Herbert W Armstrong

   Is it possible that all churches and religion in the United States could be banished or regulated by the federal government as it was in the Soviet Union? A Wall Street lawyer says in a national magazine that we could lose all religious freedom if the present government course continues. In that article, this lawyer is quoted as saying, "Increasing attempts to regulate churches are in violation of the Constitution."

   Now, such an attempt was made on January 3rd, 1979, against the Worldwide Church of God, which sponsors this program. We had to fight the battle to preserve the Constitution of the United States, separating church and state.

   Therefore, the Ambassador Foundation, one of the corporate entities of the Worldwide Church of God, contributed to the establishment of a professorship in constitutional law at the very prestigious University of Southern California Law School.

   Now, the University of Southern California, or USC as it ordinarily is designated, is one of America's foremost universities in many areas of sports, such as football. Many baseball players in the big leagues are USC graduates who got their baseball training at the University of Southern California. Also,they won many track meets, many United States track meets. They have been very prominent in many areas. But of all, there is nothing more prestigious than their very famous law school, one of the most prestigious law schools in the United States. Now, on March 31st at USC, a special ceremony was held to establish that professorship.

   Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the USC campus for what is a truly memorable day in the history of our university and our law center. The establishment of professorships, such as we are marking today, is among the most important events that occur in the life of a university. It marks the creation of an endowment that will go on in perpetuity to support teaching and scholarly publication at the university. These endowments that we mark today are more permanent than any of the buildings that will ever be built on this campus. And they're more important. They mark a tangible commitment to support the values for which a university really exists. We are delighted that you could be with us today to mark this occasion.

   Two special introductions that I'd like to make. First of all, we are delighted to have back on campus our continuing colleague, although not on a full-time basis. And my predecessor who was Dean of the Law School when our two honorees today were recruited to the faculty, the Honorable Dorothy Nelson, Dorothy. And we're also pleased to have with us a good friend of the Law Center, our colleague and long-time helper in our endowment efforts. Good friend, Vice President Carl Franklin, Carl. The president of our university, is a distinguished scientist and an experienced academic leader. It's an honor to have him with us today to mark the establishment of these two professorships. And I am pleased indeed to introduce the president of the University of Southern California, Dr. James H. Zberg.

   Dean by Judge Nelson, distinguished guest, honorees, university ceremonies held to establish formally endowed professorships and to install their holders celebrate and honor the accomplishments of three different groups. The gracious and generous benefactors who provide the endowment for the professorships, the persons for whom the professorships are named, and the renowned enabled scholars who are to be installed as the holders of the professorships. We, therefore, meet to honor three groups of people who are most significant in the life of our university and its distinguished law center.

   It is my privilege and honor to speak about the first two groups: the benefactors and the persons for whom the chairs are named. Their commitment to the future of private university Legal Education has made this day possible.

   Your program notes tell you a great deal about each of today's benefactors and honoree. I only wish to add a word or two. The university became acquainted with Leon Benwell when a university administrator asked our Vice President for Legal Affairs if we could invest some time and resources in an effort to assist an alumnus in distress.

   USC has long maintained a close relationship with its alumni, and we were pleased to do what we could to put this person in touch with those who might assist him further. The assistance included such things as working with our attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the government prosecutors in reclaiming what was rightfully Mr. Benwell's. Through this association, we learned of Leon Benwell's strong belief that legal service and education should be affordable to all and of the commitment of the Benwell Foundation to these ideals.

   Happily, we were able to recover Mr. Benwell's property, and because of his university's concern over his plight and its part in resolving his difficulties, Mr. Benwell became a generous supporter of our programs, and through his will, he funded the professorship we established today. Leon Benwell cannot be with us. His bequest is a permanent testimonial to the values of educational opportunity and excellence he espoused.

   People throughout the nation, indeed, throughout the entire world are familiar with the ministry and accomplishments of Herbert W. Armstrong, a dynamic religious leader whose voice and countenance are recognizable to millions around the world. Mr. Armstrong is well known to many as an official Ambassador of World Peace. He has met privately with such leaders as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hasni Mubarak of Egypt, King Hussein of Jordan, and the King of Thailand, all in an effort to further world peace and religious liberty.

   Mr. Armstrong has long admired the commitment to religious liberty evidenced by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and he has been an outspoken defender of constitutional liberty. Thus, when the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation agreed to fund a professorship in Mr. Armstrong's honor, it was Mr. Armstrong's personal wish that the professorship be in constitutional law.

