A Texan drug dealer-turned-pastor devotes his life and millions of his followers to the Jewish people and the land of Israel.
By ZVIKA KLEIN
Almost 30 years ago, Pastor Larry Huch and his wife, Pastor Tiz Huch, considered quitting the ministry they spent many years building.
“I just felt like something was missing,” Larry said. “We had built churches all over the world in countries like Australia and America.” But then a friend recommended they visit Israel. Little did they know that it would change their life and the lives of millions of Christians around the world.
“My first response was, ‘Why would I go to Israel?’ I thought this since in a lot of the churches, there’s a false teaching of Christians replacing Jews called ‘the great placement or replacement theology.’ I came over [to Israel] and I started seeing and experiencing things.”
According to the Larry Huch Ministries website, “outside the ruins of an ancient synagogue in Capernaum, God spoke to him [Larry] in an appointed moment that He would teach him to re-read the Bible through the eyes of a Jewish Jesus.”
Larry explained to The Jerusalem Post that to him it meant, “I’m going to teach you to reread the Bible, through the eyes of a Jewish Moses, a Jewish Abraham, and a Jewish Jesus, a Jewish Paul.”
He then changed his whole approach toward Christianity and Judaism. The 72-year-old pastor now has millions of followers on social media and on his daily TV shows on Christian broadcasting networks around the world.
“I realized that as a Christian, I’ve been lied to, in a lot of things concerning Israel and the Jewish people,” Larry added. “So much of what the Jewish people have suffered over the last few thousands of years has been because of what the Church is teaching.”
Their new mission from that day on, he said, was to “re-educate the Church that the Jewish people and the land of the Jewish people are our brothers and sisters and our job is to stand with the Jewish people around the world. Our job is also to stand with the nation of Israel and to speak out wherever and whenever we can to defeat antisemitism.”
Larry will visit Israel this week to attend an award ceremony in his honor arranged by Keren Hayesod. The organization will present him with the John Henry Patterson Guardian of Zion Award. John Henry Patterson was born into a Christian family in Ireland in 1867 and went on to command two Jewish legions that were established during World War I, which led him to become acquainted with Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Together with Nahum Sokolow, Chaim Weizmann and Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Patterson became a Keren Hayesod emissary to England in 1921.
This award will be awarded to Larry, the New Beginnings Church and the Larry Huch Ministries.
“We selected Pastor Larry as the recipient of this inaugural award in recognition and deep appreciation for his exemplary leadership and unwavering commitment to Keren Hayesod and the Jewish people,” Keren Hayesod said in a statement.
“Pastor Larry Huch is a true friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” said Keren Hayesod Chairman Sam Grundwerg. “His contributions impact many aspects of Israeli society. Thousands of immigrants were able to fulfill their dream and immigrate to Israel thanks to Pastor Larry and his church. We cherish and appreciate Pastor Larry’s true friendship with Keren Hayesod and the people of Israel.”
THE AWARD will be presented at the Knesset this week during the annual Leadership Conference of Keren Hayesod.
The Huch family has become totally devoted to the issue of connecting to the Jewish people and to the Jewish state.
“We keep kosher in our family and we have mezuzot on our door,” Larry said, knowing it would surprise many of our Jewish readers. “We keep Shabbat because this is the Old and the New Testament. We had a guy come to our house to deliver high-end meat, and he saw a mezuzah on our door. He asked, ‘Are you Jewish?’
“We tried to explain to him what our story was and then he said, ‘The owner of our company is Jewish.’ My wife said, ‘Well, if he’s Jewish, how come he sells pork?’ We explained that unfortunately we can’t buy this type of meat since it’s not kosher. The guy came back half an hour later and said, ‘I called my boss in New York. He said that you guys are absolutely right and that he’s removing pork out of the packages,” Huch said with a laugh.
