Counting the Days

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That's PRCUA.org. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God today, wow, Mike, we have Ray Comfort back with us. And I mean, it doesn't get much more exciting, especially at Christmas time. And I happen to know the subject matter he's going to want to talk about. So buckle up because it's going to be an awesome ride.

It is. We're excited to have Ray Comfort on. He's been on once before, but he really just a wonderful guy. He actually goes out and does street ministry in Southern California, talks to atheists, professors, really anybody who will sit in front of him.

And he just has a real heart for the loss. But we're excited to have you on, Ray, because you've got a new book out or coming out or it's out now. It's called Counting the Days. Undeniable Signs of the Last Days.

Can you tell us about that, Ray? Yeah, I know there's a lot of controversy when it comes to prophecy, so many different interpretations. If you want to split your church, just stand up and say, I think these are the signs of the end of the age. We tend to disagree. So I've just chosen the signs that are noncontroversial. The book's two pages long.

I'm just kidding. It's very difficult to find signs that are noncontroversial. But we've mainly looked at Jerusalem and men's hearts failing at the fear of that which is coming upon the earth. Jerusalem is the sign to look for.

In 1948 the Jews got Israel and fulfilled the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, Luke 21, when they obtained Jerusalem in 1967, no longer in the hands of the Gentiles. So that's the sign to look for, to know where we're living on God's timeline. But the other big one is men's hearts will fail them for fear of that which is coming upon the earth.

In June of this year, according to the CDC, 25 million Americans seriously considered committing suicide. So I wrote this book to take the gospel using the platform of prophecy to reach them. In Acts 25 or 28 or somewhere in that, Paul says he persuaded them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. No one knows the future but God. If men knew the future, they'd move to Las Vegas and predict when the roulette world would stop and become billionaires overnight.

Weather forecasters get it wrong. Many a parade has rained upon and psychics don't know, but only God knows the future. And so prophecy that we're seeing being fulfilled at this present time establishes the fingerprint of God all over scripture. And so both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets.

The law of Moses brings the knowledge of sin, shows us that we need God's mercy, and the prophets show us that the scriptures can be trusted. So this book has been written with that in mind, bringing the gospel to the ungodly, bringing the light into the darkness. And we're thrilled that we are able to get with the publishers and get them down to 7.99 retail book down to 50 cents a copy when people buy a box of 100 to give out to the neighborhood. That is awesome.

That is awesome. And we'll definitely be online and if you guys are listening, definitely pick up 100 copies and give it to your friends. I think you were actually saying you could put it on people's doorknobs, on their mailboxes, you can put them on people's windshields, and sometimes I guess we have to get creative when it comes to the gospel.

Fling them out of your car window when you're driving along the freeway. Yeah, whatever way you can get it out there, we have to get the message out. But when we look at Luke chapter one and we talk about the virgin birth, you said this has actually been something that's been on your mind.

Is that right? Yes, I'm putting together a book that's been on my heart and mind. You originally texted me and said, what do you say to someone who doesn't think there's evidence for Jesus? Well, there's a lot of evidence for Jesus, but when someone comes to me and asks that question, say, how do you know Jesus actually existed? I say, what year is it? I say, excuse me? I say, well, you know, we measure our year by counting them.

What are we up to at the moment? They say, 2020. I say, since when? They say, well, since Christ.

Well, there you are. He existed. He split time in two. A calendar is dated from him because he so impacted society. And no philosopher or historian holds a candle to the words of Jesus.

They were absolutely brilliant. Look at the Sermon on the Mount. Who gave us the golden rule? If it wasn't Jesus, who was it? And why wouldn't anyone want to be Jesus? And Jesus himself told us why. He said, because he spoke of man's moral accountability to God. And that's not a pleasant thought for sin loving sinners. People hate God without cause. And the name of Jesus is the only name throughout history that's been used as a cuss word.

