Herbert W Armstrong

Ambassador College   Church of God


Ambassador College (1947-1997) was a four-year, liberal arts college run by the Worldwide Church of God. The college was established in 1947 in Pasadena, California by Herbert W. Armstrong, what was then the Radio Church of God, later renamed the Worldwide Church of God. In 1960 a second campus was opened at Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, England, and in 1964 a third campus was opened in Big Sandy, Texas, Ambassador operated for 50 years.

   You asked for information about the development of the races, especially the black race. We want to publish a complete and up-to-date article on this subject soon. In the meantime, we hope this will give you the information for which you have asked.
   The black race is composed of some of the descendants of Noah's son Ham. Part of the black race stems from Cush (Gen. 10:6). Cush means black in Hebrew (Young's Concordance). The word "Cush" is often translated into English by the word "Ethiopia," but not all Cushites live in Ethiopia (an independent nation in East Africa). The Greeks called the children of Cush "Ethiopians." That's why we use the word in English.
   Cush first settled around ancient Babylon (Genesis 10:8-10). The children of Cush were the original Babylonians, not the Chaldeans who are in Southern Europe today. From Babylon, Cush spread far and wide. Most of the black children of Cush migrated across central Arabia and around the southern coast of Arabia to East Africa. The Egyptians called East Africa, south of Syene, "Kôsh." The Chaldeans and the Assyrians called it "Kûshu." (See Inter. Stand. Bible Ency., articles "Cush," and "Ethiopia.") Cush also had sons who went east into Asia rather than Africa. Here is what Herodotus wrote:
   "The Ethiopians from the sun-rise (for [there are] two kinds)... were marshalled with the Indians, and did not at all differ from [them] in appearance but only in their language, and their hair. For the eastern Ethiopians are straight-haired; but those of (Africa) have hair more curly than that of any other people. These Ethiopians from Asia were accounted (almost the same as the Indians [of India])" (Polymnia, sec. 20).
   The Brown people of South India and Ceylon are the descendants of Cush! Historians call them Dravidians today. The ancients called them SIBAE (Smith's Classical Dict.). Their Bible name was Seba (Genesis 10:7). Josephus, the Jewish historian, recognized an eastern and a western Cush — one in Asia, the other in Africa (Antiquities, VI, 2). Herodotus calls them "Asiatic Ethiopians" (Thalia, sec. 94). The word translated "Ethiopia," in Ezekiel 38:5, should be properly translated "Cush." It refers primarily to the Asiatic Cush, India today.
   Ham had another son, Phut or Put-it is spelled both ways in the Bible. Here is what Josephus writes about the people of Phut.
   "Phut also was the founder of Libya (by which he means Africa), and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself: there is also a river in the country of the Moors which bears that name; whence it is that... the Grecian historiographers mention [Africa] by the appellation of Phut" (See Antiquities, VI, 2).
   Put, or Phut, then, is the father of the central Africans. The Egyptians called the region of the Sudan (which was south of Egypt) by the name of Pet. The Babylonians and Persians called a similar region "Putu" (from Smith's Bible Dictionary and Inter. Stand. Bible Ency.).
   Numerous sons of Put early settled into the western region of Mesopotamia, a few hundred miles from ancient Babylon. This is the original center of Hindi, the language of northern and central India (Ency. of World History, by Langer, p. 28).
   The people who were settled in this region were uprooted by the Assyrians and driven east into India. In India the highest castes were not only called Brahmins, but also Rajputs. The word "Rajput" means "king or chief of Put; (Ency. Brit. art., "Raja"). The Indians of Central and North India — being slightly mixed with white stock — vary from light to dark brown.
   The Rajputs are the most noted warriors of India. The word "Phut" or "Put" means a warrior in Hebrew. The word Phut is not properly translated "Libya" in Ezekiel 38:5. It should be translated Put or Phut, as given in the margin. The people of Phut are those of India.
   Of the four sons of Ham, only Cush bears a name which means "black." Just as some of the sons of Cush are brown so some of the children of Phut are black.
   But this is not all of the story. What is the origin of all the black people of the Isles of Southeast Asia and Australia? How is it that there are Negroid pygmies in Asia and Africa?

Negroes in the Pacific!