Sid Roth - I Asked God, "Was Jesus Your Son?" His Answer Shocked Me
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. My guests, June and Shelly Volk, were both raised in Jewish homes and did not know Jesus as their Messiah. June's family was more conservative, Reformed. Shelly's family, Orthodox. June, how does a nice Jewish girl married to a nice Jewish man, coming from thousands of years of Jewish heritage, believe in Jesus?
June Volk: Well, Sid, we lived in a suburban area of New Haven, Connecticut. We had been married 10 years, three children, and Shelly was an executive vice president of a stock brokerage firm, and we had a lot of money. And I loved the world, and yet, I had a void in my life. And I didn't understand what that was. And Shelly's younger brother, Paul, went to Berkeley, California with four Jewish friends, and in 1 year, they all came to the knowledge of Jesus. And Paul was going to come back East to tell Shelly's parents about his newfound faith. And he said, "Why don't you and Shelly go with the children to be with my parents"? And so Paul started to share, after the meal, about his newfound faith. And my mother-in-law, who loved her boys with all her heart, her children were her life, stood up and walked out of the house, and my father-in-law followed her out of the house. And Shelly stood up, spit on the floor, took my daughters...
Sid Roth: Wait, wait, wait. Shelly, did you... I mean, is it just an expression, or did you really spit?
Shelly Volk: I really spit.
Sid Roth: All right, just checking.
June Volk: Okay.
Sid Roth: Go ahead.
June Volk: And my boys took their dad's hand, and they walked out of the house, and I thought, "Oh, poor Paulie boy. I love him so much, I'll listen to what he has to say". And he read a lot of Scriptures, shared a lot of things...
Sid Roth: But I'm just curious, though. When you made that decision to listen to someone that's going to tell you about Jesus, was there a curiosity on your part?
June Volk: I didn't think of Jesus or God. I thought, "Poor Paulie boy, he's suffering".
Sid Roth: Okay.
June Volk: "And I can help him. He's troubled". And so he read a lot of different Scriptures. I didn't hear anything. But he asked a question that arrested my attention because Scotty, our son, had come home from Hebrew school a week before, and he said to me, "Mom, does God exist"? And, Sid, I didn't know how to answer him. And so I thought, "How am I going to answer my son? I can't lie to him". And I said, "Scotty, I don't know. I don't think anyone really knows if God exists, but I sure hope He does". And I answered Paul in a similar fashion, and he said a lot about Jesus. And he said to me, "June, you don't have to believe me. If you really want to know the truth, you can ask God, for so it is written, 'Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'" And so that stayed with me, and I knew that one day I was going to ask God if He existed. And I knew...
Sid Roth: But you believed He didn't exist.
June Volk: I didn't know.
Sid Roth: Okay.
June Volk: I didn't know, but I knew one thing, that if He did, the only true God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And if He existed, that was the God I wanted to know. And that night, I woke up with a horrible nightmare. I sat up in bed. And Shelly took my hand and said, "Are you all right, June"? And I said I was, but you know how you feel after a bad dream? I laid back in bed, and I just couldn't fall back to sleep, and I thought, "This is as good a time as any". And I called out that night, Sid. And I said, "Father, if You can hear me, please answer me! Was Jesus Your Son"? I said, "Father, please, I really want to know: Was Jesus Your Son"? And we had a window to the right of our bed with a shade, and fire came around the shade, almost like fires of tongues all around the shade. And it wasn't being consumed. And that fire went up and encircled the entire border of the ceiling. And then I felt an extreme pressure on top of my head. And in my mind, I'm saying, "June, this is just your imagination". But I felt chills going up and down my legs. I felt something enter me, clean up everything inside of me, and my tongue started to gyrate up and down uncontrollably. And out of my mouth were coming words that I had never heard and I didn't know. And those words were, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever". And that prayer was repeated three full times, and the third time, it was like my whole being was praying that prayer as the words were coming out of my mouth. And then the pressure left my head, and the fire left the room the same way it came in and vanished. But, Sid, I was different. Something happened that I knew that I knew that I knew that God did exist and that Jesus was His son.
Sid Roth: So did you determine you would tell your Jewish husband the good news right away or...
June Volk: Well, I asked the Lord one more thing that night, Sid. I said, "Please, let Shelly know the truth. For without him, I'm nothing". And I woke up the next morning. It was the month of August of 1973. Our children went to camp. I had a babysitter for my daughter, Susie. And I went into the kitchen to make breakfast. And very carefully, when Shelly walked into the kitchen, he gave me a kiss good morning, and I said, "Shelly, I have something to tell you". And, very carefully, I said, "What Paul told us was the truth. God came to me". And I explained to him what I shared with you, but I couldn't remember the prayer. And Shelly said...
