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ASOLUTION
FOR
WORLD PROBLEMS
by
Keith W. Stump
If
human experience has shown one thing, it is this:
No human government has been able
to achieve lasting peace or prosperity! Why?
W
HY HAVE
human
governments fai led
throughout history?
Why have they been unsuc–
cessful in achieving the two
chief goals they set for them–
selves: peace and prosperi–
ty?
The answer to th is enigma
was formally addressed by
Plain
Truth
editor in chief Her bert
W. Armstrong ata unique con–
ference in March 1977.
A Conference Un i que in
Histor y
The conference was held in Wind–
hoek, the administrative center of
South-West Africa, also known as
Namibia.
Eleven delegations from the 11
population groups that make up the
900,000 inhabitants of South-West
AfricajNamibia were gathered in
the historie Turnhalle assembly
building in Windhoek. Tbeir objec–
tive: to forge a just constitution for
their country.
A former German colony ,
South-West AfricajNamibia has
been governed by the nation of
South Africa since 1920.
It
was
scheduled to receive its indepen–
dence at the end of 1977.
The "Turnhalle conference" was
first convened in September 1975.
Jt had been compared by sorne to
the convent ion that wrote the
United States Constitution nearly
two centuries earlier.
May 1983
Mr. Armstrong was the first for–
eigner and religious leader invited
to speak to the assemblage. More
than 40 delegates and other high–
ranking officials gathered for his
address.
Mr. Armstrong began by review–
ing before the delegates the entire
span of human history. He
explained from the Bible bow the
great archangel we know as Lucifer
(who became Satan)
rejected
the
government and the law of God.
And how, later, the first man,
Adam, rejected the way of God and
chose to follow the way of Satan.
He related also how Adam' s
descendants, cut off from contact
with God, have chosen instead to
pursue their own way-the self–
centered, competitive way of
"GET"-rather than the God-cen–
tered, outgoing way of
"LOVE"
or
"GIVE."
"This is the background that has
led up to today and all of its evils,"
Mr. Armstrong summarized.
He observed that God, in effect,
sentenced
Adam and his descen–
dants to form their own govern–
ments, based on the "GET" princi–
pie. T hroughout history the hu–
man, civi l governments, he said,
have become a punishment for
rejecting God ' s divine govern–
ment!
Mr. Armstrong then told the
assembled delegates they had the
unique opportunity to form a
human government more nearl y
based on God's way of life- the
way of outgoing concern for each of
their 11 population groups, of serv–
ing, cooperating and sharing for the
good and welfare of others.
"God help you todo the best job
that can be done and to form the
finest government that has ever
been formed in the history of man–
kind on this earth," M r. Armstrong
exhorted the conference. This
should be a government, he added,
that would be fair and just for
every person, without regard for
race or other considerations.
Record of Hlstory
Events in the aftermath of the
Turnhalle conference did not pro–
ceed in the way its delegates had
hoped. Guerrilla warfare escalated.
Current talks on the future of the
diamond- and uranium-rich territo–
ry are now stalled. South-West
AfricajNamibia remains in a state
of political and social ferment.
Unfortunately, this scenario fits
well into the sorry, near 6,000-year
record of man 's history. In recent
times, as in ages past, man ' s
attempts to come to grips witb the
problem of government have been
thwarted by problems beyond
human capacity to control.
For millennia, leaders of honesty
and integrity have tried to grapple
with the immense problems of gov–
ernment. These men have tried to
find responsible solutions, have
tried to make the world better. But
forces seemingly beyond their con–
trol have frustrated their efforts at
every turn.
Regardless of their methods of
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