Why Ray Comfort Says the ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ Misses True Evangelism
Ray Comfort, a well-known evangelist and founder of Living Waters, recently argued that the sinner's prayer is unbiblical. In a recent interview with CBN News, Comfort told host Billy Hallowell that he does not take any credit in the salvation of the lost through his evangelstic efforts, Church Leaders reported.
"I can't save anybody," he said. "It's God that saves. All I do is plant the seed; others water, but God causes the increase. So salvation is of the Lord, and I've understood that for many years."
Comfort, who co-founded The Way of the Master with actor Kirk Cameron in 2002, also said he is not a "big believer" in the sinner's prayer as he considered it "unbiblical" and not found in the Scriptures.
"Nathan didn't say to David, 'Repeat this prayer after me,'" the evangelist said, referencing 2 Samuel 2. "No, he left it to David's conviction to get before the Lord and say, 'O, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness.'"
Using the analogy of a husband who apologizes to his wife after committing adultery, Comfort says, "I don't need to go to the door, knock…say, 'Your husband's here to apologize,'" then leads the husband in a responsive prayer.
That wife will "slam the door, because she doesn't want some reparative prayer," he added. "She wants sorrow to spill from the heart, and that's what I aim at with people I witness to."
Rather than going by the sinner's prayer, Comfort asks people "who are ready to repent" if they are sorry for sins. If he is given a response in the affirmative, then Comfort prays "that God would open their heart [and] they'd understand the cross and find a place of genuine repentance and this day be born again."
Comfort, 75, is a New Zealand native who has been living in California since 1989, travels to the local college twice daily to share the gospel, and to Huntington Beach on Saturdays. Last year, he released the book titled "Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I've Learned" and hopes to equip others through his evangelistic experience.
"I want to pass the baton on to the next generation and say, 'You can do this,'" he said. "The key is to obey the Great Commission and go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Ray Comfort
Originally published August 21, 2025.
