Proclaiming Jesus
I was out of my element and, boy, did I feel it! It was the summer of 1994 and I was walking from a bus terminal in the heart of New York City, wearing a military-issue backpack and convinced I’d get mugged. I was stationed at Fort Dix, N.J., and was taking the bus home to visit family in upstate New York. There was a layover, so I went for a stroll.
On a busy sidewalk I heard someone yelling, “And His hair was like wool! Who has hair like wool? Black people do!” I was intrigued.
There were 30 to 40 Radical Hebrew Israelites (African Americans who are increasingly anti-Semitic and preach they and only they are the true Israelites of the Bible) standing in front of a wooden stage. On it were two men, one holding a traditional picture of Jesus but with devil’s horns and beard drawn on it, and the other the screaming man. The screamer claimed Jesus was a black man and white people were evil. Large men wearing leather and metal spikes stood at either end of the stage. I approached one. If looks could kill, I would have been dead.
I asked what the men on the stage were talking about. He looked at me with disdain and said they were talking about me. He said blacks were the true Jews and only they could be saved. For white people like me, this was my heaven. When I died, I would go to hell.
I honestly have no idea what came over me (I pray it was the Holy Spirit), but I made my way forward and yelled, “So, if only black people are the true Jews and only they can be saved, then why did Paul say that he would preach the gospel to the Gentiles? Wouldn’t I be a Gentile and, therefore, I could be saved?”
I honestly don’t recall exactly how it went from there. I recall that the men on stage did not have good answers to my queries. In fact, they stopped talking altogether and began to dismantle the stage. Then something odd happened. A few men in the crowd said what I was sharing made sense. Now, mind you, I had been saved for two years and only knew a few Bible verses. But people were looking at me like I had truth to share. So, through feelings of utter terror mixed with extreme excitement, I belted out those few verses.
Then, it went from odd to bizarre! Up walked an average-looking white guy who proclaimed he was Jewish but was going to heaven because of Jesus. I had no idea what he was talking about. Unbeknownst to me, I had just met my first Messianic Jew!
He and I shared the gospel on that busy sidewalk in NYC that I couldn’t find today if you paid me. Surely that day God’s amazing grace was seen in an inexperienced Christian and a group of people for whom Jesus died. Hopefully, some responded to the gospel. I’m confident I’ll find out someday.
– Eric Hentnik
