Orrin Woodward claims to be a Christian, but as a pastor I know that all such claims must be put to the test. The Bible says that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). The real test of a person's faith is not their profession of faith but the works made evident in their life. Does Orrin Woodward display true faith that is evidenced by his works?

Orrin and ONElife for Life
My wife has known Orrin and Laurie for nearly 20 years and I have known them a little over 13 years. When you know someone for this long of a time you get to see if their walk actually matches their talk. Orrin has continually and consistently revealed to us a walk that is committed to faithfully serving Jesus Christ in all areas of his life. Let me just give you one such example.

A little over a year ago our young little church plant, ONElife Church, received a crazy vision from God to actively engage the culture of death which murders the preborn children in our society. We made a commitment that we would do all that we could do to end abortion now starting in our own county and moving beyond. Rather than waiting for abortion minded women, who feel they have no one who will help them, to come to us we decided to go to them. For nearly a year we have had a faithful presence at our local abortion clinic with our team members pleading for the life of the preborn children as well as bringing the life giving gospel message to the mothers, fathers, and workers. By God’s grace 48 children have been saved through this ministry. To read more about our work read the article the Baptist Press wrote about our team. Here is a video of one encounter that our team had.

Orrin Woodward has encouraged us in this task to save babies and end abortion now. In the early stages of starting this ministry he provided valuable insight to us in order to keep our ministry going. He continues to be a great mentor and counselor. He has invested his own time, talents, and treasures into this ministry. This past March our ministry hosted its first ever end abortion now banquet. There was nearly 300 people in attendance at that event. Orrin was gracious enough to be our keynote speaker. Here is the thing many people might not know--Orrin refused to take a speaking fee and would not even allow us to pay for his travel. He funded his way to get to our event from Florida and in addition gave a donation to our ministry. In reality he paid us to come speak at our event!  He is focused on investing in the Kingdom and in ending the greatest injustice in our society. Orrin believes in the cause and believes it is one of the greatest works a Christian can do today. I pray that God will raise up more Orrin Woodward’s to engage in this very controversial fight of ending abortion.

Orrin's Message
At the banquet Orrin delivered one of the finest messages I have heard in regards to ending abortion. He spoke on the Micah Mandate. He brought immense clarity to the meaning of the text and our present responsibility in light of it.
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Orrin taught on the Micah Mandate from Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” This is a shorthand description of the mature Christian life. These virtues are balanced together by having a proper understanding of law and grace. Paraphrasing what Francis Schaeffer said, “It is easy to have law in the church and it is easy to have grace in the church. You need the Holy Spirit to have the balance of both.” When both law and grace are in balance then the virtues of justice, mercy, and humility will be displayed. This was the message Orrin was communicating to our audience. To listen to the full message please watch the video below.

Our Vision
Our vision is to be the McDonalds of the pro-life movement. Our team has caught this vision and believes this is what God has called us to do. McDonalds made a commitment to have a store across the street from every church in the country. Our commitment is to have one of our red tents with fully funded missionaries stationed onsite at every abortion clinic in the country. This is the way to end abortion now in our country. It is time to stop waiting for the government to stop the killing of our innocent children and for the church to actively work to end it. We are praying for the church to join us to stop the shedding of the most innocent orphans in our land--the babies living in the wombs of their mothers.

​Watch the video below to learn more about our vision and how you can partner with us to end abortion now!

Now handling a topic like abortion makes most people uncomfortable, even those who believe abortion is wrong. Many churches and Christians will not tackle it. The main reason is because they know there are people in the congregation who have had an abortion and they would not want to make them feel bad. The gospel is the answer to this. To a person that has had an abortion, point them to the cross where they can find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. This article is not to shame that person. It is to help stop others from doing the same thing. We do not refrain from talking about other sins because people have participated in them. We preach Christ and Him crucified!

God is the Author of Life
God is the author of life. Satan is the author of death. David was meditating upon God and his character which brought him to meditate on God being the author of life. Consider what the Psalm says:

​O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
   behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
   Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
   If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
   you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
   I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
   O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
   your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
   And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
   I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
   Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting!

David notes how God is omniscient, that is He is all knowing. Since He is all knowing that means that He must be omnipresent, that He is present everywhere. David reflected on the fact that God knew Him because God was the one who gave Him life. He knitted David together in his mother’s womb. He is fearfully and wonderfully made. He also calls God's judgment down upon the one that sheds innocent blood and he cried out to God to search his heart.

No Maverick Sperm or Rogue Egg
There is not a maverick sperm or a rogue egg that exists in this entire world. It is a miraculous process that must take place in order for fertilization to begin in order for life to begin. There are no such thing as unplanned pregnancies. God has planned every single pregnancy that has ever taken place in the history of the world. He is the one who has knitted every child together within the womb of their mothers. Every person is fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

A common objection people will give for standing for life and justifying abortion is based on a person's circumstances. If your starting point is not God then that does in fact make sense. They will say, “What about the case of rape/incest?” They will say things like, “Don’t you know that this child will have a terrible upbringing and they will just grow up to live off the system and cost us all more money?” Without God as your starting point this may make sense. On the other hand, knowing that God is the author of life then, only He can make the rules for how the life is taken away. Which He does in His Word... in His law. When you justify abortion for any of these reasons what you are attempting to do is to play God. You have no idea what God has in store for a person. Let's read the lineage leading to Jesus Christ:

"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,[d] and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations."

First let’s consider Tamar. Jacob’s son Judah (patriarch of the line of Judah) had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. A woman named Tamar married Er, but then Er died, leaving her a widow. Since it was required that the next of kin care for a brother’s widow, Tamar was given to Onan, but he also died. Shelah was still a boy and could not marry Tamar, so Judah asked her to return to her father’s house and wait until Shelah was grown up. However, once Shelah was old enough, Judah did not honor his promise. Tamar remained an unmarried widow. Tamar then went into town disguised as a prostitute, tricked Judah, and got him to sleep with her. She then became pregnant by Judah and bore twin sons named Perez and Zerah.

Rahab was a prostitute of the Canaanite city of Jericho. The line of Christ passed through her.

David had Solomon with the wife of Uriah. He entered into a relationship with Solomon’s mother through an adulteress affair in which he then had Bathsheba's husband killed. Not exactly the best circumstances and yet God gave them Solomon, the wisest king in history, and eventually Christ the Messiah too came from their lineage.

God is the author of life which means we must look to His Law as the standard of how we are to make our judgments.


Contributor / Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is the Lead Pastor of ONElife Church in Flint, MI.