wear a cross, that’s fine. T-shirts are great. But you will find that false converts, because they lack depth of root, depth within their heart, within the soil of the heart, they have lots of branches and leaves to impress you. I mean, they’ll have a big Bible. (Page 9 of 12)

SOURCE: This message was first preached in 1983. "True and False Conversion" by Evangelist Ray Comfort

The apostle James address believers (“my beloved brethren”) in the following passage of Scripture, which Ray quotes above. ...

James 1:19-22 and 26, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ... If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.”

Ray Comfort is wrong to judge someone's salvation on the basis of their works. Certainly he has a right to his opinion, but he does not have a right to corrupt the Gospel to include turning away from sins (which is a work). New believers need to grow in grace (1st Peter 2:2). Ray Comfort ignores carnal and immature believers. In Ray Comfort's theological world, there is no distinction between sonship and discipleship. Carnal Christians are accused of being unsaved. That is heresy. The Bible teaches that there is such a thing as a carnal believer. Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Beware of Ray Comfort's counterfeit plan of salvation. True salvation is a gift. Romans 3:24 says that we are “JUSTIFIED FREELY.”

“Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do!”
—Pastor Jack Hyles, a quote from the MP3 sermon titled: “God's Reversal Of Psalms 51”

The following excellent information by Dr. Hank Lindstrom is from the helpful Christian website, Get God's Gift...

THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF THE LORDSHIP GOSPEL WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:8,9

The importance of this question can't be overestimated in relation to both salvation and sanctification. The message of faith only and the message of commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a false gospel and come under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel.

"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." Ryrie, Charles. Balancing the Christian Life. Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170).

"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." Howard, William. "Is Faith Enough to Save?" Bibliotheca Sacra. January-March, 1942 (p.99).

"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" Hook, H. Phillip. "A Biblical Definition of Saving Faith." Bibliotheca Sacra. April-June, 1964 (p. 133, 138).

"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." Hodges, Zane C. The Hungry Inherit. Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (p. 114, 115).

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." DeHaan, M. R. Hebrews. Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117).

"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." Post, Roger. "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament." Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80).

"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." Lindsey, Hal. The Liberation of Planet Earth. Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (p. 136, 137).

"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian". Pentecost, J. Dwight. Design for Discipleship. Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11).

"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship". Harrison, Everett F. "Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior?-No." Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14).

"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." Unger, Merrill F. God is Waiting to Meet You. Moody Press, 1975 (p. 117, 118).

"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Salvation. Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46).

 SUMMARY
Lordship salvation is where someone teaches that there must be a commitment to Christ as Lord of one's life in order to be saved. Recently there has been a modification of this position to say that willingness to be controlled by the Lord at the time of salvation is all that is required in addition to faith in order to be saved. The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a FALSE GOSPEL and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel. Galatians 1:8, 9 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." If only committed people are saved people, then where is there room for carnal Christians? What kind of dedication must be preached to people, if in order to be saved, they have already dedicated their lives to the Lord? Where do you stop if you start adding something else to this which is the gospel revealed in the Bible? Look at what God says about adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ (gospel), "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:18)." The Bible plainly declares that we are saved by faith, and not by works. Where does it say this? Ephesians 2:8, 9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." What are you trusting in to get you to heaven?

* Written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom

The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God who can read your mind knows, saves YOU and gives you the Gift of God, eternal Life.
You do not need anyone to pray over you, or pray for you, because this is between you and God in heaven. Because of your new trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ you are now a child of God. Before you trusted in Jesus, God was your creator but now and forevermore he will be your father.

You are saved in a moment of time, because you are trusting in the true Savior now, not working your way to heaven day by day which is not even possible.

Once saved you can never be lost, for any reason. This is because you were born spiritually the moment you put your trust in Him. Just like your physical birth which brought you into this human world, your spiritual birth gave you a new spiritual life that is permanent. You were born-again, made righteous and holy in Gods eyes. In fact you have the righteousness of God himself, your are sinless and perfect in God's eyes now and that's why you can enter into a perfect heaven.

My favorite saying is:

God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.

You MUST put ALL your trust in Jesus to be saved, trust in the blood that He shed on the cross, trust that He is God in the flesh, trust that He made the complete payment for your sins, not just part; He paid for ALL of your sins (past, present, and future)! Trust that He rose again from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights, and in return for this trust, He gives YOU Eternal Life. All false Christians put part of their trust in Jesus and part of their trust the Church and part of their trust in themselves. If you put 99.99% trust in Jesus and 00.01% in something else, you will go to hell. It must be 100% trust in Jesus and what He did and 0% in you or your church! This information in critical... (grace always cancels works!) You are going to hell if it's by your works or you are going to heaven by Gods grace. It's as simple as that.