   The success of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, like that of the Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College, reflects the enormous energy and dedication of its founder, Herbert W. Armstrong. It also reflects the dedication and generosity of tens of thousands of contributors worldwide, persons inspired by Mr. Armstrong's message. Thus, Mr. Armstrong is both benefactor and honoree, for he has inspired both gift and givers.

   We're delighted that Mr. Armstrong could be with us today to mark this significant event in the history of our university. He has graciously consented to say a few words to us, and so I am now honored and pleased to introduce the Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong.

   Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen, you might wonder what I, a Minister of Jesus Christ, would have to do with constitutional law and something of this sort. Last night I viewed a movie on television about a Philadelphia lawyer. Perhaps some of you might have seen it. And I was interested in that because when I was a little boy, five years old, my father told me that when I grew up, I would become a Philadelphia lawyer. I asked him so many crazy questions. He got so tired of answering why and how and all of the questions I wanted to know because I wanted to understand that he said I would certainly become a Philadelphia lawyer when I grew up.

   Well, now, in a way, you might not understand, his prophecy was really fulfilled. In 1926, I was challenged on a point of constitutional law. And at that time, I found a great deal about constitutional law in a book that I don't know whether you'll find it in very many law libraries. It's a book called the Holy Bible, but I found a lot about constitutional law in it. In fact, I found that constitutional law was the subject of that book from beginning to end. And it's quite a large book.

   We live in a world today. I was introduced as being called a, an ambassador with our portfolio because I represent no nation in this regard, but an ambassador for World peace. And that's true, I do work for world peace. But I found that we live in a very peculiar type of world, a world with a very peculiar paradox. It's a world of absolutely awesome progress and accomplishment. And at the same time, a world of appalling evils and troubles that seem unsolvable: violence, destruction, everything harmful and wrong.

   It's a world in which people are not getting along with people. And that's why we have constitutional law. That's what our courts and our lawyers are concerned about, constantly adjusting disputes among people. Now, I happen to know all of the members of the World Court of International Justice at the Hague, and I've spoken to them, trying to straighten out difficulties between nations.

   The unfortunate thing is that that court cannot compel any disputes between nations to be brought before it. And even if disputes are voluntarily brought before it, it has no teeth, it cannot enforce its decisions. However, they have told me that what problems have been brought before them have been followed by the nations concerned, and that at least is encouraging.

   But why do we find these troubles in the world? It all started at the beginning of the world, the foundation of this world as recorded in this book, which is not highly regarded by higher education in this world. Unfortunately, and that records in the incident of the forbidden fruit at the very beginning at the foundation of this world that our first parents took to themselves a matter of constitutional law, the knowledge of good and evil. Now, good and evil is a type of knowledge that is not concerned with the building of airplanes or sending men to the moon and back or producing computers or the things of modern science. It is concerned with relationships between people and relationships between people and their maker.

   But the first parents took to themselves the knowledge of good and evil, of deciding what is right and what is wrong. And incidentally, people just didn't agree on what is right and what is wrong, what one thinks is right, another thinks is wrong, and the self-motive entered in, and people began to think selfishly. And so, a civilization has been built and based on attitudes of competition.

   Now, the basic book of constitutional law states that the basis of all law is just a simple word: love, love. I like to translate that as it is put into practice in the world today, and to the word get, and the opposite is the word give. That is, love is the word give, and get is the opposite in the transgression of that law.

   Now, that is a law, and incidentally, a law is merely the rules of how you perform. You might say that the rules of a game, a basketball game or a football game, are merely the law of the game because the law defines conduct.

   And so, man has formed his own ideas about the way of life and how he conducts himself with his neighbor, how groups conduct themselves with other groups, how nations conduct themselves with other nations. It's a competitive society, not one of cooperation and love. Human nature entered into it. And of course, we are not going to have peace. I may be an ambassador for world peace. I do what I can, but we're not going to have peace in the world.

   There's no need of kidding ourselves until human nature has changed and until the spirit and attitude of love, instead of hate and competition of cooperation and give instead of get and competition and strife and self-motive. And so, it has come along in our time, and now we're having great difficulty in solving human problems.

   Students are taught here to act as either defenders or prosecutors in cases of misconduct or of disputes among people and to become judges in courts. And of course, in this particular department that we're concerned about here this afternoon, of constitutional law, but all human rights are based on the law that I found in this book, The Holy Bible.

   And I wonder if people realize that the law of love, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' there's so little of that in this world. Now, in that book, The Holy Bible, in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the last book in it, the Book of Revelation, sometimes called the Apocalypse in Catholic circles, is a prophecy by Jesus Christ himself of the future of the church and its seven epochs or eras, seven periods of time. We are now in the Philadelphia era.

