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Year 702 (DCCII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 702 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events[link]

By place[link]

Europe[link]

• Franconian Duke Hetan II completes the circular Marienkirche in Fortress Marienberg near Würzburg.

Asia[link]

• Ethiopian (Axumite) raiders occupy the port of Jeddah in modern-day Saudi Arabia.
• Armenia: Large-scale Armenian rebellion against Muslim rule breaks out with Byzantine support.^[1]

By topic[link]

Religion[link]

• The Umayyad Mosque at Damascus is completed.

Births[link]

• April 20 – Jafar al-Sadiq, descendant of Muhammad, Shī‘ah Imām, and Muslim scholar (d. 765)

Deaths[link]

• February 2 – Princess Oku of Japan (b. 661)
• February 20 – K'inich Kan B'alam II, king of the Maya state of Palenque (b. 635)
• Egica, Visigothic king of Spain
• Liutpert, Lombard king of Italy
• Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, Governor of Basra
• Chen Zi'ang, Chinese poet and official (b. 661)

References[link]

Ray Comfort
October 2010
Born	New Zealand
Ethnicity	Jewish (mother's side)[1]
Occupation	Christian Evangelist, Author, Television host
Known for	The Way of the Master, Living Waters Publications, Christian Evangelism
Religion	Evangelical Christianity
Website
Living Waters

Ray Comfort (born 5 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist.^[2] Comfort started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California and has written a number of books.

Early life and career[link]

Comfort was born to a Jewish mother and a father who he described as "a Gentile [who] was open to the things of God".^[3] According to Comfort's autobiography, his parents put "Methodist" on his birth certificate because his mother feared the possibility of "another Hitler", but he was given no religious instruction as a child.^[3] After finishing high school at 17, he worked in a bank, and began a successful business when he was 20. He became increasingly religious, and at 22 began seven years training at a local church, after which he was ordained as a full-time pastor. He then spent three and a half years pastoring in Christchurch, New Zealand, and 12 years preaching open-air in the city's Speaker's Corner.^[4] Beyond this, he has no formal training or theological degree.^[5] In his mid-20s, he began receiving invitations to speak internationally. In 1989, he accepted an invitation to join the pastoral staff at the non-denominational Calvary Chapel in Southern California.^[4] Ray Comfort nonetheless identifies himself as a Jew.^[1]

[edit] The Way of the Master ministry

Comfort says that evangelism is the main reason the Christian Church exists and that many of the evangelistic methods used over the last century have produced false conversions to Christianity. Comfort often uses the Ten Commandments to speak about sin before presenting the gospel of Jesus. In the mid-1980s he formulated two sermons entitled "Hell's Best Kept Secret"^[6] and "True and False Conversions."

Comfort speaks professionally at churches and evangelism seminars, and preaches in Huntington Beach, California. As well as co-hosting the former The Way of the Master Radio with Kirk Cameron, he is co-host of The Way of the Master Television Show, and the "Creationism Examiner" on The Examiner.^{[citation needed]}

Comfort and Cameron were also involved in rewriting parts of the film, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.^{[citation needed]}

Debates[link]

Comfort, seated behind Kirk Cameron, at a debate on the existence of God at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan, 5 May 2007

On 13 April 2001, Comfort appeared at the 27th National Convention of American Atheists in Orlando, Florida, where he debated Ron Barrier, the National Spokesperson for American Atheists.^[7] Comfort later stated that "they laughed at my humor, and although there was unified mockery at some of the things that I said, I was able to go through the Ten Commandments, the fact of Judgment Day, the "reality of Hell", the Cross, and the necessity of repentance, and no one stopped me."^[7]

On 5 May 2007, Comfort and Cameron participated in a televised debate with Brian Sapient and Kelly O'Connor of the Rational Response Squad, at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan. The debate focused on the existence of God, which Comfort claimed he could prove scientifically without relying on faith or the Bible. Nightline correspondent Martin Bashir moderated the event.^[8] During the debate, Cameron and Comfort repeatedly referenced the Ten Commandments and denounced the theory of evolution.^[9]

In February 2009, Comfort challenged Richard Dawkins to a debate, offering to donate $10,000 to him.^[10] Dawkins, who had previously stated a general policy not to debate with creationists,^[11] said he would agree to do it if Comfort made a $100,000 donation to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science non-profit organisation. Comfort raised his offer to $20,000, which according to PZ Myers was not enough.^[10]

Tracts and books[link]

Ray Comfort with Kirk Cameron in 2008

According to Comfort, he has designed dozens of gospel tracts since the 1970s, and sells millions of Living Waters tracts each year.^[12] Comfort has also authored The Way of The Master, God Doesn't Believe in Atheists, How to Know God Exists and Evolution: the Fairy Tale for Grownups. His 2009 book, You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think, is Comfort's first book published by WND Books,^[13] Comfort went on a promotional tour to promote the book, which Amazon.com ranked No. 1 in the atheism and apologetics categories, No. 2 in spirituality and No. 6 in Christianity when it debuted in February 2009.^[14][15] On 22 September 2009, Comfort released his latest book, Nothing Created Everything.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2009, Comfort released an edited version of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, with a 50-page foreword detailing creationist arguments against the theory of evolution.^[16] Stan Guffey, a biologist at the University of Tennessee, has alleged that most of Comfort's section on Darwin's life was plagiarised from his work.^[17][18] The book was given away for free at selected schools around the United States.^[19]