Larry proudly mentioned that he had a long conversation with former chief rabbi of Israel Meir Lau. “He is the leader I admire maybe more than any religious leader in the world.” The pastor quoted the rabbi asking him at the end of their meeting, “How do you know these things about Judaism?”
“We study this,” Larry answered, to which Lau responded, “That’s because it’s part of your Jewish roots.”
“Absolutely, and that’s what we’re trying to teach the world,” Larry said.
“It’ll be my 39th trip to Israel,” Larry said proudly, “I have Christian, Jewish and Muslim friends in Israel.” He also asked to emphasize that he isn’t a missionary trying to convert Jews to Christianity.
“Our job isn’t to convert anybody. Our job is to bring the Church back to loving the Torah, back to loving the word of God, back to loving our Jewish brothers and sisters and back to loving the biblical Land of Israel. It’s a full-time job.”
“Our job isn’t to convert anybody. Our job is to convert the church back to loving the Torah, back to loving the Word of God, back to loving our Jewish brothers and sisters and back to loving the biblical Land of Israel. It's a full time job.”Pastor Larry Huch
From drug dealer to pastor
Before becoming a pastor, Larry was a drug dealer and a drug addict.
“I smuggled cocaine into the United States from South America. I was also using the needle cocaine and heroin.”
ONE DAY he overdosed and thought that he was dying.
“I was by myself, on a ranch in Colombia, South America. I called out to God, not knowing who God was. I said, ‘God, don’t let me die until I find out what happiness is.’” After selling his drugs to an agent, he ran through different states in America until he finally settled in Texas and became a pastor.
Larry also claimed to have possibly influenced former president Donald Trump to acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
“I had the privilege of being called to the White House, when president Trump was together with [former adviser and Middle East envoy] Jason Greenblatt. He [Greenblatt] said, ‘We’re about to make the peace plan for the Middle East. We’ve got it sealed, but I just want to know, what do you think?’
“I just left the president until everybody had given a biblical answer. I said, ‘Listen, we must not allow Israel to be divided.’ He said, ‘What should we do?’ I said, ‘Here’s my suggestion. We’ve already done the Taylor Force Act. We’ve already done the settlements. We’ve already done the embassy being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.’ I said, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s announce we’re recognizing Israel’s sovereign rights over the Golan Heights.’ Greenblatt said ‘Over the Golan Heights?’ I answered, ‘If you do that, Christians will get behind President Trump.’”
Greenblatt was called back to see Trump, but before going in, he made sure he understood Pastor Larry.
“No land for peace,” Greenblatt said, according to Larry, who said he answered, “Not one inch. That land was given by God to the Jewish people of Israel. We cannot go against what God is saying.” Greenblatt went in to meet Trump and Larry concluded the story, saying, “With the grace of God, two days later, president Trump announced we were acknowledging the Golan Heights as Israel.”
A few years ago, Larry and his people were in touch with Keren Hayesod, an official fundraising organization for Israel with branches in 45 countries. Keren Hayesod historically raised money from Jews but recently began also fundraising for Israel from Christians.
According to Larry, his ministry has raised about $8 million for Israel, a large part of that was through Keren Hayesod.
“We look for things to do in Israel because if I can get people to give to Israel, we found out that their heart will follow their giving,” he explained. “For years, we’ve been feeding [the hungry] in Israel, we’ve been helping with Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa. We built a bunch of bomb shelters for the children. We work with different organizations in feeding Holocaust survivors.
“One of the main Bible prophecies is helping Jews return to the nation of Israel, so we started working with Keren Hayesod with projects such as making aliyah. We help settlements take over produce farms in the West Bank, which is Judea and Samaria.”
Larry has recently raised a large amount of money to help Ukrainian Jews escape the deadly war and move to Israel.
“When we heard about Ukraine, we immediately raised a million dollars to help get Jews out of Ukraine and into Israel, at the same time bringing Jews in from Ethiopia. We do whatever we can do for the Jewish people and the land of Israel.”
04/07/2022 by THE JERUSALEM POST
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