A Few Thoughts From Van Robison

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

Rod Meredith: The Cumulative Old Ages Of Our Ministers Makes Us Better Suitable To Run The True Church Than Snot-nosed Upstarts Like Thiel and Pack

Does the fact that you have a group of old men at the top of your hierarchy who trained at the feet of Herbert Armstrong make you a legitimate true church?  Rod Meredith thinks it does when it comes to the men in charge at his problem wracked group. 

Having old men in charge, without bringing in new blood with new ideas and ways of looking at things and then doing it differently, is bad business practice.  That is what the COG's are, businesses.  Its all about money.  The members have heard the same doctrines for decades.  They have heard the same shouting and bellowing from the pulpit.  Nothing new is discussed.  Nothing revitalized is brought forth.  21st century ideas and research are not used.  It's just the view points of old men rehashing the worn out words from the 1960's, 70's and 80's.  None have been to a seminary outside of Armstrongism.  None have dared to critically look at the book the claim to follow.  None have dared to question the teachings of their idol they bow down to.

In an effort to stop defections to Dave Pack's cult and to non-ordained self-appointed prophet Thiel's cult, they toss out the fact that they have so many old men in charge.  You are supposed to be impressed by these guys because the snort-nosed upstarts like Dave Pack and Thiel have never trained with HWA.

In the Living Church of God, we are doing all we can to strengthen our brethren, and help them understand “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Frankly, we are far better equipped to do this because most of the older ministers and those who worked directly with Mr. Herbert Armstrong came with us near the beginning of this Work! Men like Messrs. Dibar Apartian, Raymond McNair, Syd Hegvold, Carl McNair, Richard Ames—and others—were older, experienced ministers who worked with Mr. Armstrong or, as in Mr. Ames’ case, were even placed on the World Tomorrow telecast directly by Mr. Armstrong. We have had, collectively, thousands of hours of experience in meetings with Mr. Armstrong and the other leaders in God’s Work over a period of decades. We knew Mr. Armstrong, and we knew what he wanted for the Work. We deeply respect what Christ did through Mr. Armstrong and do not in any way intend to change—and will not change—any of the basic truths Christ revealed through him, such as the Sabbath, Holy Days, etc. Sadly, there are some former Worldwide members and ministers who, in order to advance their own particular agendas, have tried to portray a “different” Mr. Armstrong than the real one.

Sitting for thousands of hours in meetings does not make one a leader.  Worshiping the words of HWA does not make you a leader either.

We are grateful to have had a Council that has included a significant number of men who directly knew better than these self-appointed critics!

 Take that you snot-nosed buffoons at Continuing Church of God and Restored Church of God!