Jonathan Cahn (Testimony): From Judaism To Atheism and Finally to Jesus

Jonathan Cahn sits down with Robert Morris to discuss his story of growing up in Judaism, becoming an atheist, and how a near-death experience brought him to a relationship with Jesus.

“America was founded on prayer. Therefore, the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.”
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future

I’m, I’m heading, I’m heading to a train track.
It’s at night and the lights going on like the train, you know, but the, but the cars are crossing so well, maybe it’s broken or maybe they pass.
I said, let me check. So I go up, I look and I see a light.
It’s the train, you know, but I don’t realize there’s no protection and it’s on an angle.
It’s a bumpy road. I didn’t know where I was. I was in the path of the train.
So I’m waiting for the, I said, you know what? Maybe I’m too close. Let me just try back.
But now there’s headlights back in there and I said, ok, well, just back.
So I back up just about a foot, but I thought I’m just being safe.
I’m still in the path of the train. I’m waiting for the train to come.
The train comes plows into the Fort Pinto. So you’re Jewish, obviously, you’re Jewish with his face. I think so.
Yeah. So you, you’re Jewish?
Yeah, you believe in Jesus as gentile, but it would be the Greek pronunciation.
But Yeshua who was, who was also Jewish and a lot of Jewish people already know he was Jewish.
That’s right. I mean, so how did a good Jewish boy become a believer in Yeshua? Yeah.
I don’t know if I was a good Jewish boy, but I was ok.
But, yeah, well, that, yeah, well, first of all, when I, you know, I was raised in a Jewish home, went to synagogue, you know, was, was ready for a bar mitzvah.
All that. My, my father escaped Hitler, you know, um came in there.
They, my parents were both scientists, you know, wasn’t very religious but enough to celebrate all those things.
But when I was eight years old, I’m in the synagogue and I’m, I’m hearing about, I’m reading about the God of the Bible who moved and said, go and this and, and showed himself.
But look in the synagogue. I didn’t see his presence there. I didn’t see the God of David or Isaiah.
I didn’t say it. So I said, you know what? There’s no God. So I became an atheist.
So this, I was eight years old, I became an atheist.
So, so eight years old and, and, and so that, that lasted.
But after a while, you know, I said, wait a minute, atheism doesn’t work.
I started losing faith in atheism because there’s gotta be a reason, there’s gotta be something.
So I started seeking what the truth is.
So I started reading every book I could on everything from, from Nostradamus, you know, uh, religion, science, you know, UFO.
You know, and one day I, I pick, I’m about 12 years old. 13, I pick up a book.
I thought it was a UFO book. I thought it was, but it looked like it.
They made that book that year look like it.
And God fooled me because it was the late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay.
All God tricked me, you know. And, and, and so I said, wow, wow.
You know, I’m reading about Jesus. I said, I read about Jesus in the UFO books.
I mean, he is everywhere, you know.
So, so it was like God got me through the back door and saying, wow, I didn’t know the Bible but it said everything it said is coming true.
Israel is back. All these. I had no idea of it. So I’m telling my friends about it.
I’m preaching now, I’m not, I’m not a believer. I’m not, I’m, I’m not saved.
But I’m telling, I’m, I’m in, I’m now I’m in high school and we have preach, uh speak speech class and I’m preaching the gospel to them.
I’m preaching the end times and all. But I’m not, I’m not following it. I had a rock band.
I had, I did what, you know, what do, um, and I didn’t want to live it because I, I said, you know what?
I, I figure if I live it, I have to give up everything good.
I have to join a monastery and that’s the end of my life.
So, so I made a, I made a deal with God.
I said, God, if you give me a long life, I’ll accept you when I’m on my deathbed.
That, that was the thing. So, so you see, you know, it’s Jewish to make deals, but God’s better at it than we are, you know, so, so really good.
He’s really good. So right after I, I said that I almost got killed twice.
And the first time was a car accident is a miracle.
And second time, I’m in a, a Fort Pinto which used to blow up, you touch them, they blew up.
And so I’m, I’m heading, I’m heading to train track.
It’s at night and the lights going on like the train, you know, but the, but the cars are crossing so, well, maybe it’s broken or maybe they pass.
I said, let me check. So I go up, I look and I see a light, it’s the train, you know, but I don’t realize there’s no protection and it’s on an angle.
It’s a bumpy road. I didn’t know where I was. I was in the path of the train.
So I’m waiting for the I said, you know what? Maybe I’m too close. So let me just try back.
But now there’s headlights in back of me. I said, ok, well, just back.
So I back up just about a foot, but I thought I’m just being safe.
I’m still in the path of the train. I’m waiting for the train to come.
The train comes plows into the Fort Pinto.
The only thing I could do at that moment was call out to God, the car was destroyed. Totally.
I didn’t get a scratch. I said, Lord, can we renegotiate?
And so I said, I said, here’s a new deal.
I said, I’ll accept you when I turn 20. Just, just I wanted anything four years.
So I said, just don’t kill me until then. Ok.
So, so so on my 20 birthday, which is about eight months away.
On my 20th birthday, I didn’t know how to get saved. I don’t know.
I mean, I was listening to Christian television, Christian radio.
