Stan Telchin - Betrayed!

Betrayed!

Betrayed!

STAN TELCHIN

1981, 2007 by Stan Telchin

Published by Chosen Books
A division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.chosenbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Telchin, Stan, 1924
Betrayed! / Stan Telchin. Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 0-8007-9423-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8007-9423-1 (pbk.)
1. Telchin, Stan, 1924 2. Telchin, Judy. 3. Telchin, Ethel. 4. Christian converts from JudaismUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
BV2623.T45A3 2007
248.246092273dc22

2006101319

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked PHILLIPS is taken from The New Testament in Modern English, revised editionJ. B. Phillips, translator. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Quotation used regarding prophecies and fulfillment is taken from an article in Science Speaks by Peter W. Stoner, 1963, Moody Press, and used by permission.

For the glory of God.
For the curious.
For those with hungry hearts.

Contents

15. How Shall I Now Live?

S OMEWHERE, tucked in among statements I heard while I was in college, was this one: Answers in life are a dime a dozen. Everybody has a better answer. The real problem in life is coming up with the right questions.

Searching for answers to the right questions can change your life. In the chapters that follow Ill share with you some of the questions I asked and the answers I discovered. They have dramatically changed my life.

1
The Telephone Call

T HE telephone call that completely turned around the lives of every member of my family came at 10:30 P.M. on a Sunday evening.

It was from our daughter, Judy, age 21, a junior at Boston University. When the phone rang, my wife, Ethel, was in the shower.

Hi, Dad. Its Judy. Can you talk?

Sure I can talk, Jude. Everything okay?

Im fine, Dad. But what I have to say is very important.

There was a strange edge to Judys voice. Alarm bells rang inside me. Something was wrong.

What is it, Judy? Whats happened?

Now dont be alarmed, Dad. Im okay. Its just that Ive been wanting to talk to you all day. Can Mom get on the other phone?

Moms taking a shower.

Well, okay. You can tell her later.

Im listening, Jude.

Dad, Ive written you a very long letter. Spent days on it. I finished it this morning and have been reading and rereading it all day. But I cant mail it to you. I dont want it to hurt you. This is the hardest thing Ive ever tried to do. I want to read the letter to you now. May I, Dad?

I fought off a series of negative thoughts that raced through my mind: She was pregnant... she had run off and gotten married... she was in trouble with the police... she had been kicked out of school. But since Judy was such a wonderful daughterso mature and sensiblenone of these thoughts made any sense. I forced myself to remain calm.

Jude, wait a minute before you start reading. Let me get paper and pencil so that I can make notes.

Ethel was still in the bathroom, so I picked up a pencil and notepad and went back to the phone to deal with Judys news.

Im ready, Jude.

My daughter hesitated and then once again apologized for what she was about to tell me. She was now speaking quite rapidly and I could feel my own throat tighten in response to her anxiety.

My tension, I knew, was due to the fact that we were such a close-knit family, sharing openly the good and the bad. Ethel and I always have been proud of our daughter. Judy was majoring in special education at Boston University, training to work with handicapped children.

Judy had started out at the University of Maryland, which was only a thirty-minute drive from home. She had lived on campus in a busy dorm for a year and a half but felt too pressured. The following January she entered Boston University where she had taken a small apartment of her own. She had told us that things were going much better in Boston.

At this point in the early spring of 1975, I had never felt so on top of things. At age fifty I had a very successful life insurance business, a wonderful wife, a lovely family, a beautiful home. Everything in me was suddenly resistant to the upsetting news I knew was about to come from my daughter.

Dear Mom and Dad, she began. Its hard for me to write this letter because I love you so much. I never knew a family could be as close as we are....

Numbly, I listened to Judy describe in detail all that she loved about our family life: how we as parents didnt preach one thing and do another, how real we were with each other, how she had loved growing up in a home of love and peace and how grateful she was for the way we had raised her.

Then as she went on to describe a recent period of loneliness my hand tightened on the phone. But she had solved the loneliness by taking a job on an emergency hotline where she was able to help people in need through the telephone. A long story followed about a man who had nearly committed suicide and how inadequate she had felt over the phone with him. But there were people working with her who had more experience and different points of view. They also had more answers than she did.

She then began to tell me about Dick. Dick was a Bible believer, she said. He worked on the hotline, too. They had become friends. Dick would talk to Judy about the Bible at length, and when Judy explained that she had never read the Bible and indeed did not own one, Dick brought her a Bible. Over the next few months, Dick would then suggest things that she should read, and she would look them up.

I had long talks with Dick, Dad, and from what I learned in those talks and read in the Bible and a whole lot of other things, too, well...

I held my breath as she paused for composure.

Well, Ive become a believer, too.

There was a long moment of silence.

What does that mean, Judy?

It means that I believe in God. I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and (long pause) I believe that Jesus is the Messiah!

I was speechless.

Many parents might have welcomed Judys words, but they absolutely crushed me!

You see, we are Jewish!

To mention the name of Jesus is awkward enough. To consider Him as the Messiah is something we just do not do. For any of us to believe that Jesus is the Messiah is to betray our people, to join the enemy and to desecrate the memory of all of our ancestors over the last two thousand years.