A correspondent suggested I watch Ray Comfort’s video Hell’s Best Kept Secret.

I’ve heard Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s interview with Hemant Mehta, the eBay atheist (Hemant has links to it on his media page) and I wasn’t impressed. Based on that experience, I could have decided not to listen to Hell’s Best Kept Secret, but I decided to give it a go.

In fact, as Ray set up his talk I agreed with much of what he said. First he points out that only about 10 percent of people who respond to the typical modern Christian evangelistic message stick with it. He describes this message as “Come to Jesus because he will give you love, joy, peace, fulfillment, and lasting happiness”. In other words “Try Jesus – Jesus will improve your life”. Ray says, if this is the message, no wonder ‘new Christians’ get disillusioned and quit as soon as life gets hard.

Bottom line so far: the message is wrong – this is not the message of Jesus. I completely agree

Ray’s solution is: Change the message! Again I agree.

However, when he described Jesus’ message as he understood it, I stopped agreeing. (By the way, I found it interesting that Ray turned to the writings of Paul to describe Jesus message)

Everything essential about Jesus’ message, according to Ray, has to do with what happens after a person dies. Therefore, the key according to him is to convince someone they’re sinful enough that they’ll certainly be in hell after they die. And then share that Jesus can save them from that. Ray says this message will give a person sufficient motivation to become a Christian and stay one.

Ray intriguingly says it’s important that we don’t motivate people to become Christians through fear. In practice I wonder if it’s really possible for him to control whether his message has that effect on people.

If Jesus can change an eternal future of torment into one of bliss, who would turn that down?

But the more I read about Jesus, the more I think his essential message is about life now.

I agree that his message is absolutely not “Hey, I can improve your life. (Even more than than prozac or a new car!)” It’s unthinkable to me that anyone would associate Jesus with such a self-focused message. So, again, I agree with Ray on that.

But – in my opinion – it is “Let’s make this world look more like God wants it to look. Starting right now.”

Ray is easy to listen to and has a good sense of humor. And he shows how to share the message he believes is Jesus’ message in a way that seems doable. But surely doable is not the only criterion, important as that is. Surely the content of the message also matters?