I, I went up, I remember God met Moses on a mountain, Elijah.
So I found a mountain, went up to the top of the mountain kneeled down on, on the rock and gave my life to the Lord.
That’s how I came to the Lord. Only because of a train. You know, it says that Jews demand signs.
I needed a train. That’s how stubborn I was. But, but that’s why I got saved from that.
Yeah, I’m the least likely person, Robert.
I mean, for anybody who knew me back then, I’m the least likely person. That’s incredible. That’s absolutely incredible. Ok.
So now here you are uh uh author, uh the um I was trying to remember the name of the Hope, the hope of the world.
Hope of the world is the outreach ministry. Outrage ministry. And then Beth Israel.
Israel is the, is the congregation at the Jerusalem Center in uh anybody.
If you, if you guys are ever in Wayne, New Jersey, right outside New York City, we’re there Friday night, Sunday morning.
So it’s Jew and Gentile. We’re talking about, say Jew and Gentile one in Messiah, you know, and, and it’s, and we celebrate the holidays, you know, but, but celebrate Jesus Yeshua.
So that’s what I was gonna ask you about.
So it seems like no other time in history have Jews and Gentiles come together like they are now, like you talk about living in biblical times, I mean, in the last 20 years, 40 years, it’s more than ever.
What do, what do you think about? That’s right. That’s right. Total. Totally.
I mean, I mean, we, we, we are seeing things that generations of Christians prayed for.
I mean, and it’s part, it’s a, it’s a prophetic thing because see, for two, you know, 2000 years ago, if we were back in Bible times, those, those Bible times, it would have, it would have been together.
It was all, you know, all the first believers were Jewish and then it was Jew and Gentile and they call them Yeshua.
And the biggest, the biggest controversy is, do you have to be circumcised to believe in Jesus.
And that’s how Jewish it was. I mean, you know, you know, it’s the opposite of the world.
You know, I grew up saying the one thing you can’t believe in is Jesus.
You know, you can be, you can be into yoga, you could be into a, the, you can be into any you want.
But the one thing you can’t believe in as a, as a Jew, the one person you can’t believe.
Yeah, is, is, is this rabbi? I mean, it’s great rabbi.
This one who, because if you do, you, you won’t be Jewish.
I said, well, wow, he must be very powerful.
If you can turn a Jewish person who into a non Jew.
That’s, he must be the Messiah just to be able to do that.
You know I said, but, but it’s, it’s the most Jewish thing in the world.
I didn’t realize this when I started, when I started opening up, you know uh the Bible, we had a, we had a only the Hebrew scriptures.
I said it says it says Messiah’s gonna be born in Bethlehem. I said that, that that’s Catholic.
How did they get into our thing? Bethlehem.
He’s gonna come on a donkey, he’s gonna die for our sins is three.
That’s how did they get into our Bible? And so I said what?
This is Jewish the most Jewish thing I ever did in my life.
So, so the thing is that the thing is that 2000 years ago all together.
But then it’s split, then it’s split. And that’s the problem Jewish people, most Jewish people didn’t receive.
Even though all the first believers were, they, they went this way. But the church also lost.
It was just the Israel that lost it. The church lost its roots.
The church lost its, its, its heritage, it lost the destiny, it lost its identity as you know, listen, you know, if you’re, if you’re born again today, I’ve been talking to everybody.
You’re born, you are Jewish. You are spiritually Jewish. That that’s not just, that’s not hype.
The Bible says you are a citizen of Israel more than you’re anything else.
I mean, on the outside, you may look one way but you are a child of a that it’s the most Jewish thing in the world.
I mean, this thing called Christianity, it means the faith of Messiah. That’s what Christianity means.
So what’s happened is what was separated is, is coming back together, you know, and it started with, you know, the end times are days of return.
And so you got the, so first thing it says, B says, the Jewish people are gonna return to Israel.
So they’ve returned to Israel just like it says, it says they’re gonna return to Jerusalem.
So they, they return to Jerusalem. It says they’re going to return to him.
Jesus said, I’m not coming again guys, you know, until you Jewish people say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord?
Well, all that’s happening. So it’s not just the physical return, it’s a spiritual return.
And if the Jewish people are returning, that means the church has to return.
That’s why we are seeing things that have not been seen for 2000 years.
The fact is, I mean, you can go to churches now and you see the shofar is blown.
What is that? That never before they call them Yeshua, they have passovers.
You never before has this since the book of Acts have not only Jewish people coming in, but have Christians been so joined to Israel?
So loving Israel you gateway is a, is a perfect example of it.
Blessing Israel you and and this has been an inspiration to many churches to bless Israel and you even Messianic service.
First service we have every month is a Messianic Jewish service first service the first because one of the reasons Romans 1 16, not ashamed of the gospel power of God to salvation.
Everyone who believes to the Jew first. And that’s even our mission statement to the Jew first at TB N.
Our mission is to use every available means to reach as many individuals and families as possible with the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for helping make the gospel of grace go around the world without you. We couldn’t do it.
God bless you.