Ray Comfort: ‘Cults Sects and Questions’

‘This book gives a clear explanation of the Hare Krishna and Children of God movements, exposes the errors of Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Christian Scientists and answers questions such as “Where did God Come from?”, “Why does God allow children to stave?” and many more’.

‘Show me one [mistake], I get you can’t; in fact I’ll give you $100 if you can prove to me there is one mistake in the word of God’

‘If there is ever conflict between Science and Scripture, the problem must be on the science side’.

‘To withhold the rod is to put your hand in the hand of Satan and co-operate with him in sending your child to hell!’


‘Cults Sects and Questions’ is another of Ray Comforts late 70’s books (as I’ve indicated previously, frustratingly Ray didn’t deem it necessary to denote a date on any of these publications, but at I’m fairly sure this one was 1979)

Mercifully for yours truly it was an easier book to digest than the previous efforts I have reviewed.

This was because the format was broken down into Ray answering a series of self-imposed questions, one per chapter, 37 chapters over just 172 pages.

Major questions like ‘How can we know there is a God’? and ‘Where did God come from?’ intermingle with the less relevant & some of Rays ever-present pet hates ‘Rock Music’ and ‘Jehovah Witnesses’ – plus a new target ‘The Hare Krishna Movement’.

For anyone who is interested in cults and sects, the book would be a major disappoint to you, as it was to me. Cults fascinate me.

37 Chapters, just 7 were on cults and sects (I’ve included Mormons in that mix)

The way I approached the book was to go straight to the chapters, that interested me and see what Ray had to say on a whole range of poignant, deeply philosophical issues, and tackle them.

I have therefore spared you the evangelically orientated chapters like ‘Why do I need to go to Church?”, “What would you say is the key to successful Christian living?” etc.

So here we go, grab yourself a cup of coffee and an aspirin.

Most of the time I’m just repeating what’s written verbatim ,in an abridged form the original texts so we can get through the writings.

Trust me, this is enough.

My snide comments are in the brackets.

Chapter 1: ‘Where does God come from?’

We can not gaze into space and understand that space has no end. There is no brick wall at the end of space, because if there was, what would be behind the brick wall? It just goes on and on……never ending. The thought of infinity hurts my brain – I can not understand it [fortunately for mankind, those with bigger brains can] The Bible teaches us that God is eternal, without beginning and without end. We being finite, can not understand a world without time. Time is just a dimension that God has created and subjected man to [move-over Einstein, Rays in town] Eternity and infinity are too much for our tiny brains to comprehend.

Chapter 3: How can we know there is a God? Surely it’s naïve to believe in something you cannot see? [too bloody right!]

True we can not see God, but we can see the genius of God by works for His hands [if you can’t see him how can you be sure it’s a he and not the celestial version of a lady-boy from Phuket?] We can see by the order of creation that a Creator must exist; reason, logic and common sense point to that conclusion [even if science and that messy thing called evidence doesn’t] It is the epitome of foolishness to say our world with its seasons, weather patterns, trees, flowers, birds etc…was the result of some explosion in space of which our earth was a part [which bit of these scientifically quantifiable counter-arguments do you not understand there Ray?] How can we say that the human body “just happened” with no intelligent creator behind it? [earth to Ray, it’s because of guy called Darwin who explained the origins to mankind 150 years ago and advances in genome research shows us we are 98.3% identical to certain chimps] The motive for saying there is no God is deeper than just ignorance [Oh I see, for a moment I thought it was just me denying scientific evidence in place of religious rhetoric]

Chapter 8: Why does God allow evil?

Why does God allow evil? – quite simply, because if He punished it immediately I’m sure we would have been snuffed out the moment we were born. [God the infanticidal Judge Dread] God says our very thoughts are an abomination to him. If He punished sin immediately [the logical thing to do], there would be no one left [ death being Gods sole punitive option]

Footnote: Nowhere in this brief answer does Ray even attempt to answer the question posed.

Chapter 10: Why does God allow people to die of starvation?

