MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY



TOM ROBERTS - MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

From the time I was a small boy, a consciousness about God was with me. As most children we ask our fathers “where did I come from?” To which my father replied, God made you and then his follow up question was, “Aren’t you glad he did?” Later, in discussions with my grandmother I questioned the reason I was born with handicaps. These questions created within me the belief that there must be partial answers to these questions.

At the age of four my relatives and I began to attend Highlands Community Church in Renton, Washington. Then, when I was nine, I accepted Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf with a formal declaration. Thus, began my after-school involvement in bible clubs and church activities. Then, during my night time listening to distant radio broadcasts, I began to hear in 1965 “The World Tomorrow” and the “Voice of Prophecy” and many other religious broadcasts. This sparked in me, once again, a curiosity about who represented God, if anyone, to the fullest extent possible.

In 1969, I began to read publications from the Watchtower Bible and Tract and the Plain Truth Magazine and made connections with the Latter-Day Saints. This interest was fostered by my relatives who resided in the state of Utah. I was very intrigued by and often sent letters to Sterling W. Sill. I still retain an autographed copy of his work, The Keys to the Kingdom. My relationship with the LDS Church grew with the Renton Second Ward congregation. Bishop Steven K. Rigley and Brother Clifford W. Wimmer and many others were a guiding force for good in my life during those difficult times for me. I still remember them fondly. I simply could build a spiritual and academic defense for the LDS Church at that time but loved the church and considered it a part of Christ’s Body of denominations. I always homesick even though my ministry and education would lead me to different denominations

After studying dispensational theology, I was not persuaded that their argument was sound in many theological areas; but I did learn valuable hermeneutical and spiritual lessons from all the traditions which I studied.

At this juncture, my parents thought I was going to be a religious guru rather than the professional singer and disc jockey that my education and talent represented.

On August 19th of 1974, my baptism took place under eldership of Harry Sleder who was a very loving pastor and took a great deal of interest in my development in the World Wide Church of God. I studied prophetic interpretations under Dr. Herman Hoeh, Old Testament Survey from David Jon Hill, M.A., and then under Bob Bertuzzi, Leadership Styles and other public speaking classes. During my tenure in evangelical and World Wide traditions, I was considered to possess pastoral and theological gifts for ministry. Robert Bertuzzi sent a fantastic referral on my behalf to Ambassador College for immediate entrance into their BA program due to the fact that my grades were 4.0 in their extension courses. During this time, Ambassador College cut its four-year degree temporarily back to a one-year certificate so I did not finish my BA with that institution. Eight years later, after the loss of my ministry and marriage, I was excommunicated from the World Wide Church of God for simply attending another denominational fellowship. This decision was later rescinded by Pastor Steve Schem.

Broken hearted and disillusioned, I began to visit other Sabbatarian groups where a friendship was rekindled with Charles V. Dorothy, PhD from Claremont Graduate School. Dr. Dorothy had just lost his marriage and ministry as well. So, we commiserated with one another in a very compassionate fashion. Dr. Dorothy instilled in me the belief that God has given me a scholarly mind and that somehow the both of us just had to keep moving Godward no matter what the cost. Under his mentorship, a new world of theological and spiritual thought began to emerge. Many of these ideas were suppressed by the cultic structure of which we had been a part in World Wide. Now, we were free at last to explore our spiritual pathways without a dictatorial ministry as an overseer.

At this juncture, Dr. Dorothy and I lectured together at the Association for Christian Development where we attempted to reorganize many of the ministries who had been disenfranchised from the World Wide Church of God. We had marginal success under the leadership of Kenneth Westby. These results would be short lived due to the fact that many of these former ministers opted out of ministry service and went into other professions.

At the tender age of 30, I began to resume course work which would lead to the completion of my Bachelor’s degree in 1990 under the professorship of Roy Blizzard, PhD, David Biven, PhD, Dwight Pryer, PhD, Brad Young, PhD and materials from William Le Seur, PhD at Fuller Theological Seminary. These credits were accepted at Triune University because of their scholarly nature relating to the Hebrew roots of Early Christianity.

