Sid Roth - Rabbis Call Frank Eiklor the Most Dangerous Man in America
Why do Jewish people call my guest the most dangerous man in America? Next on this edition of It's Supernatural!
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter, and my guest you just don't look so dangerous to me.
Frank Eiklor: My wife for 39 years has thought I looked like a big bundle of love, Sid, and I really am.
Sid Roth: So where did you get the RAP from?
Frank Eiklor: Well it's really not a RAP. We'll develop it as we go along, but it's a compliment because of Jewish people seeing in Frank Eiklor defending them from hate, where I was once raised to hate them. Standing by Jews when they're targeted for hate and never compromising the reason I'm standing by them is because of the love of Jesus.
Sid Roth: Why did you hate Jews?
Frank Eiklor: Well how would you like to be raised with this. We got to get Hitler. The only good thing he's doing is what he's doing to those blankety-blank and then every pejorative term there was: kike, sheeny, hymie, the whole bit. The sticks of Illinois, Sid. Somebody said that every failure has to have a scapegoat. My daddy had his. Chief among them, the Jewish people. I might have made a good candidate one day to lead the KKK or a neo-Nazi party, possibly be out, so to speak, gunning for the Sid Roths of this world, except something would happen to me as a Marine on Okinawa that would turn it all around.
Sid Roth: What did you see as a Marine? What happened to you?
Frank Eiklor: Well joined at 20 years of age. Joined because I hated life. I was a tough guy on the outside, I was Jell-O on the inside. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Background–beatings in the home when Papa would be drunk when were kids, even kids getting kicked in the legs and running away with girls, runaways, eight kids, one, the ninth died. And sometimes I suppose it would have been easy to think that that one was the lucky one. That was the background. As far as the Lord, as far as God, as far as Jesus, I think we may have had a Bible. It was a good luck piece somewhere buried. Nobody read it. Joined the corps at 20. Well of course, the outside is you're joining to be hero, you're joining, you know. I'm no different. I was joining because I was 20 going on 40, going on 50. Grey hairs around the heart. They sent me over to Okinawa. Was on Okinawa. In fact, I always thank God for the Gideon, the little Gideon Bible, you find them in the hospitals. I'm not a Gideon, but I sure do speak up for those Bibles. They gave me a Bible. In fact, they gave everybody one. Now usually, Sid, that Bible would go into pockets if it went anywhere, because if you go into battle, you know, it's supposed to catch the bullet. You know, John Wayne.
Sid Roth: Right. I understand that. But why would you read the Bible?
Frank Eiklor: I read the Bible.
Sid Roth: Why?
Frank Eiklor: I couldn't put it down.
Sid Roth: Why?
Frank Eiklor: It was a magnet. Why does, why do filings go to a magnet? They're drawn there. All I can tell you is that deep inside was this cry. I remember when I was a kid I used to lay in bed, I used to call, if there was a God, I used to pray this way. Sir, if you're there. Because that was greatest title I could give anybody–Sir. Sir, if you're there, I would like to get to you know you, Sir. If you're real, I'm lonely. I'd like to know. Twenty years of age, that little book, I began to read it on the ship. We had three weeks on the high seas and there on those high seas I read a love story. You see, Sid, I never told my own mama for 20 years I loved her. She was the only one I loved. Couldn't tell her because if I told my mama that I loved her then Daddy when he was drunk would have called out the door, some terrible, terrible things that are not mentionable. Something is happening now with Mama, so I would hold it all in. The most beautiful person in the world, wouldn't tell her for 20 years. And there I was reading, oh, and the worst thing happened when we were kids were not the beatings. The worst thing–spitting in the face.
Sid Roth: Your dad spit in your face.
