Sid: We want everyone everywhere to really know the real Jesus. You see my guest from Israel says that Christianity has been high jacked; we’ll get into that in a moment. His name is Ron Cantor Executive Pastor of Tiferet Yeshua which means the glory of Yeshua, the glory of Jesus, Messianic Jewish Congregation in Tel Aviv Israel. Now Ronny of course you’re an American Jew, have a real famous cousin. The House Minority Leader Congressman Eric Cantor, but I’m going to take you back a number of years ago and one of your best friends becomes a believer in Jesus and he says “Ron you must be born again!” What went on inside of you?
Ron: I was shocked! How could this be? I was Jewish and there was one thing that we were taught growing up being Jewish is that we do not believe in Jesus. So when he told me that I had to believe in Jesus and be born again I was really confused and stunned. And yet at the same time for some strange reason I knew he was telling me the truth. I yelled at him. And I said “Brian that’s not true, there’s nothing written in the New Testament about being born again.” Which was quite funny because I had never read the New Testament and he of course opened his Bible up to John 3:3 where Yeshua tells the Jewish Rabbi Nicodemus that he must be born again. Again just like a light went on like somebody literally opened my eyes, and I was terrified for the next 8 months I really struggled with this. At the same time Sid I really wanted to know how do I find God. I realized I had lived 18 years of my life without ever really considering really what happens to me after I die. If there’s a God, I thought “Maybe there’s a God” but I wasn’t passionate about it. So for the next 8 months I really wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah.
Sid: Now you actually went to a Jewish Yom Kippur Service and you actually fasted and what was your prayer?
Ron: Well, this was about 7 months into it and I figured I can’t even consider Jesus until I first search out Judaism. So Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement the holiest day on the Jewish calendar comes. We fast, we believe we’ll be forgiven if we fast. So I decided I would do something crazy for an 18 year old I would not eat for 24 hours and many Jews do that all of their lives but for me it was the first time. And at the end of those 24 hours I was hoping to have some sense of connection with God or feeling of forgiveness. But other than being extremely hungry I did not feel any closer to God than I did the day before.
Sid: Well now I’m going to fast forward. You’re with a college friend and he starts talking to you about the Messiah but something supernatural happened explain.
Ron: Right, we were coming home from Richmond driving back to North Carolina to our school. Somehow it came up that he had been a believer in High School, and I had all of these questions for him. My big question Sid “What was your life like when you were a believer because I just believed that anyone that was religious at any level was just a boring not interesting human being. And my question was “What happens to me if I actually choose to become a believer am I going to have a miserably boring religious life?”
Sid: You know what you’re doing? You’re counting the cost, that’s what you were doing but go ahead. (Laughing)
Ron: So I asked him what his life was like when he was serving God and he was suddenly very excited. And as he’s talking to me a peace, a presence that I had never felt in my life entered the car. And he said “Ron in two days there’s a movie in my home city of Durham and I want to take you to it and it’s about Jesus.” So we went to the movie and at the end of the movie we were both crying; it was very powerful but I also said “This is Hollywood I didn’t become an alien after I watched ET even though I cried during ET, and I wasn’t going to give me life to Jesus because I was crying at a movie.” So we got in the car and we’re driving back to our college we’re about an hour away and about half way back I just prayed I said “God, I have to know the truth; is Jesus the Jewish Messiah or is there some other way to serve You; show me how I can serve You.” So as I begin to pray this and this is the first time I’ve ever prayed in my life; as I prayed this prayer Dean loses control of the car. It begins to spin around swerve and then spin around and the it flipped over upside down into a ditch. And so we are now in the middle of farm country North Carolina upside down alone. Our car was completely totaled it was never driven again; and yet we got out of that car completely unscathed. So we’re looking for a house; there happens to be one house in front of us; other than that house I don’t think there was another house within miles because it was farm country. We knock on the door and these two wonderful born again believers in Yeshua in Jesus answered the door. And next thing I know I’m sitting in their living room and they’re explaining the gospel message to me. I had a lot of questions “If Jesus was the Son of God why didn’t he get off the cross and prove it.” Interestingly enough that was what one of the Roman guards said you know “Show us you’re the Messiah, get off of the cross.” And she explained to me that He didn’t come to get off the cross but to die on the cross.” She actually explained to me for the first time God’s plan of salvation and why He had to die. But Sid I wasn’t a very bright guy at that time and I barely got out of High School, and I really had no idea what she was saying. And as she’s talking to me this presence comes all over my body. And I’m not kidding if I took my wet hand and touched a live electric socket it would not have been stronger than what I felt that night. The more I resisted this power it just got stronger and stronger; until I stopped her and said “What is going on; what am I feeling?” And that night I believed, that night I was born again, I walked out of that house a new creation, everything was different. And we got back to the college and everyone heard about our car accident and they wanted to know what was going on. I just had to tell people about Yeshua, about Jesus. The next night I actually went to the bar where all of our friends hang out and I don’t recommend this to most believers. But I went to the bar because I wanted to go tell everybody what happened to me and how God had changed my life.
