What is Hell's Best Kept Secret?

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. As a best-kept secret, I caught up with a Southern California evangelist from New Zealand named Ray Comfort, best-selling author, great man of God. You'll enjoy this interview. It's a throwback from the past on today's podcast on Truth Talk. Here it is, an interview with Ray Comfort.

Ray Comfort. Man, it's good to talk to you. This is where you hang out, huh?

Yeah, I love Southern California. It's great to wake up in the morning and hear the birds coughing. See what you're breathing.

It's great. Ray Comfort. Ray, this is Living Waters Ministries.

That's what it's called. Tell them to get that name and tell us kind of the passion of this place. Well, in 1975, a guy showed up at my doorstep with the artwork for what was called a Jesus Paper during the Jesus Movement, and it was called Living Waters. And he said, well, you take it over. So I said, yeah, sure. So I did the artwork, and we ended up selling something like, well, giving away $250,000, and that was the beginning of Living Waters.

Wow. And then I began printing gospel tracts. An elderly Presbyterian minister insisted on me getting what was called a gestetina, a lithograph machine.

He used to print bulletins on them years ago. And I don't know why he got me that, but I wrote a tract, and some guy saw it. It was called Sin Not Skin. It was about the whole racial issue. And he wanted 5,000 copies, so I had to crank out 5,000 copies. And since that time, something like 250, 260 million tracts have gone out. So despite not the day of small beginnings, it's one of what God's done.

Who is Ray Comfort? I want to ask that question. I want to probe here a little bit, and folks driving around to listen to my voice on the radio, a lot of them don't know God. They don't know what's going on, and all they know is you've got a funny accent.

Yeah, I'm originally from New Zealand. I'm a nobody from nowhere with nothing but a passion for God, a love for God. And my testimony is that I couldn't figure out why I was part of the ultimate statistic, why 10 out of 10 die.

And it drove me crazy. I thought, why is nobody talking about this death, and why doesn't someone do something about it? And I found out when I heard the gospel for the first time that God did something about it. Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. So I repented that night, this is 1972, April the 24th, became a Christian, and went crazy like a man who's found everlasting life among those who sit in the shadow of death. For the last 45 years, I've spent my life in every way possible reaching out to people to say, consider where you're going to spend eternity. Look at the commandments. Realize that if you lust after a woman, you've committed adultery in your heart, you're in big trouble on Judgment Day. Hell is a reality. God provided a Savior through the death and resurrection of the Savior. You need to repent and trust in Him.

Do that, and God will give you everlasting life. That's the gospel in a nutshell. People have watched your videos, read your books, videos.

You actually go on the street. What's up with the street evangelism, street witnessing? Witnessing the atheists. You've made videos about homosexuality, atheism. You just don't like controversy, do you?

No. The whole principle is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You've got as much chance of sinners visiting a church building as you have criminals visiting a police station.

It's not a nice place to go when you're guilty. And so, sinners avoid the light. They love the darkness, so you've got to take the light to the darkness, and that's what we do. And when you understand the principles of biblical evangelism, there's nothing to fear. You speak to the conscience, not the intellect.

So, I'm a freshman taking a philosophy class at the Master's College in California, not far from here. You and I hadn't met yet, but a guy hands me a book. He says, this will change how you look at evangelism.

This will change everything for you. And his name was David Deutsch. He's a pastor over in the Simi Valley area now. And the book was entitled, Hell's Best-Kept Secret. Now, the title alone got me. But it said, Ray Comfort. I said, what's comforting about Hell's Best-Kept Secret? But that book made an indelible.

I mean, I became a Ray Comfort, like, I was like an evangelist for you. I was just sharing with everyone, you've got to get this book. We've been doing it wrong. But tell us the premise of that. I think you repackaged that, or retitled the book.

And it's been in print a bunch of times, but tell us kind of the premise of how we do get it wrong. We just rush in with God's love, and the sinner could care less about that. Yeah, you'll never convince a man to take a cure unless you're first convinced he has the disease. If I come up to you and say, hey, I've got this wonderful cure, please take it, you're going to say, look, get out of my face. I don't want your silly cure. But if I take the time to point out the clear symptoms of the disease, and you see you've got a terminal disease, you're going to say, wow, what should I do? Then when I bring the cure out, you're going to appreciate it and appropriate it.

Because you've understood you have the disease, so you can understand why you need the cure. And the disease is sin, and we won't be convinced of the sin without the commandments. They tell us what sin is. It's violation of God's law.

