In this compelling episode of Discovering the Jewish Jesus, Rabbi Schneider shares his personal journey from a young Jewish man, searching for meaning and grappling with doubts, to finding peace and purpose through an unexpected spiritual awakening. Despite facing significant family and societal pressures, Kurt’s unwavering faith set him on a path of transformation. Listen as he recounts the challenges of being amidst opposing beliefs and the incredible moments that reinforced his conviction that Jesus was the way. Journey with Rabbi Schneider as he navigates the complexities of faith, identity, and acceptance. This episode dives into the tough decisions
One of the bodyguards closes the door behind me, and the head deprogrammer, Ted Patrick, looks at me and says, Kurt, we’re gonna talk about cults, and I’m gonna snap you out of this. Well, I grew up in a very Jewish environment. My mom and dad are both Jewish. I was bar mitzvahed in a conservative synagogue. I had no Christian influence in my life growing up. And even in my later years, when my family moved to a more inclusive kind of area, I still found myself in a Jewish bubble because all my close friends were Jews. As I started growing a little older, I started feeling insecure inside. I started realizing that there was a lot of things in the world that were dangerous and that adults didn’t have all the answers. And without realizing it, what I did was I buried myself in a sport where I was in control because that allowed me to block out all the things in my life that made me uncomfortable. But the problem was, when wrestling ended, suddenly it was like the world was pulled out from underneath my feet. Now it was up to me to begin to build a life and leave my family. My friends went away to different colleges. I was on my own now. And wrestling, I realized, was not really the reality that made me feel secure or that protected me anymore. So I went into my first year of college very, very much struggling. In fact, I spent as much time as I could sleeping just to try to escape the emotional torment I was in. I kept asking myself, what can I do to give myself that sense of peace and contentment and just the bliss I felt when I was winning at wrestling? In desperation, I decided that maybe if I make a lot of money, it’ll help to ease some of the pain. So I dropped out of college. I would sell encyclopedias door to door. And I went to a meeting one night and it turned out that this other sales manager and I were the first ones there. And so we began to talk and he started telling me about a book called Autobiography of a Yogi. He told me about this yogi that could levitate off the ground. Simply because he was thinking about God in this yoga state, he kind of transcended the material reality. And because I experienced such euphoria when I would win big wrestling matches, when I thought about this guy levitating off the ground, I said to myself, that’s the bliss that wrestling gave me. That’s what I want to feel again. So I went out and I bought the book. And about halfway through the book, I went to sleep one night. In the middle of the night, the Lord awoken me from my sleep. Suddenly, I became aware that I was aware. It was a supernatural awareness. My eyes were still closed, but I realized something was going on. And then instantly, in color, Jesus appeared to me on the cross. i could see the ground that the cross was staked in there was people in the distance looking at him as he was on the cross and then a ray of red light beamed down on jesus’s head when i saw that ray of red light i knew that the light was coming from god since it was coming from straight through the heavens from straight above and i knew that the person on the cross was jesus as an american no one had ever witnessed to me no one had ever shared the message of the gospel with me all my friends growing up were jewish my closest friends were all jewish i knew nothing about jesus i never thought about him jesus to me was like something that was just like unkosher and something you know for gentiles something that i had no experience with and no desire to be exposed to but when god broke into my room that night i knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that i had just encountered the lord and he was showing me that Jesus was the way to him. So in an instant, it lasted no more than two seconds tops, hope came into my heart. I knew in an instant that God was alive, that it was real, that he had just broken into my life and that there was a way out of where I was. The next morning I woke up, I was excited. I knew that I just found the way. I didn’t even know what the way was. I didn’t know doctrine. I didn’t know about sin. I just knew that God had just revealed Himself to me, that Jesus was the way, and somehow I could have victory over everything in Him. So I was excited. I started telling my family about it. We had never talked about Jesus in my home. So I had no idea what I was about to run into as a Jew in a Jewish family, in a Jewish neighborhood, believing in Jesus. I was completely naive. They didn’t react much at first. They probably thought it was a dream. We probably just shouldn’t say anything about it. But I kept on talking about it. I started telling everybody that I knew about it. So eventually I told somebody that was a Gentile, and it turns out he was a Christian. He said to me, well, you should go get a New Testament. I got a New Testament. I started devouring the Word of God. The words in the New Testament were like fire to me. And they were like coming off the pages of Scripture, going into my soul. And I’d go up to my