Years ago I met Peter Drucker, the marketing guru who said that an unexpected surprise is often the first indication of a trend. I’ve never forgotten that and I look for “unexpected” surprises as a foreshadowing of things to come.
Recently, Sid Roth’s ministry, Messianic Vision, created three one-minute commercials that have aired on secular cable channels giving “irrefutable proof” that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. The positive response to these ads surprised me, making me wonder if this is the beginning of a new trend toward more openness to the message of Jesus in the Jewish community. I think so and I’ll tell you why.
This message about Jesus is pretty controversial in Jewish circles. The fact that these left-leaning media outlets even accepted the ads is amazing. Secular media are disinclined to air anything about Christianity even as paid advertising. So that alone caught my attention. But even more amazing was how many people visited the ministry website so far.
Sid appears in each of the three spots. One is on the “Blood,” asking if the blood of Jesus could be the atonement the Scripture says is required for the forgiveness of sin. Another talks about how Isaiah 53 often goes unread in Jewish synagogues because it’s reference to Yeshua (Jesus) is so clear. And finally, one spot says few people realize that Hebrew Scriptures identify the true Messiah. Each spot sends the viewer to SidRoth.org/think where they can download a free e-book called “There Must Be Something More!” by Sid Roth. So far 25,000 have visited the site.
I first read about this in an article on July 21 on the Washington Times website with the headline: “‘Jewish Messiah’ Spots on secular cable channels draw solid response, evangelist says.” I was so excited to know more that when I was in Charlotte, North Carolina recently, I interviewed Sid for my Strang Report Podcast.
He told me that over the years his ministry has tried to reach Jewish people by renting lists of names of Jews and mailing (over the years) a total of 3.9 million booklets. Since the recipient didn’t ask for them, most booklets ended up in the trash.
This time people can anonymously download a PDF and the ministry doesn’t even ask for an email address to follow up.
What has happened from these ads? Roth told me that “over 25,000 people have responded to the ads to download the book! It’s a free download of a book with irrefutable proof that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. In Israel alone, over 8,000 Israelis have responded to the ads by going to download the book! It’s unreal.”
Does there seem to be a new openness among Jews? Roth sees prophetic significance in that this is the age of the Gentiles but it’s also time for a great in-gathering of Jews to believe in Jesus as the Messiah at the end of time.
In the podcast, Roth told me that in this time, we are at the fullness—the maturity of the Gentile age—which is a sure sign of rumblings that all of Israel will be saved too. “I believe that this is what the Bible refers to as the set time to favor Zion,” Roth says. “It’s a convergence of two Scriptures—a completeness of ‘the fullness of the Gentiles’ and a completeness of ‘all of Israel shall be saved.’
“Luke 21:24 says that when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, the spiritual scales will come off the eyes of the Jewish people,” he added. “When you look up the word in the Greek, it says ‘the fullness’ can also mean the maturity of the Gentile age. I actually opt toward that because Gentiles will be saved all through forever. We are really at the fullness of the Gentile age.”
Roth has been in Jewish ministry for half a century, and he has previously seen an openness of the Jewish people when there was a sweep of the spirit of the Jesus Revolution and the charismatic movement. But, Roth says, the kingdom is headed toward an “Isaiah 60 fulfillment.”
“What it says in Isaiah 60 is that there will be a deep, thick darkness on the earth,” he explains. “And when that occurs, when are you going to see the light better? You turn the light on and you’re outside with the sun blazing? No; when it’s dark, you can see the light much clearer. And the light is going to come on those that are hungry and thirsty for God. It’s not going to be like in the past.
“I’m in a state of shock of how much good God has accomplished,” Roth told me. “It’s not me; it’s not the ads. It’s the timing. The church is asleep, in my opinion. When God the Father wanted to reach the whole world, He started with what people group? The Jews. When Jesus the Messiah wanted to reach the whole world, He died for the sins of the whole world. He actually said, ‘I come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’
“When Paul the apostle wanted to reach the Gentiles, he said in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is ‘to the Jew first,'” Roth continues. “That is true historically, but I believe it is a spiritual principle for all time. When God the Father, God the Son, Paul the apostle and missionary to the Gentiles had this principle, ‘to the Jew first,’ I have found that if I reach out to the Jew first, I will reach more Gentiles then if I reach out the Gentiles first.”
Roth isn’t spending money for these ads to make money, but as a tool for pure and simple evangelism. He’s also written a booklet called “The Law of Evangelism,” which he believes will be an effective outlet to reach the lost.
“It’s kind of packaged in a fresh way,” Roth says. “So, we did these one-minute commercials. And let me tell you, the results are staggering. I’m on conservative news networks. I am on liberal news networks. People have to be saved. Left, right, Democrat, Republican—God doesn’t care. I don’t care. I just want to see souls saved.”
After two generations of anti-biblical culture, Roth says he’s seen enough. “It’s a spiritual thing, and it’s being manipulated like a puppet on a string,” he says. “And the devil thinks he’s won. But let me give you inklings of why the devil hasn’t seen his worst nightmare yet.
“What has happened from these ads?” Roth asks. Jewish people are coming to the truth. But this media strategy is also reaching Gentiles, Muslims, backsliders and atheists. “I’m no respecter of persons,” Roth says.
The article in the Washington Times about this outreach quoted a 2013 Pew Research Center survey of American Jews that found 34% saying that belief in Jesus was “not incompatible with Jewish identify,” but 60% rejected the notion that Jewish faith can include such a belief. An additional 6% said “they don’t know.”
The article also said that a 2017 Jews for Jesus found one-fifth of Jewish adults born between 1984 and 1999 believe Jesus was God in human form.
To me these are encouraging statistics. Still most of the Jewish community is resistant to the gospel message. I’ve had many conversations along these lines over my long career.
For the first two centuries after the birth of the church, Christianity was considered a Jewish sect. The Bible talks about the gospel coming to the Jew first. Paul talks about “one new man” and neither Jew nor Gentile. The first Christians were Jews. It wasn’t until after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and later Constantine making Christianity the state religion that Judaism and Christianity went their separate ways. At the end of the age, the Bible says that will change. Is this an indication it is beginning to happen?
The shift is very small but I remember when Elijah prayed for rain after a long drought. His servant said he saw a cloud in the distance the size of a man’s hand. Elijah started running because he knew that soon there would be a downpour. May that be true in our day.
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Stephen Strang is the bestselling author of God and Donald Trump. The founder and CEO of Charisma Media, Strang was voted by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. He has interviewed four U.S. presidents and has been featured on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBN, Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, theDailyCaller.com and in many Christian outlets.
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