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How I Blew It Big Time—And What Happened Because of My Stupidity

How do you change someone’s mind nowadays about the issue of abortion? People seem so militantly entrenched in their convictions. The answer is that it’s not at all difficult. I accidentally discovered this when I visited a local college to film interviews for a video called “Hitler’s Religion.”

I began asking students on-camera if they knew of Adolf Hitler, and I was horrified to find many didn’t have a clue who he was. However, I was encouraged when I found one young man who was historically educated. Not only was he cognitive of the horrors of Nazi Germany, but he also had a colorful personality and long dreadlocks. As we talked, I was thinking what a great interview it was.

“Our commission as the Church isn’t to reform the world when it comes to social issues. We are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).”

Then, for some reason, I changed the subject and asked him about the issue of abortion. When he told me it was a woman’s right to kill her own child, I told him that he was no better than a Nazi. That lifted the interview to a verbal sword fight. When he admitted that it was a baby in the womb, I asked him the question, “It’s okay to kill a baby in the womb, when?” Suddenly, his eloquent mouth was stopped. He couldn’t answer that question. He almost exploded with anger, and he walked off still fuming. I followed him with the camera, cleverly zooming up on him for effect. But, when I turned the camera off, I heard a strange sound. It was the camera turning on. In the bright sunlight, I hadn’t remembered that the camera was on, and as I began the interview, I had idiotically turned it off. I was heartbroken. I felt foolish and didn’t tell a soul what I’d done.

However, I began to think about the question: “It’s OK to kill a baby in the womb, when?” For some reason, a fast-talking youth couldn’t answer it. So, I went back to the college and not only asked students about the issue of abortion but particularly asked them that question. To my surprise, most people I asked couldn’t tell me when it was okay to kill a baby in the womb. This was because these were human beings with a God-given conscience, and written on their heart was a law that says that murder is morally wrong.

When we looked at the footage in-studio, we realized that we had a powerful pro-life movie rather than a film about Hitler’s religion. And so, “180” was birthed—a documentary that has since changed many minds about abortion.

I will never forget the moment I showed the video to a friend who then suggested that it would go further as a pro-life movie—if it didn’t contain the gospel. He said I should take it out. I remember digging my heels in and thinking that there was more chance of flossing the back teeth of the lions at the LA Zoo just before feeding time than of having the gospel removed. This is because, even though he was correct, our commission as the Church isn’t to reform the world when it comes to social issues. We are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). It is evident that the gospel is the only real answer to the issue of abortion.

Many years ago, I was frustrated that at the dawn of each day, I would find a large web a spider had left across the front of our house. Day after day, I would brush it away, and it would be back the next morning. The problem was that I couldn’t find the spider. It was in hiding.

One day, I figured that I was more intelligent than a spider. So, I took some insect repellent and a small stick and gently tapped the web while cleverly making the sound of a fly in distress. My hunch was right. The spider came out from his hiding place, and I killed it with the insect repellent. I finally dealt with the cause rather than continually fighting the symptom.

“Ask anyone if they are evil, and they will adamantly deny it (as did Adam). We, therefore, have to take the rod of God’s moral law and gently tap the human heart.”

There is a terrible web of evil across the whole face of the earth, and no matter how many times it is swept away through the restraints of law and legislation, it keeps coming back. The problem is that the spider is in hiding. Ask anyone if they are evil, and they will adamantly deny it (as did Adam). We, therefore, have to take the rod of God’s moral law and gently tap the human heart. That will reveal the spider (you can see this happening on our YouTube channel). That’s when that evil nature can be put to death through the power of the gospel. That’s when the heart is transformed so that selfish, sin-loving sinners become new creatures in Christ that would never do harm to another, let alone take the life of the unborn.

Way back in the early 1980s, when I was an assistant pastor, someone came to me and said, “Do you know that new convert named Fran? She’s going to have an abortion today at 2 o’clock!” I was horrified. It was around noon, so I rushed into our city and ran up the stairs of the hospital she was in—all the while praying that God would give me wisdom. When I entered Fran’s room, she was sitting on her bed, having already had her pre-operation medication. The wisdom I had left me. All I could manage to say was, “Please, don’t do this!!” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “It’s okay. I’m not going to have an abortion. I just prayed, ‘God, if you don’t want me to have an abortion, make Ray Comfort come and see me.’”

Two years later, I was at a church picnic and saw a little child crawling in the green grass. It was Fran’s baby! As I bent down and looked into her sweet little face, I suddenly understood what God had used me for: the saving of a precious human life! What had taken place that day hadn’t completely dawned on me until that very moment.

When we share the gospel with unsaved people, we understand intellectually that we are telling them how to find everlasting life. But the Bible wants us to fully realize what is happening. Look at the words used in Scripture:Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).

“Let him know.” Do you know? Do you fully realize what God uses you for when you share the gospel? May He open the eyes of our understanding today. And may we soon see the fruit of the power of the everlasting gospel—an end to the horror of abortion.

Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters, a bestselling author, and has written more than 100 books, including, The Evidence Study Bible. He cohosts the award-winning television program Way of the Master, which airs in 190 countries.

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