   And so, it came that I found sin is the transgression of the law. That's the definition of sin. Jesus Christ came to die for people's sins, and sin is the transgression of the law. And it all has something to do with law, which is a way of life. I came to be the leader in the Philadelphia era of that church. And so, here I am among lawyers and in a university with such a great reputation and its law school, as a Philadelphia lawyer. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

   Thank you very much, Mr. Armstrong. I know I speak for my colleagues in the legal profession when I say that we're glad you took other pursuits because your competition in our business would have been too hard for any of us to handle. You honor us by being here today, sir. And we thank you.

   You know, I talk to many heads of state all over the world, and I talk to them about world conditions right now. The world's number one problem is that of survival because the weapons of mass destruction exist that can erase all humanity from the face of the earth for the first time in world history. And that has only been true since World War II, in just recent years, it never had happened before.

   And yet, world peace is coming. I talk with the heads of government; we talk about world peace, and they are all facing problems they're totally unable to cope with. They don't know how world peace will come. And yet, many world-famous scientists have said that the only hope for world peace would be one great world nation with one military force only, that could bring us world peace.

   But would it, in the hands of men, it's impossible in the first place. And would it even bring us peace if we had it? I have a book that I would like to have you read on that line, and that is "World Peace, How It Will Come." And you know, we're going to have world peace. World peace is coming, but it isn't coming the way people think. I'd like to send you a copy of this booklet. No charge, just gratis. It's free. We have nothing to sell. But we would like to help to world peace, and we'd like to help inform you the way world peace is going to come. That's part of our work. It's our contribution to the good of humanity.

   Now, there's no charge. There's not going to be any, any request for money whatsoever. Write in for this booklet, this very special booklet. It's brief, you can read it in one sitting, but it's very, very important, and you've never heard anything like it. "World Peace How It Will Come?". You need to know about it.

   Now, at the same time, if you're not already a subscriber, I'd like to send you without any subscription price. No cost whatsoever. A year's subscription to one of the world's great mass circulation magazines. "The Plain Truth". It's a magazine of Understanding. It's a magazine that discusses world conditions, the conditions in the world that are taking place. World news gives you the meaning of world news. What lies ahead? What do the present events portend? What do they really mean? It discusses everything of that kind that we're interested in, in human living in the right way of living.

   Now, here is a recent issue with the picture of Helmut Kohl on the front cover. Inside is the lead article, "Germany's Future Europe's Fate", considering Europe's fate and Germany's future, they are tied together. Then there's an article on "Seeing The World Through Islamic Eyes". How do the people in the Arab world view the rest of the world and world conditions? There's quite an article you need to know on that part of the world, you need to know more about it, then "How To Set The World Aright" is another article.

   This magazine, The Plain Truth, is just loaded with things about world conditions, about the right way of living to make living happy, more peaceful, more joyful. Now, here's one, "The Church Struggles For Survival, The History of Europe and the Church". "How To Rear Happy Children". You need an article like that. Children are not being properly reared today. There is no evil in the world greater than the way children are being reared today. And you, you need that article. It's certainly nothing more important, and then "The New Poor, You Can Avoid Joining Them!", the new poor in the world.

   Well, The Plain Truth is just loaded with articles on human life, human conditions. It's a magazine of understanding. Here's another, "What's Your Source of Protection as Millions Arm Themselves?" What is your source of protection? Well, you need The Plain Truth. Now, if you're not already a subscriber, and over 5.5 million are, I'd be happy to send you a year's subscription and there is no subscription price. The Plain Truth is a very unique and unusual magazine. It contains no advertising, and there's no subscription price. You don't have enough money to pay for it. We don't sell it, and we don't ask you for money. You're not going to be requested for any.

   But I would like to send you that, and I would like to send you this booklet, "World Peace How It Will Come?"

   Send your request to me, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California. That's all the address you need. Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123 or better yet, save the time of writing and just go to the telephone and here's a free call, no charge. A free call. You dial 800-423-4444. You can remember the four fours. That's area code 800-423-4444. That's a free call. Now, if you live in California, Alaska or Hawaii, however, you call another number, collect call, collect you dial area code 213-304-6111. That's area code 213-304-6111. And if the lines are busy, please try again. And so, until next time this is Herbert W Armstrong. Goodbye friends.

   For the free literature offered on this program, write Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California. 91123 in Canada Box 44, Vancouver BC or in the continental United States. You may call this toll-free number 800-423-4444 in California, Alaska and Hawaii call collect 213-304-6111. If the lines are busy, please try again. The preceding program and all literature were produced and sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God.