Sid: My guest and I’m speaking to him at his home in Nashville, Tennessee actually Franklin, Tennessee is Marty Goetz Messianic artist. And on yesterday’s broadcast that Marty had a partner and he was in the Borscht Belt, the Catskills Mountains, and he was doing real well. And then his partner got religious on him and started preaching to him and so he went all the way…he broke up the group and he went all the way to the west coast. And one day just before he went out to the west coast he was at his family’s home and he couldn’t believe what he saw on the bookshelf was a big fat family Bible. Now what in the world is your family having one of those big family Bibles with the New and Old Testament in a nice traditional Jewish home Marty. How did that happen?
Marty: Well, I have no idea I’ve asked my mom since my father unfortunately is gone but my Mom is still around Florence Goetz. And she… I asked her about it and she did not know where it came from. It might have been sent from one of those you know sweepstakes things that they send you as a gift.
Sid: (Laughing)
Marty: Or maybe one of those cleaning ladies that had worked for us in our house in the suburbs had put it there; I don’t know.
Sid: So you get the Bible out; you blow off the dust and then what?
Marty: Yeah, I blow out the dust and I read it and I started to read and it was one of these great Bibles you know that has the gold-leaf on the front. And you open it up and it’s got the family register because it was empty because there was not anything written in in it. (Laughing) It had pictures of the Bible stories and Jesus words in red you know the whole thing and I just read it. I started to read the gospels because I figure I have to solve this problem of who this person of who Bert believes in is because it bothered me. At this time it was the late 70’s and Jimmy Carter was the President and remember he used to make it very clear that he was born again and that phrase was starting to take off in the culture. And people were very… people were beginning to believe in Jesus all over the world. I just was just tremendously upset by it. So I figured I would read this Bible in order to un-believe and I read the gospels. I knew Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the gospels so I started right there. Of course the gospel of Matthew begins unusual way it says the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Whom we know now as Yeshua Hamashiach the Jewish Messiah. But I didn’t know it at the time I thought I was going to be reading about a Christian God and you know it’s the genealogy and it says “He’s the son of Abraham and the son of David.” And I just kept reading the genealogies and to my surprise it talked about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David the king of Israel. And as I kept reading the more Jewish the gospel account got because Jesus showed Himself to be a good Jew. He went to the synagogue He celebrated the feasts. By the time I finished the gospels I thought to myself seriously that He seemed to be more Jewish than I was. Because at that time in my life I really had a strong Jewish Identity but it was more about how I identified with not being Christian if you know what I’m saying.
Sid: Sure, the definition of a Jew “Someone who doesn’t, not someone that does.”
Marty: Exactly.
Sid: (Laughing)
Marty: So I was very provoked because here I was reading this so I could find a loop hole in it and put it inside and I’d never have to deal with it again and to solve the problem. And have an answer for Burt and his friends and Anne and the more I read the more I liked the person that they had called “Jesus.” And it was a perplexing experience and as a matter of fact I found myself and I was scared to try to promote the music I was writing. I would go out and I’d go on these little interviews during the day and I’d come back to this apartment that I was staying and the first thing that I would want to do is read the Bible. So I was reading and reading and reading and it was starting to take root in me. And I’d think I’m starting to believe that this might be the Messiah that we have been looking for. And I was talking to Annie about it, and one day I was at her apartment for the evening and she went out for a Bible study and she said “Would you like to come?” And I said “No, I’d like to stay here and hang out if you don’t mind.” And she said “Sure.” She went to the Bible study and this was one of those experiences that it wasn’t as magical as it sounds but it was profound at the time. I was sitting at her apartment and I was looking out her window that over looked the Sunset Strip. I was thinking about this Jesus and this Bible, and how I was starting to like who Jesus was. And I was actually contemplating I wonder if somebody can believe this without actually having to do anything about it and just think about it and say “Okay I believe that and it’s good and we’ll just take it from there.” And I was looking out her window and across the way there was this bright light that shone upon this what turned out to be a telephone pole but it was in a form of a cross. You know it was just beaming through the light of the window of her apartment. This light and this cross; I was just kind of staring at it and the phone call came and said “Is Annie there.” And I said “No, she’s at a Bible study and I’ll take a message, but I think I’m having a conversion experience.”
Sid: (Laughing)
Marty: The guy said “Oh, that’s just great well have her call me when she gets in.” And that was my first sense that I was being pursued. I could almost feel that I was being pursued from someone outside of me. And someone would say “Why would He use a cross for a Jewish person?” Well, I don’t know for perhaps it’s too difficult to put up a Magan David, a Star of David out there. But I think that what it was that the cross for some people is a problem and of course we know the history of our people that the cross has been used for some not nice purposes when it came to the Jewish people. But I identified that symbol with the Jesus that these people were talking about. So God knew how to get through to me; He made it pretty stark. I just when Annie came home from her Bible study I sat with her and I told her what I was experiencing and she sat with me and said a prayer with me to ask this Jesus into my life. Then that weekend she took me to a beach, to the beach the Pacific Ocean and heard a fellow name Hal Lindsey preaching the gospel. And Hal Lindsey of course was the writer of the book “The Late Great Planet Earth.” Which was a bestseller at the time; and then she took me to a place called the Vineyard which was the first Vineyard that existed under the pastoring of Ken Gullikson. And he gave an invitation and I just took Annie’s hand and reluctantly but sincerely walked forward at the end of the service and confessed my need of a Savior; and they welcomed me into the family of God and gave me a Bible and said “You’re born a new you’re born again.” And as every good Jewish boy says my first response was “Oi vey.”
Sid: You know what I’m reminded of I’ve heard you many times sit down at the piano and sing a song that is your testimony. Could you tell us some of the words of that song right now?
Marty: Well very simply I saw “Well I had a Bar Mitzvah when I was 13 the greatest Bar Mitzvah that you’ve ever seen. A temple on the corner of Mayfield and Lee was filled with my friends and family; complete with a chopped liver statue of me.” (Laughing)
Sid: Now wait wait was there really a chopped liver statue?
Marty: Oh no, no.
Sid: I didn’t think so.
Marty: A civil white lie but it gets people’s attention. The release is that it’s a far far better thing that I do than I’ve ever done when I believed what they said was true that Yeshua is God’s only Son. And that’s what I learned that day that He had a Hebrew name Yeshua, that He was indeed a Jewish man. More Jewish than I was and indeed the perfect Jew. And I say that I’ve done many…
Sid: You know Marty you know I think that it’s so phenomenal that you ended up going to a Vineyard church and it just so happened that you met Debbie Boone and you became her person conductor. And then you were in Central Park at a Billy Graham rally as a featured performer. But I want our Mishpochah to get familiar with your music and let’s have a selection from Sanctuary, your latest CD “Blessed Is the Man.” I really like this because you sing “Blessed is the Man With a Vision.”
Marty singing an except from Sanctuary: