Thank you so much for the many encouraging emails regarding the New York atheist debate. Your kind words meant a lot to Kirk and me. The following is typical:

"Thanks so much for your debate on ABC's Nightline. I watched several portions on the website, and our radio station is promoting your "way of the master" website now too. Praise the Lord for the words that you shared which were VERY eye-opening and revealing and had a huge world-wide audience . . . I KNOW many lives are being reached through your commitment to Christ, and this opportunity which you knocked out of the ballpark." D.P. (WA).

While most have understood why we did this debate, there have been a number of Christian arm-chair quarterbacks who are publicly saying that we miserably failed--calling it "the way of the disaster," and saying that we went into the debate totally unprepared. There have also been accusations from Christians and atheists saying that I didn't keep my word. For those of you that have read what our critics are saying, I would like to address these issues.

Our primary goal in doing the debate was to preach the gospel to the countless people who would be watching in their homes, because it is the gospel that is "the power of God unto salvation" (see Romans 1:16). I have noticed that often Christian apologists present wonderful arguments at debates that sweep the floor with their opponents, but they fail to preach "Christ and Him crucified." So our strategy was that we would first present clear and solid evidence of God's existence through creation (Romans 1:20 says that creation is what leaves the world without excuse), and then focus on preaching the moral Law and the gospel. Again, our primary goal was to preach the gospel and then (where possible) support our preaching with apologetics, reason, logic, with a loving demeanor. That is what we tried to do.

We studied hard, but we had no idea what they would throw at us. So we prepared ourselves to give rational answers to questions such as why the Old Testament says to cut the hand off a woman who interferes in a fight between her husband and another man, why God told Joshua to kill every Canaanite man, woman, and child, why God condoned slavery and even the beating of slaves, why a rebellious youth was to be stoned to death, etc. We were also ready to answer questions about anthropomorphic statements in the Bible, Scripture's use of hyperbole, geocentricity, who it was who imprisoned Galileo and was behind the crusades and the Spanish inquisition, and a lot more. We thought we had all the bases covered, but one or two came out of left field for which we hadn't prepared--about "entropy" and whether or not the universe is eternal. Ironically, I have faced thousands of questions from heckler's over the years, and it was the first time I had heard that question. (I have a book coming out in a couple of months called, The Atheist Delusion, which addresses each of these questions).

While we recognize that not every Christian will agree with our approach (primarily preaching the gospel), we wanted you to understand where we were coming from. OneNewsNow.com did a survey asking: Did Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort prove the existence of God to your satisfaction? The results show that over half of those taking the survey did understand.

Look at how the Law (going through the Commandments) caused the arguments of this atheist to become a non-issue:

"I was sent this test on line . . . It started asking me 'Are you a good person?' I thought, 'Sure, I'm a good person. I haven't killed anybody.' As I took the test, something started happening. The Law (as I figured out later on), was cutting through my stony heart at the time. It was quite miraculous. It was totally unexpected. I had heard the typical gospel message before but never like this. I had never heard this before. I didn't know where it was taking me. I didn't even understand what was happening to me at first. But as I was taking that test, all these problems I had with the Bible--whether it was right or wrong, all that stuff fell away. It just fell in the background and disappeared. And pretty soon I started realizing I was in big trouble!"

So, our tactic was to share three main points:

• Creation scientifically proves there is a Creator.
• Conscience tells us there is a moral Law and therefore, there must be a Law-giver. This Law is written on the heart, and tells us we are in big trouble with the Creator.
• Conversion: Becoming a new creature in Christ is an incredibly powerful argument for Christianity.

