Good News
March 1958
Vol. VII, Number 3

                   WHO May Attend Our Schools?
 
A policy has had to be set regarding who may attend our Imperial Grade and High Schools and Ambassador College.  You need to understand this policy.
 
                        by Herman L. Hoeh

 
 
   GOD FORBIDS us to do as we please.  He commands us to obey Him.  To keep us in obedience God set Jesus Christ to be the Head of this Church to direct it.

   Jesus reveals His will through the Bible.  And His will clarifies the question of who may attend our schools.  It is time we fully understand what GOD'S will is in this important matter.
 
A Threefold Educational System
 
   Every year hundreds are being added to the Church.  We do not decide who should come to a knowledge of the truth.  The calling is of God.  God chooses those whom He wants.  We are here merely to minister to those whom God has called.

   Part of our ministry is to "feed the flock" -- and this includes teaching our children and young people.  To train them has necessitated the establishment of Imperial Grade and High Schools wherever possible.

   The establishment of our schools is part of God's three-fold educational program revealed in the Bible. God communicated this plan of education through Moses.  Here it is:

   FIRST: Parents are to instruct and to train their children in the WAY OF GOD.  To insure education in the home, God made the marriage contract UNBREAKABLE except by death.  Notice the Bible exposition of this first principle in God's educational program: "YE SHALL TEACH ... your children, speaking of [God's WAY and His LAW] when thou sittest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 11:19).  This same command is repeated by Paul in Ephesians 6:4.

   SECOND: Ministers AND TEACHERS whom God has called are to instruct parents and children.  One of the functions of the Old Testament priests was to "TEACH the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken ..." (Lev. 10:11).  II Chronicles 15:3 speaks of the TEACHING priests.  And Proverbs 5:13 tells of those who say: "I have not obeyed the voice of my TEACHERS, nor inclined mine ear to them that INSTRUCTED me! "

   The Bible is the foundation of all instruction.  It is the guide book to every field of essential knowledge. Not all this knowledge can be imparted from the pulpit.  Some of it must come through schools (COMPARE THIS WITH I CHRONICLES 25:8).  THAT IS THE REASON FOR IMPERIAL GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

   THIRD: Special skills are to be taught by those trained in each particular field of occupation.  This is NOT a function of the Church.  Notice Exodus 35:34, 35: "He [God] has also given him Oholiab the son of Ahisamak, belonging to the clan of Dan ability TO TRAIN OTHERS endowing them with skill in every skillful craft in engraving, in decorating, in handling violet, purple, and scarlet yarn, in working with fine linen, in weaving, and in all sorts of TRADES AND ARTS" (Moffatt rendering).  This man did not belong to the tribe of Levi -- his function was not part of the Levitical ministry.

   This is God's plan for education.  It is a perfect balance between the home, the Church and the schools. The world does not follow this procedure today.
 
What About Public Schools?
 
   The governments of this world have set up their own public school systems.  Few people are conscious of the fact that public schools commenced in Israelite countries, not in Gentile lands. And they were commenced for the basic purpose of enabling people to read and write so that they could understand the Bible in their own homes!  You will find this rather surprising information in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica."

   Public School instruction is one of the blessings of Israel. It did not originate with the Gentiles.  The Gentiles have received this blessing from Israel.  Last summer Dr. Meredith and I had the privilege of visiting numerous American Schools in Gentile lands -- schools endowed with American money for foreign students!  In Latin America, too, the Americans, the British and the French have established academies for the training of natives.

   If the governments in Israel were under God's Government there would be no need for our own private schools.  But Israelites long ago cast aside the Government of God.  They have cast out of their schools any knowledge of God.  Because of this, it has become necessary to establish our own private schools where possible, and as financial means permit.

   Not more than ONE OUT OF EVERY EIGHT PARENTS in God's Church is located in those areas where our schools are presently established.  There is a definite reason for this.  This is the age when we are prophesied to be scattered.  Those whom God is now calling are scattered throughout the nations, not united in one locality.  It would be wonderful if all of you could have fellowship every Sabbath at a local Church.  But this is not possible in this age.  And neither is it possible -- especially for financial reasons -- for everyone to have his children in our own schools.

