Ray Comfort takes us into ‘The Pit of Hell’.

‘The Pit of Hell’ is yet another of Ray Comforts fledgling New Zealand publications, which by my count there were 26 there-of, but this is probably on the short side, and there’s bound to be more floating around some where (some publications were essentially the same contents re-hashed)

This 32 page booklet, produced by Living Waters Publications, is listed by The Christchurch Library as coming-out in 1983, but this date is contestable, given many of these works came minus the date of publication we normally expect. 1983 is therefore ‘best guess’.

Before continuing to my acerbic review of it’s contents, for readers who have arrived at this site without having read my previous reviews on some of Rays earlier material and his time in Christchurch, it would pay to read them first. This way my summation on ‘The Pit of Hell’ will make more sense.

As I intimated above, a lot of these works go over the same content matter, and I can’t be bother repeating it.

I would like also to pay tribute to Ray Comforts charity work in the field of Drug Rehabilitation, during his days here in Christchurch. Clearly Ray and I are polls apart when it comes to the subject of God, evolution etc etc, but credit where credit is due, his charity work is worthy of mention.

Nor do I believe Ray has a malicious bone in his body – nowadays at least.

Ray has been blinded by his faith and I’m sure if he still reads his earlier stuff, he too would cringe & giggle.

It’s impossible to avoid the amateurish naivety of ‘The Pit of Hell’ and the ilk.

The ‘cuddly’ Ray, Americans are confronted with on their television screens is not the same one I remember from his days in The Christchurch Square, and my contention is best evidenced in his earlier writings, which I’m publishing for biographical posterity.

So this is not an exercise in character assassination, more one of historic record.

I look this, like one would look lost recording from a rock star’s first garage band resurfacing.

So on to ‘The Pit of Hell’ (some sort of heat repellent clothing is recommended).

Prospective readers are confronted with the tabloid-like headlines, in big letters:

‘Unbelievable Satanic Deception Flooding the Earth!

‘Don’t Ignore this Booklet’.

The dark charcoal cover (regrettably hard to copy decently) also has the following enticing bullet-points, to entice readers inside:

- The Occult
- Demonic Rock Music
- Blood Drinking Rites
- The Spirit of Murder and Punk Rock

So what are the contents of a booklet with such an intriguing cover?

A few pages-in, Ray rapidly moves the reader back to that stalwart of his – possession.

It’s back to Jane we read about in ‘Killer on the Loose’ and her trinket necklace, which he now describes in one line as “made of silver” and then in the next as “resembling either Tinkerbell or Peter Pan” and to confuse us more “probably a goddess of fertility or something similar” – which one of these three options is left to your own imagination (having an vivid imagination is something I recommended with any of these writings)

Ray expands on Jane’s exorcism proceedings, his crew is now down from the four he told us about in the first book to two, and he’s introduced a new prop – a hammer!

Here’s what he has to say “Whatever it was, it had a real hold on that young girl”. “I ripped it (being the necklace) from her hand and took it to the other side of my office and hit it with a hammer”

So you can stay with me, we were told earlier about the spirit of Miranda Smith the wife of Joseph Smith founder of The LDS Church possessing the teenage girl Jane via the portal of the necklace in question, Rays hitting with a hammer whilst his team hold her down.
”I had my back to her, and yet every time I hit the necklace demons in her screamed”. “It was like something out of a horror movie”.

After that vivid description, and a small diversion to another of his pet-hates ouiji boards, he cuts to one of the main areas of occult activity.

We get to the chapter on “Good O’ Rock’ .

Yes, every bad thing you read about with rock music is true and more.

We are told Alice Cooper is the son of a Baptist preacher who allowed a spirit to inhabit his body in exchange for fame and fortune. Iron Maiden have a song ‘The Number of The Beast’ pointing they are in collusion with the devil. Ozzie Osborne gets a notable mention for chewing the head of bats and doves. Jimmy Page is into black magic ceremonies and if you play ‘Stairway to Heaven’ backwards you’ll hear the phrase “here’s to my sweat Satan”.

After dealing to heavy metal, he attacks punk music and sets his sights on The Dead Kennedys and decries seeing KISS perform on a children’s television programme (horror of horrors) He is sure on a roll and as the chapter on the evils of rock music ends Ray wants us to know “One of Satan’s major methods of snaring the generation has been the international method of Rock Music”.

Parents are warned “To encourage children into Rock Music is to place them into the white hot arms of Molech and the beat and power behind the music will drown out the cries of your child as occultic powers consume him and drag him into the fires of hell!”.

Ya have to laugh!