Ten thousand people a day die of starvation, according to a United Nations survey. Thousands more die from disease daily: we have earth-quakes, floods. droughts and pestilence. These are only a few of the evidences which show us that something is drastically wrong with our relationship with our creator [and there I was thinking earthquakes were fault movements as the plates moved] All of humanity’s problems stem from rebellion to The Word of God. Since mans rejection of God we have lived in this fallen state, where our weather patterns are chaotic, animals devour each other [pray-tell how does a carnivore survive other wise?] our crops are diseased, and multitudes are suffering and dying from sickness and disease. These are stark reminders that what The Word of God says is true [if raining-down misery on mankind is part of your Gods providence, can I take a miss or choose another one?]

Chapter 13: Why is it that God doesn’t answer prayers?

It has been said that God always answers prayer. Sometimes He says “yes” sometimes he says “no” and sometimes He says “wait a while” [at statistically the same rate as praying to the moon or your favourite stuffed toy] Sometimes God will answer a prayer in a different way than we have first anticipated. [hey, that’s exactly what happens sometimes when I beg to my stuffed toy] The fact is, many of us pray for things that God knows would only hinder our walk with Him [like say a cure for cancer?] so for our own good He withholds them from us [die ya bastard!]

When we are first born into God’s kingdom we generally get our prayers answered immediately [there’s thousands of studies which prove this] but as we grow God teaches us patience by letting us wait.

Chapter 14: Why do Christians suffer?

Nowhere in the Word of God does God promise that living for Him will be easy. The fact is, Christians do have problems, they do get sick, but god heals us when we are sick and takes us through our problems [try telling that one to an amputee] The non-Christian suffers in vain, the Christians with a purpose [very reassuring I’m sure for a Christian suffering the ravages of disease]

Chapter 15: Why believe the Bible when it’s full of mistakes?

Show me one (mistake), I bet you can’t; in fact I’ll give you $100 if you can prove to me there is one mistake in the word of God [Leviticus describes bats as birds, Moses tell us insects all have 4 legs etc etc. But what the hell did a bunch of primitives know? And by the way is that USD or NZD? With the exchange rate the way it is I’d prefer it in USD, thanks Ray] There are plenty of seeming contradictions, but no mistakes. I not only believe it is infallible, but I believe every word of it, literally [in case the world hadn’t noticed] - for example about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the whale etc. I believe it because I understand that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise [WTF are you talking about with this God creating foolish things?]

Read the book of Job for its scientific accuracies about the moon not having it’s own light, the earths free float in space, the treasures of the snow, Read in Isaiah 40, written 3000 years before Christ, about the earth being circular [ perhaps Galileo should have used it in evidence in his infamous heresy trial]

Chapter 16: Science tells us that the earth is millions of years old [make that billions] – doesn’t this conflict with the Bible?

In reference to this question I see no conflict between the Bible and science, because the Bible doesn’t say how long it was before Adam fell. Because there was probably no ageing or decaying process when man was first created [if you are flummoxed at this, think The Flintstones]
he may have been on this earth for millions of years before he sinned [throwing rocks at other units of chimps, I bet] Another thought [oh God no, not another one! Please no more, have mercy on the rational!] is that when God created man He would have created him with an appearance of age. If a biologist had appeared two minutes after man was created, he would therefore have judged the man was fully mature, probably about 30 years of age [I got the feeing he was making this up as well] The same process would apply to all creation. If a geologist had appeared on the scene two minutes after the creation of a mountain he would have said [using radiometric dating I’m presuming?] it was millions of years old, because it was created with an appearance of age.

If there is ever conflict between Science and Scripture, the problem must be on the science side.

[By now I was struggling, with the book, and went-out and walked the dog, to get some fresh-air]

Chapter 26: What about the heathen in darkest Africa who have never heard of the name Jesus Christ – surely they won’t be condemned to hell because of their ignorance?

Every person ever born has a conscience: we all know right from wrong and God will judge us all as we have lived in regard to that conscience. The Bible tells us every man will give an account to God. If you are really concerned about the heathen, become a Christian and go tell them yourself [ like say starting a syndicated Evangelical TV programme in a poor needy country like Mozambique , rather than California?]