You think about it. Who in history has had that the honor of the sinful world taking their name and using it as a very popular and common cuss word? Napoleon, Mother Teresa, Hitler, nobody but Jesus. His name, Jesus Christ or Jesus, is used in the place of a filth word to express disgust, which is the epitome of contempt that people have for God. And the reason they hate him is in John chapter 7 verse 7, Jesus said, the world hates me because I testify of its deeds that they're evil. So there's a reason people don't want it to be Jesus that wrote the Sermon on the Mount and told us of our accountability, that if we lust, we commit adultery in the heart.

If we hate someone to get angry without cause or in danger of judgment, that's because of that moral accountability. Wow. And in Psalm 107 31, it says, oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

And we really, when we think about all the things that the Lord has done for us and has continued to do for us, we really ought to give him praise. But, you know, I see you on the street with all sorts of people and they, I guess, bright people, but, you know, you ask them questions like, well, can you make something out of nothing? Is that right? Yeah, we can't make a grain of sand out of nothing. You know, I was just thinking recently that scientists estimate that 70 trillion cells make up a human body, 70 trillion.

I mean, it's just beyond comprehension. But each of those cells of those 70 trillion cells is made up of 100 trillion atoms. So if you want to find out how many atoms are in your body, multiply 70 trillion by 100 trillion and there you are. Well, God knows every single atom. He knows that inside out intimately familiar with it because he made it. It's not just the hairs in our head that are numbered.

It's not just 137 million cells that make up the human eye. He's intimately familiar with every part of our body. He put it together to make you you. And that's the God that we have to face on Judgment Day. And that's the God that created all things. And we can't create a grain of sand for nothing. As I said, we can't make a frog or a flower or a bird or a tree, let alone a human eye or a human cell or anything living. And so that that knowledge tends to take away the thought that God's an old man in the sky reaching out to touch the finger of Adam, you know, sitting on a cloud. That's anthropomorphic. It's actually idolatrous.

It's ridiculous. God is nothing like what we conceive him to be and will only fear God as much as we understand him. As Christians, what we want to do is put the fear of God in the hearts of the ungodly.

Why? Because the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And the Bible says through the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. And while people think that God is just an old man in the sky reaching out to touch Adam's finger, they won't fear him and they won't depart from their sin.

And they'll be damned on Judgment Day justly because of that idolatry that they embrace. Yeah, and when you read the first chapter of Luke and the Gospels and everything, it talks about the virgin birth of Jesus. And there, one time somebody asked Larry King from Larry King Live, they said, Larry King, if you could interview anybody, anybody in history, who would you interview? And he said, I would interview Jesus Christ. And they said, well, why would you want to interview Jesus Christ? And he said, I would ask him if he was virgin born.

He said, because if the answer to that question is yes, it defines everything. Yeah, my heart went out to Larry King because he was so searching and yet so sinful in the sense that he'd just hear truth, want to find the truth, and yet he just held back for year after year. So many godly men would come on this program and share the Gospel.

My friend, Kirk Cameron, actually met him privately and took him through the Ten Commandments many years ago, and we related one of our books. But yeah, I don't know why the virgin birth is such a stumbling block for sinners. When you think how great God is, nothing is impossible with God. But we often open a can of worms when we address somebody's intellect. If you can intellectually talk someone to the virgin birth existing, all it takes is a stronger intellectual argument to talk them out of it.

And so you don't want to do that. What you want to do is change their heart through the power of the Gospel. Jesus had the Sadducees, I think it was, came to him and said, give us a sign. Well, Jesus could have given a sign that the virgin birth, according to Isaiah 7.14, was God himself giving a sign of the virgin birth, but Jesus didn't point to the virgin birth. He says, no sign should be given to this weak generation except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

Jonah was in the whale's belly or the big fish's belly for three days and three nights. So shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth? So what Jesus was alluding to was the Gospel. That is the sign for the skeptic. That's the sign for someone seeking truth. Because what happens when someone embraces the Gospel is that God gives them a new heart with new desires so that they are caused to walk in God's statutes.

