I’ve never cared for Kirk Cameron after watching the beginning of his Saving Christmas movie, which was an illogical nightmare we couldn’t turn off fast enough (see pagan origins of Christmas). So after seeing Kirk’s name keep popping up with his children’s book as a counter to the trans story time depravity, I started looking into him because he fits the bill for controlled opposition. Consequently, he’s heavily associated with Ray Comfort, which wreaks of a changed name as they do in entertainment, and watching a conference talk he gave which was actually alright, he has a large Bible that looks like it was left in the rain, used as a prop as he quotes limited scripture mostly from memory (that Bible looks like disrespectful treatment of the Word of God). He’s big on using the law to show people they violated the law of God and are sinners, and why they need Jesus to “pay their fine” though heavier on the first part. Interestingly, Ray Comfort said he was a pastor for a short time, but hated counseling church members. So he developed a strategy of asking them first how often they read their Bibles, promoting that they should read it daily and comparing some parts of the Bible to less desirable foods that don’t taste good which you consume for their health benefits, which was irreverent to God’s inspired word (detecting a theme here).
Ray Comfort cosy with a satanist atheist Penn Jillette
And Ray Comfort is heavily into promoting evangelism for believers, and it’s true we are commissioned to spread the word of God. But Mr. Comfort really wants you to be uncomfortable and really get out there and proselytize people. And because of the above photo of Ray with Penn Jillette, we have these interesting quotes from Penn Jillette.
“I’ve always said,” Jillette explained, “I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe there is a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.
“How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”
Jillette then offered this example to illustrate his point: “If I believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, that that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point that I tackle you, and this is more important than that.”
“This guy was a really good guy. He was polite, honest, and sane, and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible.”
Now, Jillette is still an atheist, and he wanted to make that clear: “I know there’s no God, and one polite person living his life right doesn’t change that.”
https://www.churchpop.com/atheist-penn-jillette-christians-evangelize/
So is Satan wanting to make Christians more aggressive in going too far to spread the Gospel message? I can see where it would help to harden hearts, as the Gospel message only works on hearts that are ready, those who believe God is real and have been drawn by God. As Christians we’re really only there to provide information, as God calls people, convicts them of their sin, and it’s God who saves. And would God who can look into the heart and mind condemn someone to hell if they didn’t have a Christian around to give them the Gospel message? Consequently, God could easily have an angel appear in human form to give the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and I’ve heard testimony of such stories in Muslim countries where Christians are few and evangelism is a crime or can get you killed. I’ve even heard a former Islamic terrorist talk of a dream He had where he met Jesus who showed him He was the way to salvation. And those promoting this onslaught of evangelism make it seem like without us giving people the message of salvation aggressively, people will be condemned to hell. That’s an undue amount of pressure to go outside the direction of the Holy Spirit, pushing human effort and works over rational approaches to evangelism. And today God has a myriad of ways to get the gospel message to people through the internet, the Bible whether physical or data, radio, television, electronic devices…
As we find with false teachers, they really twist the God given edict of unity in the church to include dismissing significant doctrinal differences which has destroyed most churches in America, and clearly an organized effort by Satan to pollute and destroy the effectiveness of the church keeping people from salvation. So is Satan trying to push Christians into being more aggressive evangelists so they can be marginalized further in society? Discouraged? Using the actual church and “Christians” to further harden people’s hearts so they’re less receptive to the Gospel message of reconciliation to God? Consequently, even Jesus tested the Samaritan woman at the well before explaining that he was the Messiah. And worth noting that Samaritan village was the most receptive to Jesus and where he actually told them plainly He was the Messiah, and the whole village believed.
So I can’t help but look at Ray Comfort’s Bible below and see it as modern day virtue signaling. Not that I’m condemning him or his ministry, but I’ve seen several things that give me pause as I look into him. But it’s highlighted something that always bothered me as off with a heavy push to overly aggressive evangelism. Our main evangelism is living a godly life even when it costs us something, admitting when we make mistakes, following God as an example to others to observe, being a light in this dark world, ready to share our hope when someone is receptive or inquires about it.