Sid Roth - Jesus Came to Me in Jerusalem and Said One Word with Geoffrey Cohen
Is Jesus appearing to Jewish people in Israel? Next on this edition of It's Supernatural!
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter. Are Jewish people actually seeing appearances of Jesus in Jerusalem? My guest Geoffrey Cohen comes from a nice traditional Jewish background. But you didn't go in for a traditional Jewish sport. You liked boxing.
Geoffrey Cohen: Yeah. I really used to enjoy boxing.
Sid Roth: Most Jewish people don't get into boxing. Why did you get into boxing?
Geoffrey Cohen: Well when you're in a country where there's Anti-Semitism.
Sid Roth: You were in South Africa.
Geoffrey Cohen: I was raised in South Africa, and there's a lot of Anti-Semitism there, especially in the military there, and it was mandatory to be in the military, so I was in it for two years. It wasn't my ideal, but I had no choice. It was either that or prison, basically. And there was lot of Anti-Semitism; I didn't, you know, want to go to prison, so... There was a lot of Anti-Semitism especially during what we call basic training. I guess you call it boot camp in America. And basically, there were about 22 Jewish guys and about 800 what I used to call Christians. But of course, I realized they were gentiles. Maybe some were Christians, but I don't know. But there was so much Anti-Semitism that I had a learn how to fight just to defend myself, and that's how I got into boxing seriously.
Sid Roth: Now what did Judaism mean to you? What was your upbringing like?
Geoffrey Cohen: Well I was raised in an orthodox background in the sense that we belonged to an orthodox synagogue in my whole growing up life. We would go to the synagogue on high holy days, sometimes on a Saturday morning. But every Friday night we'd have a Sabbath meal at home, always. There was hardly a Friday night that we ever missed. That was a time for the family together; together - we're knit together; and a very wonderful time. So I was raised orthodox in that sense. Also I went to a Jewish school called King David, King David Primary School, King David High School, and we would say prayers every morning from I believe it was eight to 8:30. We would lay "Tefillin", which I believe in the Bible it's called “phylacteries”, we would lay "Tefillin", which is putting the Word of God on your forehead and on your arm, and then you'd lay them with leather straps, and that was five days a week we used to do that and say prayers, five mornings a week.
Sid Roth: Did you know many non-Jews? Were you kind of like in a Jewish setting most of your life?
Geoffrey Cohen: I was raised - 99 percent of my friends were Jewish. Just going to a Jewish school, there were no non-Jews. When I was very young we had some non-Jewish neighbors and I became friends with their little boy. But as far as being exposed to the "mainstream gentile world" or the non-Jewish world, it was really my last two years of high school when I went to a school that wasn't totally Jewish. That was my first real exposure to the non-Jewish world.
Sid Roth: What was your first exposure to Jesus?
Geoffrey Cohen: My first exposure to Jesus, well I did hear somebody preach the Gospel when I was in Johannesburg, a place called Hillbrow, which is downtown Johannesburg. But I never believed that it applied to Jewish people. I believed that Jesus was for the gentiles. So to me, it wasn't relevant. I thought, “That's nice”, so gentiles can come to know God now. That's very nice for them, and they could come to God through this Jesus. But as for us Jews, we go directly to God. We don't need a mediator.” That's what I believed at the time.
Sid Roth: Now you had a friend that exposed you to the subject, which people don't like to talk about, sin. What did this mean to you?
Geoffrey Cohen: Well to me, the word "sin" was a very archaic, outdated word, and I would think of the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages when I heard of sin. People who were secretly meddling with sin, but didn't want anyone to know it, you know. And so to me, it was a very archaic outdated word. But it didn't really, I didn't understand “original sin”. And many people don't know this, but many Jewish people don't have a concept of “original sin”. And so the first time this guy really shared about sin, he began to talk about sin and use the word "sin". And I thought, “Oh no, this guy is going to preach to us now. This is all I need in my life is another person preaching to me.” But then he began to explain that sin is the basic selfish nature of man, and that every nation and every person has their particular way or their philosophy that they want to impose on others. And because everyone is selfish basically by nature, that's why we have wars between nations, and we have problems in the world. So that was the first time that it began to make sense to me, what “sin” really was. That it was the basic selfish nature of mankind.
Sid Roth: But you were in Jerusalem and the last thing you wanted to see, the last person you wanted to see as an Orthodox Jew, you literally saw Jesus?
Geoffrey Cohen: Yes I did.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that.
Geoffrey Cohen: Well really what happened, when the guy spoke to me about Jesus, it was actually on a kibbutz between Shefayim. It was actually called “Shefayim” - “the kibbutz” - between Tel Aviv and Netanya.
Sid Roth: It's like a communal place where Jewish people live in Israel.
