A JEW WHO RECEIVED CHRIST 42 YEARS AGO

Over 42 years ago, I met Jesus Christ my Lord, my Savior, my Messiah. The journey to find Him took me from being a very happy little boy to a young man in a condition I would not want you to have to be in, so I’m sharing my testimony with you.

I was born into a fairly religious Jewish family. My dad’s dad was an Orthodox rabbi, so my dad wanted my older sister and I to be Orthodox as well. My mom wanted to be in the Jewish denomination called “Reformed” so they compromised and became “Conservative.” We kept many of the Jewish traditions like keeping Kosher at home (we could eat non-Kosher at restaurants) and going to synagogue services on a weekly basis, especially on the special “High Holidays” in the fall. I went to Hebrew school classes twice a week after regular public school, plus Sunday morning classes until age 13 when I had my Bar Mitzvah. This event was to be a major milestone in my life where I would stand on the platform in front of the whole congregation and read from the Torah, then have a huge extravaganza of a celebration afterward. It was one the most miserable days of my life. My mom spent so much money for a caterer, orchestra, photographer, flowers, etc., etc. Hundreds of relatives and friends were invited to see me, and I started wondering what this whole religious stuff was all about. All this fuss over me becoming age 13, entering manhood. I was starting to question what I was being brought up to believe.

During high school in the late sixties, I began seeing the country descend into revolution with rebellion against the Viet Nam war, blacks rising up for equality, and many in my generation questioning the hypocrisy we saw in the older generations.

Among family and friends, it was automatically assumed that college was the next step after high school. This is where I really went downhill morally and physically.

I really had a desire to do something about the mess the country was in, but had no idea what to do. I had a ravenous appetite to read about politics and history to see where we came from as a country and where we might be heading. I also started checking out the myriad philosophies and religious ideas that were flooding the world at that time. They all seemed to be lacking something. Each philosophy took me deeper into darkness. Over the next 2 ½ years, I gradually went from being the sober, clean-cut, good, upstanding, religious young man to becoming a long haired, pot-smoking radical wanting to eliminate the social and moral institutions our country was founded upon, in favor of I did not know what. In all the different groups I checked out, I was able to see faults and failures. Mostly, the leaders were just as hypocritical as the “establishment,” and they were in it for the money or their own ego or both.

In May of 1970, there was a big meeting at the college where I was. It was supposed to be some of the big name leaders of the radical movement discussing ways to radicalize and take over the news media. Some of the people helping organize it had gone to Los Angeles to recruit people to come. When they came back, they were paralyzed with fear. They exclaimed, “The world is coming to an end!” They seemed to have lost all hope. They mentioned something about Jesus freaks, but I didn’t really pay attention to them, except that I still had a hope in my heart for the truth and answers to life.

About 2 months later, I left home to go to California to start a semester of college off campus in San Francisco. I decided to hitchhike. I got my first ride within minutes of getting on a freeway on-ramp in Philadelphia. They took me to Chicago, where I found a place to stay with some hippies. I posted my name and phone number on a bulletin board of people looking for rides out of town. Within a couple of days, I got a call from a guy that was driving to San Francisco, but he was stopping in L.A. Some of my friends told me to stay clear of L.A., but I decided this was my best chance. It turned out that the place we were actually going was Hollywood. The place was a few blocks off the Sunset Strip. When we got there, no one was home, so I decided to check out the infamous Sunset Strip. It was about midnight on a Friday night. The first people I met when a got there were some young men passing out something. One of them offered me a piece of paper and said, “Jesus Christ is coming back to earth, the world is coming to an end!” I did not want to hear anything about Jesus Christ. In all my searching, I did not even consider Christianity to be the truth because whenever I thought about them, my mind would equate them with hypocrites. All the people I had come in contact with professing Christianity were just as sinful or more than I.

So I told the young man that offered me the tract, “I know,” and tried to get away from him. I had a hatred and revulsion for the very name Jesus. It was an offence to me. He tried to keep the conversation going, telling me about the end time prophecies and his pastor Tony Alamo, a Jew who had turned his back on a very successful career in the entertainment business after God spoke to him in an office in Beverly Hills. Hearing about another Jew that had forsaken riches to serve God actually made me listen. We were out there almost 2 hours. I became so convicted that I wanted to get saved right then and there. Because of the time and place, he encouraged me to come to the services the next night, very close by. The Lord really had me in such fear and conviction, that I did not want to wait until the next night, but they kept encouraging me to just come to church the next night at 8 p.m. They gave me a few pieces of Gospel literature to read.

That night I felt a war going on in my mind. All those years of seeing phony Christians and mocking Jesus and taking His name in vain had made me not want anything to do with Christianity. But the Word of God that was planted in my heart was more powerful. The Lord used my own words to challenge me. He spoke to my heart and said if you really want to find out the truth, and if you say you hate hypocrisy, you must go to that church or you are a hypocrite! Then He showed me later on that if I did not accept Jesus that I would first lose my mind and then burn in Hell forever.

Thank God, He gave me the victory! I went to services the next night. As soon as I walked into the doors of the church we had in Hollywood on Crescent Heights Blvd, I knew I was in the House of God! I felt so full of sin that I didn’t feel worthy enough to sing the old-fashioned Gospel songs with everyone. All I could do was hang my head in shame. Susan Alamo gave the message that night. It was out of the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, “... And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” I still remember the last words of her message, “Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow may never come.” I was a procrastinator, but this was one thing I knew I had to take care of immediately. I went down to the altar as soon as she invited people to come and pray.