Chapter 30: What authority is there for or against women being prominent in Church work?

There is no authority in the Bible for a woman to have a place of supremacy in the church. When she takes it she steps out of her right place. She goes against the plain teaching of The Bible when she takes the place of the authoritative teacher in the church. [get back in the kitchen bitch, and cook me some eggs]

Chapter 34: Recently in Sweden it was declared illegal for parents to physically discipline their children – do you agree?

In this chapter Ray writes, under the subheading ‘How to Chasten your Children’ the following pieces of Christian enlightenment and child-rearing tips, could be found …..

-Always inflict the punishment so as to make him cry. This sounds cruel, but if he doesn’t cry he will harbour anger and resentment [oxymoron time folks] Tears bring release.

- I realise that discipline is not easy; it must be consistent and it must start early.

- My own mother is always telling us how well behaved our children are, but little does she know how we got them that way! She would turn grey if she knew, I cane her perfect grandson, but she loves the result.

- The Word of God says that if a father provides all other necessary things to raise a child and yet fails to discipline him, the child is a bastard and may as well not have a father.

- To withhold the rod is to put your hand in the hand of Satan and co-operate with him in sending your child to hell!

As you can appreciate by the end I had well and truly, had a guts-full of this load of crap!

My blood pressure should be down by the end of the week.

Ray Comforts lost masterpiece ‘Bugged by Jehovah’s Witnesses?’

Looking at the cover of this booklet, and considering Ray himself is amongst the worlds most overt and passionate prophesiers, the subject matter here seems to be a little bit ‘rich’ – the proverbial 'pot calling the kettle black'.

But the initial assumptions one draws from the cover-art, are well wide of the mark.

These 16 pages, penned purportedly in 1981, are all about Ray slamming The Jehovah Witness Church (or sect as he frames it) and following “The True Church”.

I am not going to bore you with the theological claims he uses to preserve what he calls “the deity of Christ” nor regurgitate the endless bible passages he uses to expand on his position – suffice to say, Ray has 'issues' with The Jehovah Witnesses interpretation of the same book.

It’s highly doubtful a single J.W was deterred by his act of interdenominational ‘brotherhood’.

The Christchurch Library, issues this booklet under the headings (1.) Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (2.) Controversial Literature.

They got it right, on one score.

This is one booklet, I’m sure Ray is embarrassed to say is mine.

By the way - I’m still confused, how about you?

Footnote: I have another project I’m working-on so this will be the last blog on Ray Comfort for a few weeks, but it won’t be the last. There a few more juicy titles of his, that deserve one more airing.

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!

Ray Comfort claims to find a Cure for Cancer.

“You should never consult a doctor or go to a hospital for treatment, because you would be interfering with the work of God in your life”.


There are two words that make my blood boil.

False Hope.

Combine them with ‘cancer’ and I turn downright nasty.

Any person who offers false-hope to those suffering the ravages of cancer, irrespective of their motivations, is in my books a heartless individual, worthy only of contempt & public admonishment.

And it’s admonishment I’m about to dish-out, in bucket loads, to one Ray Comfort Jr, author of this 111 page sanguine publication, entitled ‘More Than Just Comfort’.

First take another look at the cover to this book, above.

Focus one second on ‘AN ANSWER TO CANCER’.

Now, place yourself in the shoes of someone who is afflicted by this disease.

Then turn-over the book, look at the back-cover, like a prospective and anxious purchaser.



‘Cancer: The Modern Day Leprosy’.

Wow, we can now render cancer, to the historic medical annals of leprosy, right?

Of cause not, it’s all a load of crap, mere figments of Rays imagination.

Cancer is not contagious like some forms of Leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) for starters.

So to make such a nescient comparison, indicates he was never qualified in the first place, to write a book of this nature.

But when has that stopped him, eh?

The diatribe contained on its pages, speaks for itself.

There is no need for me to embellish or castigate Ray’s words – they do a good enough job incriminating themselves, without my help.