Shelly Volk: I said, "Oy vey. What is going on here"? Because I didn't think my brother was Jewish because he knew Jesus. I didn't think my Jewish wife, with a name like Bernstein from Brooklyn, would even get conceived into this stuff. And I said, "Listen, I'm going to go to work, but I suggest that you take two aspirins, put a compress on your head, and you'll feel better when you get up".
Sid Roth: Did you really say that?
Shelly Volk: I really said that. And you know what? She never did it. Very, very strange wife, she didn't believe her husband, but...
Sid Roth: So what did you do with this valuable information that, now, your brother is not Jewish, your wife is not Jewish? What are you going to do?
Shelly Volk: "God, how can you do this? How can you do this"? It was so inconceivable to me. So, I tell you, the Word of God says, "Jews, look for a sign". And as I went along, I said, "This can't be". For example, I was driving in my car. We had two cars. We called it, it was so bad, the automobile. We called it "Lump Lump". And one day, it stopped. It didn't go. The key, I couldn't do anything. So I said, "Lord, if You're the One, that my brother and my wife know You, what is it for you to start the car"? Sid, I turned the key, and the car started.
Sid Roth: Was that enough for you to believe?
Shelly Volk: Enough? No, because I start, I used my signs, and I think I used a lot of other people's signs to find out, "What is going on here"? I was a nice Jewish boy, had a great bar mitzvah, and all of a sudden Jesus is involved. Well, for many months, I got saved 15 months later. But on that trip that I was taking, my secretary, who was also a born-again believer in my office...
Sid Roth: You're surrounded.
Shelly Volk: Oh, I couldn't get rid of them. And she tells me, "There's a man, I think, who you should meet who's coming into New Haven to speak about a Jewish man. His name is Art Katz". You can't be much more Jewish and have a name like Katz. And he said, "Shelly, I'll give you his number". I'm sorry. My brother Paul wrote. He was out in the California church. And he said, "You need to meet this man". So we lived in New Haven, Connecticut, and he lived in somewhere in New Jersey. It wasn't too far away. So I called him with every intention to say, "Art, I have a ticket to the full Gospel dinner. I want to talk to you after. You've got to help me. I'm in a dilemma". And instead of that, out of my mouth comes, "How would you and your family like to spend the weekend with us in our house"?
Sid Roth: You don't even know this guy.
Shelly Volk: I don't know this guy, and worse than that, he calls me brother. I've never met the guy. So he comes, and he comes. He drives in our driveway, and I...
Sid Roth: Wait. Wait. By the way, I was a friend of Art Katz, who is now in Heaven. He was, without a doubt, the most articulate. He was a high school teacher. He was the most articulate man with words. It was almost poetry when he would speak because I'd never met a man that was so, so articulate that if I was to pick someone throughout the whole world to talk to a Jewish man at that time in history, it would have been Art Katz. I'll tell you what. Hold that thought. I want to find out what Art had to say to him when he was a guest in his house. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here. I'm talking to Shelly and June Volk, and June gave the good news to Shelly. "I had an encounter with Jesus. I believe He's Messiah". And Shelly says, "Take a couple aspirins, put a cold compress on your head, and you'll be okay in a", no chicken soup?
Shelly Volk: No.
Sid Roth: What's the matter with you? And anyway, long story short, his brother finds out about a man, a Jewish guy that also believes in Jesus, Art Katz. And you talked to Art on the phone, and what happened?
Shelly Volk: I said, I didn't want to say it, but I invited him over to the house to spend the weekend while he's speaking. So this articulate man, Art Katz, drives in our driveway, opens the door. And I figured I'd see a man in a black jacket with a white collar. And all of a sudden he says, "Hey, you got a ping-pong table here"? What is going on here? Well, he's an excellent ping-pong player. But we had dinner that Friday night, and we spent the day Saturday even watching a football game, no pressure on me.
Sid Roth: None.
