Herbert W Armstrong

Herbert W Armstrong   Church of God

Born: July 31, 1892
Died: January 16, 1986
Member Since: 1928
Ordained: 1931
Office: Apostle

Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1930s, as well as Ambassador College in 1946, and was an early pioneer of radio and tele-evangelism, originally taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon.

   may be leading at last to workable formula for world peace!
   I have recently returned to the United States from private conferences with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt.
   In a televised private conference at the Giza Residential Palace in Cairo, President Sadat revealed to me his plans for a World Peace Center at the base of Mt. Sinai.
   Actually there was an eruption from Mt. Sinai some 3,500 years ago. That eruption was a practical, workable formula for world peace. It went unheeded then. The world has ignored it since. Now, before man-created weapons of mass destruction erase all human life from the earth, that solution may preserve mankind alive.
   The Egyptian president showed me architects' renderings of his proposed $70 million World Peace Center to be constructed at the base of Mt. Sinai. He invited my participation in the project.
   It is a practical, workable concept for world peace at total variance from the altruistic, unworkable plans the nations have been trying — the Kellogg Peace Treaty, the League of Nations, the United Nations and the World Court of International Justice.
   These experiments in impractical idealism, seeking peace while the nations pursue the CAUSE that produces war, have led to dismal failure.
   There is an underlying basic CAUSE of all the world's ills — its unsolvable problems, evils and wars! And that CAUSE is a WAY OF LIFE!
   I repeat again and again, there are two foundational ways or philosophies of life, broadly speaking. They travel in diametrically opposite directions. I call one the way of "GIVE," the other the way of "GET." I use the word "GIVE" to designate out-flowing love — concern for the good and welfare of others equal to self-concern — the way of cooperation, helping, serving, giving, sharing. It is practical!
   But the world has lived by the incentive of "GET" — self-centeredness, vanity, covetousness, envy and jealousy, hostile competition leading to strife, violence and war. This "GET" urge of human nature is impractical — the evil spiritual attitude that has caused every discontent, unhappiness, pain and anguish resulting from this world's myriad evils!
   Our problems and troubles are spiritual in nature, but our minds, incentives and concepts are physical and material. Sure we can send men to the moon and back — we can explore Saturn and Jupiter at fairly close range, and receive photographs of the Martian surface from unmanned spacecraft — we can produce computers and the most intricate mechanical aids. BUT WE CAN'T SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS or eliminate our evils!
   What "exploded" from Mt. Sinai some 3,500 years ago was a practical, workable WORLD PEACE formula. It was delivered on tablets of stone by Him whom the three nations represented at the Camp David talks regard as their Creator and their God (Allah in Arabic). It was presented to mankind through Moses, whom the major religions of all three nations regard as a prophet. It was the Ten Commandments, the first four of which convey the four broad principals of love out-flowing toward our Maker, the last six the principles of love toward human neighbor. In other words, the life-philosophy of "GIVE" instead of "GET."
   But mankind has chosen and been actuated by the "GET" incentive! Result? Amid material advancement phenomenal and awesome, we have suffered spiritual regression. Man has wreaked on his world illiteracy, abject poverty, millions living in filth and squalor, thousands dying of starvation. And even among the affluent, educated ignorance of the true values, discontent, immorality, escalating crime and violence, the scourge of war and, in our Western world, the breakdown of the family unit, the very foundation of a stable and permanent society!
   At the base of Mt. Sinai, President Sadat plans to build a World Peace Center. The architect's rendering pictures a beautiful walled-in complex. Within it will be a mosque, a synagogue and a church, symbolic of PEACE between nations and religions. Religious hostility has sparked wars down through the stream of time. Adjacent to the peace complex will be built a modern resort hotel.
   Its presence at the very base of Mt. Sinai envisions the "GIVE" principle for PEACE, rather than that of "GET."
   True — and I think President Sadat realizes this — his $70 million World Peace Center will not, of itself, bring this war-weary world its final peace. It can only point the way.
   World peace shall require a change of motivation, a giving up of things coveted. A self-centered humanity will not be willing, of its own volition, to make this sacrifice. It will have to be done TO us. The super-powered unseen "Strong Hand from Someplace" shall have to intervene in supreme transcendent power and compel a selfish humanity to enjoy peace, happiness and universal ABUNDANCE!
   Our agreeing or disagreeing won't matter. It is as SURE as the rising and setting of tomorrow's sun. I am merely a voice in the wilderness of 20th-century confusion crying out with the ANNOUNCEMENT of the world's sole and sure hope.
   Both Mr. Begin and Mr. Sadat have been willing to "GIVE" in ways that required vision, courage and great risks both personally and politically. I know them both — have had very recent personal conferences with both. The background leading to these unique and historic recent moves toward peace, form an exceedingly dramatic and intriguing story. More of this on this same page one week from today.