According to Comfort's website, "Nothing has been removed from Darwin's original work",^[20] but Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, noted that Comfort deleted four chapters by Darwin that described the evidence for evolution, adding that two of the omitted chapters, Chapters 11 and 12, showcase biogeography, some of Darwin's strongest evidence for evolution.^[21] She wrote that Comfort's foreword is "a hopeless mess of long-ago-refuted creationist arguments, teeming with misinformation about the science of evolution, populated by legions of strawmen, and exhibiting what can be charitably described as muddled thinking."

On his website, Comfort said that the four chapters were chosen at random to be omitted in order to make the book small enough to be affordable as a giveaway, with the absent chapters available for download, and that the missing chapters were included in the second edition, which had a smaller text size that made printing the entire book as a giveaway affordable. The second edition still lacks Darwin's preface and glossary of terms.^[22][23] The National Center for Science Education arranged a campaign at colleges across the US to distribute an analysis of the Comfort introduction, a one page flier and "the NCSE Safety Bookmark" in the shape of a banana, a reference to Comfort's use of a banana in one of his arguments for the existence of God.^[16][24]

In October 2010, The New Zealand Herald reported that elderly people received "appointment cards" by Comfort's California-based publishing company, Living Waters, asking them to fill out information regarding the date and time of their deaths, and advising them to contact evangelists in order to avoid hell. Recipients of these cards expressed anger and horror over receiving them, and contacted police over the matter, with one of them commenting, "It's disgusting. It was quite spooky. I just couldn't comprehend why anyone would ask you to predict the date of your death." Living Waters spokesperson Lisa Law stated that the cards were a way of raising awareness of human mortality in order to spark discussion about Jesus, though she stated that anyone could order them from their website, and did not know who sent them.^[25]

Film[link]

In 2011, Comfort wrote and produced a 33-minute documentary film called "180: Changing the Heart of a Nation". The film gained some attention online, and was heavily criticised by the Anti-Defamation League and mainstream media because it compared abortion rights to the Holocaust.^[26][27]

Filmography[link]

• The Secrets of Nostradamus Exposed (1995) (writer, producer)
• True Fiction (1999) (writer)
• The Way of the Master (13 episodes, 2003) (writer, producer, self)
• The Way of the Master (13 episodes, 2005) (writer, producer, self)
• The Way of the Master (13 episodes, 2008) (writer, producer, self)
• 180: Changing the Heart of a Nation (2011) (writer, producer, self)

Publications[link]

Ray Comfort open-air preaching at a Great News Network evangelism boot camp in 2004