The next step was to locate a progressive MDiv program in the state of Washington. It was my desire to attend, with Dr. Dorothy’s advice and recommendation, Northwest Theological Union. However, this fine scholarly institution with mainline emphasis and training in social justice through process theology would not stand the test of time and would close it doors at Seattle University in the 1990’s. My search led me to study master’s and doctoral courses at an American extension of Hellenic Orthodox University. They absorbed all of my credits from California Graduate School and other leading institutions. For my MDiv project before the completion of my thesis, was to preach four documented sermons and to perform pastoral counseling in the local congregation of North Hill Christian Fellowship. At this time, my ministry was being directed by Clarence Gruesbeck, DMin and Joe Battistone, PhD as I was delivering sermons as guest speaker in various congregations and as a lay pastor at Ballard Seventh Day Adventist Church. This period in my walk represented my ThM level of studies as well as wealth of interaction with various scholars within the SDA tradition and the Church of the East. Some of the courses I took were as follows: The Fall and Spiritual Ethics, by Jack Provonchia, M.A, M.D., PhD, The Targums of Daniel by William Shea, M.A., M.D. PhD, The Structure of the Book of Revelation, Desmond Ford, PhD, The Muslim Conquest of the East and Church of the East History by Joe Wherry, PhD, Targums in the Aramaic Text with The Lord’s Prayer, by John Wradenbery, ThD. Many other scholarly interactions took place with feminist scholars such as Dr. Patricia Whismore from Seattle University as well as Phyllis Tribble, PhD from Union Theological Seminary and Madelyn Jones Halderman, ThD from Berkley shared fantastic insights with me on the recent developments in feminist scholarship. These discussions occurred at the Greenlake SDA Church in Seattle, Washington. Other visiting scholars such as Doug Clark, PhD, Eldon Thompson, PhD discussed Old Testament. Dr. Blich was instrumental in my understanding of church history from a German standpoint. Lyle Jensen, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, lectured on and assisted me in the emerging issues of Intelligent Design. These are just a few of the many scholars who influenced my spiritual journey at that time.

Also, during this period, there was a great deal of personal centering, spiritual awakening and broadening in my perspectives. I began to read and admire the works of Avraham Gileadi, Hugh Nibley, Jack Welch, Victor and Daniel Ludlow, and many other LDS scholars. I would meet many of them at BYU and other professional symposiums in the coming years. I developed a personal friendship with Avraham Gileadi where we would converse and teach at professional venues. I would read the work of FARMS and cite this material and LDS scholars in my doctoral research.

In my personal life, as my spiritual paradigms would continue to broaden, so did my opportunities to minister to others. I met and married Barbara English in December,1997 after a six-month courtship. On that date, I was also officially ordained into the ministry of Jesus Christ. With Barbara’s interest in social justice and ministry in leading praise and worship, we continued to minister in various Hebrew roots congregations in the Puget Sound area over the next several years. I completed my PhD studies in August,2001 and my dissertation was published by Vantage Press in 2002. These interactions established the fact that many of these members were once associated with Christian bodies earlier in their lives. Once such individual was Toi Clark who remains a close friend with us to this day as she journeys in the integration of her process thinking with her need to find salvation in Jesus Christ.

At the end of January,2005, after facing bankruptcy and the loss of a 17 year job in Tacoma at Clover Park Technical Institute, we resettled in Weiser, Idaho to direct the ministry and the theology of the Church of God 7th Day General Council. During my tenure as ministry director, I wrote articles for ACTS Magazine, chaired our Systematic Theology Compendium Project, counseled ministers, gave ministry training seminars, performed memorial services and weddings, and gave seminars around the country about Mining the Text for All its Worth, Hebrew Worship –From Synagogue to Early Church, Marriage and Divorce and Remarriage, Torah Christ Salvation Story just to name a few. In addition, I wrote growth plans for the ministry including congregation involvement and started a radio broadcast with Gilford Monrose which takes the hard issues of maintaining faith in a contemporary world and attempts to bring the news to Christian radio that is not often heard from a progressive standpoint. This broadcast is heard twice weekly on The Spirit Station at 106.3 in Brooklyn, NY.