It’s time for you to read Ray Comforts ‘Answer to Cancer’ in the abridged form (basically everything minus the all too numerous and erroneous bible references) and make your own conclusions.

“There is absolutely no pointing being healed in our bodies, then dying in our sins and spending an eternity in hell. It would be better to die of cancer and go to heaven because of that cancer, then to live in perfect health and end up in hell”

“God slowly begins to wash the brain, removing all the filth and wrong attitudes it picked-up in the pre-Christian life. He begins healing wrong emotions, the scars of envy, jealousy, hate, bitterness etc, which can cause many common diseases”

“One of the first reactions to the news of cancer is fear. Through the healing of the soul God will teach the principals of faith. One way to rid your garden of the weeds is to cram them out with vegetables. In the same way God can cause you to rid yourself of fear by cultivating its opposite – faith in him”.

“The Bible tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death. Our words can bring either life or death”.

“Pain can be intensified by negative thought, which always destroys peace of mind. Often we have prayed for people who are in pain after being told they only have a short time to live, and the pain has gone”.

“Humanly speaking fear accompanies cancer, but through faith we can look at the situation supernaturally”.

“Satan has no right to afflict us, and when he does we can, by God’s grace, effectively resist him”.

“Therefore you should never take medicine to relieve pain. You should never consult a doctor or go to a hospital for treatment, because you would be interfering with the work of God in your life. If Cancer is the chastening tool of God, then doctors who are fighting cancer are fighting against the work of God. If a preacher or a Christian believes the sickness is a means of chastening, then he should never pray for relief from the sickness, but rather pray that the cancer will continue to grow until the chastening is completed”.

“If doctors were asked to diagnose that woman’s case, not one spine specialist in the world would say “Satan has bound her”. Doctors would call it arthritis of the spine, or vertebrae out of place, or some other medical term, and they would be right as far as medical terms are concerned. But if you get to the real source of the trouble you will discover that source is Satan”.

At this point in the book, whole chapter and a half is dedicated to describing the exorcism of Dave and Jane already covered above, but embellished by the startling revelation Jane’s toy, Kermit the Frog (a.k.a. Hermit the demon) had a cross driven through his heart.

In the Chapter Six, the final one, we hear about Kathy Howell from Auckland, who develops leukaemia and undergoes medical treatment as well as a heavy dose of prayer initially via her mother. Although the story includes specific details about her conventional medical care that lead to her remission, Ray points this to be an example of her belief in God and his ability to cure sickness the recovery.Even Kathy heaps praise on medical intervention first before the supernatural.

“In closing I want to mention the wonderful dedication and commitment of all the doctors and nurses I met, and the faithfulness and love of all the wonderful Christian people who prayed for me. Prayer I believe, is the greatest weapon we have against cancer. But most of all I want to thank Jesus”.

The contents of the late 70’s publication are beyond reproach.

Frankly ‘More Than Just Comfort’ is offensive in the extreme, beyond the bounds of simple ignorance & Ray Comfort, owes an apology to everyone who has been touched by cancer.

Starting first, with me.

Writers Note: These expose on Ray Comfort come from his earlier works – the ones which remain all but anonymous, occupying some dusty 2nd hand bookshop shelf in Christchurch, at best. Many of these books/booklets were limited runs, and never big sellers in their day & thus largely disappeared over the ensuing 30 years. They display a naivety, that I’m sure Ray himself would now cringe at. I am not into character assassination, he did some splendid work in the field of drug rehabilitation.It is however important to record ‘where he was at’ during his time in New Zealand. Remember, people change. We’ve all done things in past we’d rather forget, but generally we don’t make our living telling other people how to live. Ray feels a zeal to run-down atheists that knows no peer, so this alone makes him ‘fair-game’.

'Killer on the Loose!' 1980 Booklet by Ray Comfort

So what’s inside this long-lost gem by Ray Comfort penned in Christchurch in 1980?

I know you are dying to know.

‘Killer on the Loose’, all 20 odd pages, starts by Ray warning Kiwi’s, Satan is on the loose, and to avoid dabbling in the occult and venturing into the spiritual realm. Namely, horoscopes, palmistry, hypnotism etc.