Geoffrey Cohen: Yes. And he began to talk about Jesus, the same guy that we were speaking about. And he would talk about where this happened to Jesus and that happened to Jesus. And I thought, “Why is he talking about Jesus? We're in Israel now.” And then he spoke about Jesus in Jerusalem, and I thought “Jesus in Jerusalem? What was - you know, Jerusalem was a Jewish place. What would he be doing in Jerusalem?” And then he began to speak about Jesus as a Jew, and I thought, “What a strange thing.” I thought maybe Jesus was a Catholic or something because all these people who called themselves Christians hated the Jews. And so that opened up my heart. And then I walked in to what is called Jaffa Gate, which is the old city of Jerusalem. I walked in through Jaffa Gate, and as I walked in there's the Arab market to your left. And I was with a friend of mine from Zimbabwe, who was standing next to me. And all of a sudden, as real as you sitting in front of me, I saw Jesus standing in front of me - about 20 feet from me - as real - even more real than you sitting here.
Sid Roth: I have to ask you, Geoffrey.
Geoffrey Cohen: Yes.
Sid Roth: Were you into drugs?
Geoffrey Cohen: Very - occasionally I smoked dope back then, which it might sound heavy to some people, but almost everyone was doing that.
Sid Roth: So you were probably imaging this when you saw Jesus.
Geoffrey Cohen: Well you know, I didn't know what a vision was. Apparently what I had was a vision. I found out about that after I came to know God more intimately later on. But really, I was actually seeing Jesus.
Sid Roth: Did he say anything? Did he - what did he look like?
Geoffrey Cohen: Well he looked - this might sound strange, but he looked a lot like me or I looked - physically I'm talking about - but he was darker in complexion, probably more Jewish looking because he was darker, more Sephardic looking; you know, more dark; more Middle Eastern looking, but about my size and build. Of course, he had long hair and a beard and he was dressed as he was when he was on the Earth 2,000 years ago. But what really struck me the most about him was that - was his eyes. There's just no way to describe his eyes. It was like looking into eternity. Just looking into his eyes was looking at eternity. It was like he knew everything about me, everything that I was, everything I had done and yet he loved me unconditionally as I was. And he did speak one word to me.
Sid Roth: What was that?
Geoffrey Cohen: Without opening his mouth - and I can't explain it to you - it was the word "hineni", which means “Here am I”.
Sid Roth: What did that mean to you?
Geoffrey Cohen: It meant to me that he was the Messiah.
Sid Roth: What about you? If you were an Orthodox Jew and you were in Jerusalem and Jesus came to you, and he said, "Hineni, here am I". We'll be right back. It gets much more supernatural. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter and I'm here with a Jewish couple, Geoffrey and Michelle Cohen. Now Geoffrey came from an Orthodox Jewish background. The last thing he expected is when he was in Jerusalem he had an appearance of Jesus. And Jesus looked him in the eye. There was a look; Geoffrey, there was a look. Capture it for me. What did you see in Jesus?
Geoffrey Cohen: I saw liquid love; absolute perfect love, unconditional love and acceptance.
Sid Roth: Alright, but you had liked drugs. You experienced some kind of highs there. Was it - was there a difference?
Geoffrey Cohen: Oh, totally different. There was just nothing - there was just such an incredible sense. As extreme as this might sound, there was a sense that God himself was looking at me. Even though I didn't understand much about Jesus, there was a sense that God himself was looking at me, and those few seconds of Jesus looking at me changed my life forever. Sixteen years later today, and it's more real to me today than it was 16 years ago.
Sid Roth: Okay. Michelle, you're over in England. You don't know anything about Geoffrey. You find out, at actually an older age, at something like 22, that your mother was Jewish.
Michelle Cohen: That's right.
Sid Roth: And you're probably raised as a non-Jew.
Michelle Cohen: That's right.
Sid Roth: You became a successful dancer. How successful?
Michelle Cohen: Fairly successful in the dance world. I chose to come out of performing and move into choreography. That's where I found the most enjoyment and creativity there. And I worked in one of the foremost performing art schools in London, teaching dance and choreographing with students who would go on to work on the London stage and various countries around the world.
Sid Roth: You know, you sound like you have your life together. Things are going good. But you're getting involved in ESP and New Age. Why?
Michelle Cohen: You know, from when I was about 16 years old, I - my grandfather died, and I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but I just began to be more and more aware of just a void in my heart. And I just, as so many people do these days, just went about finding different ways to try and fill that void, either through career or relationships with boyfriends. And then I began to look into some of these other things, too. And it was - one of the first things I did was to be involved in a seance. And it was shocking to me because I really felt a presence of something in the room.
Sid Roth: Was it a good feeling?