Frank Eiklor: Spit on our faces, yes. And when I was a kid I'd run out and I'd get the Lava soap, when we were kids, the grease monkeys used, I'd wash my face with that Lava soap trying to wash away the shame, never could do it. But it's that spit, the reason I'm saying that, that's what the Lord used to one day open my eyes. You see, it was not a desire for Heaven that turned me around. Heaven was foreign. It was no fear of hell. I thought I lived there. We came from hell. When I read the story of Jesus like a novel, page by page, I couldn't get over this life. He loved little kids instead of hated them. He forgave people instead of harping, you know, harping on their sins. But the thing that got me is when we put the blindfold over His face, and we smashed Him across the head and, "Hey, who am I? what's my name"? That hurt me. The thing that got me the most, somebody came up and spit in the face of Jesus. And Sid, there's no record He ever even reached up to wipe it away. When I was a little guy, I used to eat all the yogurt I could or the spinach because I wanted to grow up so that if anybody spit on me or a loved one, it would be the last time they'd ever spit. And here's somebody with all power, here's the one who said He was the creator of the universe, putting on flesh, disguised as a human being, as Messiah, as Savior, yeah, I'll be very candid with you, I fell in love like no one I don't think has ever fallen any more in love. Jesus exploded in reality and I knew God was alive. My life was transformed just as real there on Okinawa as another boy, a Jew had been 2000 years ago.
Sid Roth: Out of curiosity, as a Jew I have to ask you this question, being raised as a Jew hater, how did you handle the fact that Jesus is Jewish?
Frank Eiklor: Well I'm glad you asked me that, because you see, I didn't know any of this. Number one, John the Baptist, everybody knew he was a Baptist, except he was Jew. Jesus, everybody knew he was a blue-eyed Swede from Chicago. Didn't you know that? Of course, now I find out he's a Jew. Everybody knew the first church, where was it, in New York, or in Paris, or Moscow. It was in Jerusalem. Oh, all the disciples, I mean, I knew Matthew was a German, Mark was a Swede. Everybody knew Peter was from Italy. Wasn't he, you know? The whole story was Jewish.
Sid Roth: Let me tell you something. Today I'm laughing, but there was a time, do you know how I found out Jesus was Jewish?
Frank Eiklor: How?
Sid Roth: One day I had a book of Ripley's "Amazing Facts" and one of the facts was Jesus is Jewish. And I remember the outrage. I went to my mother and I said, "Look at the nerve of these people. They say is Jesus is Jewish".
Frank Eiklor: And you're a Jewish kid saying that.
Sid Roth: I always heard a Jew doesn't believe in Jesus. They say He's Jewish. My mother said, yeah He is. I was shocked.
Frank Eiklor: Wow.
Sid Roth: But how about you as an anti-Semitic person, a Jew hater?
Frank Eiklor: Well now my life was being changed by one that I thought of course was anything but Jewish. Jesus came into my life, and I wish I could tell you though, Sid. I wish I could tell you that I entered this fight on behalf of the Jewish people immediately. What I did is I went out to preach the Gospel all over the world after Bible school, and so forth and so on. I went into world missions. I married my honey Norma. And by the way, now on a honeymoon almost 40 years, still in love with that girl. I told her if I get old and get a wheelchair someday, I'm gonna get gears so I can keep chasing her.
Sid Roth: What chance in the world would you have of being married as long as you have been?
Frank Eiklor: Well I'm only 41.
Sid Roth: If you did not, if you had, I mean, you were a man possessed with hate. No marriage could have lasted that long.
Frank Eiklor: Ah, but you know. You've interviewed many a person. What happens when Jesus comes in? What happens when love enters into you? Concrete is broken, ice is melted, fatty excuses are cut right through with two-edged sword. A man sees himself when a man sees the Lord he falls in love. He becomes a new creation. In fact, he not only becomes a new creation, he's flood with so much love that in the past hate, why that was only a little tiny bit compared to love.
Sid Roth: Listen, all of that love, all that love that he's got and he's still considered the most dangerous man to the Jewish community in America. We'll be right back after this.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter and I'd like to know why Frank Eiklor is considered the most dangerous man in the United States to the Jewish community. Frank, why?
Frank Eiklor: Well remember now, Sid, not all Jews have said that, only some that really knew me. And the reason they said it was this, 20 years in the ministry around the world in the world missions. Okay. And that was pretty well hitting everybody over the head with the main message of the Christian missionary. Something happened about 20 years. I was back in the Boston area. Of course, the same thing is happening across the country. They got 200 hate groups they say that are out there now. Number one target: the Jews and then other minorities.
