About The Author
I’m just a filthy sinner in the grip of an endlessly merciful Creator and Redeemer! Seriously, I'm a rebellious man and just trying to suppress the evil inclination within me is a daily battle in life that I often times lose. Obviously, I’m not home yet! I’m just keeping it real here, maybe I can give some hope to others who haven’t quite arrived yet either!
My name is Ken Alder; I am the proud father of 3 children and have been blessed with many Grandchildren.
I was born in 1954 and grew up in what could be called an atheistic family, if not atheistic then certainly agnostic. As a child I hated the public school Christmas pageant... I always felt so alone in my ignorance while my classmates looked forward to their roles in every Christmas scene! I had no idea what was going on, I only knew I was different. As a matter of fact being a child of a poor family I saw Christmas as a holiday of the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and I was a ‘have not’.
In 1972, just out of high school I married my pregnant girl friend who came from a Lutheran family. After 5 years I felt like I was being left behind as my second child was baptized, so I got baptized in order to join the Lutheran church. In 17 years I destroyed our marriage and was divorced.
It was in 1996 that I came to the end of my rope... I was broke and broken in spirit and realized I needed a Savior, one night I knelt at my bedside and prayed a simple prayer, I told my ABBA in heaven,
“I’ve made a mess of my life, You take it and do with it what You will.”
He has been faithful! It was also in 1996 that I was introduced to the Creation vs. Evolution debate and I was hooked, I couldn’t believe educated people actually believed in a historical worldwide flood and an ark that carried Noah, his family and the many animals through it. I was sure it was a myth! Today I am an ardent young earth creationist!
In 1999 I became engaged to remarry, but it didn’t happen! She went her way and I went mine. At the time I didn’t realize it but I had dodged a bullet! In a strange twist of circumstances this became a turning point in my life. In the process of getting engaged I had purposed myself to understand the Scriptural position on Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, it was the most revealing study I could ever have imagined. That study is an ongoing search for truth and this website is ultimately the fruit of that study!
In 2003 I told the men of an Assembly of God bible study group, which I led, that I could no longer continue in the group. I had come to feel like a hypocrite teaching things I no longer believed. I had serious issues with the doctrine of child baptism and what it is to be 'born again'. At some point in that year I did an online word search using the words 'born again'. I read 28 articles before I finally found an author who was using the very same verses I was using and coming to the very same conclusion I had come to, i.e. it's a 'process' which is culminated in the resurrection! I followed that discovery a week later with an identical search and found another article by another author saying the same thing, this man was the pastor of a Worldwide Church of God splinter group.
This time I followed up by searching the website's Fundamental Beliefs page. I discovered that they were 7th Day Sabbath observers and in a moment I knew, that I knew, that I knew the 7th Day Sabbath was something I needed to be keeping! I sent an e-mail to the author who I am certain is a very busy man. He kindly responded with such grace, caring and encouragement telling me the direction I was headed would become the most wonderful journey I could ever imagine! Years later I can tell you it has been all of that! From that day forward it was like I was being rolled on the beach of man-made religion by a tsunami of biblical truth! It was an extraordinary time in my life. I spent 3 years studying and attending different Worldwide Church of God splinter groups before I had decided to break away from them. It was the very last service I attended that a young woman approached me and handed me a book telling me, "I have been meaning to give this to you for some time." She then handed me a copy of Lew White's book, 'Fossilized Customs'. I took it home and read it. To tell the truth it felt like I was getting my guts ripped out! I realized how deeply I had been duped! At the back of the book there was a web address to a Messianic Movement group and through that group I realized my first contact with the Hebrew Roots Movement.
It was in 2006 that I had come to the point in my walk that I felt the need to quit my very good paying job in a steel mill which kept me from observing the 7th Day Sabbath knowing full well I would never make that kind of money again. But even more than that I had come to the point in my walk that I decided it was time for me to make an even bigger decision. It was time for me to abandon Christianity! Please understand, I am a Bible believing follower of Messiah Yeshua. He is my Creator, Redeemer and soon coming King! But I had seen enough paganism in the church to know that I no longer wanted to be associated with it! I had come to realize there is no potential to become The Bride of Messiah Yeshua within such a corrupted version of the so-called church. It was time for me to follow the admonition of Revelation 18:4 and 'come out of her'! I decided to buy a handful of books which would make the case for my decision to do what I was doing and I gave those books to my 3 children.
