ABOUT STEPHEN OTTO
ABOUT STEPHEN OTTO
Shalom,
My name is Stephen Otto. I was born and raised in New York City as a Catholic, but I became an agnostic later when I was about 20 years old. In 1978, I got married to Salina Polizzi, who was also raised Catholic. One day in 1984, I made a flippant comment to my wife that the Bible belonged in the fantasy section of the Barnes and Noble bookstore. She challenged me to prove for myself whether or not God exists. I eagerly accepted her challenge, which turned into a six-month study that included studying the doctrines of the Catholic Church and the various Protestant denominations. It also included those of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. When I completed my studies, I was forced to admit that God does indeed exist, but that many of the doctrines of the churches that I had studied are not actually taught in the Scriptures. In the end, my wife and I joined the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), a Sabbath-keeping church whose foundational doctrines were fundamentally sound. We attended services there for eight years, and we grew in both faith and knowledge.
In the meantime, my wife and I had our older daughter, Corey, in 1985 and our younger daughter, Tamara, in 1987. They are both married and have families of their own. Both daughters are faithful Believers, and I am very proud of them. They have both helped me with faith-based projects at various times.
In 1992, my wife and I discovered that the WCG had somewhat of a tarnished past, and we left it in disillusionment. I refer to this period of my spiritual walk as my “wilderness experience,” the time when I finally came to know God on a deeper, more personal level, as the children of Israel had experienced in the Sinai Desert after leaving Egypt. At this point in my life, I committed myself to studying and meditating on the Scriptures, and I believe that God responded by revealing many wonderful things to me (Prov. 25:2). Of course, in time I became compelled to share what I was learning so I launched a website named lettherebetruth.org in August of 2011.
At this point, my family and I started thinking about returning to a fellowship. We knew that after we left, the WCG had abandoned the faith and had become a Protestant denomination in 2009. So we visited one of their splinter groups, but after a few visits, we were not inspired to return to that church tradition. We wanted more!
In time, we discovered that many former WCG members had been inspired to join the Hebrew Roots Movement, a movement in which Believers study the Scriptures through a Hebraic perspective, through the Hebrew language, history, and culture. This movement was, and still is, a grass-roots movement that doesn't have local congregations. So, to fill the void, I created a Facebook group in May of 2013 named Hebrew Roots Restoration, to connect with former WCG members and other like-minded Believers who were inspired to take the faith to the next level. This platform proved to achieve better results than my website, which I discontinued in January 2016.
While my journey up to this point has been somewhat challenging, it has also been very fulfilling! God had a purpose for me, and He has prepared me for the task at hand. Now, I am excited to enter into the next chapter of my life with the launching of this website. Please join me in praying that God will continue to bless my efforts for the sake of His glory, His Kingdom, and the salvation of His people, remnant Israel, the Body of Messiah. Amen! Amen!
May YHVH bless you! Stephen Otto
My name is Stephen Otto. I was born and raised in New York City as a Catholic, but I became an agnostic later when I was about 20 years old. In 1978, I got married to Salina Polizzi, who was also raised Catholic. One day in 1984, I made a flippant comment to my wife that the Bible belonged in the fantasy section of the Barnes and Noble bookstore. She challenged me to prove for myself whether or not God exists. I eagerly accepted her challenge, which turned into a six-month study that included studying the doctrines of the Catholic Church and the various Protestant denominations. It also included those of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. When I completed my studies, I was forced to admit that God does indeed exist, but that many of the doctrines of the churches that I had studied are not actually taught in the Scriptures. In the end, my wife and I joined the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), a Sabbath-keeping church whose foundational doctrines were fundamentally sound. We attended services there for eight years, and we grew in both faith and knowledge.
In the meantime, my wife and I had our older daughter, Corey, in 1985 and our younger daughter, Tamara, in 1987. They are both married and have families of their own. Both daughters are faithful Believers, and I am very proud of them. They have both helped me with faith-based projects at various times.
In 1992, my wife and I discovered that the WCG had somewhat of a tarnished past, and we left it in disillusionment. I refer to this period of my spiritual walk as my “wilderness experience,” the time when I finally came to know God on a deeper, more personal level, as the children of Israel had experienced in the Sinai Desert after leaving Egypt. At this point in my life, I committed myself to studying and meditating on the Scriptures, and I believe that God responded by revealing many wonderful things to me (Prov. 25:2). Of course, in time I became compelled to share what I was learning so I launched a website named lettherebetruth.org in August of 2011.
At this point, my family and I started thinking about returning to a fellowship. We knew that after we left, the WCG had abandoned the faith and had become a Protestant denomination in 2009. So we visited one of their splinter groups, but after a few visits, we were not inspired to return to that church tradition. We wanted more!
In time, we discovered that many former WCG members had been inspired to join the Hebrew Roots Movement, a movement in which Believers study the Scriptures through a Hebraic perspective, through the Hebrew language, history, and culture. This movement was, and still is, a grass-roots movement that doesn't have local congregations. So, to fill the void, I created a Facebook group in May of 2013 named Hebrew Roots Restoration, to connect with former WCG members and other like-minded Believers who were inspired to take the faith to the next level. This platform proved to achieve better results than my website, which I discontinued in January 2016.
While my journey up to this point has been somewhat challenging, it has also been very fulfilling! God had a purpose for me, and He has prepared me for the task at hand. Now, I am excited to enter into the next chapter of my life with the launching of this website. Please join me in praying that God will continue to bless my efforts for the sake of His glory, His Kingdom, and the salvation of His people, remnant Israel, the Body of Messiah. Amen! Amen!
May YHVH bless you! Stephen Otto