Shelly Volk: But Junie's parents were over. And we were sitting at our dining room table. And he said to my father-in-law, Gus, "I want to read something from the Old Testament, Isaiah 53. Can I read it to you"? I wasn't part of the conversation. I had heard June read Isaiah 53 to me, and I said, "Don't tell me what it means. If you're so smart, become a Rebbetzin, a wife of a rabbi. Don't tell me". But as Art was reading that, that chapter starts by saying, "Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed"? As he was reading it to my father-in-law, all I know is something was going on in my heart that was different. I said, "My God, could it really be, Jesus is our Messiah"? And I was shocked. Well, I went to bed. And Art and his family and Junie and I and our family were going to go to this Baptist church on Sunday morning. And I knew that we only had two cars, Art's car and my car. And I figured, "It's impossible, but I'm going to ask You, Lord, if You are really trying to get my life, I want to be alone with my car, driving with Art alone, just the two of us". And I kind of breathed a sigh of relief because it was impossible. Eight people won't go in one car, and Art and I in the other. And June comes over to me Sunday morning. We invited our Jewish friends and relatives over to hear this Mr. Katz speak about the Bible. And she said, "Shelly, I can't go with you. Work it out with Art, but I can't go. I've got to prepare for our family". So I'm standing by my front door, and somebody grabs, I was like this, grabs my arm and says, "Shelly, I want to go alone in your car. Inger and the kids aren't ready". It was like, "Oh, my God. God, what are you doing"? And so...
Sid Roth: This was Art Katz, grabbed you?
Shelly Volk: This was Art Katz, really. So I started telling him what happened. I felt something going on in my life when he was reading to my father-in-law. He comes closer as he puts his arm around me and starts praying, and I follow him in prayer. And he says, "Welcome, brother, into the Kingdom of God," so...
Sid Roth: You said the Prayer of Salvation this nice Jewish stockbroker?
Shelly Volk: Yes. A nice Jewish stockbroker prayed that Jesus Christ would be my Savior, and that was it. They were supposed to go home Sunday night. Art's family went, but Art stayed one more day, and you know what the Bible says: One day is like 1,000 years. Go ahead.
June Volk: That's right. So Shelly went to work Monday morning, and our telephone rang while Arthur was having breakfast. And it was the pastor of the Baptist church where Arthur had spoken the day before and wanted to speak to Arthur. And Arthur looked at me and said, "Have you ever been baptized"? I said, "No, Art. I'm waiting for Shelly," and...
Sid Roth: You figured you wouldn't have to be baptized. He'd never be baptized, right?
June Volk: And it will take a while.
Shelly Volk: Such a foreign term, it sounded so Gentile, "Baptized"?
June Volk: And so I hear Arthur say, "Fill up the tanks," and he hung up. I looked at him. I said, "Art, Shelly is not ready to be baptized". He said, "I'll take care of Shelly. I'm speaking at Yale New Haven to the students. Shelly is coming from his office. I'll take care of Shelly. You get out his jeans, an old shirt, a couple of towels. Wear old clothes, and I'll see you at the Baptist church". So Shelly comes home, goes to the refrigerator, opens it up, takes out a piece of chicken, starts eating. And he said, "Oh, Art told me that he wants us to see a baptism". And I looked at him, and I said, "Is that all he told you"? And he said, "Yeah. Why"? And I said, "Did he tell you whose baptism it was"? And he said, "No. Why"? And I said, "It's yours". And he said, "Oh, no. It's not". Anyway, I asked. I said to him, "I'm not getting baptized," he said. "Can I just take your clothes and the towels, put them in the car just in case"? He said, "June, you get into that car, get out of the car, sit in the back seat of the church and don't say a word".
Shelly Volk: So we get to the church.
Sid Roth: I'm on the edge of my seat. Come on, Shelly. What happened?
Shelly Volk: Well, on the way to church, I prayed again. And don't ask me where this came from, but I said, "Lord, in order for me to get baptized, I want to see a blond hitchhiker on the way".
June Volk: A Jew looks for a sign.
Shelly Volk: Yeah.
June Volk: Use them up.
Shelly Volk: I look for signs and signs and signs. So we get in. We sit in the back pew, and the women were going in one dressing room, the men in the other. And I go lower and lower and lower and lower in my seat because I hear the footsteps of Art Katz coming close to me. And he says, "New boychik, what are you waiting for"? I said, "Art, I prayed. The Lord didn't answer the prayer, and I don't have to get baptized". He says, "Shelly, what's the matter with you? The Bible says, 'They believed and were baptized, and they were saved, and they got baptized.'" I said, "Art, I'm not getting baptized". About 15 minutes later, he lifted me up out of the baptismal waters after lifting June up, and there he was. I was baptized into Jesus Christ, and I thought I was in Heaven.
Sid Roth: You know what? I'm not concerned about them. They're in God's hands. I'm concerned about you. Say this prayer and mean it, and the same thing that happened to the two of them will happen to you. Say "Jesus" out loud, "Jesus, I make You my Messiah and Lord. Lord Jesus, live inside of me. Amen".