dad. I’d say, Dad, look at this. And he looked at me like completely disengaged from the whole thing. And eventually, they became so concerned about me that I was going off the deep end, that they hired the most famous deprogrammer in the world at the time. My dad set me up for this experience. He told me that we were going to look into a restaurant, that we were potentially going to be buying this restaurant, that we were going to be in business together. We drove to a hotel for this supposed meeting, knock on the door. Distinguished looking man in a three-piece suit opens the door. He’s got two big goons, two big bodyguards with him. One of the bodyguards closes the door behind me, and the head deprogrammer, Ted Patrick, looks at me and says, Kurt, we’re going to talk about cults, and I’m going to snap you out of this. I stood up. I said, I’m not programmed. I just believe that Jesus is the Messiah. One of the bodyguards said, sit down. So I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. So I said, well, can I go use the restroom? So they said, yeah, you can go in the restroom. So I walked into the restroom and I got down on my knees and I just said, Father, I don’t know where this is gonna take me, but I ask you to keep me through this. So I came out of the restroom, they continued their spiel about how they’re gonna snap me out of this, et cetera. Then they take me back to my home. The goon came with me to my home. He was basically there to physically restrain me and take me to California. I mean, I literally was abducted. And the next day, he and I, through no choice of my own, obviously, we get in my van and we drive to their rehabilitation home in California. They just basically took me to the beach in the day and the bars at night. And after several weeks, they took me to Ted Patrick’s home and I said, can I leave now? And he said, yeah, you can leave now. Next day, they gave me back my stuff and I drove back home. And I actually felt bad for my parents because I knew that that cost them a ton of money. And I realized, you know, it didn’t change anything. And I knew that they were hurting because they didn’t know what was going on. They lost their son. They didn’t know what the heck happened to him and didn’t hold that against them at the time at all. But I did try to be a little bit wiser in how I conducted myself, but there was so much zeal in me that it was still a huge upset for my family, my friends, all of them. They felt like they didn’t know me anymore. My parents then decided to take another move to try to get me out of wherever they thought I was. Number one, it was very shameful for my parents because to have a Jewish son in a Jewish neighborhood walking around talking about Jesus is as shameful as if your son or daughter was in jail. Jewish people associate Jesus and Christianity with the people that have persecuted them. Many times Jewish people look at Hitler and Jesus as being part of the same team, because when six million Jews were put to death under Nazi Germany, the churches had pictures of Hitler hanging on the walls. So to them, Jesus is, you know, he’s not a friend. And so when I started walking around talking about Jesus, my parents were very embarrassed and very ashamed. Plus, they thought something was probably wrong with me because they knew that I was struggling after wrestling ended. And so all of a sudden when I got Jesus, it’s like, he’s gone crazy. So what they did when the deprogrammer didn’t work They found a Jewish psychiatrist, and I believe they found him with the agreed upon mandate of getting me probated to the psychiatric ward of a famous hospital in Cleveland called Mount Sinai, so they could have a chance of getting me back to what they thought was normal. But certainly that would involve giving up Jesus. And I was still like fairly cooperative. It’s an opportunity for me to tell this Jewish psychiatrist all that Jesus has done for me. And I just begin to tell this Jewish psychiatrist what would have happened to me if Jesus hadn’t saved me. And so I just let it all out and told them what Jesus had done for me. The conversation ended peaceably. He thanked me for sharing my story with them. So I went over to my Christian friend’s house. Meantime, a few days later, I come home and I walk in the door and I notice off to the side are suitcases that are all packed. My parents are standing there. He says, look out the window over there. You see that police car in the parking lot? You can either come with us peaceably or the police are going to come in here and forcibly take you. And in those days, on his own witness, without any other evidence, psychiatrists could go to the court system and say, we need to probate this person.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow, this is Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider, and he’s gonna be right back with the rest of his story. But as you’re learning today as a Jewish person, it cost Rabbi a lot to hold onto his faith in Jesus. And God saved him and works through him, not just to reach him, but so that he could preach the message of salvation to other Jewish people all over the world, and God wants to restore Israel to him. Jesus said in Matthew 23 about Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you are unwilling. Friends, this is so dear to Rabbi’s heart, but we need you. We can’t do it without you. We need people led by the Lord to join us financially as we engage Israel and Jewish people with the gospel. Would you become a monthly partner or donate today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com? Now back to Rabbi Schneider.