   Our broadcasts and magazines take the place of Sabbath sermons for many of you.  In the same manner for many of you who are scattered, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE TO TAKE THE PLACE OF OUR SCHOOLS when it comes to teaching "reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic."  But your spiritual instruction comes from the Church of God.

   God requires you to attend the public schools under these circumstances.  You must submit to the human authorities in power.

   Some brethren foolishly have moved to localities where our schools are established even though they were unable to find work there.  This must never be.  God forbids it.  A father MUST be able to support his children!  We have had to forbid couples with children to move to areas where our schools are located until the father has been assured of a job.  This is not our human decision -- it is the decision of Jesus Christ rendered through Paul: "This we COMMANDED you that IF ANY WOULD NOT WORK, NEITHER SHOULD HE EAT" (II Thes. 3:10).

   Until work is located, none of you should ever move to another area and especially so in this period of recession.
 
Yet Other Problems
 
   But finances and work are not the only problems.

   Another problem often encountered is that of a family split over religion.  Sometimes a husband or a wife is converted, but the mate is not converted.  Often the converted mate would like to see the children in our schools.  Sometimes the unconverted mate objects, sometimes not.  If this is your problem, YOU NEED TO CONTACT A MINISTER BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY MOVE.  Our schools cannot function without the cooperation of both parents.  And if parents do not co-operate, we cannot properly teach the youngsters.  This is a problem that must be discussed with the ministry before any permission can be given to enter Imperial Grade or High Schools.

   Another developing situation is the matter of racial integration in schools.  God has called into His Church numerous Latin Americans, Orientals, and Negroes, as well as many Israelites and other Whites.  The calling is of God.

   As Head of the Church, JESUS CHRIST COMMANDED PETER TO "MAKE
NO DISTINCTION" SPIRITUALLY, IN MATTERS OF CHURCH WORSHIP, with Gentiles in the Church (Acts 11:12).  This was a difficult matter for Peter to learn (Gal. 2:12).  And it seems that some brethren TODAY HAVE NOT YET LEARNED this lesson!  Brethren, let's clean our hearts!

   Notice the example in the New Testament Church: "Now in the Church at Antioch were prophets and teachers, both Barnabas and Simeon, WHO WAS CALLED NIGER [the Greek word for 'Negro']" (Acts 13:1). Simeon was a Negro in the Church at Antioch.  God puts no difference between men and women, or between races in matters of spiritual fellowship, BUT GOD DOES NOT WANT THE DIFFERENT RACES TO MIX SOCIALLY OR TO INTERMARRY.

   Social mixing begins in school!

   Many cannot discern the difference between social and spiritual fellowship.  One reason is that many of you have come from denominations where social fellowship was falsely labeled "spiritual" fellowship.  Social fellowship among children and young people involves playing together, parties in the home, hiking and dating.  In school, these social contacts, which ultimately lead to marriage, are commenced.
 
Is This the Way You Look at It?
 
   Some have not fully understood what the Bible says about our mixing interracially in the schools.  From time to time we hear the following view aired:

   "We are all in the Church.  We believe God forbids us to have social fellowship with the world.  We also know that we who are of another race than Israelites are not to have strictly social fellowship with our spiritual brethren.  We also realize that social fellowship is an inevitable part of school training and that therefore we cannot all send our children to the same schools.  In some cases our children are left without friends to play with.  Sometimes it seems that God may not be quite fair."

   Let us understand this matter of social fellowship thoroughly. GOD DOES NOT FORBID OUR CHILDREN SOCIAL FELLOWSHIP WITH OTHER CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.  Neither does He forbid us all social fellowship with the unconverted.  Notice what Paul wrote in I Cor. 5:9

   "I wrote unto you," said Paul, "in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet [I do] not [mean] altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world ... For what have I to do with judging them that are without? do ye not judge them that are within?"

   In other words, Paul declares we may have LIMITED social fellowship with sinners in the world or else we could not live in the world.  OUR CHILDREN MAY HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH OTHER CHILDREN IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SCHOOLS -- so long as they learn where to draw the line.  We are not to "run with them to the same excess of riot" (I Peter 4:4).  We are not to date the unconverted, as Mr. Meredith has previously explained in the article "Who Should Young People Date?"

