for changing the grace of God into a "license for immorality" (Jude 4): Ray Comfort has many people (especially the full gospel, Pentecostal crowd) deceived about his salvation message (or gospel). As shown in his tape, “Hell’s Best Kept Secret,” he believes in the Calvinistic version of eternal security. Consequently, he teaches identically with the devil who wanted Eve to think she would not die spiritually through sin:
“What it is, is a sad admission to the amount of confidence we have in the power of our message and in the keeping power of God. If God has saved them, God will keep them. If they’re born of God, they’ll never die. If he’s begun a good work in them, he’ll complete it to that Day. If he is the author of their faith, he’ll be the finisher of their faith. He’s able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. He’s able to keep them from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jesus said no one will pluck you from my Father’s hand.” (Hell's Best Kept Secret audio tape)That is eternal security teaching with its Scriptural distortions. Sadly, Comfort thinks, “If they’re born of God they will never die.” (Hell's best kept secret is that the Christian can die spiritually through sin, so don't be deceived by him.) Hence, Comfort is opposed to following up on his new converts. In contrast, the Apostle Paul’s theology prompted him to follow up on his converts which resulted in his second and third missionary journeys. Of those real converts he saw people fall from grace, shipwreck their faith, desert God, turn from their dedication to Christ to following Satan, etc. So the issue isn’t just true or false conversion, as some say. New Christians can be in great danger of slick talking, Scripture-quoting false prophets. After someone gets saved, and we can “know” who is a child of God and who is a child of the devil (1 John 3:10), new converts need spiritual care, which can prevent them from falling away (dying spiritually), as many others have in the past. Jesus taught:
I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death (John 8:51).Ray Comfort is a regular platform speaker at Southern Baptist State Conferences, and his literature is used by the Moody Bible Institute. Both of these institutions are known for teaching the extreme version of eternal security.All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved (Mat 10:22).
Greetings in Jesus’ holy name.
It has been our experience that there are two types of OSAS people: (1) those like Charles Stanley that consistently teach a license for immorality and (2) those like John MacArthur (and other Calvinists) that only teach a license for immorality on occasions.
Type two OSAS believer (also known as eternal security or the perseverance of the saints) will at times seem that he is teaching holiness and stresses true or false conversion. He flatly denies a true Christian can lose his salvation. He would say when someone with a convincing testimony turns away from God that had been faithful even for years, that person was never really saved. This type is very easy to smoke out by asking a few easy questions, which these people usually don’t like to answer so that they won’t be exposed. (They like to give the impression of teaching holiness when they are not.) Here are the six easy questions:
(1) Was King David saved before he fell into adultery and murder? YES or NO.
(2) Was King David still saved while in adultery and murder and before he repented? YES or NO.
(3) Had King David died when in adultery and murder would he have gone to hell? YES or NO.
(4) Is it possible that a real Christian can lose his salvation? YES or NO.
(5) Did Peter lose his salvation when he disowned Jesus three times? YES or NO.
(6) Did Solomon lose his salvation when his heart turned to idolatry? YES or NO.
Furthermore, you deny that a righteous person can die spiritually, just like ALL OSAS teachers. That is the actual quote we have of you in our radio broadcasts. Do you deny that this is your intended meaning? Ray, hell’s best kept secret is that eternal security is of the devil!
Contending For The Faith,
Dan Corner
Thank you for your ministry. A year ago I was really getting into Ray Comfort's teachings on evangelism. Ray Comfort highly esteems Spurgeon, and as a result i started studying Spurgeon's teachings. I found that he believed in eternal security and predestination to heaven or hell. I did not really agree with such views but I had never given it much thought before, so i did not dismiss them as being false. A couple days later, however, my dad wanted me to look up some information on Erwin Lutzer because he enjoyed a book written by him. I typed his name on a search engine on the internet and your Evangelical Outreach site came up. I clicked on it and found a rebuttal to the argument I had read a few days earlier by Spurgeon for eternal security and predestination. I think it was God that led me to your site. I was able to see that Spurgeon's and Ray Comfort's views on eternal security are wrong, and I have since become more careful about fearing God. Thank you for your ministry ... Sincerely.
I thought that it would be of some interest to you to know that I used to be a big fan of Ray Comfort, until I heard him speak on the believer's security. He calls it true and false conversion. I used to buy his tracts and hand them out, but I no longer feel comfortable doing so, because someone may be deceived into believing that his teaching on salvation is the truth. It really saddens me, because he really does have some great tracts and he definetely [sic] has a zeal for the lost. I just don't understand how anyone who claims to read their bible everyday can believe the OSAS (once saved always saved) lie.
Examining Ray Comfort’s True/False
Conversion and Law-Preaching Evangelism (wma)
Graphics: copyright Evangelical Outreach, 1999. Unauthorized use prohibited.
The most exhaustive refutation
to the teaching of eternal
security ever written.
801 shocking pages.