The following passages from the bible [ 2 Cor 4:4, Job 2:7 ] allow Ray to conclude Satan is “the inflictor of sickness”. So if you get a cold or the flu, it’s not a physical affliction, it’s Beelzebub at work.

Ray then tells us about performing an exorcism on a man called Dave, who was possessed by a homosexual spirit called ‘Kora’. (bears a striking resemblance to a anglicised & abbreviated form of the word Koran, if you ask me)

Next from its pages we get in-depth coverage of other of these exorcisms. ‘Hate’ was the name of one demon he exorcised from a teenaged girl called Jane (sadly, Hates parents weren’t able to grab hold of a ‘Name your Baby Devil’ book and come-up with something more creative) We are told Jane had begun speaking to an invisible friend from the age of seven. No not God, his adversary.

Fortunately Ray was able to scare away this invisible friend called ‘Hate’ from Jane with a few well placed scripture passages, but not enough it appears to dissuade the other twelve demons inside her. According to Ray the first of the 12, or head demon, was none other than Joseph Smith. Yep, the spirit of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of the Later Day Saints, was living inside a Christchurch teenager in the late-seventies!!

There’s an easy explanation for all of this according to Ray - Jane was baptised a Mormon.

Like a scene of the movie Exorcist Jane is held down screaming and groaning by Ray and his team of four helpers, all good Christians we are reassuringly told, assist as best they can.

He names the demons ‘Marinda’ (this name will become more significant later on, so I won’t spoil the surprise at this stage) and Saol – then Lucifer himself (sadly playing one night only, get your tickets early or you’ll miss-out)

Now if by now you are beginning to smile in mirth at this, I would recommend grabbing a hanky right now, to stop the tears of laughter – Rays written description of Jane’s exorcism gets a lot weirder and funnier, if you ask me.

Ray begins questioning the semi-conscious Jane about her childhood and low-and-behold, her possession all makes sense, at least in his mind.

Jane was adopted as a baby and had a father who didn’t love her, and her closest possessions as a child were a stuffed toy of Kermit the Frog and a fairy necklace. Well it appears Kermit was not the cuddly toy the shop promised and nothing like his television character, more like ‘Chucky’ from the horror film.

Kermit was really ‘Hermit’ a demon! (so this at least puts to rest the belief it’s just Ernie from Sesame Street who is evil)

If that’s not scary enough, that fairy necklace that Jane said “gave her a feeling of power over people” turns-out to be an open invite to the demon Marinda to occupy her body.

Although Ray doesn’t come straight out and say it like he does with the demon formally known as Joseph Smith, Marinda was the actually name of one of Smiths wives.

So to get your head around this: there’s the spirits of Mr & Mrs Smith (the founders of the Mormon Church), a lesser-known demon called Saol, seven other nameless demons, and Lucifer himself – all kicking round inside this 19 year old Kiwi girl, on Ray Comforts office floor.

Fret not, we learn thanks to Ray and the power of the gospel Jane was ‘saved’ and the demons expunged.

Later we are told that Jane visits Ray to tell him “Jesus Christ visited me in the flesh”, not that Ray could pick-up on the obvious attention seeking, psychosomatic hallmarks, that surrounded the lass’s latest claim of a visitation.

The booklet ends as it starts by further warning us we shouldn’t open the door to oppressing spirits, by avoiding undertaking a range of dangerous practices.

So beware, you are in spiritual danger if you have (a.) sought to locate missing objects or persons by consulting someone who has psychic powers (b.) had your fortune told by use of cards, tea leaves, palm reading (c.) read or possessed occult or spiritual literature (d.) had your handwriting analysed (e.) practiced yoga etc.

You've been warned.

Joseph and Marinda are after a good home.

‘Evangelical Frustration’ The Early Days of Ray Comfort in Christchurch

1972: April 25, Ray Comfort was converted to Jesus Christ.

1974: He began open air preaching and continued to do so, almost daily, for the next 12 years.

