Sid Roth - Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation Due to Antisemitism?
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Sandy Teplinsky. Sandy, you experienced at a young age, as a young Jewish girl, a lot of anti-semitism. Here in America, you think of a little, but you don't think of a lot.
Sandy Teplinsky: Not typically. I grew up in a neighborhood that was overtly anti-semitic. We lived not far from former Nazi headquarters in the city of Chicago of all places. And so just as a kid, I grew up having to defend myself physically. I would be beat up on playgrounds and learned to fight back very quickly, and maybe in some instances a little bit too effectively. But underlying all of that was a driving knowledge to know the God that I was fighting for, so to speak.
Sid Roth: Now what type of synagogue did you go to?
Sandy Teplinsky: It was very religious. You could call it Orthodox.
Sid Roth: Did you like the synagogue?
Sandy Teplinsky: I did. I found great comfort there. I can't remember a time not believing in God. And i, as a result of that, soon grew disillusioned by the time i, right about that midst of time because I wanted so much, with all of my heart, to love the Lord with all of my heart as our scriptures command, as our cornerstone prayer in Judaism commands us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And I saw no one, not even the devout rabbi, who did. And so I embarked on a search to be able to find out how I could love this God.
Sid Roth: You know, that is so amazing. Before we started the show I told you this, we're both Jewish, we both come from traditional Jewish backgrounds, but for me, I couldn't wait to get out of the synagogue and God wasn't even in my thoughts. And as far as personally knowing him like Moses did and David did, I didn't even give a thought to that. So would you say you were obsessed with knowing God?
Sandy Teplinsky: I was a little bit obsessed. In fact Sid, I became very upset I could not know God the same way Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. Nor did I see anybody who did and I remember asking questions of my parents and the rabbis and nobody had an answer for me. It was simply "God doesn't relate to people like that anymore". But something in me wouldn't settle for that.
Sid Roth: Ok, you get to college and now you find a different style of anti-semitism. It's not having to fight with your fists fortunately. It's a little more sophisticated. Tell me about it.
Sandy Teplinsky: Well it was called evangelism in my mind. The people that were out selling their spiritual wares, so to speak, back in the 70's when I went to college, saw me as ripe pickings I think. And the Christian campus evangelists who were out there, to my perception, assaulted me with their tracts and with their Gospel witness.
Sid Roth: Why didn't you do what most Jewish people do and they say "I'm Jewish, I'm not interested, good riddance"?
Sandy Teplinsky: I did. I did.
Sid Roth: So that should have been it.
Sandy Teplinsky: Well that should have been it except that I was so perturbed over this continual harassment of Jesus in my life. Now remember I grew up post-holocaust era and one thing we didn't talk about is that I was just simply barraged with instructions from the synagogue "You must never let Christians take your faith away, you must never let Christians harm the Jews again. Never again". And so I viewed this as an opportunity to fight fire with fire, to disprove the Gospel, to disprove this ridiculous allegation of a virgin birth. And so I went and bought myself a New Testament, read it for the first time, I was all set to write out the arguments against it, I was in school by the way studying to be an attorney, and to my shock, I found that the words that I read in the New Testament, when I read it for myself, and thought for myself, were filled with a power and a love like I had never experienced in any of my other religious studies or pursuits as I dabbled in different Eastern religions. And so I read the New Testament on my own, from cover to cover, I researched back into the Old Testament prophecies, which I knew enough of from my many years of Hebrew training, and it became very clear to me that this Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew as we now call him, is indeed the promised Messiah of Israel.
Sid Roth: Yes, but if a rabbi heard about this, he'd say "Sandy you're no longer a Jew". Now that's important for you to be Jewish isn't it?
Sandy Teplinsky: Well you know Sid, I've come to the place where it is important to me to be Jewish, it's very important. But what's more important to me is not what people call me. I mean the Bible says that if we're more concerned with what other people think of us, then we're not a Jew. A Jew is one who is concerned with the praises and exaltation of God.
Sid Roth: Do you know God?
Sandy Teplinsky: Yes I do.
Sid Roth: Do you remember that young girl that had a heart to know God and couldn't find anyone in the synagogue that really had intimacy with God? She has it now and what she has found out, you must know. Your very life is dependent on it. We'll be right back after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Sandy Teplinsky. Before we go back with Sandy, one of the things I see beyond reading the words of Jesus, and I don't see how anyone could read the words of Jesus, Jewish person, muslim person, anyone could read his words, without having their heart pierced with this amazing, and that's the only word I can come up with, amazing love. But the major way that Jewish people are coming to know the Messiah of Israel is through the supernatural. I want you to look at a video clip of Gari Goldburg Distephano who is a Jewish woman, that certainly did not believe in Jesus, that was healed of over 30 incurable diseases. Let's take a look now.