SPEAKER 03 :
So my parents were successful through this psychiatrist of getting me probated to the psychiatric ward of Mount Sinai Hospital, hoping somehow I would come out delivered from this illusion and delusion of Jesus. But of course that wasn’t to be because I was supernaturally saved by the Lord. It was a very, very dark time though. One of the darkest times of my life and I couldn’t go anywhere. I was trapped in the psychiatric ward. I couldn’t leave. But after two months, the law stated that anybody that had been probated there against their will would have an opportunity after two months to go before a board of psychiatrists and represent themselves. And so at two months, they brought me before a board of psychiatrists. I talked about who I was, about my journey, and they instantly released me, saying, you know, we don’t have any right to hold him against his will. So I went home, but my parents meantime, by this point, they were just like disgusted with me. They had tried everything. They wanted to get free from the shame that I was bringing them. And when nothing they had done worked, at this point, I think my dad was just disgusted and angry at me. It ended up we got in a fight in my home. My dad and I, he threw me out of the home. I got an apartment and I said, Lord, what am I doing in Cleveland anymore? I mean, I’ve got no friends here. My family has disowned me. I’ve got no future job wise here. What am I doing here, Lord? So I said, Father, I’m going to take a map of the United States. I’m going to flip the quarter. And wherever that quarter lands, Lord, that’s where I’m gonna go. I’m just gonna start a new life, just you and me together. The next day, I loaded up my orange AMC Gremlin and I headed out towards Park Rapids, Minnesota on the freeway, just imagining what the Lord and I were gonna do together. And finally, I get to Park Rapids, Minnesota and there was no jobs there. I said, I gotta get out of here. I’m gonna run out of money soon. I’ve got no work, no job. So I said, where’s the warmest place I can get to? So when I run out of money, I’ll be able to survive. And then I took out a map and I figured that the warmest place I could get to was Corpus Christi, Texas. And I feel I have enough money for one last meal. So I stopped in Kansas City, Missouri. After my last meal, it’s like, all right, now is it my last meal? I’m excited. I get in my car. and the car wouldn’t start. So it’s like, what am I gonna do? I gotta get my car fixed, but then I won’t have enough money to get to Corpus Christi. So I figured I need to get a job quick. So went to a few restaurants there. I kept running into the same problem. I started filling out the application and then it would come to what’s your phone number and where are you living? And after that happened, a couple of times I realized no one was gonna hire me without an address and without a phone number. So I went to the next stage of radicalness I said, Lord, I’m turning it all over to you. I’m going to give away everything but the clothes on my back. I went to my waitress that had waited on me. I said, listen, I said, my car’s in the parking lot. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it, but I’d like to give you my car. Here’s the keys. I gave her my car keys. And then I went to the freeway and started hitchhiking. So I’m hitchhiking on the road. First night, no one had picked me up. I literally slept on the side of the freeway in the weeds. Second day, no one picks me up. I literally slept that night on a plastic bench in an all-night sports coliseum by a bowling alley. Third day, go out and start hitchhiking. Somebody picks me up. This sharp Camaro pulls over, and the guy tells me he’s going to see his neighbor from Florida, that had moved to Amarillo, Texas, and owns a restaurant there. And if I want to come with him, he said he’ll get me a job. So I figured it wasn’t like I had a definite plan. I thought, well, maybe this is the Lord. Maybe this is what I’m supposed to do. So I said, OK. We made it to his friend’s condominium in Amarillo, and I’m working in the restaurant as a line cook. Eventually, my eyesight ran into a problem. I couldn’t see the ticket, so the job wasn’t going to work out. So I call Aunt and Aunt in California. I’m in Amarillo, I wanna get to California. Would you be comfortable with me living in your home for a little bit? She said, yeah. Took the bus to California, got to Los Angeles, started working as a graveyard dishwasher in Los Angeles. I’m riding my little cousin’s bicycle to work every night. And I was like 20 whatever years old and I’m really starting to feel like a failure now. I’m thinking like, man, I trusted God, you know, I trusted Jesus with everything. And it’s not like I’m after success, but I’m really starting to feel like kind of a loser. Forgive me for saying it, but, you know, being from a Jewish home where careers are so stressed and success is such, you know, such a priority. And here I am riding my little baby cousin’s bicycle to work as a graveyard dishwasher. And I’m just starting to feel bad about myself. And I’m just fighting this feeling. So after being in California for a little while, my dad called me and he said, come back home. Shortly after returning home to Cleveland, I met Cynthia and I started sharing Jesus with her. And she couldn’t believe that her Jewish friend was sharing with her who had been raised in a Lutheran church about Jesus. But when she went away to school, she started questioning whether she had been brainwashed because she started meeting Muslims and she started meeting people of other faiths. And she just started wondering, well, how do I know if really Jesus is the right way? I mean, maybe they’re right. And that questioning and doubting just kind of led her on a downward path. But when I began to witness to her, she said it was like a bolt of light hit her soul. It was like something filled her in an instant. And God said to her, I am the way. And