My decades of theological and spiritual journeying have led me to pitch a very broad tent regarding the process of moving Godward that every person of faith continues to experience. Even those who look at this as just a humanistic quest for human potential are part of this movement without always recognizing this fact. I served as an adjunct professor and later as Academic Dean at St Elias Orthodox Seminary where I have learned much about Eastern spirituality and early Gnostic movements under the direction of Edward Moore, PhD who is published in that field. I enhanced the faculty and academic degree policies and developed a ThD program consisting of 90 semester hours including dissertation, comprehensives and six modules with five languages in their disciplines of study.

In the summer of 2009, I received confirmation from the Orthodox Anglican Communion in Thomasville, North Carolina and was received as an Aspirant to Holy Orders under Archbishop Scott McLaughlin. Before being granted this honor, I was examined and given a psychological evaluation and declared suitable for priestly service. These findings were accepted later under the vetting process for Christ’s Catholic Church. However, later that same year, the bottom fell out of our personal economy and we were was not able to fly back to Thomasville on a regular basis to receive training. It was suggested that we become members of Christ’s Catholic Church where I received Holy Orders which were granted due to my 40 years of ministry service. Bishop Dave Pflueger conferred upon me Holy Orders in the Order of St John the Evangelist of Christ’s Catholic Church on July 23, 2011 held at St James Episcopal Church. During this period, coursework was taken in Anglican Identity and Centering Prayer. I also preached in the Episcopal Church and held lectionary studies and provided a worship seminar on liturgical practice. Since my ordination, I’ve spoken at Holy Synod on the Hebrews Roots of the Lord’s Eucharist, helped draft some new church canons, developed 68 podcasts for Free Catholic Radio and published articles in Convergent Streams. I have spoken at other denominational forums and academic associations.

My ministry at that time was occupied with writing academic position papers and meeting with scholars at symposiums at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University, preaching when needed and counseling parishioners when requested. In April of 2014, I was invited to be interviewed by Martin Tanner of Religion Today on KSL radio where I compared LDS and Orthodox theology on theosis.

Two years ago, I was accepted as a priest under the oversight of Primate Archbishop Karl Rodig, PhD of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ. I still retain my Holy Orders under the Order of St. John the Evangelist. Under the Archbishop, I produce a weekly broadcast Biblical Perspectives heard every Thursday for 30 minutes on WBCQ 7490 shortwave out of Montecello, Maine.

Dr. Alonzo Gaskill interviewed me as a representative of an Eastern Orthodox tradition for a world religion course taught at BYU in 2017. Later, while visiting my family in Utah for a memorial service in the LDS church, my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting with Elder Jeffrey Holland in June of this year. We had already been attending services at Weiser Third ward for several weeks.

Another great scholar whose work influenced me to defend LDS positions was Daniel C. Peterson who attended one of my lectures at the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology. Dr. Peterson’s apologetic went straight to my heart after listening to his lecture on the defense on the Book of Abraham in light of the new studies on Egyptian vocabulary.

At this juncture, Joseph Smith’s ministry is viewed by me as a visionary and mystic and as a prophet, seer and revelator.

So, after walking with Christ for 54 years. I now have the spiritual pathway clearly established to join the LDS Church in good conscience. My baptism a dramatic and extremely emotional event. I’m looking forward to Temple work and to help bring our local ward educational opportunities. Spiritually, it feels wonderful to home again as a full member in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I look forward with great anticipation to the work that lies ahead with BYU’s Commentary series as well as finishing my PhD at EUCLID University in the area of exaltation in Apocryphal literature. Next month, I’ll be giving a fireside presentation for the members of Mutual.

My wife, Barbara, and I truly love the members in our ward and wish to serve those who need ministry revitalization. This has truly been a long and arduous journey but well worth the effort that goes with serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

Respectfully submitted in Christ’s service,

Tom Roberts, BTh, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DD

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