Stan Telchin Betrayed

Stan Telchin was born to a Jewish family in 1924, and grew up during the Great Depression. He learned early on that material security was very important. This background drove him to achieve great success in the insurance business. By the early 1970s, Telchin, his wife, and their daughters lived in a suburban home, had a housekeeper, and four BMW sedans parked in the driveway. His eldest daughter was a student at Boston University.

One Sunday evening, the phone rang. Stan was planning his next week’s insurance business when he was stopped short by Judy’s disclosure. His daughter “told me with great caution that she had come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I was speechless, outraged and I felt betrayed. How could a child of mine join the enemy?”

This upended the entire family. Stan’s wife, Ethel, banged cabinet doors and pots and pans in the kitchen. Judy’s sister, Ann, was heartbroken. And Stan? He felt rage and anger build up within him yet managed to maintain his composure. “You’re coming home for spring break soon,” he told Judy. “Let’s talk about this then.”

Spring break came and went, and Stan was left with more questions than before. Judy told him, “Daddy, you are an educated man. Read the Bible for yourself and make up your own mind. It is either true or it is false and if you read it carefully and ask God to reveal the truth to you, He will.”

Taking time from his business, Telchin dove in: “The very next night, I picked up the New Testament for the very first time. I was prepared for a book of hate aimed at the Jewish people, but I found it to be a book written by a Jew, for other Jews, about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Messiah He sent to His people.”

Finally, Stan had to decide: What would he do with this Jew named Jesus, a Messiah for the Jewish people, whose gospel accounts are also very Jewish? At 7:15 in the morning on July 3, 1975, Stan Telchin surrendered his life to Jesus.

After writing his story in Betrayed!, he spent the next 37 years in pastoral ministry, evangelism, and writing, with an emphasis on reaching his fellow Jews with the good news.

Reflect: Do you know someone whose affluence, pride, or bias is blinding them to the gospel? Have you prayed for an opportunity to reach them?

Key Bible Texts

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32 KJV)