from that point on, it was like there was no turning back. So Cynthia and I started dating after that. Then eventually we actually got married in a relatively quick amount of time. As soon as we got married, the next day we headed out to Bible school, graduated Bible school, started pastoring. And after pastoring for several years, I was just at a place where I realized I had a lot of growing up to do. There were just some personal challenges in my own life that needed to be addressed. And so I went into business. But after being in business, in sales and management, I started asking the Lord, what is the one topic that I’m uniquely qualified to speak about? And I felt like the topic that I could speak about was courage. And the reason that I felt like that was because I was an unusually good salesperson. And I asked myself, well, why do I have the courage to close the deal? And instantly I knew the reason I had courage was because of my relationship with Jesus. And in an instant, when I had that realization and revelation, I knew that I needed to leave the business world and preach the gospel. And so very quickly, God began to bless that decision. In a very short amount of time, I was in full-time ministry. One thing led to another thing, a national network picked up my program. I was not paying for it to be broadcast, but a Jewish man in California got saved basically from watching Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And he was so overwhelmed with how the Lord hit him that he literally hunted me down. And he said, what can I do for you? And I said, well, I’d really like to take Discovering the Jewish Jesus and take responsibility for broadcasting it, but I don’t have any money to do that. The next day, a significant check arrived in the mail from that man. And in a few months, he sent me another significant check. And it was through that financial seed of that Jewish man that the Lord was able to empower me financially, to give me the resources that I was able to begin to broadcast Discovering the Jewish Jesus internationally all over the world. And here we are today, all these years later, people getting saved on a daily basis through this ministry. Muslims, Jewish people, secular people, people that are witches, people coming out of homosexuality. Every single walk of life, God is saving people from every different culture through this ministry. And the goal is to represent Jesus so that he can be seen in his beauty. I don’t want anything of religion on me that’s going to get in the way of people seeing the beautiful, natural Jesus. You know, the word that I preach, it’s not complicated. It’s simple and profound truth. I believe there’s a banner of breakthrough that the Lord has placed over my life. He literally said that to me. And I’m believing, Abba, Father God, to continue to give me and my staff breakthrough at discovering the Jewish Jesus, to release the revelation of Messiah Jesus into the earth during these last days, that multitudes of people will continue to be saved through this ministry. Holy brothers and sisters, as you’ve heard in today’s show, Being a Jewish believer in Jesus can come with a cost. But at the end of the day, it’s not just about my salvation. It’s about how the Lord wants to use me and the ministry that he’s anointed me with to reach other Jewish people. And this month is a month where we are particularly focused here at Discovering the Jewish Jesus on reaching Jewish people. But I can’t do it without your support because all the things that we’re doing to reach Jewish people, whether it’s television, radio, billboards, digital marketing, all these things cost money. I want to ask you today for your partnership. Would you become a monthly partner with us? in helping us to reach Jewish people on the earth today. Beloved, it’s so important. In fact, Yeshua’s return is tied to the salvation of a massive Jewish people. I want to ask you humbly today, will you financially support this ministry?
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And if you feel God calling you to give generously to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, you can do that online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or you can give any amount over the phone by calling 800-777-7835. And as a token of our appreciation for your support, we want to send you our latest newsletter and Rabbi’s monthly teaching booklet. It’s full of additional teaching points and insights. I believe it’ll help you stay grounded and rooted in the faith. And as Rabbi just mentioned, we’re trying to sow seeds of the gospel. And you may have heard us mention our campaign to reach Jewish people all over Israel with the message of Messiah. I want you to know that Rabbi and Discovering the Jewish Jesus, we can’t do this alone. And I want to invite you right now, be a part of it. Be a part of it through your prayers and through your financial support. We’ve got billboards throughout major cities across the Holy Land. and they lead to a website about Jesus and how he fulfills messianic prophecy. And not just billboards leading to this site, but digital ads targeting people, Jewish people in Israel. They’re declarations for the truth that Jewish people are encountering every single day. And scripture tells us that when Jewish people come to faith in Messiah, it hastens Jesus’ return. So your partnership, it makes a difference. If you’d like to give and become a part of this historic outreach, would you visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and give? And here’s Rabbi to wrap up our message with God’s special blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh, God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God’s blessing into your life right now.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. Come back next week when Rabbi Schneider reveals who the Father truly is and why we need him. That’s Monday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
