-Interview-

Don Finto: 'Many more Jewish people will come to faith in our day.' 

Our interview is with Don Finto,the founder of The Caleb Company

(http://www.calebcompany.com/)  

 

Dear Don,

How do you share the Good News with the Jewish people and other people?

- Because of centuries of persecution, it is even more necessary to move lovingly and cautiously in sharing the gospel with Jewish people. There has been so much forced conversions, exiles and even murder of Jewish people who were not believers. All this has to be remembered as we share.   

The most important thing in any kind of evangelistic work is genuinely to love the people Yeshua was moved with compassion. With His Spirit in us, we too, shall be so moved. And we will listen carefully to His voice—when are we to speak? When are we to be silent? How much are we to share? Remember that Rav Shaul said some of us sow the seeds, others water, but it is God Who gives the increase.   

He alone can open hearts. Remember Lydia in Acts 16? The Lord opened her heart. Remember the two men on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24? The Lord opened their eyes. Isaiah 44 speaks of the Lord closing hearts and eyes – it is He that also opens them.   

Pray, love, and speak as the Lord directs. Many more Jewish people will come to faith in our day.

 

The title of one of your book is: "Your People Shall Be My People". Why did you choose just these words from Bible?  

- Because Ruth, the heroine in the story that takes her name, is a Gentile who came to faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In so doing, she is an equal heir in the promises of Israel and the great grandmother of King David. We Gentiles, like Ruth, have come from a land of famine, to the “House of Bread” —- Beth Lechem – Bethlehem . We have covenanted ourselves to our Kinsman Redeemer – in this case, Yeshua, and have become a part of the covenant people.  

Ruth did not bring her Moabite ways into the house of Boaz, she was “grafted in” to the family. The Church has many strange customs that have been acquired through years of estrangement from the family of their Redeemer. As we draw nearer to Messiah’s closest blood family, the Church will have greater and greater appreciation for the heritage into which we have become a part.

 

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee." Psa 122:6 How many Christians in USA pray for the peace of Jerusalem ?

- I suppose there is really no way of knowing. I do know that in the past thirty to thirty-five years, there are more and more people who understand the importance of the Jewish people. I have just attended a Sukkot celebration here in the US . Last year in the Nashville , Tennessee , area (my home area), we probably had dozens of “Seder” during the Passover season. There are now tens if not hundreds of thousands who are committed to prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on the first Sunday of October each year.  

 

Please tell us about your ministry, yourself and your family a little.

- Thank you for asking. I am happily married to my wife of 54 years, with three children, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. I have a number of spiritual awakenings in my life, having been reared in a Christian church that had a very sectarian spirit that kept me back from the larger body of Messiah, and knowing nothing of the importance of our Jewish roots.  

In the late 60s during the Jesus Movement in the US , even though I was already in my 30s at the time, I became hungry for more and experienced a new life in the Spirit. During the next 25 years I was the senior leader of the Belmont Church in Nashville that was home to much of the early Contemporary Christian Music and musicians.   

In 1996, in anticipation of handing the pastorate to a younger man, I began “The Caleb Company,” named after Israel’s famous warrior who was still taking mountains even into old age, and “whose descendants inherited the Land,” – desiring both to be a this-generation “Caleb,” and to encourage others to have a “Caleb spirit.” I also want to be a man whose descendants inherit the Land!  

The passion of my life today is to see Jewish people come to faith in their Messiah, and to see the fulfillment of Paul regarding the nations, a prophetic statement that speaks of the present day revival – “if their (Jewish) rejection means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their (Jewish) fullness bring? … What will their acceptance be, but life from the dead?” I want to see this “greater riches revival” in all the dark continents and nations of the world.

 

10.2006