After saying the old-fashioned sinner’s prayer, I knew I had a new life. Some of the brothers from the church that had been saved for a while were right there praying with me. When I got up they instructed me how to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We went into the basement prayer room. The place was packed with young people really seeking and crying out to God. We found a little corner and started praying. The power of God come down on me so powerfully, I received the Baptism in what seemed like a few seconds. While I was praying, the Lord gave me a sign that He really was my Messiah. I felt as though I was at the foot of the cross, responsible for Him dying and shedding His blood for me. I started crying uncontrollably, but then I felt His forgiveness and was filled with holy laughter and joy. Some time later, I read in Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of power and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” This is exactly how I felt.

When we came up from the prayer room, the brother explained about serving God. I was saved, but now I must serve Him. I must get rooted and grounded in the Word of God. Before services, I figured I would go to church, get saved and then continue being a Christian at the college I was going to up in San Francisco. Afterwards I realized I needed to be schooled in the ways of God. I was invited to move right in. The church would provide everything I needed when I became a part of the ministry. It seemed like the most logical and sensible thing to do. What a wonderful God, to raise up a ministry like this!

I have been with the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries since that day in July, 1970. We have been through some extraordinary trials, tribulations and persecutions. The Lord told us we would. He went through worse—He was innocent and was murdered on a pack of lies. We are no better than He. But He has given us the power to overcome whatever the devil throws at us. He told us, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

Shimon Levine


Prayer

My LORD and my GOD, have mercy upon my soul, a sinner. 1 I believe that JESUS CHRIST is the SON of the living GOD. 2 I believe that HE died on the cross and shed HIS precious blood for the forgiveness of all my former sins. 3 I believe that GOD raised JESUS from the dead by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT 4 and that HE sits on the right hand of GOD at this moment, hearing my confession of sin and this prayer. 5 I open up the door of my heart, and I invite YOU into my heart, LORD JESUS. 6 Wash all of my filthy sins away in the precious blood that YOU shed in my place on the cross at Calvary. 7 YOU will not turn me away, LORD JESUS; YOU will forgive my sins and save my soul. I know because YOUR WORD, the Bible, says so. 8 YOUR WORD says that YOU will turn no one away, and that includes me. 9 Therefore, I know that YOU have heard me, and I know that YOU have answered me, and I know that I am saved. 10 And I thank YOU, LORD JESUS, for saving my soul, and I will show my thankfulness by doing as YOU command and sin no more.11


Tony Alamo, World Pastor
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide
P. O. Box 6467
Texarkana, Texas 75505

Twenty-four hour prayer and information line: (479) 782-7370
FAX (479) 782-7406
www.alamoministries.com[email protected]

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries provides a place to live with all the things necessary for life to all those
in our United States locations who truly want to serve the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength..

Services held every evening at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
at the following locations:  
Arkansas Churches: 4401 Windsor Dr., Fort Smith, Arkansas 72904
  1005 Highway 71 South, Fouke, AR 71837
Los Angeles Area Church: 13136 Sierra Hwy., Canyon Country, California 91390
  (661) 251-9424
New York City Area: Please call us for the address.
Free transportation to and from services provided at the corner of :
Hollywood Blvd. & Highland Ave., Hollywood, California, daily at 6:30 P.M.,
Sundays at 1:30 P.M. and 6:30 P.M.
Ask for Pastor Alamo’s book, The Messiah, showing Christ from the Old Testament revealed in over three hundred thirty-three prophecies.
All Tony Alamo literature, messages on CD and tape, are free of charge, not for sale.
If anyone is attempting to charge you for this literature,
please call (479) 782-7370 collect.
THIS LITERATURE CARRIES THE TRUE PLAN OF SALVATION (Acts 4:12).
DO NOT THROW IT AWAY, PASS IT ON TO ANOTHER.

Those of you who are in other countries, we encourage you to translate this literature into your native language.
If you do reprint, please include this copyright and registration:
© Copyright September, 2012 All rights reserved World Pastor Tony Alamo ® Registered 2012


Prayer footnotes:

1. Psa. 51:5, Rom. 3:10-12, 23 return

2. Matt. 26:63-64, 27:54, Luke 1:30-33, John 9:35-37, Rom. 1:3-4 return

3. Acts 4:12, 20:28, Rom. 3:25, I John 1:7, Rev. 5:9 return

4. Psa. 16:9-10, Matt. 28:5-7, Mark 16:9, 12, 14, John 2:19, 21, 10:17-18, 11:25, Acts 2:24, 3:15, Rom. 8:11, I Cor. 15:3-7 return

5. Luke 22:69, Acts 2:25-36, Heb. 10:12-13 return

6. I Cor. 3:16, Rev. 3:20 return

7. Eph. 2:13-22, Heb. 9:22, 13:12, 20-21, I John 1:7, Rev. 1:5, 7:14 return

8. Matt. 26:28, Acts 2:21, 4:12, Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14 return

9. Matt. 21:22, John 6:35, 37-40, Rom. 10:13 return

10. Heb. 11:6 return

11. John 5:14, 8:11, Rom. 6:4, I Cor. 15:10, Rev. 7:14, 22:14 return