   BUT GOD STILL PERMITS OUR CHILDREN TO HAVE FRIENDS AND PLAYMATES.  It is our parental duty to teach our children where to draw the line.  Our children may play or take a hike with those who are unconverted, but they are not to be a party to their evil deeds.

   The vast majority of our white children have no other fellowship than that with other children in public schools.  So also does God permit the children of Negro and Latin American brethren to share in fellowship with unconverted young people of their respective races.

   I am sure many of you have not previously understood this point fully.  You may have prevented your children from developing into normal, healthy youngsters.  You need to allow your children this limited fellowship.
 
"To the Jew First"
 
   God directs affairs here in this world, though the world may not be conscious of it.  God called Abraham OUT OF THIS WORLD. God told him to leave his family and friends.  Abraham had to be the first to give up fellowship with the world.  Because Abraham became the FIRST to give up this world, his children naturally became the first to receive God's blessings.  It is not because of the righteousness of Abraham's children that we share these blessings, but because God is faithful in keeping His promise to Abraham to bless his children. "To the Jew FIRST," said Paul often.

   Because Abraham was the first to be willing to give up fellowship with the world, GOD HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR HIS FLESHLY CHILDREN TO BE THE FIRST TO ENJOY A FULLER SOCIAL FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER IN THE CHURCH -- limited though it may be.  That is why God has guided His Church to commence its Grade and High Schools for the children of racial Israelites FIRST.

   This is the pattern of the Bible!

   Many Gentiles not of the White race already have spiritual fellowship in the Church.  They may have to wait a little longer for the establishment of schools, but steps are already being taken in that direction. During the last Feast of Tabernacles, several of us had a conference with Negro young people of College age.  Together we mapped out a tentative program for their training in the fields of teaching and public speaking.  I have before me a letter from one of these young people giving more details about certain Negro Colleges -- Houston-Tillotson College and Paul Quinn College -- where this training might be available.

   As God directs the development of a competent teaching staff and as finances permit, we shall find, in the not too distant future, that the children of our Negro brethren may also enjoy social fellowship with one another in school.  This work, remember, is not the work of men, but of God.  And as God makes it possible it will be done!

   Regarding AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, all of you know that the purpose for which it was founded is to provide a trained ministry for the Church of God to assist Mr. Armstrong in this world-wide work. We carefully screen applicants for the College -- because not all young people are potential candidates for the ministry.  The College is not for the purpose of giving all our young people a higher education.  Dozens of applications have not been accepted because the candidates -- though they may have outstanding aptitudes for other jobs -- have not demonstrated their aptitude for the ministry.

   Since a vital part of the ministry is shouldered by a minister's wife, Ambassador College has to be co-educational. Social fellowship is inevitable.  Social fellowship, therefore, necessitates separation of the races.  God has always sent His word FROM ISRAEL TO THE GENTILES (John 4:22).  God sent Paul, a Jew, to the Gentiles.  For the few brethren of other races whom God may call to a part into the MINISTRY FOR THEIR OWN PEOPLE, a special program of training is under consideration.
 
God Separated the Races
 
   Moses was inspired to write. "Remember the days of old" -- just prior to the building of the Tower of Babel -- "when the Most High gave the nations THEIR INHERITANCE, when He SEPARATED the children of men.  He set the borders of the peoples'' (Deut. 32:7-8).  God made us what we are.  He made the races for a great purpose which few understand.

   Many White Americans have mistakenly made non-Whites feel that they were inferior because they were not integrated into the White community.  This is a false concept.  It is possible to be separate and yet not be inferior.  "Separation" does not mean "inferiority."

   The division of the human family began with the three sons of Noah.  In Genesis 10 you will find the human family subdivided into three main groups, the children of Japheth, Ham and Shem. These three subdivisions of the human family are divided into the four primary races of the Old World and one in the New World, making five in all.  Before the modern theory of evolution perverted the study of anthropology in the present century, it was common knowledge that the Old World -- Europe, Asia and Africa -- was divided into the White, Yellow, Brown and Black races, and that the New World -- America -- was originally inhabited by the copper-skinned American Indian.