So I guess the question comes down to who are you trusting. Are you trusting yourself to get to heaven by being a good person and giving lots of money to your church or are you trusting Jesus, the lamb of God, that was slain for the sins of the world to get you to heaven? You receive the Gift of God (Eternal Life) as soon as you stop trusting in yourself, your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your money, or any other works and put your trust in Him and Him ALONE, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, The King of Kings, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and Omega, the Mighty God.

False religions are everywhere and they will find you, the one true God and His plan of salvation must be found.

If all this makes sense to you and you would like to trust Jesus as your personal Savior right now then tell the Mighty God in Heaven of your decision to trust Jesus Christ as your only hope of heaven. Tell Him that you are no longer putting your trust in your actions, or your church, or your church membership, or in your money, or in your Rabbi, or in your synagogue or your Mosque but that you are putting all of your trust in Him and the shed blood of the cross to pay your sin debt. Thank Him for doing it for you! Thank Him for giving you the Gift of Eternal Life that He paid for with His life. There is no greater deed than that of laying down your life for another.

Will you trust Jesus as your Savior right now, the one who shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary to pay for all your sins?

Sinners Prayer
Lord, I admit that I'm a sinner & I don't understand a whole lot about the bible, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died & paid for my sins in full, by His death & shed blood on the cross. I trust right now the He died for me, was buried & rose again from the dead and will live forever more. I trust Jesus Christ right now to save me, to be my savior, to forgive my sins & to give me the GIFT OF GOD Eternal Life. Amen

By reading this sinners prayer aloud, you are putting your trust in God and His plan of salvation. You are not saved by saying this prayer, you are saved the moment your mind made the switch from trusting in yourself to putting your COMPLETE TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST. That moment may have been five paragraphs up on this page or that moment may have been on another one of our pages. You will not feel any different, but you will be changed and changed for the better forever. Once you have trusted Jesus as your savior and received his gift of eternal life, this gift can NEVER be lost. You can NEVER go to hell for ANY reason. Your past, present and future sins were paid in full the moment you put your trust in Him. You are blameless and Holy in God's eyes now and FOREVER. If you have eternal life today what kind of life will you have in five years? ETERNAL! What kind of life will you have in ten years? ETERNAL!! What kind of life will you have in 50 years? ETERNAL!!! God does not give probationary life or temporary life, His gift is ETERNAL LIFE! Thanks be to GOD!

Why be good, now that I am assured of going to heaven? Because God's law of sowing and reaping still applies to you and me. You will reap what you sow. You will reap more than you sow and you will reap later than you sow. If you drink alcohol like a fish, you will reap a diseased liver. If you smoke like a chimney everyday, you will reap lung cancer. If you rob, murder, and steal you will reap a life in prison. You will reap what you sow. I guarantee it! Now that you are saved, when you do good things you WILL be rewarded here on earth and in Heaven. And when you do bad things you WILL lose rewards that God had planned on giving you here on earth and in Heaven. But you will NEVER lose your guarantee of going to heaven. That can never be lost for any reason!! You have God's word that your salvation can never be lost for any reason. You did not earn salvation and you do not work to keep salvation! Eternal Life, salvation, being born again, becoming a child of God, was, is, and always will be the GIFT OF GOD.

Remember: If your not saved forever... you are not saved!

Why is this true you might ask? Because if a person is not sure that they are saved TODAY / RIGHT NOW it means that they are still trying to be the savior! They can't be sure they are going to heaven because they don't know what sin's they may commit next week, next month or next year. We who have trusted in Jesus alone, can have comfort knowing that all our sins have been paid in full on the Cross of Calvary (past, present, and future sins). Jesus has already died for my sins so I don't need to pay for any sin I have or will commit in the future because Jesus already paid the price in full with His blood. So called Christians who say that you can lose your salvation because of suicide or murder or falling away from the church don't have a clue what the Bible says and clearly have not trusted Jesus ALONE!

Biblical Salvation is forsaking any other means of salvation but Christ and casting ourselves fully upon Him for eternal life.

The Gift of God, Eternal Life can never be lost once possessed for any reason. John 6:39 " And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up again at the last day." You have God's promise that once you put your trust in Jesus you can never be lost for ANY reason whatsoever.

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” Romans 11:29 Again, God is telling you that this Gift of God that you have just received is without repentance. He can never take His gift back for any reason, no matter how bad you get, or how bad your sins are it is not possible. God would have to cease to exist for that to happen because He cannot lie.

SOURCE: Lordship Salvation » How to get into Heaven

END OF ARTICLE

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

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 (a red-hot MP3 by Dr. Curtis Hutson exposing Lordship Salvation)

“If you have to look at your life to prove that you are saved, it proves that you're not!”
—Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, “Why Lordship Salvation is WRONG! | MP3”

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