All of this led to my spending about 5 years in the Messianic Movement. They're a hard wired bunch! Eventually the constant debate and bickering became too much and I no longer had a stomach to continue to call it home either even though I had continued to learn. That is the point! I continued to learn and when I had learned enough I always found myself moving on! The path I walk has become very narrow!
It was Sukkot of 2010 that I was given 4 DVD's documenting the Lunar Sabbath. The man that gave them to me didn't believe the information and told me to throw them away once I had watched them! I thought that to be a strange way of sharing something! I took them home and let them set on my table for 4 months. They haunted me the entire time! Everytime I saw them I was reminded I told the man I would watch them but I honestly didn't feel I had the time to watch something I didn't believe in! Nevertheless I finally bucked up and was a man of my word. After watching the 1st DVD I thought to myself, "What have we done?" I then watched all 4 DVD's a multitude of times! This man's trash became my treasure! This was once more a season of change for me and for all intents and purposes I no longer consider myself associated with the Messianic Movement. There is not a single group of people with which I couldn't find bugs in their woodwork and felt the need to move on.
I know this is where I am supposed to be posting my credentials which qualify me to write and post the articles on this website, credentials which should cloak me with credibility, credentials which should assure you that you can trust me and what I’ve written.
Sorry! I don’t have any!
In fact if it weren’t for football I probably would have dropped out of high school!
I am not the brightest star in the evening sky! And yet… I think I have something to say.
Important things that you will NEVER hear from the pulpit of your church!
If I have anything to offer in the way of credentials, beyond the school of life which I've written of above, it can be said of me that I think outside the box. Why is that important? Because, if you already know everything inside your box then the only place to discover new revelation is ‘outside the box’!
As you review this website please understand that I am on a journey I refer to as TruthQuest. It is difficult to pursue truth and share it with others without stepping on someone’s toes. It is not my purpose or intent to hurt anyone, especially innocent, well intentioned people. If you are getting your toes stepped on please understand that I have been there too and have come to realize “it’s better to be stung with the truth than kissed with a lie”. What I’m saying is, I’ve been there, done that and bought the ‘t’ shirt. In my world as a truth seeker everything goes on the chopping block of truth and I cling to whatever is left when the chopping is done!
Through my personal experience with religious people and groups I have come to this conclusion...
"If you find a nugget of truth somewhere... steal it and run like a thief!"
Although in any association there may be a season of growth depending upon where you're at on the path of Faith, do not get caught up with a locked in association with anyone or anything! Including me! To do so will only limit your potential to discover new truth, the result being you become a Stunted Spiritual Dwarf! All of which is a perfect segue into a short piece I wrote which tries to paint this very picture, it's called...
The Swamp!
Between where we are and where we want to go... the Promised Land where Truth reigns... there is a swamp known as...
'The Swamp of Man-made Traditions'.
The Swamp of Man-made Traditions is littered with old water soaked logs. These logs, barely floating at the swamp's surface, represent man-made religion. One log might be a denomination, another log might be a religious movement, another log might be a charismatic preacher, another log might be a particular teaching or doctrine and so it goes, many logs all representing some facet of man-made religion.
As we attempt to navigate The Swamp of Man-made Traditions in order to reach the Promised Land we have to jump from one water soaked log to another. If we keep jumping we'll eventually cross The Swamp of Man-made Tradition and arrive at our destination where Absolute Truth reigns.
However... If on our journey across The Swamp we jump to one of the water soaked logs and stay put... we'll sink! They will assist us only as long as we keep moving, they cannot support us for very long. We must take whatever little nugget of Truth that might be there and then move on and usually the quicker the better.
We're not home yet... JUMP!!!
If I haven’t already scared you away I hope you will be blessed by the things I have to say on this website.
May we all be led by the Ruach HaKodesh! Amein!