During that time he started a free evangelistic newspaper called ‘Living Waters,’ and to write and publish gospel tracts.

1977: Ray published a book called, My Friends are Dying (now called, Out of the Comfort Zone). It received national publicity, and this opened an itinerant ministry.

1980: He began to suffer from a disease he called “evangelical frustration.” The symptoms were that few listened to the gospel, and few genuinely came to Christ. He also found statistics that showed that up to 90% of those making decisions fell away from the Church.

1982: Ray discovered “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” (then called “Evangelical Frustration”)—an eye-opening teaching about an almost forgotten biblical principle to reach the lost—one that was not only rooted in Scripture, but that was the essence of the gospel proclamation of men like John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon and George Whitefield.

1989: He and his family were invited to leave their native home of New Zealand and to relocate in the United States, particularly to bring their ministry to the American Church.

What you see above is the official autobiographical ‘time-line’ of Ray Comforts ‘coming to America’.

It tracks the beginnings of his notoriety, from street preacher in Christchurch, to house-hold name, not only in his new home - but around the globe.

Ray, now head of a U.S based the multi-million dollar corporation ‘Living Waters’ , assisted by his Kiwi-born son Daniel, constantly speaks of these ‘humble beginnings’.

Comfort (TV3 ‘Sixty Minutes Interview 2nd March 2009) claims to take little in terms of income from his own Corporation, lording over the disciples like in a benevolent spiritual guide, tending to chickens he keeps in his suburban back-yard for sustenance.

‘Gods Beverly Hillbilly’.

He bikes to work and outwardly, has none of the normal material trappings of conventional evangelists of his ilk.

But ‘making a living’ selling God has been important to Ray for 30 years, from the early days operating his Living Waters Publications out of his house in Christchurch, through to today’s corporate offices in California.

In 1977, Comfort described himself to one Christchurch newspaper as a Businessman, and now the title he uses is Chief Executive Officer.

The pond just got bigger, and the title to go with it, as well.

When you visit his web site you are greeted by the rather cool animation of a bank-vault opening and the accompanying term: ‘Money Tracts’.

Folks are encouraged to train for ‘The Way of the Master’ (I’m guessing Ray dreamed that one-up after retrieving memory-bites from the 70’s western kung-fu/western classic ‘Kung Fu’ ) going-up in steps.

All I might add, at a nominal cost.

Training is the backbone to Ray’s re-launched ministry, but evidently New Zealand is no longer on his radar.

Since leaving New Zealand, the first place he started Living Springs Publications, his founding mission has been inactive.

Ray is not listed in the New Zealand Companies office, as having any business interests in ‘home territory’.

So back to those early days, in Christchurch.

In 1978 I was employed by a Government Department located in Christchurch’s central ‘Cathedral Square’. The job was one in which you ‘lost the will to live’, but did come with some fringe benefits – namely 4 out of 5 employees were female (fond memories, indeed)

The Square in Christchurch was my normal lunch-time hang-out point and listening to the speakers broke the monotony of daily existence at my desk in the 3rd floor.

Given the opportunity to ‘spread the good word’ in an open-forum such as Christchurch’s Square, attracted, as it tends to, Christian evangelists of all persuasions.

There was Renee Stanton (I think she passed away last year?) who was dubbed ‘The Bible Lady’. Even on the top of chair she spoke from, ‘The Bible Lady’ was five foot nothing, and when things got rough she employed a unique defense mechanism – she’d start playing her violin, badly. For those of you that know ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy’- think Vogon poetry.

The arch-nonconformist Ian Brackenbury Channel (1932-) arrived from Australia in 1973. At one point he was a lecturer in Sociology & Psychology as well as being an amateur theologian. Brackenbury-Channel subsequently became a star attraction in Cathedral Square, calling himself ‘The Wizard’ after winning a battle with the City Council over the right to speak in public, and numerous complaints by christians and other targets of his aserdic tongue & black humour. Femininism was one of his many pet hates, and wo-be-tide any woman from the crowd who challenged his view.

