Pastor's Profile
Robert J. Elliott was born and raised in Northern Ireland. In December of 1966, he first heard Herbert W. Armstrong's World Tomorrow program on Radio Luxembourg. He continued listening to Herbert W. Armstrong on the radio and receiving the Plain Truth. He attended Ambassador College, Bricket Wood, England, graduating in 1972.As a Worldwide Church of God ministerial trainee, he was sent to Toronto, Canada. Then as an ordained minister in the Church of God, Mr. Elliott pastored the Peterborough, Ontario Church for seven and a half years. From there he was transferred back to the Worldwide Church of God congregation in Toronto for three years, followed by two more years in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
During this twelve and a half year period, Mr. Elliott pioneered more effective ways to distribute the Plain Truth magazine throughout Canada. This resulted in a request from Worldwide Church of God administration that he come to headquarters to rejuvenate the newsstand distribution of the Plain Truth across the United States.
Mr. Elliott developed the Plain Truth “blitz” newsstand program in 1986, which concentrated tens of thousands of Plain Truths in a small number of major cities for a six month period, before rotating them to another group of cities for another six months. The impact was significant in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and a host of other U.S. cities.
The Tkach administration canceled the program in 1988, and Mr. Elliott served in the Imperial AM congregation in Pasadena for two years, at which point he was transferred to pastor the Worldwide Church of God congregation in Orlando, Florida.
By this time the chaos in the Worldwide Church of God was clearly evident. Pastors were being induced to allow those who openly broke God's laws to remain in the congregations. Since Mr. Elliott was not one to accept the new state of affairs or doctrines being imposed on the Church of God by the Tkach administration, he was transferred to Big Sandy, Texas, where he was fired in early 1995.
After returning to Orlando, where his wife and children still resided, he was disfellowshipped for not espousing the false doctrines of worldly “Christianity.”
This was just prior to Passover 1995. At this point Mr. Elliott was approached by some twenty Church members who did not want to take the Passover under the direction of ministers who either accepted or taught the so-called new doctrines. They regarded Mr. Elliott as a minister who was holding fast to the truths God had inspired Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong to understand; doctrines which the Worldwide Church of God had followed for half a century.
These Church members asked Mr. Elliott to lead them in taking the Passover and to be their pastor, which he agreed to do. At the same time Mr. and Mrs. Elliott decided to start a housecleaning business to provide for themselves and to help their two daughters through college. The Elliotts had already resolved it was not necessary to join any of the breakaway groups from the Worldwide Church of God, since both of them had been baptized into the true Church (a spiritual entity) many years before.
Mr. Elliott and his wife, Micki, had also noticed that numerous ministers in these newly formed groups had, while still in the Worldwide Church of God, taught “the nature of God,” “born again while still physical,” and “the trinity.” Few if any have ever stood up before their new congregations and apologized.
Mr. Elliott continues to hold fast the truths taught by Herbert W. Armstrong during the Philadelphia Era. As God's minister he recognizes his responsibility to help prepare the Bride of Christ for His return during this Laodicean Era we have been in since 1986.
God's Church, Worldwide