RE: [TruthTalk] from O'Reilley to you

[ShieldsFamily]

Here’s a clip from a testimony by the author (I believe) of “Betrayed”.  My oldest son emailed it today:   http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/news/story/2D0921B03B24DD7686256F11006A2071?OpenDocument&Headline=Speaker+shares+journey+of+faith&tetl=1     Speaker shares journey of faith Steve Pokin Of the Suburban Journals updated: 09/16/2004 02:32 PM   ST. CHARLES   The greatest anti-Semitism would be to withhold the story of Jesus Christ from Jews, said Stan Telchin, featured speaker at Tuesday morning's 10th Annual Businessmen's Prayer Breakfast of St. Charles County.   Telchin, who is Jewish, shared his faith journey with 679 men and women at The Columns Banquet and Conference Center in St. Charles, as well as those listening to a live radio broadcast.   His talk, laced with humor, coincided with his 80th birthday and was given one day before the Jewish holy day of Rosh Hashana, which marks the Jewish new year.   Telchin is a "Messianic Jew," a person Jewish by birth who believes Jesus Christ is the Messiah prophesied in Jewish Scripture.   Telchin grew up in Brooklyn, the youngest of six children of Orthodox parents who left Russia to escape persecution and anti-Semitism.   Telchin said Wednesday that his Stan Telchin Ministries, which spreads his view of Jesus as Messiah through talks and the sale of books and tapes, is not intended to denigrate Judaism and, in his view, doesn't.   "I am absolutely for Biblical Judaism," Telchin said. "Rabbinical Judaism is not the same thing as Biblical Judaism."   Rabbi Mordecai Miller, of Richmond Heights, said that Telchin certainly is free to investigate his religious beliefs and become a Jewish Christian. But Miller said he is troubled by the public way in which Telchin has proclaimed that change and the media attention he has gathered.   "It is a sense of one religion being a true religion," Miller said. "He has made a choice. But it is very complicated. It involves emotions. And you are in fact negating something in favor of something else. That makes it a difficult thing when you set it up in public that way."   Telchin said it was 30 years ago that he went on a mission to convince his daughter Judy, then a student at Boston College, that Jesus Christ was not the Messiah.   Judy had recently come to that conclusion  to the great dismay of her parents.   "How could a kid of ours betray us this way?" Telchin asked. "How could she join the enemy?"   His daughter encouraged him to read the Bible and draw his own conclusions.   Telchin embarked on a focused study of the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, and other written sources. He also talked to rabbis.   Telchin said he was cocksure he could prove his daughter wrong and bring her back into the fold.   "Jews cannot believe in Jesus," he said. "You can't go north and south at the same time."   Instead, he eventually concluded, among other things, that the passages in the Hebrew Scripture that  in his view point to Jesus as Messiah typically are not read or focused on in Judaic worship and teaching.   "Why didn't they ever tell us that on our side of the Bible that it says there was going to be a new covenant?" he asked. "We Jews do not read our Bible. We read our prayer book. We are called the 'People of the Book,' but somebody took our book away."   Growing up, Telchin said, he had ample reason to distrust Christians and Christianity.   In kindergarten he was called a "Christ killer," he said, and when he was 9 a woman ordered, "Get out of my way you dirty little Kike!"   Telchin said his mother explained the world this way: There was "them," the "goyim," or Christians, and there was "us," the Jews.   She told him that Christians hated Jews and to stay away from them. That's why, he said, when he sat down to read the New Testament he expected a book of hate.   "Where else could all that hatred come from?" he asked.   He approached his task  starting with the book of Matthew  with the notion that it wouldn't take long to debunk the idea of Jesus as Messiah.   "I lit a cigarette and had some Jack Daniels so it wouldn't be a waste of time," he said. "But I didn't find a book of hate. It was written by a Jewish guy for Jewish people."   Telchin said that by the time his review brought him to the writings of the Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, who persecuted Christians, Telchin said he was rooting for Saul.   "I was thinking, 'Saul is going to get those Christians. Go baby! Go get 'em!'"   But Telchin said it was both revelation and irony to him that the message of Christ initially was viewed as something for Jews only, not Gentiles.   "My entire worldview was based on the fact that I am Jewish and Jesus is not for us Jews," he said. "Two thousands years ago he was for 'us' and not for 'them.' And now he's for 'them' and not for 'us.'"   Telchin said that his conviction that Jesus is the Messiah does not change his identity as a Jew.   "I don't want to stop being Jewish," he said. "I can't stop being Jewish."     Steve Pokin can be reached a [EMAIL PROTECTED]     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 11:17 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] from O'Reilley to you   In a message dated 9/8/2004 4:48:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I would also recomend OUR FATHER ABRAHAM, JEWISH ROOTS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH  by Marvin Wilson.  Sterns commentary is exelent but without some background in the Jewish roots of Christianity it could be tough for you. Another good book is CHRISTIANITY IS JEWISH by Edith Schaeffer. Jeff Thanks for heads up.   Sterns commentary is, indeed, excellent.   I am not totally illiterate when it comes to "Jewish roots," and have no problem with the commentary.  I regard the Old Testament scriptures as the history of the Christian church  -- a bias that should demand more time spent in those scriptures.   I have a dead line to meet with my thoughts regarding Kruger, and that is where I am spending my time   --  expanding my paramenters and all.  I might add that I see the Christian church and the Family of God as being somewhat different in terms of demographics.  John