• My Friends are Dying. (1977) ISBN 1-878859-07-2
• More Than Just Comfort – An Answer To Cancer (~1979^[28] )
• Words of Comfort Living Waters (1983) ISBN 1-878859-06-4
• Poured Out for a Thirsty World. Living Waters (1986) ISBN 0-908751-03-6
• In Search of New Jawbones: Aggressive Evangelism. Living Waters (1986) ISBN 0-908751-00-1
• Springboards for Budding Preachers Inspiring Illustrations, Stimulating Thoughts, Quotes and Aids for Street Preaching and Personal Witnessing. Living Waters (1987) ISBN 0-908751-13-3
• You've Got to Be Choking. Living Waters (1990) ISBN 1-878859-00-5
• Russia Will Attack Israel: a "for the Thinking Mind" Publication. Living Waters (1991) ISBN 1-878859-05-6
• The Key to Heaven Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA (1993) ISBN 0-88368-477-2
• The Devil's Nightmare. Whitaker House (1993) ISBN 0-88368-284-2
• The Undertaker's Nightmare. Living Waters (1994) ISBN 1-878859-21-8
• Militant Evangelism. Living Waters (1994) ISBN 1-878859-08-0
• Comfort, the Feeble-Minded: Consolation for People Who Do Dumb Things: an Autobiography. Living Waters (1995) ISBN 1-878859-16-1
• Everyday Evangelism: Witnessing That Works. Huntington House Publishers (1995) ISBN 1-56384-091-X
• The Secrets of Nostradamus Exposed. Living Waters (1996) ISBN 1-878859-18-8
• Bride of Heaven, Pride of Hell. Bridge-Logos Publishers (1997) ISBN 0-88270-733-7
• 101 Things Kids Can Do to Annoy Their Parents Bridge-Logos Publishers (1998) ISBN 0-88270-759-0
• The Power of Darkness. Living Waters (1999) ISBN 1-878859-22-6
• How to Win Souls and Influence People. Bridge-Logos Publishers (October 1999) ISBN 0-88270-788-4
• God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life. Living Waters (2000) ISBN 1-878859-25-0
• Evidence Bible-Romans: Irrefutable Evidence for the Thinking Mind. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2000) ISBN 0-88270-855-4
• Evidence Bible: Irrefutable Evidence for the Thinking Mind. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2000) ISBN 0-88270-816-3
• The Mystery (2000)
• The Untearable Bible: for the Terrible Twos. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2001) ISBN 0-88270-884-8
• Revival's Golden Key: Unlocking the Door to Revival. Bridge-Logos Publishers (October 2001) ISBN 0-88270-891-0
• God Doesn't Believe in Atheists (1993, 2001) ISBN 0-88270-922-4
• Who is the Lord of the Ring?. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2002) ISBN 0-88270-892-9
• End Time Believer's Bible. Bridge-Logos Publishers (December 2002) ISBN 0-88270-932-1
• Miracle in the Making: the Incredible Story of the Making of Left Behind II: Tribulation Force. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2003) ISBN 0-88270-931-3
• Evidence Bible-OE-KJV Easy Reading, Comfortable. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2003) ISBN 0-88270-955-0
• Out of the Comfort Zone: The Authorized Autobiography. Bridge-Logos Publishers (May 2004) ISBN 0-88270-943-7
• 101 Things Husbands Do to Annoy Their Wives (2004)
• The School of Biblical Evangelism Textbook (2004)
• Scientific Facts in the Bible: 100 Reasons to Believe the Bible is Supernatural in Origin. Bridge-Logos Publishers (15 October 2001) ISBN 0-88270-879-1
• Hell's Best Kept Secret. Whitaker House (December 1989, updated 2004) ISBN 0-88368-206-0
• What Hollywood Believes: An Intimate Look at the Faith of the Famous. Genesis Pub. (25 August 2004) ISBN 0-9749300-1-6
• Behind the Scenes: the Way of the Master. Genesis Pub Group, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, US (2005) ISBN 0-9749300-2-4
• How to Bring Your Children to Christ ... and Keep Them There (2005) ISBN 978-0974930046
• What Did Jesus Do? A Call to Return to the Biblical Gospel (2005) ISBN 978-0974930039
• Overcoming Panic Attacks. Bridge-Logos Publishers (11 July 2005) ISBN 0-88270-014-6
• Spurgeon Gold: Pure. Refined. (compiled by Comfort) (2005) ISBN 0-88270-646-2
• The Way of the Master Minute: a One-Minute, One Year Devotional for the Busy Christian. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2006) ISBN 0-88270-161-4
• Whitefield Gold: Pure. Refined. (compiled by Comfort) (2006)
• How to Live Forever ... Without Being Religious (2006), a version of the Gospel of John with Comfort's commentary.
• The Way of The Master (2006)
• The Way of the Master Minute. (co-author Kirk Cameron) Bridge-Logos Publishers (8 April 2006) ISBN 0-88270-220-3
  • The 2004 version itself was a revised and updated version of Revival's Golden Key, which itself was a revision of God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life.
• The Way of the Master. Genesis Publishing Group (2006) (previously 2004 by Tyndale House)
• Springboards for Budding Preachers (2006), a transcript of Comfort open-air preaching with his son-in-law Emeal "EZ" Zwayne.
• Intelligent Design vs. Evolution – Letters to an Atheist (2006), a collection of correspondence between Comfort and James D. Franz, an American atheist.
• Intelligent Design Versus Evolution: Amazing Evolution Discovery. Living Waters (2007) ISBN 1-878859-37-4
• Scratch & Sniff (Creation for Kids). Bridge-Logos Publishers (2007) ISBN 0-88270-328-5
• What Your Nose Shows (Creation for Kids). Bridge-Logos Publishers (2007) ISBN 0-88270-326-9
• 101 Annoying Things about Other Drivers. New Leaf Publishing Group (2007) ISBN 0-89221-668-9
• 101 Annoying Things About Air Travel. New Leaf Publishing Group (2007) ISBN 0-88368-477-2
• Hollywood Be Thy Name. Bridge-Logos Publishers (1 July 2007) ISBN 0-88270-394-3
• Overcoming Insomnia: Practical Help for Those Who Suffer from Sleep Deprivation. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2007) ISBN 0-88270-334-X
• 101 of the Dumbest Things People Have Done. Bridge-Logos Publishers (2008) ISBN 0-88270-555-5
• How to Know God Exists: Scientific Proof of God (2008)
• Evolution: A Fairy Tale for Grownups (2008)
• World Religions in a Nutshell: A Compact Guide to Reaching Those of Other Faith (2008)
• Comfort Food: Delectable Devotions to Satisfy the Soul Bridge-Logos Publishers (2008) ISBN 0-88270-528-8
• The Atheist Bible (HCSB) (2009)
• The Charles Darwin Bible (HCSB) (2009)
• You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think WND Books (12 February 2009) ISBN 1-935071-06-8
• Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution (September 2009, WND Books).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ray Comfort

• LivingWaters.com – Official website
• Atheist Central – Ray Comfort's Blog
• The Way of the Master – Website for his ministry with Kirk Cameron
• Ray Comfort at the Internet Movie Database