Gari Goldburg: My name is Gari Goldburg Distephano, I grew up in long island New York, and I led a pretty active life involving a lot of sports. In july of 1983 I survived a horrific car crash. I was broken in half from my neck down: the entire right side of my body broke over the steering wheel, I lost all the cartilage in both knees and was horizontal for the next two years. When the car stopped, I was trapped inside the car which was on fire and I have no explanation except for God and adrenaline for how I got out of the car. I spent the next two years trying to get vertical, moved down to Florida where I thought heat would be better for me. Of course humidity was quite painful. And God kept sending people into my path to talk to me about this Jewish guy named Jesus. And I really didn't want to have anything to do with this guy. I'm Jewish, I'm from New York, I was in a lot of pain, and I kept telling him I have a weapon and I'll hurt them if they don't stop talking to me. They did not stop talking to me but it really wasn't doing anything for my pain. Two men in particular, one Greek and one half Jewish, half Italian named Peter, gave me a Bible which I read. And again, nothing was helping my pain. 8 and 1/2 years after the accident I herniated a disc which paralyzed the left side of my body and basically I was out of of sides. My plan was to end my life and I looked at my gun and I realized I am such a klutz. If I shoot myself I'll still be here and in worse shape than I already was. And so I decided to pray. And these people had been trying to get me to say a prayer that basically said that Jesus died for me, rose again, and was living. And this concept of a living God was very alien to my Jewish heart. I knew there was a God, Jehovah God, the big God, and he lived in the temple. And if you didn't go to that building, you didn't really have to deal with him. So it was hard for me to agree to say that particular prayer because it would have been a lie and if he really was God, that would not be a good way to curry favor. So this is the prayer I said: I said "Jesus, if you are really God like they tell me, then you know what I'm going to do". "So instead of me doing it, you do it. I give my life to you, do with it what you will. Amen" as soon as I said amen, a hand took my shoulder, lifted me straight up off the floor, a surge of energy came through me, a sack filled with demons came out of my neck, disappeared into the air, and hallelujah, 39 things God healed in an instant.
Sid Roth: You know, a new phenomenon is going on. What happened to Gari is happening to people all over the world. Not just Jewish people. In fact I have good news for you: you don't have to be Jewish to believe in Jesus. God so loves the whole world. But I believe that many of you have had miracles, and you certainly have a little video camera at home. Why not talk just like Gari did right now of what God did, what miracle he did, two, three minutes. Send it to us, we'll check it out, and if it's legitimate we'll put it on the air. And I want to prove a point: that God is working throughout the entire earth right now. Not in superstars but through the superstar. The superstar is Jesus. The superstar is Jesus. I have Sandy Teplinsky here right now and I am overwhelmed with that testimony that we just saw. But I'm also overwhelmed with an experience that you had involving Israel. Tell me about that time that you felt what God feels about the nation Israel.
Sandy Teplinsky: This was about, oh almost 25 years ago, and it was long before I was acquainted with supernatural phenomena. And I was just merely going about my business, cleaning my house, worshipping God, singing, cleaning my house. And suddenly a great sense of anguish enveloped me like I'd never experienced before. When I think of it, the best way that I could describe it would be to call it very sad garbage. And it was if it enveloped me and broke my heart. Now I am a former attorney so while this was happening I was analyzing this and I was thinking perhaps I am having a nervous breakdown. This is something I have no grid for. But within seconds the Lord's presence overshadowed all that and he spoke very clearly to my heart and said "This is how I feel about my people Israel". And what I experienced was the Lord's heart ache and heartbreak and his grieving and his beholding of our sin, and yet the everlasting love of a father, who's arms nonetheless uphold his errant children, but who grieves and who pants for the return of those children. And so I fell to the floor under the weight of it and started wailing. Now at this point I really thought I might be having a nervous breakdown and I remember stuffing a pillow into my mouth because of the wails...
Sid Roth: Oh wow.
Sandy Teplinsky: ...Thinking that my neighbors could well call the police. I did not understand then what many of us know now, is that the Holy Spirit can deposit a supernatural intercessory burden like that so that we can stand in the gap. The scriptures say that God looks for someone to stand in the gap, to pray on behalf of Israel, or the nations, or both: to mediate God's mercy. And so that was really the beginning of a change in me that resulted, I believe, from a deposit of God's heart. And of course over the years the Lord has added to that and brought revelation and so on.
Sid Roth: The bottom line, Sandy, is you wrote a book called "Why care about Israel"? And that's a passion for you.
Sandy Teplinsky: It is.
Sid Roth: Why care about Israel?
Sandy Teplinsky: It's a passion for me Sid because, bottom line, it's a passion for God. I have a passion for God. We've known each other for years and our paths have crossed in our mutual pursuit of God. God is passionate for Israel. He makes it very clear in the word that that passion is everlasting. Beginning with Genesis 12:3 he says that he will bless those who bless Israel, meaning the lineal, physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will curse those who curse them, and of course we go into much more detail on that in the book. And so the lives of believers today, I'm not just speaking to Jews but to gentile believers, are effected to the extent that they choose to bless or curse Israel. Now that principle, that biblical principle, is not passe'. What we need to understand, what the church needs to understand in this hour, is that those same principles apply to us today, and even increasingly more so as we find ourselves at odds with a global mounting anti-semitism.
