Early Life and Career
Comfort was born to a Jewish mother and a father who he described as "a Gentile was open to the things of God". 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. 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. Beyond this, he has no formal training or theological degree. 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. Ray Comfort nonetheless identifies himself as a Jew.
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