Religious Background and Experience

United Church of Christ

From my youth until well into my twenties, I was part of a small UCC congregation. The UCC denomination as a whole is a liberal Protestant group. Looking back, I was a bit of a Sunday Christian who went to services each week, but then returned home and went back to normal life the remainder of the week. What I learned there was primarily from the four gospels. I do not recall learning much from the Old Testament nor from the Epistles and hardly anything at all from the book of Revelation. As I got older, I started noticing the hypocrisy that seems to come with human nature. A congregation of believers will say they want to help the poor, but when you look at the money donated to the church, one finds that a significant portion of it is being spent on making the sanctuary a beautiful place. Near the end of my time there, it seemed that rather than helping me have a more positive outlook on life, I received some small comfort in the fact that everyone else had problems also. I felt that what I experienced in that congregation did not match up with what I expected in life from hearing Scripture.

Philosophy and Science

As an older teen, leaving high school, I had already started to follow the route of philosophy and science to understand life. In my early twenties, I was able to do this all the more as I attended college. It took several years, but I began to realize that, in regard to life, man-made philosophy is emptiness and scientific knowledge is a vanity.

Ecclesiastes

I eventually started going to Scripture with the book of Ecclesiastes. The themes of life and death, of good and evil, and of pleasure and pain attracted my attention. From my readings in that book, topical studies reached out into other parts of the Scriptures. Eventually I found myself drawn to what Scripture had to offer and I began seriously questioning if I should be at the UCC. I started exploring the options.

Worldwide Church of God Offshoots

I had explored several options, but I landed in a local Worldwide Church of God offshoot group. This group was able to help me start knowing and understanding the Old Testament that was lacking from my earlier upbringing. During this time I began to realize that many of the doctrines that separate denominations are man-made doctrines and not genuinely from Scripture. However, this group had its own set of problems because it was lacking in love and had legalistic tendencies. Once again the search was on for something more balanced.

Messianic Jewish Movement

We had heard about the Messianic Jewish movement through a friend and found that there were some congregations not that far away. We were hesitant about this at first, but ended up attending for some time. Some of these groups have a more balanced viewpoint on applying the Old and New Testament Scriptures to our lives. Also, coming from the Jewish culture, there is sometimes more effort to know and care for each other as a community. However, over time, it was becoming apparent that the Rabbinical traditions that were being incorporated into the services and lifestyles were originally made in denial of the Messiah and were being covered with a new meaning to worship Him. In short, these were more traditions of man but coming from a Rabbinic perspective.

The Scriptures - Finally!

At some point, I decided to read through the Scriptures, an endeavor I had not done before. They are beautiful, especially in chronological order. I slowly came to realize that I have three very different viewpoints (UCC, WCG, MJM) of what worship of the One Most High is supposed to look like. Furthermore, it was becoming increasingly evident that most of the customs of Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism were man-made traditions and not genuinely based on Scripture. Where I am now, where I have been for a few years, is trying to go back to the basics and try to relearn from Scripture what I thought I knew all along and that is how to have a close relationship with the One Most High and live life the way He desires.

Companions in the Book of Life

Throughout all of these different denominations and fellowships, one thing I also learned is that everywhere there were people with a sincere desire to have the best possible relationship with the One Most High. Although the Christian, Messianic, and Worldwide groups of believers all have their own traditions that distinguish them one from another, each and every person is a believer in the Messiah as savior and therefore a companion in the book of life. Whatever the thoughts about the religious systems that exist, one must not forget that these are people to love, individuals with which to fellowship, and groups with which to worship the Almighty.

Todd Elder is a believer in the Messiah who wants to help people understand Scripture and know the message of Salvation. For more information from the Personal Testimony series, please visit the
website http://www.exploringsalvation.info and look under 'Life'.

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