Stan Telchin - Abandoned: What Is Gods Will for the Jewish People and the Church?

1997 by Stan Telchin

Published by Chosen Books

A division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 495166287

www.chosenbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2013

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.

ISBN 978-1-58558-649-3

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from The New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations identified RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971, and 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

To my grandchildren,

Jennifer,

Zachary,

Elizabeth,

Nicolas.

May you live every day of your lives knowing who you are and whose you are.

Stan Telchin Ministries

8374 Market St. #443

Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202-5137

Phone: 941-907-3838

Fax: 941-907-9898

E-mail: stan@telchin.com

www.telchin.com

I had the privilege of meeting Stan Telchin in Jerusalem on a Sunday morning in June 1995 under unusual circumstances. It was the day before the opening of the Fifth International Quadrennial Conference of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism. Delegates were arriving from Japan and Latin America, from Europe and the Middle East and from nearly all English-speaking nations. They came, Jews and Gentiles, because all were variously involved in the privileged task of sharing with the Jewish people the good news of Jesus Christ.

That morning a small group of us decided to go into the Old City and worship at Christ Church, identified since 1849 as a center of evangelical life and worship in the Holy Land. We went through the Jaffa Gate and started walking up to the church. But we encountered confusionpeople hurrying past us in the opposite direction. Soon we, too, were turned back. Soldiers and their military vehicle dominated the scene.

We stood still, uncertain as to what to do. Some time later a shot rang out; it seemed very close. It was followed by a second shot. We could think only of terrorists. Then a third shot, startling and incongruous on what we had expected to be a quiet Sunday.

Eventually we learned that someone had left an unmarked package under one of the pews in the church. Because it might have been a bomb, the Israeli Defense Force had been alerted. Soldiers removed the package carefully, placed it in a remote corner of the plaza, off to the side of the church, drew back and opened fire. (Apparently this was the IDF approach to defusing bombs!)

The shattered package, as it turned out, proved to contain a score of Bibles, so the incident ended in laughter. And it was at that moment, as best I can recall, that I really met Stan Telchin. It was he who had laughed the loudest.

We did not go to church that day, but to the Garden Tomb not far away. Then, like typical tourists, we took pictures. I have one of Stan standing before the entrance. One might conclude, from the smile on his face, that he was thinking about the spiritual dynamite blasted to bits by Israeli gunfire. Maybe a bit of exhortation was beginning to take form in his mind: But my Jewish brothers, youll find that the potency of the Gospel cannot be overcome so easily. There was a time when I thought it could be reduced to mere superstition by attacking it with reason and careful research. But in the end it was Jesus who conquered me!

Long before, I had read Stans first book, Betrayed! As I read it I came to a precise conclusion: Here was a Jewish man after my own heart. Explosive in temperament, utterly candid, wonderfully open-minded, he was the sort of person one could not but be drawn to.

When his daughter Judy came to faith in Jesus, he was devastated. But over the weeks and months that followed, he had to admit she had been genuinely transformed. Rather than continue to berate her, he began to ask himself if he should face the possibility honestly that she might be right and he might be wrong.

His inherited, secondhand hostility made it impossible for him to come to any positive conclusions about Jesus of Nazareth, apart from the fact that Jesus was Jewish. Now honesty demanded that he study both Old and New Testaments and prove her wrong.

But it didnt work. Stan became convinced, in spite of himself, that Jesus was the Messiah of His people and the Savior of the world. He surrendered himself to Jesus Lordship and found the same release and newness that earlier had enabled Judy to courageously share with him her faith in Jesus. From then on, Stan entered on a life of widespread usefulness. Among others, he has been singularly effective in his witness to Russian Jews, leading not a few to faith.

Stan wrote this book to unburden his heart to Gentile Christians. Over the months, as he shared successive chapters with me and invited my reactions, I could not but recall the impressions that came to me years before1939?while listening to Hyman Appelman in Philadelphia.

I guess what first drew me and others to that Jewish evangelist was his massive street banner, Come Hear a Jew Preach Jesus Christ! Appelman was a gifted lawyer who could articulate the Gospel clearly and persuasively to Jews and Gentiles alike. Both he and Stan had surrendered to the same Lord Jesus and accepted the same biblical Gospel.

But the world of the 30s was different from the world of the 90s. How differently Stan proclaims the Gospel today to this generation. Between yesterday and today, the world has experienced the horrors of total war, along with the calculated destruction of six million members of European Jewry and a totally unexpected aftermath: the reemergence in Palestine, after two thousand years, of the State of Israel. Out of this tragedy and national resurrection, a contemporary voice has emerged, warm, outgoing and wonderfully in tune with the times. Stans message is contained in this book.

Here is the contemporary note I would stress. Gentile Christians must listen to our Jewish brother in Christ. He is at rest in the wonders of his faith in Jesus, the Messiah of His people. Further, Stan rejoices in his God-given Jewishness, which I believe is most pleasing to God and reflects a reality that is altogether refreshing. One is put at ease in his presence and cannot but resonate with his efforts to receive all those whom God has manifestly received.

In this book, a deeply committed Jewish believer reaches over the mountains of Gentile barbarism and Christian anti-Semitism that destroyed many of his people, and speaks in a friendly fashion to Gentile Christians about his people. I believe I know the measure of his heart and the depth of his concern. When he asked me to comment freely on the rough drafts of his successive chapters, what could I say? Little but my oft-repeated words, Stan, this is great! Your strength is the note of reality that breaks through in your thoughts, your words, your style. Thank God you are not pompous! You dont talk down to Gentile Christians. You come across as a brother and friend with something truly important to share.