Wednesday, October 5, 2011

180 Movie Clerity

Last Sunday afternoon I had the privilege of seeing a young lady named Lauren make up her mind about how she felt about abortion. At the beginning of our encounter she indicated she was neither pro-life nor pro-choice – but undecided.

This video documents my first day out evangelizing where I endeavored to incorporate some of the tactics I learned from the 180 Movie. I also incorporated a series of small business card-sized photos depicting graphic Holocaust seines and aborted babies. To be honest, I was very uncomfortable because I’m still far from being an expert at defending my pro-life position. While it’s true there’s NO justification for any pro-choice argument, I’m still uneasy at the thought of entering into debate because I’m still learning how to give an answer to their arguments.

However, the parallel between the Holocaust and abortion (and slavery for that matter) is undeniable. And in the case with Lauren, it didn’t seem to matter that I didn’t have all my pro-life argumentation down pat.

This is just a thought and you tell me if I’m nuts. Is it possible that when helping a person see that the Holocaust of the 1940’s isn't much different than abortion, the person’s conscience is what’s being addressed and therefore the pro-choice arguments that are typically brought up are minimized in a conversation? Kind of like what we see when we use the Law in evangelism. Often times many of the typical arguments are circumvented because the person’s conscience is what’s being addressed as opposed to their intellect.

In the 180 Movie, when Ray Comfort tells the person being interviewed to finish his sentence, ”It’s ok to kill an innocent human being in the womb when..,” in a sense, he’s holding up the Mirror of the Law - specifically the Sixth Commandment to their conscience and asking them to tell him what they see. Remember God’s Word says, “Now we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.” Romans 3:19

It seems to me, this is what Ray’s question is getting at. The human conscience knows that it’s wrong to murder. And what do we see in the 180 Movie when Ray asks this question? Silence! This is what I experienced with Lauren as well. Silence, immediately followed by a confession of what they know is good and right. They say “Never…!”

“But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers…” 1 Timothy 1:8-9

The 180 Movie Clarity – The effectiveness of the 180 Movie and the clarity that it brings to the abortion issue is due to the fact that God’s Law is at work on the human conscience. When we employ the Holocaust/abortion parallel in talking about abortion, in a sense, we’re using the Sixth Commandment to bring about the knowledge of sin. It’s as God’s Word says, “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully…”?

Let me know what you think of my assessment.



Visit www.180movie.com

1 comment:

  1. Well, Allen, dear brother, I read your post and knew even before I watched your video that your assessment was correct. Holding up the 6th Commandment is what this is really all about and it is very effective. What a blessing. I truly believe the Holy Spirit touched the hearts of these young ladies through your compassionate presentation.

    I have never brought up the topic of abortion in my gospel conversations with people, but, as you have shown, it can be an effective springboard to present the gospel. It takes care of two things at the same time: the issue of abortion and the gospel.

    I praise God for this. I will take this as a challenge from Him to do likewise. Thank you, Allen.

    That being said, though I agree with your assessment, I would still like to take the opportunity to tell you that you're nuts. That's just beside this post. :) Keep up the great work, brother.

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