Sid Roth: Why is the Jew the target? What is the real reason?
Frank Eiklor: Well see, I'm convinced the world has never forgiven the Jew. God used them to give the Ten Commandments. We wanted the ten suggestions, you know, you will not commit adultery unless nobody is looking. You will not steal unless it's convenient. Ten Commandments, the Bible, a Jewish book. Most of all there was a guy named Maury Samuel, he was no believer in Jesus, a Jewish guy, he said, "They spit on us as Christ killers because they longed to spit on us as the Christ givers". They've never forgiven us for bringing in the Bible, the Law of God and the Savior of what he said was the gentiles. But he knew something. He caught the bottom line of anti-Semitism. It's not hatred of Jews. I'm convinced it's a hatred against the God of the Jews and we can get into that. What happened is there were the synagogues being targeted. Swastikas. 1980s, not 1940s in Europe. Yuden rouse. Hitler graffiti. Oh next time, not six million, all of you, raw, rotten hate. And here were the headlines: "Jewish Synagogue Targeted", "Jewish Rabbi Threatened with Death". I was amazed. Listen, Sid Roth. The cops investigated as they should, the politicians were crying bloody– as they should. No Christians were doing anything. No church members were going over there. And that's when I looked in the mirror and I'm going to tell you something. You ever have conscience speak to ya? I knew it was more than conscience. I knew it was the voice of God talking to me. And it wasn't a very pleasant message. You're looking at the problem, was the impression that came as I looked in the mirror. I have spoken to Jews and others with the lip. The creed was dynamic, people said. The deed was missing, Sid. The talk was flowery. The walk wasn't there. Bottom line is the Lord challenged me. I knew from that time, and when I say the Lord, I'm talking about the fact I'm not hiding, the fact that now Jesus had changed me from a life of hate to a life of love. Now I have this challenge inside. You'll never talk to another Jewish person. Of course I didn't know it would be also anybody else. The way it came, you'll never talk to another Jew about the love of God or the love of Messiah Jesus unless you're willing to stand next to him, take his beating, accept any hate that's aimed at him and tell the haters when you did it to him you did it to me. That's what started me a long journey into the meaning of unconditional love. For 20 years, Sid, I thought I knew love as a so-called minister. Now I'm finding out Eiklor didn't know the first meaning of unconditional love. It's more than rhetoric. Somebody said rhetoric minus meaning for action equals intellectual ping-pong, and I was playing ping-pong with too many words. We organized what they said was the first Christian task force against anti-Semitism in the country. Now I'll let that up to the historians to prove that. But that's what they said. And all it was is challenging a bunch of clergymen and others. I said, "Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you would have been alive during the Holocaust? Yeah, we've all wondered. Guys, it's happening in our back yard. Here's the news, here's the television, here's the radio, here's the paper. That's the synagogue down the block. Will you stand with me? I want to go over to the rabbi, I want us to put our arms him, I want us to tell him we know we have differences, we know we have commonalities, but we're going to support him unconditionally. We're not going to allow this hate to be aimed at him. We did that, and it was one thing to stand next to rabbi with our arms around him. But Sid, when we went back as ministers, as clergy, as leaders, and we repaired the damages, we painted over the swastikas, we cleaned up the fire damage or whatever had happened when they tried to burn the synagogue or burn the Torah. And when the Jewish people saw that, they were marveled. They said, "We didn't, we thought Christians hated us and here you are loving us, standing by us. What makes you so different"? And of course, I never hid that difference.
Sid Roth: What makes you so dangerous?
Frank Eiklor: Well the whole thing was this, I said, if you give me half a chance I'm going to tell you of the love of Jesus, because He changed me. But if you don't give me that chance, and most of you won't. And by the way, most of them won't. They've been burned in that name too long. When I said, "If you don't give me that chance you're stuck with me anyway. I'm going to stand by you and defend you whenever you're targeted for hate. And I'm going to do it because of the Jew who lives within me, who came as a Jew, and that's Jesus". When they saw that track record for five years and for 10 years, and for 15 years, Sid, you can't hold your breath for 18 years. That's how long it's been going on. One day a guy looked me and they flew me into New York, and they said, "Eiklor, you– these two key Jewish leaders. They said, "You're the most dangerous man in America to us Jews". But they were smiling, not angry. I said, "Would you interpret that for me, please".