   The human family today is made up of the strains of Noah and of his wife, and of their three daughters-in-law.  This accounts for the fact that MORE THAN ONE RACIAL STRAIN has come from EACH of the sons of Noah.  Consult the articles in the April and July, 1957, "PLAIN TRUTH."  The principle of God's law (Lev. 19:19) forbids intermarriage between the three primary divisions of Shem, Ham and Japheth IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR RACIAL SUBDIVISIONS.  Thus converted Israelites (who are Semitic) may intermarry with converted Semitic Germans, West Slavs, Armenians and Syrians (who are all sons of Shem), and with non-Semitic Whites such as Russians (who are from Meshech, Tubal and Madai -- the sons of Japheth) and Greeks (who are of Javan, the son of Japheth) and Italians (who are of Javan and of the Tyrians from Sidon, the son of Canaan).  These are all of the White racial stock (though they may have come from different sons of Noah) and are permitted to attend Ambassador College and the present Imperial Grade and High Schools.

   Our Negroid brethren are of course Hamitic, and may intermarry freely among themselves.
 
Our Latin-American Young People
 
   Another problem arises with our Latin American brethren.  Some of their youngsters have been SEVERELY MISTREATED by fellow students and by teachers in public schools because they have usually been accustomed to hearing Spanish rather than English at home.  Both White and Negro children in public schools have taken advantage of the children of our Latin American brethren.  Our Latin American community has a special handicap in the United States due to having another LANGUAGE.  In certain instances we have had to advise Spanish-speaking parents to take their children out of public schools and put them in APPROVED private schools.

   Our Latin-American brethren understand in general, why their children are not to intermarry with Israelites.  Their racial origin should be studied by everyone, for it is more diverse than that of our Negro brethren.  The basic Latin-American racial stock is Japhetic.

   For 450 years the native Indian population of Latin America has been ruled over by Spanish-speaking people.  The Spanish people who came to the New World were in ancient times the sons of Tarshish, the grandson of Japheth.  But for centuries before the Roman Empire rose to power, the Canaanites from Carthage in North Africa dominated and migrated to the Spanish peninsula. Later, much of Spain was conquered (from 711 A.D. to 1492 A.D.) by Arabs and by the descendants of the Carthaginians who bore the name of "Moors" -- meaning "Amorites."

   The Spanish-speaking people were thus the olive-skinned European product of a dual racial culture when they arrived in America.  A few exceptions are the blond Spaniards of Chaldean extraction who entered Spain after 400 A.D.

   When the Spanish came to the New World they completely eclipsed the culture of the copper-skinned Indians, who were descendants of Tiras, the son of Japheth.  As the centuries have passed, the overwhelming bulk of Latin-American people have become MESTIZOS -- meaning "mixed."  The ruling classes are still partly Spanish in some areas, but ALMOST EVERYONE, in one degree or another, IS PARTLY INDIAN, though he may call himself "Spanish."

   Latin-American peoples have become a mixed community, therefore, that is bound not merely by racial ties with the Indian, but bound also by language ties.  IT IS THE UNITY OF THEIR LANGUAGE THAT IS GRADUALLY "MELTING DOWN" THE PEOPLE OF SPANISH-SPEAKING LATIN AMERICA INTO A NON-WHITE SPANISH-INDIAN COMMUNITY. This Latin-American COMMUNITY is becoming predominantly Indian.  It therefore constitutes A SEPARATE RACIAL GROUP in social matters.

   Because our Latin American brethren are not basically of the same race as Israelites, they will have to solve the problem of schooling for their children IN THE SAME MANNER AS DO MOST OF OUR ISRAELITE BRETHREN who are not attending our schools -- by finding the public school (or sometimes a private school) which best provides the educational needs of their children and which will tolerate the practice of God's WAY.

   Remember, brethren, no matter what our race OUR SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP IS WITH ONE ANOTHER.  And remember, too, to pray especially for the SEVEN OUT OF EIGHT of our brethren -- White, Negro, and Latin American -- whose children have no opportunity now to attend our schools.  They can have only LIMITED social fellowship with other young friends and playmates of their respective races.

   This, then, is the policy which God ordains for the administration of His Schools.