He says, I'll write my law upon your heart. And what happens to a sin-loving sinner that drinks iniquity like water and loves darkness and hates the light is that he suddenly, when he's born again, begins to thirst for righteousness. And that's a miracle for sin-loving sinners.

That was my miracle. Man, I lived for sexual lust before I was a Christian. Every girl I looked at I consumed with my eyes. My eyes were full of adultery, as the Bible says, and I got tremendous pleasure out of it. You know, I was no different than any other red-blooded young male.

I just hid it secretly. But I used to have to go surfing and dangle my feet in cold water as shark bait to get pleasure before I was a Christian. But the pleasure that sexual lust gives is non-ending, and it's incredibly powerful. The Bible speaks of the pleasure of sin when it speaks of Moses. The night of my conversion, I read the words of Jesus, whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already within his heart. And that law brought a knowledge of sin, and I realized on Judgment Day, if God had seen my thought life, my uncleanness, I'd be damned to hell.

That's when I understood the cross. And the miracle was I began to thirst for righteousness. I became pro-life instantly. I became a lover of righteousness, anti-adultery, anti-abortion, anti-lying and stealing and blasphemy.

Anything God loved, I loved because God had written his law upon my heart and caused me to walk in his statues. That was my personal miracle. That showed me that the virgin birth is absolutely nothing for God, that he can create anything.

Nothing is impossible with God. So if someone's seeking a miracle or some sort of sign from God, obey the gospel, repent, embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord, call upon his name. You'll be given a new heart with new desires, so you'll love righteousness, and that'll be your personal miracle. You'll pass from death to life in an instant.

Absolutely. And you actually had a story about, I think when you were a young man before you became a Christian, and you said you had a young lady and you were out in the field or something, and she said something to you. Do you remember what that was?

Oh, do I ever. I'll never forget that right throughout eternity. It was an amazing experience. I was 16 years old.

This was six years before I came to Christ. I found myself behind a dance hall in Long Grass at night with a beautiful young girl named Anne-Marie. She was just gorgeous. I loved her. And as I was lying there with intentions that were not at all honorable, she turned to me and said five words that devastated me.

Absolutely changed my mind, actually changed my life direction. She turned to me and said, you know, God's watching us. And that was like a bucket of ice water came from the heavens.

I just said, oh, let's go back into the dance. And what she actually did is she put the fear of God in me. She made me realize something that I intuitively knew, and this God is omnipresent.

He sees everything, he knows everything, and I'm going to be held accountable. And that saved me making a terrible decision. I could have got her pregnant. I could have forced her into an abortion.

I could have brought shame to her family, my family. And so I thank God that through the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. It's the beginning of wisdom. And the way to put the fear of God into the heart of a nation that's careless, which is what our nation is at the moment, we've got a semblance of the fear of God in the sense that we believe in God's existence as a nation. We say, God bless America, but we don't obey him. So the fear is not enough to cause us to obey him.

The Bible says there is no fear of God before their eyes. And the way to put the fear of God into the hearts of sinners is just to give them what I got. Just give them the law of God.

Say, God, hold you morally accountable. Do what Paul did in Acts 17 and Athens. He saw the whole city was given to idolatry, and that's what's happened in our nation, where I adopt this nation, who has just a form of godliness. The image of God is erroneous. It's not biblical. He stood up and he said, God has appointed a day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness. God has not graven my art in man's device.

He's not an idol. Paul preached future punishment by the law. Someone once wisely said, law without consequence is nothing but good advice.

That is so powerful. Law without consequence is nothing but good advice. In other words, the Ten Commandments, the moral law, are good advice. You shall not steal, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery.

Yeah, that's great advice. Good thing. But law with consequence changes everything. And when Paul said, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, he was saying that God is going to hold you accountable for violation of that law, for your idolatry, for lying and stealing. All liars will have their part in the lake of fire.

