The last couple posts were pretty dense. Perhaps some info about my walk would help to understand a little more of what I’m about.

Beginnings

I was raised a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA). A legalistic, conservative American denomination that many consider extreme and/or cultish. The denomination had it’s beginnings in the Christian Connection gatherings at the turn of the 19th century between the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening periods in the eastern United States. Many of the Christian Connections preachers were present during the Cane Ridge revival that ignited the Restoration movement during that same period.

William Miller was a Baptist minister that had been studying the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation in the Bible and in the mid to late 1830s began to herald the nearness of the second coming of Jesus. His influence became know as the Advent message, it was the last flicker of light and hope to close out the Second Great Awakening and Restoration periods of early American religious history.

Other denominations that sprang up during this period were The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses, (Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ (Christian Churches Non-denominational) Restoration denominations), Churches of God (7th Day & Worldwide/Armstrongism), the Southern Baptists came about during this same time but their beginnings was due to different positions on slavery.

All these groups are children of the Protestant Reformation who claimed the Reformation didn’t go far enough back to the original church that Jesus and his disciples had founded in the New Testament.

Zeal and Hunger

At 12 years of age I was baptized into the SDA denomination. I was very studious as far as the doctrines of Adventism and scripture go. In my early twenties I was very zealous for the faith once delivered to the Adventist saints. So much so that I was filled with indignation toward the lackadaisical attitude that many of my brothers and sisters showed in their aversion to “known truths” and dismissal of “progressive light and revelation.”

I was introduced to the Feast days in Leviticus 23 and was soon convicted of their significance in the life of a “true believer.” I began to observe the Feast days and discovered a whole sub-group of Adventists who did so. I consumed every denominational theological and doctrinal book I came across. I especially enjoyed reading the writings of the Adventist Pioneers as they knew what they believed and could expound scripture like no modern pulpit pounder within Adventism could ever dream of.

The White Lie

Several years into Feast observance I started encountered Pioneer writings that started to raise some concerns. It turned out that two Pioneer preachers of Adventism, whose writings I enjoyed the most, happened to be distant relatives of mine and they left the denomination around the turn of the 20th century. With some research, a few emails and phone call or two I soon discovered the little “White Lie” of Adventism and it turned my whole world upside down.

Deconstruction # 1

I became depressed and angry. I felt betrayed and lied to because I had discovered one of the hardest truths, “What I know just wasn’t so.” I stopped regular church attendance and began my first deconstruction. I stripped everything down to the foundation. I dissected everything that I had ever been instructed to believe and believed up to that point. What didn’t line up with scripture was discarded and what had a tenable structure was kept, I can tell you as many who have left Adventism will attest, there isn’t much material left for a structure when you’re done.

Planting Roots

Not wanting to give up my understanding of the biblical significance of certain materials I continued with the Old Testament line of thinking. The Messianic Jewish or Hebrew Roots movement had a strong appeal to me. My family and I mainly listened to Messianic services online and attended a local SDA church where we lived in Northern California periodically. With the biblical knowledge and insight I was learning through the Hebrew Roots material and sharing in the Sabbath School class it wasn’t two weeks and an elder at the SDA church wanted me to start leading a Sabbath School class.

I finished my first stint in college and we moved back to Wyoming. Our family made a trip to Oklahoma to see family and friends and we visited a large Messianic congregation while there, the actual congregation we had been watching online for the last year and a half. To be there in person was a unique experience for me, if I’m honest I felt kind of strange and out of place.

Here We Go Again

A few months later we were sitting at home around the computer for the Erev Shabbat service. I had my Tallit draped over my shoulders, my Messianic Restoration Scripture bible sitting on the table. We were facing east toward Jerusalem (the kitchen in our old house) for the reciting of the Shema. I looked at my family standing next to me and the thought hit me, “You fool! You’re doing it again.”

Deconstruction # 2

During this deconstruction I discovered the messiness of Messianism. They didn’t really have a soteriology to speak of (a fancy word that means beliefs and doctrines concerning salvation). Most, if not all professing Messianics are protestant denominational converts. Which means they are Gentile Christians attempting to convince other Gentile Christians to act like Jews, this happens to be the very textbook definition of Judaizing in scripture.

The Hebrew Roots/Messianic Jewish movement really has its roots in Christian Zionism and the Zionist movement. Their doctrine consists of doing everything as Jewish as possible after marinating it in a Yeshua concentrate. The historical and cultural approach taken to biblical exposition is very informational. After your ear has been tickled by a Messianic Rabbi you walk away feeling like you just left a Chinese Buffet. Plenty of good information and insight to scripture, you can really impress people. But no doctrine, no meat, no real transformation.

Removing Roots

Walking away from the Hebrew Roots was not as hard as Adventism. With Adventism I had been lied to, which means those who lied knew the truth. With the Hebrew Roots it was more of a, you did this to yourself kind of thing. And so it was that I was back to the foundation again. I did learn that doctrine is important. A belief system that is correctly structured on the bible is a necessity if one does not want to be duped into following the crowd.

To be continued…