We must have reasonable answers, for reasonable people; however, these atheists were not reasonable -- they were angry and hostile. So we wanted to keep our eye on the gospel and not allow the debate to degenerate into the Jerry Springer show. It was because of this that we decided not to break away from the format given to us by ABC. Unfortunately this was seen by a number of Christians to be weakness on our part. In hindsight, if we have one regret, it is that we should have countered them a bit more than we did. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Not Keeping my Word

There seems to be some confusion about the structure of the debate. A press release headline was changed, stating this would be a "Bible-less debate." That was never the case. In fact, I provided Brian (the atheist) with a copy of my outline some time before the debate. He knew that I would begin by demonstrating God's existence without using the Bible or faith (ie. creation proves there is a Creator). He then knew that I would then open up the Ten Commandments (ie. conscience proves there is a moral law and thus a Law Giver). Finally, he also knew that I would end with the gospel. He knew I planned to move from a presentation of the general evidence of God to specific proof about Jesus Christ. So it greatly puzzled us that Brian feigned "shock" when he heard it.

Despite these accusations, I am deeply thankful to God that the full gospel was preached on ABC's Home Page (they get 19 million visitors each month), and it is still going out all over the Internet, and will do for years to come. What an incredible opportunity we were given. Only eternity will tell what took place.

Thank you for your prayers.

Until the nets are full,
Ray Comfort

P.S. To see the debate through our cameras (and never-before-seen behind the scenes clips) go to YouTube.com/TheWayOfTheMaster

Guy Morrell, the owner of one of my publishers (Bridge Logos Publishing), went to be with the Lord last week. Back in the early 1990's, after his son-in-law was saved through reading God Doesn't Believe in Atheists, he started publishing my books (to date they have published 18, with four new books coming out within the next couple of months). He was so kind to me, once sending me an email that simply said, "The answer is 'Yes' Ray. Now what was your question?" When he was about to publish The Evidence Bible, a well-known publisher warned him that evangelism Bibles don't sell. Guy said, "Ray, that's why we must do it!" When Kirk and I arrived in Kansas City for a Transformed Conference, there was a voice mail on my phone saying that Guy had suddenly died in his sleep that morning. Kirk and I were shocked. We prayed for his family and then walked down the jet way, singing, "O, when the saints go marching in . . . ." A flight attendant smiled and asked, "Have you guys been drinking?" I said, "No. A friend of ours just died." He immediately stopped smiling and said, "I'm sorry." I answered, "Don't be sorry. It was nothing serious...he was a Christian."

Death is nothing serious for the Christian. It's where the rubber meets the road -- the ungodly have no hope in their death. But for those in Christ, it has completely lost its sting. I'm looking forward to seeing Guy Morrell again.

After the recent and tragic school shootings in Virginia, we decided to revive our "Bullet" tract with new improved artwork. This is shaped like a bullet (printed on card), but when it opens up it is shaped like the two tablets of God's Law. The text reveals the common denominator in school shootings that no one seems to have noticed. The gospel message inside begins:

Experts tell us shooters have this in common — they are people who feel that they can't cope with life's problems, or they feel underappreciated. Yet who among us doesn't have these feelings at some time? That's life. However, there is one common denominator that the experts don't mention. Each of the shooters had no regard for human life... MORE...

The total of WOTMR affiliates worldwide is now 434 stations (156 in the U.S. and 278 in Australia). Over 730 stations air the "Way of the Master Minute." We are excited to also report that we have an estimated online audience of over 6,000 people who listen to the show via Podcast, streamer or iTunes, and the week following Transformed Americus we averaged over 233,000 hits per day on the website.

Addicted! What makes WOTM Radio so addicting? Well, there's "Phone Fishing," where we have strategically placed people from New York to California who walk up to strangers and say, "Would you like to be on the radio, talking about what happens after someone dies?" They then pass their cell phone to atheists, psychics, Hindus, Mormons, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, agnostics and just ordinary everyday folks. Then Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort witness to them — LIVE . . . on air. It's compelling. It's addicting. It's on-the-edge-of-your-seat radio, because you don't know what's going to happen next. Neither do we. There's nothing like hearing an atheist backslide, or a Catholic come to Christ, or a Muslim softening his heart. There's nothing like this on radio.

You will not only hear about evangelism, but you will hear sound theology. No it's not dry and boring, because Todd Friel dusts it off. He makes it interesting. Really. That's his gifting. He not only studied to be a pastor (before he was saved!), but he also opened for Jay Leno and Bill Maher as a stand up comedian. So he knows how to make you crack a smile, and you'll get fed at the same time.