Sid: Now you were doing drugs at the time; alcohol; you had a foul mouth; what happened to all of the above?
Ron: Well for about a week later… a week I was good but a week later because I was literally alone in college I fell back into my old patterns; drugs, alcohol, sex, everything but about 4 months later I come back to Richmond, Virginia. I had gone to a concert and at the end of this concert the singer asked “Who wanted to rededicate their lives to Jesus.” I stood up, I did that and I said “God I’m going to make a deal with You I’m going to give you half of my life but I want to keep half because I really enjoy what I do.” And God is so merciful Sid He could have struck me down right then and I would have deserved it. The next night I went out to this bar; we had purchased a couple grams of cocaine, my friend did the cocaine, I did the cocaine. He had a great time; I was miserable, the drug did not affect me and it was $100. About 1:00AM I was so angry and upset and I said “I’m just getting out of here I’m going home.” I got into my car and I began to drive home and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and He said “Ron if you had had a good time tonight you would have never returned to Me.” And I just broke down Sid, I surrendered in that car I cried, I cried out to God I said “I’m done I’m free, I’m giving You everything 100%.” Now it’s like 2am and I had to tell somebody. You remember the old Don Fransico song. I went to my friend Brian house, he actually was out of town, went to my friend Jimmy; Jimmy’s house and couldn’t find him. And then I went to my other friend’s house who were all drug addicts and I found somebody on the front porch and just began to preach the gospel to them. And I just have been doing that ever since.
Sid: But what happened to your language and the drugs and the alcohol?
Ron: One day turned into two, two days turned into a week; next thing you know it’s a month. Then it’s 6 months and then I was free it was never a struggle, I never had to think about it.
Sid: Okay Ron, you were part of a congregation that a number of us started a long time ago a Messianic Jewish Congregation. And the next thing I know you’re married to a nice Messianic Jewish Israeli. And the next thing I know you’re on your way to Israel. We’ll find out a little bit about that tomorrow because I want to know what an American bumped into that made Alyah in Israel. But tell me about your brand new book “Identity Theft.”
Ron: Well, Sid I started writing “Identity Theft” as just a Jewish roots book, to explain to Christians the Jewish roots of the faith. I figured I would sell it when I was out speaking engagements. So I thought it was a pretty good book; we wrote it and we finished it; it was a teaching book. And as I finished it and I was about to send it into the publisher I just had this thought “Ron you have written this book the wrong way; I want you to rewrite it as a novel.” And I said “That’s crazy, I am not Tom Clancey or John Grisham I don’t know the first thing about writing fiction. I think that I’m a pretty good teacher and preacher of the Word but to write a novel there’s no way.” And this weighed on me for 2 days and then I got an email from a woman that had been helping me with the editing process. And she said “Ron, I don’t know what it is, but I had this vision about a caterpillar that went into the cocoon and when it came out as a butterfly it never reached its full potential because it came out too early.” She said “I hate to say this but it’s your book, it’s not ready.” So I was going “This is crazy how can I rewrite as a novel?” I ended up doing it and I did nothing else but write; and Sid it was the most amazing experience. The moment I began to rewrite this book about the Jewish roots of the New Covenant as a novel it flowed out of me; it was a supernatural experience.
Sid: I have to tell you, you are able because it’s such a captivating actually humorous at times story and very poignant at times. You get truth out there that few would even read…
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth