My Hebrew name is Amin, given by Benyamim Tsedaka of the Samaritan community in Israel during our first meeting on December 21, 2017. A group of friends and myself spent several fascinating days with Ben. In November 2018 one friend (Hebrew name Ogen) joined me with Ben for another great time.
(Disclaimer: If you’re not yet aware, the Samaritan community is from the remnants of the original Northern Israelis, not imposters as the ridiculous Jewish Tanakh a.k.a Old Testament paints them. For example…
And the Samaritan community, half of whom still live on Mount Gerizim near Palestinian controlled Nablus, originally Neapolis, get along great with Palestinians and have both Israeli and Palestinian driver’s licenses. Unlike the questionable lineage of Jews who are right now engaging in genocide to steal Palestinian land and oil fields. And by the way that was allowed because of a false flag Hamas attack where Israel, with the most secure border on this planet, which are funded with Israel’s funds obtained from the United States, was allowed to standby for 8 or more hours until they finally responded to start a war. Despicable!)
This SubStack will facilitate preserving my writings in an effort to remove the need to maintain my own website (to simplify my life.) I’ve found that life is fleeting, and focusing on family and career are the best use of my time.
I have no intention to earn from this SubStack, but do like to write and share the discoveries and conclusions I’ve made about the nature of truth, particularly with a focus on religious truth.
I was born to a Christian family within the Baptist community (sometimes Independent, sometime Southern.) By the age of 20 I began to notice problems with Christian tenets while serving in the armed forces and planning for a post-military career in ministry.
What I discovered in my 20s began with questioning Christian holidays and lack of proper Saturday Sabbath observance, culminating in abandoning my correspondence course from Liberty University (before the internet) and replacing it with a desire to reason through my faith and achieve the truth of it.
Yet another 26 years into my life I was making little progress! My faith was strong but nebulous. My new career as a contract programmer and busy family kept me busy. My family and I attended church regularly but I myself regretted the shaky underpinnings of any semblance of actual truth in it. (At the time, the rest of my immediate family, not to mention the extended one, did not share the same concerns.)
Eventually my thirst for knowledge overwhelmed me, and thus began my frenetic quest for a kernel of truth within the faith presumed correct by generations past. I began with the search for truth in the Christian scriptures at the age of 46, and my spiritual journey took me on unexpected and surprising paths towards finally quelling the restlessness within my soul, not without consequence.
I spent many a restless night consumed by grueling pain from the center of my self existence, but I was convinced that approaching something akin to actual truth was more rewarding than a comfortable but short life within Christianity’s false hopes of salvation (or damnation) and immortality (or everlasting punishment.)
The journey was extremely difficult, and unfortunately each truth I uncovered (which I was convinced would sway others) resulted in nothing but persecution and shunning from friends and family.
The unfortunate realization that mankind is overwhelmingly more interested in the comfort of cognitive dissonance than truth was surprising. Few rare individuals are able to confront their false hopes and seek truth.
These few are whom to which I’ve written, in hopes that my writings help spur the quest for religious truth for each. My journey is not over yet, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. However, what I have done is to remove the blinders, explore the Hebrew and Greek scriptures and manuscript evidence with fresh eyes to the best of my meager abilities and present the logical conclusions I’ve derived from them. Some have no appreciable online discussion about my discoveries anywhere!
I hope a few people are encouraged to explore truth for themselves! Never trust anyone, including myself, to convince you of truth. My experience is that most who read my written words will deride or attack me, but that’s how the quest for truth works.
Shalom!