Sid Roth welcomes Eric Carlson

SID: Hello, Sid Roth, your investigative reporter here with Eric Carlson. What happens if you’re an officer of the United States Navy, on a submarine in the middle of the ocean; and all of a sudden an encounter, a God encounter occurs? I mean, beyond what most people call normal God encounters. I mean to the point where you read in the book of Acts, these Jewish people that had encounters with the Spirit of God were accused of being drunk. Eric Carlson, could someone have accused you of being drunk?

ERIC: Absolutely, absolutely.

SID: Had anything like this ever happened to you before

ERIC: Never. It was the most amazing thing. And literally it was like being drunk. It was almost like I was out of my body. And it was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, deep, deep beneath the surface. God’s arm even reaches the ocean floor. I mean you couldn’t get any farther from civilization, people, or religion or anything.

SID: I have a question: how tall are you?

ERIC: I’m 6’ 5 1/2”.

SID: How does a 6’ 5 1/2” person live on a submarine?

ERIC: You just know where to duck; you just know where to duck.

SID: Ok.

ERIC: It was the most amazing thing and there had been several months leading up to this and the Lord was trying to speak to me. I didn’t know what that was. I would be woken up in the middle of the night and amazingly, my wife Barb; I would wake up at two o’clock in the morning and I would look at her and she would be worshipping in her sleep. And I knew something was going on and I had said a prayer that Lord, I don’t understand what’s going on and I don’t think that this is it. There’s something else and I don’t understand this. I just don’t think it’s going to church on Sundays and coming to Bible study on Wednesdays. There’s something more to this.

SID: Something missing.

ERIC: Yes, something missing; absolutely. And I laugh now, be careful what you pray for, because I said that prayer and the next time I went to sea; it was on a Triton submarine, a very large submarine. It’s the largest submarine that we have in our fleet. And I was on an inspection team and we got on board the ship, and as soon as I got on board the ship and we got out to sea and it dove underneath the surface, immediately I began quivering, like shaking. And I actually thought something physically was wrong with me, that I was sick or something was happening. And I actually went to my, we call them racks on a submarine, I went to bed; I laid down; it’s very small. It’s 7 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet tall so it’s almost like a coffin. And you sleep like this. I’m laying in the rack, and I feel this presence just wash over me and I began shaking in bed. And I felt a heaviness, and I actually felt that I was going to die. I had never felt anything more powerful, more heavy, more…it was like the universe was pressing its weight down upon me and it definitely got my attention.

SID: I’m sure.

ERIC: And I began speaking in tongues. And I had a notebook, because I’m on an inspection team, I had a notebook and a pen; and as this washed over me. For the next three days this occurred. I went through my duties, I did my functions on board the submarine, and yet I can’t recall those things I did in the flesh. All I recall is this period where I’m drunk in the spirit and this went on for three days. I never slept a wink. For three days this went on. But yet I was able to perform my ties and do what I needed to do.

SID: What were you writing?

ERIC: Well at the time I didn’t know what it was, and I was getting like revelation. The Holy Spirit would say “Write this down, write this down,” and I would write. I had to go back on shore and read these things and see what it was and it was about ten pages. I still have it. And basically, the Lord had said “You’re Jewish.”

SID: Were you Jewish?

ERIC: No, I didn’t think I was.

SID: Were you raised Jewish?

ERIC: No. Raised in a secular…

SID: Were you Bar Mitzvahed? Did you ever go to a synagogue?

ERIC: No, nothing.

SID: Ok. So God says you’re Jewish.

ERIC: And obviously, the name Carlson – it doesn’t sound very Jewish. So anyway, back to the ship – I wrote all these things down and I was speaking in tongues. I was weeping at times, and the pressure got so heavy I actually rolled over and put the pillow over my head, and actually cried out God please stop this because I’m going to perish. I can’t take this. It’s more than I can take. And actually crew members would come in and they would pull back the bunk curtain and tap me and say, are you alright? Because they’re not used to grown men at sea crying; and it was shocking to some of the crew members. They thought I had actually gone crazy.

SID: I imagine that happens to people on a submarine.

ERIC: Occasionally it does, but I had been on the submarine force for years; 15, 16 years at this time, and had been well seasoned. So they knew I wasn’t losing my mind but something was happening. And as I came back to shore after these three days, the Spirit had left, and I slept for like a day and a half. It was just like being awake for day after day but it was a complete, peaceful rest. And when I got home, my wife immediately knew something was different, something had changed. And I was actually scared to tell her, because I thought she would think I was crazy. But the Holy Spirit had been speaking to her, as I said, even before this and we both knew something was going on. And the Holy Spirit had revealed: A. that I was Jewish, B. and these terms, I didn’t even know what these terms were, but the Holy Spirit said get a tallit, get a kippah, a yamaka, you need to be…

SID: Alright, a tallit is a prayer shawl, a kippah, yamaka is a head covering.

ERIC: Right. And the Holy Spirit had said you’re cursed because you’re Jewish and your parents, your grandparents had denied this and because of this denial, myself, my whole family, we were cursed and that I had to do a mikvah in public

SID: Did you even know what a mikvah was?

ERIC: I didn’t even know what a prayer shawl was.

SID: A mikvah is where baptism came from; it’s the Jewish baptism.

ERIC: Exactly. So the Holy Spirit gave me a lot of homework because I had to go to the library and it took me weeks to discover what these terms were. I didn’t even know what they were. And the Holy Spirit had said to perform this mikvah. My entire family, we all made a re-commitment to the Lord, made a profession of faith in Yeshua, in Jesus, and had done this in public on a Sunday evening at the church we were attending. And the third thing out of all this, and this is what I heard the entire time, during this entire three days was, I’m coming, I’m coming. Again and again and again, I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming. And I had written down in the process of page 3 of my notes, the Lord had said you’re changing careers.  The Navy this was just a training ground and you are not staying in the Navy and you are going to become “Fisher of men;” and actually made that statement when we did our mikvah in public on that Sunday evening.

SID:  But wait a second now, you are not Jewish how come God told you, you are Jewish?

ERIC:  Well as it turns out, this was just before my mother had passed away. (laughing) You always go to a mother first, I was afraid to ask my dad I went to my mom, and she said it is true. Carlson isn’t our family name; our family name is Lindberg.

SID:  That is Jewish a name.

ERIC:  That is Jewish, and my grandfather’s name; what I knew it to be…

SID:  I tell you hold that thought. Did you hear what God told him?  Jesus said, I’m coming soon, I’m coming soon, I’m coming soon.  We’ll right back, don’t go away