A Few Thoughts From Van Robison
In four months I will be 71 years of age. In my short life span I have come to believe that human leaders of men, have no more comprehension of what the truth about God is, than a jackrabbit. After many years of church attendance, which not only included 12-years at Ambassador College in Pasadena, but also charismatic, pentecostal, Baptist and other groups, I have to conclude that all churches are man-made institutions. Churches are very divided as to what "truth" is and every group sees "truth" from a different perspective. Anyone whose shallow and extremely narrow religious experience, only includes the Worldwide Church of God or any one of its many splinter groups, has very limited thinking and perspective. The same of course applies to all Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and all other groups, where the church goer has never spent years attending other groups.
It is a shame that so many people limit themselves, probably because of FEAR, more than any other reason. How often I have read of personal accounts of various church goers, who lived in fear and only with great struggle were able to be set free from years of some church cult. There is no greater feeling of freedom, than to be free from the indoctrination of church cults. While being sincere is a good quality, at the same time sincerity is no guarantee of truth.
Like many others, I too have struggled with my own thinking and I don't pretend to have all the answers. All I have are my own personal convictions based upon all my own experiences in life. For whatever reason it would seem that God is not the Person that the church world thinks He is. God has not intervened and stopped all the insane and diabolical wars, nor has He intervened and stopped all the sicknesses, diseases, accidents, trauma and horrors that human beings experience in life on earth.
God has never stopped the religious fraud in His name, nor the endless parade of propaganda that inundates the world. God has not taken down the wolves in sheep's clothing who stand in pulpits and pretend to speak for God. God has never put a stop to all the confusion in the world of religious beliefs. God has not even answered prayer for many who died or suffered in spite of zealous and very emotional prayer. Why??? No human answer ever satisfies the deep down desire to know the reason for the agonies of life.
Human suffering is the ultimate question and no one really understands why it is or must be. It is easy to understand why many turn to atheism and the church world is in part responsible for causing many to turn away from belief in God, all the while the supposed purpose of church, is to turn people to God. Human beings are creatures of habit and it is a habit to "go to church" and to stop thinking. Church goers don't think because the whole concept of church going, is that the pastors of the churches do the thinking, while the church goers simply nod approval.
I am sure that I will continue to question as long as I live and I have learned from life, that to trust pastors, preachers or church rulers with "truth" is a major and serious mistake. Nor do I believe that God/Jesus Christ expected human being to blindly submit to religious rulers of men, as if they speak for God. And that is also why I question the validity of the Bible itself, because after all it was compiled by men, edited endless times, "translated" from other languages, interpreted by human reasoning, and made to appear as if God authored it.
Perhaps some day and it most likely will not be in this life time, we may know the truth, which seems to be very flexible in the human realm.
Van Robison
7 comments:
Christianity never promises that one is going to have a "Charmed Life".
In fact, it predicts a life that is tougher and must rely on deferred gratification for a different future world.
Health, Wealth gospel is a false gospel.
It appears to be self evident that God plays hands off for the most part, and is quite libertarian in his nature when it comes to us making our own decisions and determining our own carnal destinies.
This does not bother my own faith in the least.
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
(Write In Candidate for UCG President)
The sooner that people get away from the idea of the "Pastor God', or "Religious Shaman" the better.
Your minister in ANY church is just a human. He does not have a special direct line to God than you do, and has at his disposal the same basic books , knowledge and resources as you do as well.
I have seen in my life just how unremarkable most people are. I have had chance to have associated with actors, politicians, and top corporate business people. I have had the opportunity to be around many of the top names in the COG, both in the past and currently.
Much of success is time and chance. Much of success and position/status is from politicking. There is something to be said to risk taking and to hard work as well, but those things in life are often NOT rewarded in many cases. This has no bearing on the quality of the individual.
A lot of the game in life is to PROJECT that you are above being human. To do this successfully and for long periods of time, you have to actually believe your own spiel. Again, this applies to all arenas of life.
The key is to convince the audience that they DO NOT have these special outer earthly skills. This helps create dependence. Amazingly to me is the amount of people who just accept this, and self delegate themself to "the lower class" in all types of human hierarchy.
Here is the "Plain Truth". You are smarter than you think, more capable than you think, and can master ANYTHING with about 15 minutes a day of practice or dedication over a 5 to 7 year period of time.
Stop looking for GURUS. They are only using you for fun and profit.
Start developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of worship, and he alone is the fountain of knowledge. Cut out the middlemen in your life, they are too expensive and they are not that helpful.
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
(Write In Candidate for UCG President)
Well said Van
Amen to that Joe Moeller. Never allow another person stand between you and God.
"Start developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ...cut out the middlemen..."
Middlemen, schmiddlemen. After 20 years as a baptized member first in WCG, then in splinter groups, I came to realize that one cannot develop a relationship with an imaginary friend that isn't interested in talking back. The whole idea is juvenile and silly to me now.
"My religion is to seek for truth in life and for life in truth, even knowing that I shall not find them while I live." Unamuno
another seekeroftruth
I believe my thoughts should be added in this thread
The symbolism of the God of Christianity
The Father (and the mother) is the origin and source of life. This is true of the human family tree. Even though the mother is the one who brings the children into existence it can’t happen without the father.
The Son is the continuing factor in the reproduction of human life. Even though there may be other sons the continuation of one family line must go back to this one Son even after the death of the Son. To trace and include all of humanity back to the one source (the Father) there needs to be a spiritual connection. This spiritual connection is the resurrected Son.
The Holy Spirit is a spirit of benevolent goodness that is the active agent of the Father and the Son. It determines Good and Bad (evil) action regarding the perpetuation of life. This spiritual empowerment is promised to those who sincerely commit to themselves to the perpetuation of good (in thought and action) and the elimination of thought and action that contributes to human degradation and corruption.
True religion is supernatural at its beginning, supernatural in its continuance, and supernatural in its close. It is the work of God from first to last. If you expect a personal relationship with supernatural being you will need to accept its existence and recognize that our puny little brain is limited in what it can know about life and its purpose.
A key issue is “Him who justifies the ungodly”. There is a lot of confusion regarding salvation by grace through faith. Faith is the conduit that connects us to God. Without faith there is no connection. It not a faith in salvation, but a faith in the grace of God and Jesus Christ in taking away the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and the presence of sin in justifying the ungodly.
It is getting bogged down in all the details dealing with everyday life that casts the shadows of doubt. It is good to remember that this life is temporary and even at its best it will not fulfill the nagging desires that humanity must live with.
A. Boocher
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