Sid Roth: Hold that thought. Let me tell you something: there's a new type of anti-semitism on the scene. You must understand. We'll be right back after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Sandy Teplinsky. And Sandy, just before the break, I said there is a new type of anti-semitism that is moving so strongly, it's scary. Explain.
Sandy Teplinsky: The new anti-semitism, as it's called by the Jewish community, not just the Messianic Jewish community, refers to the fact that historically, as you know, the Jewish people have been persecuted and victimized by anti-semitism. Which by the way is just the flip side of the spirit of antichrist, they are both anti-God. In whatever nations the Jewish people lived, they were hunted down, they were persecuted, they were killed. Now that there is an established state of Israel, the anti-semitism is today being cloaked in a thin veneer and allegedly politically correctly being called anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism or anti-Israeli policies. Now we're not saying that to disagree with Israel is tantamount to being anti-semitic, that's not the case at all. But what we are saying is that around the globe, and particularly in western Europe, we're finding that there is such an across the board disdain and castigation of the nation of Israel. And an equating of Israel with nazism of all things.
Sid Roth: You know, it is not a natural phenomenon Sandy.
Sandy Teplinsky: No.
Sid Roth: I mean we're both fairly logical type thinkers. This isn't a logical thing that is going on right now, especially as you point out even from a historical viewpoint who should have that land. But beyond historical, what is God's position? And how dangerous it is for a Christian to be on the wrong side of the fence. But it's like fuel going into a fire from a supernatural origin.
Sandy Teplinsky: Absolutely. Anti-semitism, or the hatred of the Jewish people, is ultimately demonic in nature. And I tell you, the enemy is fighting very hard right now to destroy and annihilate Israel through fanatical Islam and the Palestinian conflict. For several reasons, but one prime reason is that he knows, the devil knows, that if he can annihilate Israel and destroy the Jews, that he can, so he thinks, thwart the return of the Lord Yeshua. Because the scriptures tell us that it is to a Jewish city and a Jewish homeland that Jesus will return.
Sid Roth: Well in your book you say how the Jewish nation is key to unleashing God's blessings in the 21st century but there is a flipside to that, and that is the curses. How dangerous is it for a Christian to be involved in something like replacement theology, where they believe the church has replaced Israel, the church has all the promises, Israel has all the curses: how dangerous is that?
Sandy Teplinsky: Well it's extremely dangerous. First of all we can go back to Genesis 12:3 in which God says I will curse those who curse the descendents of Israel. We can go to the book of Obadiah who says in verse 15 "As you have treated Israel, so will God treat you". And we can go to Romans 11 where the apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, specifically addresses replacement theology and he says in verse 1 "Has God rejected the Jews? No". And then he goes on to say in verse 12 that those who are conceited towards the Jews, or arrogant, they themselves stand the chance of having their own life in Christ cut off. He continues that in verse 20. And so he is warning us, in fact he says, Paul specifically says he does not want us to be ignorant. And he says that less than a handful of times in all the scriptures. He is warning us. He says don't be ignorant, that God has not forsaken the Jewish people, that those who believe he has stand to have their own faith cut off, and that there is only a hardening in part on Israel, until the fullness, the full maturity, Messiah-likeness of the gentiles comes in.
Sid Roth: Flipside. What's in it if someone is a blessing to the Jew and Israel?
Sandy Teplinsky: If somebody blesses the Jewish people, and we go into it in much more detail in our book, but bottom line, you get more of Jesus. Now all over the world we hear people saying "I want more of God, more of the Holy Spirit, more of Jesus".
Sid Roth: You know Sandy, I'm reminded of the young Jewish girl Sandy, that said I want to know God. I want to know him. Now she says I want to have more and more each day, I want to have more of God. And the key to intimacy with God is following God's word. God says "I want obedience, not sacrifice". And Sandy is saying her intimacy is increasing by her love for the Jewish people, and to see the Jewish people in place, so that the gentile people can be in place, so the whole world can be in place, so that Jesus can return. How about you? It goes right down to you personally. Do you want to know God? It's not an accident that you're watching us right now. The same God that loves Sandy, the same God that loves me, died for you. And you may not understand everything I'm explaining to you right now, but understand this: you are special, you have purpose, there is destiny on your life, and knowing God is way beyond going to a church on Sunday or a Messianic Jewish congregation on Saturday. There is an intimacy that God wants to have with you. It is vital that you hear God's voice. It is vital that you experience his love. There is a portion of you that has never experienced love. Has never experienced true peace, I mean peace that is so tangible you reach out and touch it. I have. Sandy has. Because first of all we recognized that we're sinners. We recognize that we have done many things wrong. The 10 commandments you can't see in a public school but you know what they are and we've all violated them. If we go to God and say God, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I believe that the blood of Jesus washes away my sins and I am clean. And now that I am clean, I boldly proclaim that Jesus is my Messiah and Lord. Come inside of me, become real to me. And if you reach out for God, from that invisible realm God will reach out to you. It has never been easier in the history of the world. Why? Because God is drawing closer to planet earth. It is vital. Now now is the day of your salvation. Don't wait one second more. Get right with God.