Sid Roth: I understand.
Frank Eiklor: I'm not following you. They said, "Frank, we've been targeted and beaten, and hated in the name of Jesus for 2000 years. Here you are defending us, loving us unconditionally, life on the line. We know you're threatened," because I received some of the big boys threats. "We know what's happened. Every time we hurt you're there or your people are there. You won't let us stand alone. Frank, you are the most dangerous man in America because you are removing from us the best excuse we've ever had for saying that there's nothing to Jesus. We're having to take another look at it".
Sid Roth: That is dramatic. Wait 'til you hear what happens next. I'll be right back after this.
Sid Roth: Joanna Kendall, another gentile Christian that loves the Jewish people had such an unusual experience. An Israeli newspaper carried this article. Joanna.
Joanna Kendall: We decided to walk out on a dock, Sid, and there was a large alligator there. And we decided very quickly that we didn't want to walk on that dock. And so we went down the park a ways and we saw another dock with a beautiful gazebo and there wasn't as many weeds. So we thought, well we can see at least if there's anything treacherous here. And as we were talking, we began to hear this little bird just chirping and chirping, and fussing. And we, it was so loud that it interrupted our conversation. And so as we came down the dock to see what was going on, we saw a duck that was dying and it was laying between two rocks, you know, that were kind of pushed together, and it looked almost like somebody had stepped on it and pushed it into between these rocks. And this little bird just chirped and chirped until we got there to help this little duck. Well we were looking around to make sure that it was safe with the alligators around and everything. And so Karen decided to hold the head and I would pull the body out. And as we lifted this duck out, we were just praying over this little duck because it was just about dead. And we put it in the water, and it began to swim and it was flopping a little bit. But the further it got into the marsh, it was better and then when it got into the fresh water it was fine. We looked at each other and we thought, what just happened here? Well this is now in May when I'm talking to Isaac over in Jerusalem about the duck. And the Spirit of the Lord came on me and he said, "You know, Isaac, I am much like that little bird". You know, we found out, too, let me add, that birds of a different species normally don't take up for one another. And so it was unusual. But I'm much like that little bird that is chirping and chirping, and making a fuss, and getting people's attention, that it's our responsibility to help the duck out of the rock, between a rock and a hard place". You know, there's many Jews that are much like that duck that are stuck in rough places and treacherous places, much like Siberia and Ukraine, and Russia, and even now in the United States, Sid. And so you know, Isaac got it right away and he was so excited he decided to put it in his newspaper, and which goes all over Israel. And also, you know, the story is just taking off. The Women's Aglow President for Denmark has wanted to put it now in the National Women's Aglow Magazine. So a story about a duck got the attention of a man showing that we are, as gentile believers in Yeshua to be a mouthpiece, a loud voice saying, help somebody, help to fulfill this mandate according to Isaiah 49:22.
Sid Roth: Joanna, are there many gentile Christians that feel like you about the Jewish people?
Joanna Kendall: I believe there are more and more, Sid. You know, it's something that I believe only God can raise up, just much like the Spirit of the Lord is bringing attention to so many Jews all over the world now that they're even Jewish, and that they are to make aliyah, or come home to Israel.
Sid Roth: In other words, people that didn't even knew they were Jewish.
Joanna Kendall: Right.
Sid Roth: Perhaps their parents didn't tell them are finding out they're Jewish and now they're going back to Israel.
Joanna Kendall: They really are, from the four corners of the earth, just like Ezekiel 37 said, "The Lord God is going to draw them back". And you know, He's also raising up gentile believers to assist them, and I believe that's how He's bringing Jew and gentile together, that we will extend Schindler's list, if you will.
Sid Roth: Well Joanna, I am so glad that there are Christians like Joanna on the face of this earth. I'm Jewish. And I want you to know that according to the Bible, we're coming into some very treacherous times, yes, even in the United States. Frank Eiklor, what is your scenario based on studying the Bible, being up in current events, being a specialist in anyone that attacks the Jewish people or Israel, what's your prognosis?