Michelle Cohen: No, it wasn't a good feeling. It was a scary feeling and yet, because I didn't understand what I was doing and what I was really messing with, I thought that if I explored it more, maybe that would be the answer to the void that I felt in my heart.
Sid Roth: But you started getting more than you bargained for.
Michelle Cohen: That's right.
Sid Roth: You began to see that in the invisible world there are entities called demons and spirits. Could you actually see them?
Michelle Cohen: You know, that did happen at one period in my life and it was quite terrifying. I mean, I didn't realize what I was doing. I didn't realize, like you said, that they were demons. And during the night hours I would see the most foul and grotesque creatures appearing in the bedroom and would be crying out, "Make it go away! Make it go away"! And they - it didn't last; it wasn't a long season, but it was enough to really put a fear in me. What was I really doing here?
Sid Roth: And you had a problem with a boyfriend.
Michelle Cohen: Right.
Sid Roth: And you split up.
Michelle Cohen: Right.
Sid Roth: Was that good enough reason for you to think of suicide?
Michelle Cohen: Well it was just everything. It was all of the years of being involved in all of these things. I can really describe it better this way. It felt like darkness was just increasing and increasing in my life. I felt like I was just getting swallowed up with things that I began to open up the door to, and I didn't know what I was messing with, and I felt like they were taking over. And I was thinking thoughts that I realized weren't rational and they weren't the right kind of thoughts for a successful choreographer and dance teacher. If you had looked on the outside I had everything together, but on the inside I was crying out for help.
Sid Roth: Were you seriously contemplating suicide?
Michelle Cohen: You know, I really was. My heart was so broken from the breakup with my boyfriend. I thought, “What is all this about?” I seem to have searched for some six, seven, eight years, every possible avenue I thought that would bring the answers to life, and I still didn't find these answers that I was looking for.
Sid Roth: Now you went to study with a famous choreographer in the United States. Why did you go?
Michelle Cohen: Well actually it wasn't me that went to study. It was my teacher studied with Alvin Ailey and she passed on all of the wonderful things that she had learned to me, and it just really expanded my whole understanding of dance and the power behind dance. But at that time when it would really felt like, “What am I doing here? What am I doing here?” It was that time that from somewhere deep down on the inside of me I cried out in a very real way to God. And I said, "Jesus, if you are real, please help me". And that was probably the most honest cry I had ever made, and I didn't, as I said, "Jesus, if you're real". I didn't even know Jesus really was there. I just heard his name when I was child. You'd hear it on the TV every now and then and movies. But I really, that was the final thing. If Jesus was real, I needed his help, and he proved to me that he was real and was alive.
Sid Roth: How did he do that?
Michelle Cohen: Immediately a peace came over me. Suddenly I didn't have the strangulating feeling that I needed to get out of whatever it was that was closing in on me. A peace came over me. And even though it wasn't the answer to everything at that point, I was able to carry on and began to make a plan to just have a little change of direction in my life, which eventually led me to come to America.
Sid Roth: Now in America, you went to a church.
Michelle Cohen: That's right.
Sid Roth: Is this, I mean, people go to churches all the time. Something unusual happened there.
Michelle Cohen: Yes it did. I had never been to church before. I had never been in a place where people were worshiping God. And I walked in the door of the church with the lady who was taking care of me in America, and as I walked down the aisle, I experienced a presence that I had never experienced before, and this was so different to all of the other experiences I had.
Sid Roth: But you had experienced presences before, evil presences. What was the difference?
Michelle Cohen: This was holy. It's like, how would I know what was the difference between holy and unholy, but I knew that this was the holy presence of God. I saw people all around lifting up their hands and worshiping. And I didn't know what they were worshiping, but I just knew I felt this holy beautiful presence. I began to cry as I was walking to find a seat. And I heard the most gentle, powerful, beautiful voice I had ever heard, and he said, "It's all right, Michelle. You're home now".
Sid Roth: “It's all right. You're home now.” What would you give to hear a voice from God say, "It's all right. You're home now". We'll be right back after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter. I'm here with a Jewish couple, Geoffrey and Michelle Cohen. Geoffrey, never in a million years coming from an Orthodox Jewish background from South Africa, ever expected to have a face-to-face encounter with Jesus in Jerusalem. Changed his life forever. Michelle, Jewish, goes to a church for the first time in her life. And although she had felt all sorts of things in ESP and the New Age, in the occult, never, ever did she feel what she felt. I mean, it was an experience with the Living God. But before we go back to them I'd like to find out who our guest is next week. Janie in the control room, who's up?
Janie: Sid, you'll be speaking to a man who is going to discuss a secret world government conspiracy. On his program, a man is going to call in who went to secretly to the U.N. meeting back in May, and he's going to reveal the U.N's agenda of a one world religion, thought control, a worldwide military. It's just total control and that's what he's going to reveal to us.
