When I read “What Did Jesus Do” by Ray Comfort I walked away with many of the same concerns Johnson expresses.
1. I agree with Johnson that Comfort elevates the Law in evangelism to unbiblical proportions. In “What did Jesus Do?” Comfort quoted Matthew Henry in agreement regarding the use of the Law “for the Law is still very useful as a rule of life; thought we are not under it as under a covenant of works, yet it is good to teach us what is sin and what is duty.” That is not, IMHO, a controversial statement. But this is immediately followed by Comfort’s assessment that he wants “the Church to see that God gave only one method to reach the lost, and that method is the one we should be using. All other methods are manmade, and are therefore detrimental to the cause of evangelism.” What is the only method God ordained to reach the lost? TWOTM – using the moral Law (pg. 11) which Ray Comfort identifies as the Ten Commandments (pg. 12).
If Ray Comfort is right, then what ever method we employ other than TWOTM is “detrimental to the cause of evangelism” (pg. 11).
2. Comfort also takes extraordinary liberties with Scripture. On page 18 of this book he notes that we do not always have the Law in evangelism. We have to check the soil. If the lost person is proud, then of course he gets the full brunt of Torah (well, the Ten Commandments anyway). But if the soil is ready to receive the seed then offer the guy grace. To support this he quotes James 4:6 (I’ll quote the passage in greater context here):
James 4:6-10 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore
it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
From this he finds the mandate for the evangelist to use the Law in order to resist the proud and give grace (the gospel message) to the humble (pg. 18). Why? Because as James 4:6 teaches, we must break up that hard ground with the Law before we can sow the precious seed of grace. Grace before Law. (pg. 19).
This is not what James is talking about in Chapter 4. Ray Comfort has taken the passage out of context because it sounded good. It is not up to the evangelist to determine the state of a person’s soul, if they are “hardened” or if they are just waiting for the seed to fall. It is not up to the evangelist to “resist the proud” or to “give grace to the humble”. James is speaking of God, and not man, when he quotes the Old Testament (which is also speaking of God and not man).
And that’s just in the first chapter with only a quick glance. We can play a game, if anyone wants, and see just how much wrong can be found in this book. Having already read the book, I’ll even give others a head start – Comfort teaches that Acts 17:22-34 (Paul’s sermon to the Aeropagus) is in fact an example of Paul placing the men of Athens under the Mosaic Law.
http://www.repentandturn.com/uploads/What_Did_Jesus_Do_book.pdf