Barry Smith (1933-2002) , was a New Zealand eschatologist and born-again preacher, who was another regular visitor to Christchurch’s Square. Smith was the stereotypical Christian Conspiracy theorist, plugging away at his belief One World Government and Armageddon. An intriguing combination for a couple of lunchtimes. It’s fair to say yelling at the top of his voice about an impending nuclear holocaust whilst clutching an over-sized bible, proved not to be a crowd pleaser. Even his fellow prophesiers looked upon him as a ‘loony-tune’. At one point Smith blamed The Wizard for an infestation of insects and saw him as the devil incarnate. On a visit to Wales, Smith made ‘friends and influenced people’ by telling the locals their state flag was the work of the devil.

There was also a preacher called ‘Wally’ who’s name befitted him, who use to keep company with Comforts crew, and wasn’t let’s say ‘the brightest tack in the box’ [readers are welcome to expand on this Wally bloke by contacting me, this was after-all 30 years ago and my memory is fading along with my hairline]

Into the mix, we now need to add one Ray Comfort.

Ray was a proverbial ‘fire and brimstone’ character, who was and still is, a guy who could take the verbal blows.

This ability to get up off the canvas, was a trait that has served him well on his travels. The Christchurch Square was never an easy place to speak. Kiwi’s are renowned for not suffering fools lightly, and avoiding social eloquences of the more refined and polite cultures, thus many a time, a speaker would be pelted with the remains of someone’s lunch (I myself plead guilty of this act on one occasion, but Ray was not the target, something that haunts me to this day)

Ribald abuse was fairly standard fodder.

Respect was earned, not a given right.

On one occasion, a troubled spectator appeared, can of petrol in hand, and threatening to set himself and Ray alight as well. Police intervention saved all parties from harm.

Ray, lived permanently in the shadow of The Wizard.

As a soap-box orator The Wizard, was second to none, and tourists loved Christchurch’s quirky eccentric, dressed in his distinctive pointy black hat and cape.

Photo of The 'Wizard and The Bible Lady in Christchurch Cathedral Square 1977.

The well read Wizard, was more than a foil for evangelist crew of Ray Comfort, Renee Stanton and Barry Smith’s of the time.

The Wizard was not only on an intellectual level above his contemporaries, he was bloody funny to listen to, an entertainer with no peer.

At one stage The Wizard hosted a ‘talk-back’ show on Radio Avon, and I can remember him arguing with callers, on the proposition that light-bulbs sucked the light from the room when you switched them on.

Christchurch’s public, loved the humour-ridden intellectual oratory of The Wizard and tolerated the Ray Comfort’s, he shared The Square with.

Living Water Publications began producing leaflets, for its prolific, sole author in the mid 70’s and continued till he departed our shores for the bright-lights.

Photocopied handbills, progressed into 20 page to leaflets, cassette-tapes and then finally fully-fledged books. Living Waters Publications went from a garage/room in Ray’s house to occupying a shop in New Brighton Mall. The last location for his fledgling publication company, was ironically in The Square itself - 'The Dome' of The Regents Movie Cinema.

Ray began selling the leaflets and books, rather than handing them-out to lunchtime gatherers.

He also found another gap in the local market, manufacturing display packs in 1977, so parents, teachers and employers could visually identify drugs. These were sold from a Christian bookshop in High Street.

These early crude publications from his Christchurch day’s, bear the same hallmarks of future material, but in the age before political correctness, Ray was able to more freely vent his spleen on a number of his pet hates, as well as using the publishing vehicle to assist his notable charity work, in the field of drug rehabilitation.

His cure for drug dependency - a good liberal dose of Christianity - did naturally attract its detractors from those involved in the professional health sector.

‘My Friends are Dying!’ (re-branded ‘Out of The Comfort Zone’ for an American readership) came-out in 1977, is the work he is best known for in New Zealand, particularly outside Christchurch, in the pages of which continues the theme that Christianity was a cure for addiction.

In my follow-up articles we’ll look at inside these early, lesser known publications from Ray Comfort.

These early pieces of journalism from his time here in New Zealand are very interesting, to say the least.