Frank Eiklor: Well Sid, somebody said this, they said if America forsakes Israel, poor Israel. A wise man corrected the guy. He said, you got it backwards, partner. If America forsakes Israel, poor America. I'm watching something. I'm watching American government after government forcing Israel into concessions that no other nation is ever forced to do. 250 miles long, 50 miles wide, that's Israel. Yet we're forcing her to give land for peace. We ought to be giving–let her give peace and get some land! When we finally finish with her as an American government with Judea and Sumerian gone, Israel will be nine miles wide at the gut. Nine miles wide, Sid, the country, when America gets finished with what we want. I'm watching anti-Semitism as it grows. I'm watching something else happen. And remember, I'm not talking as a Jewish guy. I'm not talking about somebody raised to love people. I'm talking about a former hater. I'm watching something called replacement theology enter into the churches across the country, including evangelical churches. And all that is, is a teaching that says, we Christians are the new Jews and the church is now Israel. That's what paved the way to Auschwitz. I've stood there. I've stood at Auschwitz, Birkenau. I've stood at Treblinka. I've wept in Ravensbruck, at Dachau, at hell holes. When I went there to draw courage because of my lonely fight sometimes against hate. And Sid, I think that the one thing that I long to leave your audience with, and that's this. No doubt you got many, many Christians who also watch. You've got many church members. You got many clergy along with the secular audience. I believe with all of my being that unless the churches lead the way in combating this kind of hate against the Jews especially, and all people, but especially anti-Semitism, if we allow Jewish people to be attacked by anti-Semites, by haters and we do nothing except speak to them with our mouth concerning Jesus, Sid Roth, what's worse? a people we say needs to see Jesus or a people we claim to see Him, and yet we don't live like Him. We don't love like Him. I'm challenging the churches and the Christians, fall in love with Jesus unconditionally and you'll begin to fall in love with His people, because if you ever let a Jewish person stand alone when he's targeted for hate and then you try to open your mouth, your witness really shouldn't be listened to. It's not real in the first place.
Sid Roth: And didn't a famous German theologian say, "First they came for the Jews and I kept quiet. I'm not Jewish".
Frank Eiklor: That's right.
Sid Roth: And then they came for the Christians. Do you see that connection between the two people?
Frank Eiklor: Of course. We've always done that. Niemoller made it famous. Many said they came for the Christians and by that time there was nobody left to speak up. So I always tell people one other thing. If you're not going to fall in love with Jesus and I mean fall in love. I'm not using it as a religious cliché, Sid. I'm convinced the reason the church doesn't care about the Jews is we really don't love Jesus that much. It's tough to say, but I mean it and I standby it. I believe that if we're not going to care about them because of the love of God in our hearts, then we better start caring for selfish reasons. Those who come for Jews today will come for Christians tomorrow. So either we'll stand for the Jewish people today or one day we might know what it is. They're already attacking churches anyway and burning them down.
Sid Roth: Can someone be a true Christian and hate the Jew or be neutral to the Jew, in your opinion?
Frank Eiklor: "My little children," He said, "Let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth". He equates love for God with loving my neighbor as myself. How can I claim to love Jesus who came as Jew and then turn against the very people from whom He came? Sid, it's heresy of the rankest sort and I call a spade a spade.
Sid Roth: Did you hear that? If you hate anyone, how can you have the love of God in your heart? But the Christian has a special call. In Romans 11:11, God's word says, "Salvation has come to the gentile to provoke the Jew to jealousy". Meaning you can have what I have. You must have what I have. You see, the reason the devil is attacking the Jew so much is because of the fact he's trying to stop the return of Jesus. You see, Jesus said, "I shall not return until the Jewish people say, 'Baruch haba b'shem Adonai'. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord". Are you a blessing to the kin folk after the flesh of Jesus, the King of the Jews or are you a curse? Choose this day whom you're going to serve. But as for me and my house, we're going to honor the fathers of the Christian faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Choose. The choice is yours. Jesus has already chosen. It's up to you. It's up to you. Talk is cheap. Act.