Some Experiences of a Noachide

Why I left my former religion

by Art, your NoachideInfo.org gardener

There were always doubts. From time to time, I would read more of the text of the religion of my youth, and the questions remained unanswered. When it seemed that reading mistranslations of the Tanach (The Bible) from my former religion might reveal answers, relatives and friends would repeatedly urge and emphasize more reading of selected parts of the canon--the "new covenant"--of their religion. Such urging and emphasis only increased the doubts. Arguments to mend contradictions were described in "spiritual," often promiscuously metaphorical terms. I was looking for a more solid system of beliefs.

My former religion changes. During my childhood, we prayed to G-d. During my early teen years, some people in the church said that we should be praying "in the name" of another. Now, people in that religion often pray only to the other. Again, there are conflicts between that religion and its mistranslations of the Bible. The "new" canon is emphasized more than before and is almost always used in arguments against Judaism. The question has often occurred, "Why keep the 'Old' at all?" The reply is almost invariably that the "Old" contains "types," "shadows" and prophecies about the "new" (with citations to scriptures that are taken out of context).

Since early 2004, public religious identity sentiments against Jewish people and against Israel have been more frequently expressed and popularized by celebrities and organizations in the USA. Even my foreign thinking and poor understandings from readings of the mistranslations of the Prophets, along with the recently more often published and broadcast sentiments, added to the urgency for a new study of the history of my past religion. The religion was put together by men--men who sought to replace Judaism with their religion and to replace Jews with their people.

The decision to ask for authoritative guidance in a study of Judaism was the next spiritual and logical step. A very short time after the beginning of my study, an online Jewish acquaintance asked me about prayer, something like, "Does G-d ever answer you?" I replied to the effect, "No, but HaShem (B"H) might sometimes be directing me." As this account of my experiences is being written, the soothing wind is blowing through the trees outside. I'm thankful for receiving no more than a Noachide follower can survive and for the generosity and courage of those who teach.

Before writing this piece, I titled it, "Some Experiences of a Noachide Chassid." But dictionaries yielded definitions of the word, Chassid: "pious" or "righteous." Embarrassment is instructive and gentle.

[The words above are from my own experiences and are not intended to be instructive about Judaism. I'm not Jewish and am only a very uneducated follower.]

We will soon be welcoming accounts of experiences of other Noachides who've left their former religions to learn about how Judaism pertains to them.