Best-selling authors David and Jason Benham believe that if there were ever a time for Christians to step up and stand in the gap, bringing hope to the hopeless, now is that time – especially when it comes to abortion.

“This is a spiritual battle,” David said in a recent interview with CBN News. “It’s not against flesh and blood. It’s a spiritual battle between truth and lies, light and darkness, good and evil.”

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“It’s not going to stop until Christians step up,” he added.

New York has become ground zero in the abortion battle after passing an extreme new late-term abortion law.

The Benham Brothers recently spoke at a pro-life rally in Albany, NY called “Day of Mourning.

“There were thousands, and I guess it was 35,000 Christians that actually watched around (online). There was probably four or five thousand people at the event,” explained Jason.  “But people literally on their faces crying out and repenting as a nation, which we should, as a nation, repent as the church of God for allowing the atrocity of abortion.”

The event was held right at the site where the bill was passed in Albany. “We were literally right underneath where the legislators enacted that law,” he said.

“But this is why we wrote our book because what we say is, is that you need boldness to stand in culture, but you need boldness fueled by brokenness. That’s the key.  That’s where Day of Mourning came in,” said Jason.

Their new book, “Bold and Broken: Becoming the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth,” highlights the importance of Christians being both bold and broken in an attempt to transform a dying world.

“What we’ve seen is that there are ditches on both sides of the road,” said Jason. “Boldness apart from brokenness makes you a bully. But brokenness apart from boldness makes you a bystander. So, it’s either bystander or bully. But what we would say is when you are bold on the foundation of brokenness, you’ll be a bridge that connects heaven to earth.”

They recounted the story of how their father, Flip Benham, a leader in the pro-life movement, once showed the love of Christ to Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe in the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, as an example of such character.

“We were teenagers in Dallas, Texas, our dad was a pastor,” said David. “He put his office next to the busiest abortion clinic in Dallas. One of employees, was Norma McCorvey, who’s the Jane Roe of Roe versus Wade, that legalized abortion.  Well, over a period of time he began a relationship with Ms. Norma. She ended up writing a book called “I Am Roe.” And at her book signing, this was back before social media and everything, so it was a big deal, so she’s signing these books and the media was there. And just as she was taking the stage, Dad was there in attendance, and he’d already had a relationship with her, but he felt the Holy Spirit come over him that he needed to say something.”

David continued, “And just as she took the stage, he said ‘Ms. Norma you should be ashamed of yourself. How dare you desecrate the blood of innocent unborn babies by selling a book.’ And now most people thought, you angry, mean, arrogant, bigoted jerk. Well Norma tells her story later in another book called Won by Love, that it was at that moment that the Lord brought incredible conviction to her.”

“Weeks later, Dad’s in his office,” David explained. “He sees Norma go out to the bench, out there in the parking lot, smoking a cigarette. Dad used to be chain smoker. So, he decides I’m going out to say something to Ms. Norma.”

Jason added, “He saw that she was hurt (by his words) and he went and sat next to her and he said Ms. Norma, Ms. Norma, where do we go from here. I’m so sorry that my words hurt you. But I felt that God wanted you to get that message. And she’s like, ‘I don’t really know where we go from here.’ And it was about six months later that she gave her heart to Jesus Christ. Through the witness of my dad.”

“He had her over to our house for dinner with her lesbian partner Connie. She gave her heart to Jesus. Ms. Connie gave her heart to the Lord. That just shows you what boldness and brokenness together can do. And my dad became a bridge between heaven and earth for Ms. Norma.”

The brothers also point to a time of ministry with an angry woman on a recent flight.

“I’m sitting on the aisle,” said David. “We had a seat in between us. This lady walks up, and I had my Bible open reading it and she says, ‘I’m sitting between you,’ so I jump up and help her to her seat and then she just looks over and says, ‘I am a flaming liberal feminist and believe nothing like you.'”

He continued, “Many times your knee-jerk reaction is to kind of prove a point. But the Lord really spoke to me and said, ‘You need to win a person.’ The Holy Spirit gave me the ability to slow myself down a little bit and just begin to ask questions.”

“About an hour into it, we’re 30,000 feet up and she starts telling me all about her family and her son and was struggling with depression. Her daughter’s anxious. And she herself was really under a burden and I just felt the Lord wanted me to read Psalm 139. So, I said, I asked her permission, would you mind if I read a passage of scripture to you. She said of course. So, I opened my Bible and I began reading about how God saw our unformed substance. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And I began reading that and all of a sudden, her chin starts quivering and just tears just start flowing down her cheeks. I’m watching the word of God minister to her heart here.”

He continued, “She stopped me and said, ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you this but my entire adult life I’ve had a recurring dream.  Because I was adopted at birth. And in my dream, I’m in an incubator looking up at the doctors and nurses saying, ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll fend for myself.’ She got right to the root of her anger and that feminism. Right to the root without me even saying a word.”

“So, what I recognized that day was when we are motivated by love, we can be a bridge. We need to be quiet. Let the Holy Spirit begin to work in our hearts and then start asking questions and then boom, doors begin to open. Because in Matthew 16 (it says), ‘I’ll give you keys to the kingdom. What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ And I can use a battering ram to prove my point, or I can just take a key and open that heart.”

“It’s that staying submitted,” said Jason. “It’s recognizing that maybe I should think for three seconds before I respond to this person. And when you do that you’re submitted to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit may have you do something that’s completely out of the ordinary.”
(Excerpted from CBN, Charlene Aaron reporting)