Sid Roth: And the thing that's so exciting to me, Janie, is that the Bible, written thousands of years ago, predicts a one-world government, a one-world religion, and we can see the ingredients from this guest next week. Now I'm talking here with Geoffrey Cohen. And Geoffrey, I still don't understand. You saw Jesus. How do you know it wasn't an imaginary thing?
Geoffrey Cohen: Because it's more vivid today, 16 years later than it was back then, because it changed my life forever. It changed the direction of my life. It changed the way that I think, the way that I see God, the way that I see my fellow man. As a direct result of that encounter, I have total love for all people in my heart. I have no hatred or animosity towards any people group whatsoever, whether it be even Germans, even the Arabs who’ve tried to destroy Israel. There's been forgiveness in my heart since I've come to know Jesus my Messiah.
Sid Roth: Now wait a second. I remember you were the guy that studied boxing against Anti-Semitism. You don't use that boxing anymore, do you?
Geoffrey Cohen: Well not physically. I probably could if I had to, but God has called me to a different kind of battle. It's a spiritual battle, and it's the battle for men's souls. And the only things that I fight now are demons, which are unseen spiritual entities that are evil, that would try and prevent people from knowing God.
Sid Roth: Speaking of demons, Michelle, you used to see these critters in the invisible world. But you went to this church - and tell me this, first time in your life - tell me this experience.
Michelle Cohen: I walked into the church and I experienced this beautiful presence that I had never experienced before. And as you said, I had experienced many things - spiritual presences of one kind or another, even seeing demonic spirits in the night hours - but this was so different. It was, what I can only describe as holy. It was never a word I had even used before, but I knew this was the holy presence of God. And I heard a voice, I believe, of Jesus; the most beautiful, gentle, loving voice speak right into my heart, speak right to me as if he'd known me and seen everything that I had ever been through and say, "It's all right Michelle, you're home now".
Sid Roth: I like that. “You're home now.” So the two of you get married, and these two Jewish believers in Jesus are praying together, and something happened to the two of you at the same time that's never happened before. What was that, Michelle?
Michelle Cohen: We experienced the presence of God together in our home. After I had heard Jesus speak to me, I gave my life to Jesus, and I experienced a complete washing. It was a wonderful thing. It was like a spiritual shower from Heaven. I remember just in faith giving my life to the Lord, asking him to wash me clean, and experiencing a light and sort of an invisible water from Heaven just wash away all of the past. And when Jeff and I were married, we would pray to the Lord together, and spend time just talking to God and reading the Bible, and praying together. And this one day, unexpectedly, the presence of God began to come into our home. It was so real. It was so intense. We found ourselves just on our faces on the floor.
Sid Roth: You said you were pinned to the ground. Do you really mean that?
Geoffrey Cohen: Absolutely.
Sid Roth: Could you have walked away if you wanted to?
Geoffrey Cohen: I couldn't have moved.
Michelle Cohen: That's right.
Sid Roth: How long?
Michelle Cohen: For hours.
Geoffrey Cohen: Many hours. You know, I wasn't timing it of course, but I would say at least four, maybe five hours.
Sid Roth: What was pinning you? Was it like a hand holding you down? What was it?
Geoffrey Cohen: It was like an invisible blanket of God's holiness and power pinning us to the ground. I was even scared to even think because I was so aware, that compared to God - I wasn't living in sin or anything like that - but compared to God, I'm so unholy and so unclean. I was scared even of my own thoughts at that time and God was revealing his incredible power and holiness to both of us at that time. So we would really know that it's just the mercy of God that we are saved, and that we can have a relationship with him, because he's awesome and powerful.
Sid Roth: Do you know something? This reminds me of a famous Jewish prophet by the name of Isaiah. I mean, you'd think he'd be pretty holy. But he came into the presence of God and he recognized, compared to another person, he might have been a holy man of God. But compared to God, he says, "...all of [my good deeds is as a woman that is]... unclean [in God's sight]". “…woe is me… I am undone! … I am [an] unclean [man]… and I [live amongst an] unclean [people]". This was a great Jewish prophet. You need to understand that Jesus is saying to you right now, “hineni”. That's Hebrew for “Here I am”. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to believe that I died for your sins?” And that because of that, if you repent of your sins, your sins will be washed away from the blood of Jesus washing it away, and you will have intimacy with God. If you will seek God with all of your heart at this moment, right now - not later, right this second; right now, say, God, I've got to know you. Jesus, are you the Messiah? Jesus, I want to experience the same love that Geoffrey and Michelle have experienced. Oh I need to know you, God. Recognize that he loves you, and he wants to know you, more than you want to know him. But he's available for you right now. He's saying, "Hineni. Here am I. Here am I".