Lust is adultery, hatred is murder in God's eyes. Once we see we're in big trouble on government day, we pass the disease of sin, we see unneeded. So just don't put the cart before the horse.

It won't go anywhere. You've got to put the horse before the cart, and the law comes before the gospel. This is what Jesus did. It's what Paul did in Romans chapter 2. Do you say you shall not steal? Do you steal? Do you say you shall not commit adultery?

Do you commit adultery? What's he doing? Speaking to the conscience, bringing in the knowledge of sin, so the heroes will see the need of the Savior. Okay, this is Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson, sitting with one of my heroes, literally. This guy is in my Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith, and he's Ray Comfort, and he's a part of the Live in the Waters ministry. You've heard about it.

It's Genesis here just now. Ray, I want to practically break this down for our listeners, because what you do is you make it simple. You obviously model it, because you're out there... You should be on the golf course, man. You should be chasing a little white ball, and you're out there street preaching and saying, I'm on a computer. I see you on the videos, and I've texted you before. I say, hey, I'm going to talk on a Saturday night. You're like, hey, I'm off the street. I have to go right back. I'm like, hey, I'm watching the game, Ray.

What's going on here? But tell our listeners practically. They have a friend they want to lead to Christ. What's a simple way, without being condemning, because hey, we're all friends. We're all charges of clay, right?

Yes. But what's a simple way to get to someone, to use the law, to let the law do what it's designed to do? Let me tell you how to meet a stranger. I believe in a relationship of evangelism, where people build a relationship for one, two, three years before they get the right to witness to someone.

Well, I believe in building a relationship for maybe one, two minutes when I meet a stranger, and this is how I do it. I say, hey, how you doing? What's your name? He says, Tom. I say, Tom, I'm Ray, pleased to meet you. Tom, I've got a question for you. Do you think there's an afterlife? Tom will say, no, I don't know.

So do you think about it? He says, all the time. So if heaven exists, are you going to make it? Are you a good person? He says, yeah, I'm a really good person. Now, I haven't mentioned sin, righteousness, judgment, heaven, hell, judgment, day, the blood of Christ.

Any of these things make him and us feel uncomfortable. All I've said, Tom, is do you think there's an afterlife? So there's no intimidation from me. And he says, yeah, I'll make it to heaven. I'm a good person. I say, well, let's have a test.

How many lies do you think are told in your life? He says, oh, go on. Have you stolen something? He says, yeah, yeah. Have you used God's name in vain?

Yeah. Jesus said, if you look at a woman and lust for her, commit adultery in your heart. Have you ever done that? He says, oh, you have done that all the time. I said, Tom, I'm not judging you. You just told me you're a lying thief, a blasphemer, an adulterer at heart. Guilty on judgment day.

He says, yeah. Heaven or hell? He says, I'm going to hell. And that's when the cross makes sense. God provided a savior that could forgive our sins because he took our punishment. Rose again the third day. And I have lost count of the times people have said I've never heard it put like this before.

It doesn't make sense. And people can see this in action. We've got a new website called fullyfreefilms.com where all our movies are on there. 42 million views on YouTube. We're astounded. 42 million.

The Apostle Paul would be green with righteous envy. To think what we've got in the Internet. We've reached 42 million and it's free. So fullyfreefilms.com, you can see that in action. And what's the general website for the ministry itself, Living Waters?

Livingwaters.com, livingwaters.com. OK, use this, folks. Get him to your church. Kirk Cameron does a lot with you. Great, great evangelist. He was a famous actor. He was in Star Trek, wasn't he, Captain Kirk?

Yeah, sure. Growing pains. I never had any growing pains. I'm 5'5".

She was about 7'8". I've only met his legs. So, Ray Comfort, you're such a blessing, man. Just a man who's thinking about evangelism sharing Christ. I mean, that's the one thing we can't do in Heaven.

Is bring people to Christ. It's too late then, isn't it? It's too late. Hell is a reality. If Hell didn't exist, this movie wouldn't exist either. So, this movie?

I love something important. Yeah, if Hell didn't exist, neither would this ministry. I'd be somewhere in Australia. I would've left New Zealand, gone to Australia.

I'd be an old, grey-haired guy, surfing, dang on my feet, a sharp bait. But I'm not interested in self-indulgence because Hell exists. I want my life to mean something and so should every Christian be like that. Ray, thank you, man, for your friendship. It's so encouraging to talk to you and interview you here. We're going to run this a bunch of times. Folks, learn more and get engaged in the culture and have people like Ray Comfort in your life that make you uncomfortable. Thank you very much, too.