That's their accountability. And that puts the fear of God in our hearts because we intuitively know it's wrong to lie and steal. And that prepares the heart for grace, where we can understand why Christ died on the cross. Yeah, and one of the things that I'm looking at is 1 John 1.7, and it says, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And I know a lot of us, we like to look at the second part of the verse, leaving off the first part where it says the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin. But it does say in the first part, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, and that what I hear you talking, it shows that no matter really what you've done before, like you, you know, you could, you could steal, you were a liar, all these other things before, but that when you come to Christ, he really starts to change you. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things become you.

And what happens is that God opens the eyes of your understanding. I used to pray before I was a Christian. I prayed every night. Lord's prayer said it is a kind of a sleeping pill to get to sleep.

I used to rattle off very quickly. There was no fear of God before my eyes. But the moment I became a Christian, suddenly creation looked different. I could see the genius of his hands, the flowers blossomed to his glory, the trees raised their arms in praise of God, the birds sung his praises, everything, the heavens declared his glory.

You know, when I meet an atheist, I don't believe he's an atheist. I know that the heavens declare the glory of God. When America broke from Britain, we didn't say, hey, we would like to break away if that's OK. No, it was a declaration of independence. We declared it. This is it, buddy.

We're leaving. And the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. Whenever any atheist supposedly sees a sunrise or a sunset on those incredibly big puffy white clouds or the incredible blue sky, they intuitively know God exists. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, even in creation. They're without excuse, as Romans 1 tells us.

So that's why it's so important not to stay in the intellect and argue with sinners, but to address the conscience as Jesus did in Mark 10 verse 17 by opening up the law and bringing them to a knowledge of sin so they see the danger and they need a Savior. Is it hard for you to go out and do what you do, talking to people face to face on the street, or does it just come natural? No, it's always hard. It's always fearful. People think I'm fearless.

Absolutely not true. I tremble every time I approach a sinner. I have to make an effort. I go out on my bike every day. I've got a platform on my bike for my dog. My dog wears sunglasses. He's white.

He looks pretty cool. I almost daily call out how cute as I go past when I call back, so is the dog. My dog is my way of reaching strangers. I can ride up straight into the middle of a gang or any group of people.

I did it yesterday. They say, hey, I like your dog. How does he keep his sunglasses on? We talk about dogs for a minute. I say, it's actually a YouTube channel with 141 million views. I ask people if they think there's an afterlife. Do you think there's an afterlife? Away we go. My dog has been my icebreaker, but it takes effort every day to go out. I'd rather just sit and do nothing, or sit and write a book or something that we don't approach strangers. My fear is actually controlled.

It's still there, but it's controlled. It's like, okay, I'm feeling scared, but I'm not going to listen. It's like a firefighter climbs a ladder five stories up, reaches out to grab a woman and her five kids, his flames lick their clothes. Is he terrified? Absolutely, but he's not thinking of himself. He's thinking of that woman and those children and their fate. And that's the key to overcoming your fears. You don't think of your own silly fears. You think of the fate of the ungodly. Others having compassion, making a difference, pouring them from the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. So the way to overcome your fears is not pray for less fear, pray for more love. Because the problem is a lack of love when we let fear overtake us. Yeah, and one of the things that a lot of people are talking about now is the possible persecution that could be coming to America. And I sent you an article yesterday, it was from Christian Headlines, and it says the end of religious liberty in Canada, where they've actually passed laws now where if you believe the Bible on issues such as marriage or homosexuality or abortion or whatever it is, that you could actually be criminally prosecuted.

How do we handle this? We handle it with great joy. When Saul of Tarsus created havoc, threatened out slaughter against the church, they were scattered abroad everywhere preaching the word.

And that's what brought revival. There's nothing like persecution to shake us out of our apathy and sort out the Judases from the genuine. I mean, if you know you're going to get prosecuted for believing the Bible, what are you going to do? Become a secret believer?

There's no such thing. You just have to say, oh God, make me strong. You know, one thing that's grieved me in our nation is that our churches are filled with false converts. Pastors who have never been converted, they have not repented and put their faith in Jesus, they're more like motivational speakers. Well, persecution is going to clean up the church, it's going to purify the church, it's going to make us strong.

The gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. The wind of adversity sends the roots of the trees in deeper. And so it's going to make us strong and we're going to see revival. And I've never seen so many people so open to the gospel as with this coronavirus. Death is something that isn't in the minds of the ungodly when things are going fine. This virus has made everybody think about death. And that's a good thing because our will to live is such a strong thing.

It's God-given. We're not like animals, we're not like the beasts of the field or dogs or cats. God's placed eternity on our heart, and the legitimate thing to do with an ungodly person is just say to someone, you go up and say, if you want to witness to them, just go up to them and say, do you think there's an afterlife? I do it all the time.

You don't mention God, Jesus, the Bible, heaven or hell, just say, what do you think, is there an afterlife? And let them talk. And then say, are you fearful of dying? And I just, on Saturday, interviewed a guy and as soon as I said that he went, wow. And the inference was, how did this guy know I'm scared of dying? It's because Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15 says, every human being is tormented by the fear of death all their lifetime.

Well, that's a plus for us. You know, they've got a will to live and we've got the answer in Christ, and we've got the cure, they've got the disease, they just have to realize, they'll be made to realize, they've got the disease, they need God's mercy, and when the gospel comes, they'll embrace it as a dying man embraces a cure. Jesus is the cure.

Jesus is the cure. And Robbie, we were just talking a minute ago about the virgin birth as well, and Robbie had looked up some of, actually, the Hebrew words, Robbie, is that right? Yeah, I, one of those that just love to ponder things. And you know, the idea that Jesus was going to come, as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 7, that there's going to be a sign. And that word sign in Hebrew starts with a tuv, which in the oldest Hebrew script is a cross. And so it's kind of like, there's going to be this sign. And oh, by the way, if you're looking at the script, it's a cross. And so you can't miss it from my perspective that it's always been about the cross and getting right with God. That's right, Ray, what do you think?

Absolutely. Isaiah 7, verse 14, some say, oh, it doesn't say virgin, it uses the word made. Well, why would say, why does the Bible say God himself will send you a sign, a maid will have a child?

That's not a sign, if the maid's having child by the millions, daily almost, throughout the world. But when a virgin conceives, that's a sign. And the reason Jesus had to be born of a virgin is that his blood had to be pure. He couldn't be of Adam's race, and Joseph had impregnated his wife Mary when they were married, and Jesus was conceived, he would have contained his blood. The blood is sparked by the male. And God himself sparked the blood of Jesus. So his blood was pure, and it's his blood, as you said earlier, that cleanses us from all sin, because he is the spotless lamb whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins.

Absolutely, and we have about two minutes left. I've heard that up to 40% of the people who listen to this show are actually not Christians. Now, there could be an array of reasons why they are listening, maybe they're searching, maybe they're trying to make fun, I don't know, but what would you say to somebody, Ray, who has never said yes to Jesus? Well, I would remind them they're going to die. That's a good sign that God is angry at sin.

He's given you the death sentence. And embrace the gospel I've shared, or even watch our videos. They're completely free. As I said, 141 million views, and they're just go to LivingWaters.com, our YouTube channel, and even get a copy of the book, the one that's 50 cents, and read it. Or you can actually read it online free of charge. Just go to LivingWaters.com, look at the new book called Counting the Days, and you can read it freely online.

No charge at all, the whole book. And that shares the prophecies that will help suffice when it comes to doubt regarding the credibility of Scripture, and present the gospel in an understandable way. Hopefully you'll come to your senses before death seizes upon you and your feet are sealed for eternity. And it says in Scripture that today is the day of salvation.

And one of the things that I see, and I just saw a younger couple who you were interviewing, atheist changes his mind after one simple question, the gentleman with the hat and his young girlfriend. But there is coming a day of judgment, and Ray, we certainly appreciate everything that you do. Once again, you said to go to LivingWaters.com, and you can check out the book. And please check out Ray on YouTube and pick up the book, buy some books, send it out to folks. And Ray, we certainly do appreciate you coming on. I appreciate it. It's really good. Thank you. If not for God, Mike. If not for God.