S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The "Way of the Master" evangelism method is a technique developed by TV-show hosts Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, which seeks to witness to the lost by application of the Mosaic Law to show men the...

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July 01 2013 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Joe Murphy Supporter

The method Way of the Master uses comes in the format of five basic questions:

1. Would you consider yourself a good person?
2. Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments?
3. If God judges you by the 10 Commandments on the Day of Judgment, will you be innocent or guilty?
4. Based on that, would you go to heaven or hell?
5. Does this concern you?

This kind of evangelism seems to hone in on the persons morality. The first few questions trigger an emotional response to get the person to realise that they sin and are therefore a sinner. This is done using guilt or fear. If the subject acknowleges his sins then it provokes the question, would you go to heaven or hell? Once this has come to the surface the witness then shares the fact that there is only one way out of the fear of eternal damnation, to accept Jesus Christ as lord and saviour. Obviously these questions are rigged to get the subject to repent and be saved. It looks like a nicer version of the fire and brimstone message 'turn or burn.' The intent is undoubtably good but I wonder if the end justifies the means.

A few years ago I started reading a book that is apparently the most read Christian book other than the Bible; The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee. I've gone through this book several times now and I understand why. It is very good. If you are a believer and have not read it I highly recommend you do. Below is an excerpt from the book that made me question the method used by Way of the Master...

"You will scarcely find the word `sinner' in the first four chapters of Romans. This is because there the sinner himself is not mainly in view, but rather the sins he has committed. The word `sinner' first comes into prominence only in chapter 5, and it is important to notice how the sinner is there introduced. In that chapter a sinner is said to be a sinner because he is born a sinner; not because he has committed sins. The distinction is important. It is true that often when a Gospel worker wants to convince a man in the street that he is a sinner, he will use the favourite verse Romans 3:23, where it says that "all have sinned"; but this use of the verse is not strictly justified by the Scriptures. Those who so use it are in danger of arguing the wrong way round, for the teaching of Romans is not that we are sinners because we commit sins, but that we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners by constitution rather than by action. As Romans 5:19 expresses it: "Through the one man's disobedience the man were made (or `constituted') sinners". "

I think Watchman Nee had a good point here. What do you think?

November 03 2013 • 6 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Kathy King Supporter

The good thing about Ray Comfort’s show is that he points out that even though we all have the sin nature of Adam, (committing the sins mentioned especially in Romans 1-5 and rest of NT), we have hope. Hope that one day when we face our judgment as told us in Hebrews 9:27, we can certainly believe that Christ Jesus will be our faithful advocate before God. 

All people, if they are truthful, can say we’ve done something we’re ashamed of at least once in our lives. We don’t want God to judge us or even to know, but God sees all. Ray shows these people who are willing to be in front of others, and they are truthful, either admit they see they’re immorally wrong, or they don’t care because they don’t believe in God. Ray stresses that God is a righteous God and cannot have sin in his kingdom when he’s ready to establish that eternal kingdom, new heaven, new earth - his hope and promise for his children. 

And isn’t this exactly what the Bible teaches? Ray tells them all that they can have this hope because God has already forgiven our sins, has already established our citizenship in his eternal kingdom. We (they) only have to believe in Christ Jesus and his resurrection, which defeated sin and death, which is our victory. 

Ray plants seeds, gets “sinners” to start thinking on this salvation, God does the rest. We can never be perfect is what we’re told, but as a new creature in Christ, the way we look at things here on earth will be quite different - more righteous, more just, and old unrighteous views will be different. We can’t work for our salvation by being good, but being in Christ, we now want to try to be as good as Jesus and we do our best. 

Suddenly, we see what the Bible means by “sin”. We see what it means to have hope and peace- not world peace - but Christ’s peace. We begin to understand why it’s important to help others see all of this. We see why we need to just plain help others around the world, in our neighborhoods, jobs, churches. We see why church is important. And we understand more about sin and death and disease and tragedies and disasters. When we don’t understand, we are still comforted by God’s word that all is well because he is bigger than he who is in the world. 

Ray’s brave and direct ministry helps people see this. Their free choice to explore or ignore, is a God-given ability to choose life eternal or damnation eternal. But Ray points out that this decision must be made before one dies and who knows when one will die except the Creator who created them? It’s a directly-said, “no-beating-around-the-bush” ministry. 

It’s also commendable that one allows themselves to be filmed for this show. Those who are touched and influenced by God’s words will be greatly blessed. Those who are not need prayer and are described in the NT in many places, especially in Romans 1. 

But in reality, all people need prayer because we’re all needy humans that face life on a tough, devil-influenced earth. God was their salvation in the OT and our precious Christ Jesus is the new covenant salvation in the NT. People too busy sinning need to be aware of what’s in God’s word because not all are going to jump right in and read it. God Bless All.

April 15 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report