A look at history shows that when God raises up a college, He often does so in terrible times.
From what I can tell, the first college He raised in history was during the time of Samuel. Israel had just come through roughly 450 years of the judges, when everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). It was an awful period—and God raised up educational institutions because He wanted to warn Israel and give the people an opportunity to know His truth.
When Elijah later came on the scene, it was during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. That was a horrifying time for Israel, and those twisted leaders practically wore Elijah out with their fierce persecution. Yet Elijah raised up colleges. And after he was gone, Elisha carried on with a similar work.
In this most evil end time, God raised up Herbert W. Armstrong and three splendid colleges. Now we are in a time when God says “the transgressors are come to the full” (Daniel 8:23)—yet, again, God has built a wonderful college. Why does God want this? We must be a witness to this world and also be prepared for the most burdensome job we’ve ever had.
I’ve written before about the colleges of Elijah and Elisha. But the schools of Samuel, who was one of the former prophets, are also important to look into. Studying Samuel’s life and how he prepared for such an exalted responsibility is fascinating.
Three Colleges
The information about the colleges in the times of both Samuel and Elijah is all contained in the books of Samuel and Kings. It’s remarkable how much those books relate to education. These books tell us how to become kings. And that is exactly what we are here to do. If you want to be a king for God, study those books. They are called the Book of the Kings, or the Book of the Kingdoms.
1 Samuel 7:16 says that Samuel “went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.” This strongly indicates that Samuel had colleges in those locations.
In Acts 3:20-21 and verse 24, Peter says something that shows just how valuable the educational foundation Samuel laid truly was: “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. … Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.”
Why did Peter specifically mention Samuel as being a seminal individual in foretelling Christ’s return? I believe a lot of it had to do with the educational institutions he founded. Samuel emphasized prophecy and talked to his students about prophecy—just as we talk to our students today. The more you look at Samuel, the more you see that prophetic emphasis. And he didn’t only prophesy about Christ. He is one of the former prophets, and he gave all kinds of prophecy for this end time! Samuel gave a message to Israel and, to some degree, the Gentiles as well.
Samuel lived and taught prophecy during a terrible time. He faced many problems. He traveled far and long doing his work. His own sons ended up turning away from God, much like Eli’s sons had. Saul was persecuting David—and you can be sure he was also persecuting Samuel and the schools. You and I have it far easier than Samuel did.
Yet, as difficult as times were for Samuel, when you read about what he accomplished, you really have to be impressed. He never stopped soldiering forward. He truly was a great prophet in Israel.
Turning an Errant Nation Around
In the inspired order of the books of the Bible, the book of Samuel follows immediately after the book of Judges. (The book of Ruth actually belongs in the last of the three divisions of the Old Testament, called the Writings, or the Psalms—the other two are the law and the prophets—see Luke 24:44.) Events in Judges lead right into those in Samuel. In fact, the first word of the book of Samuel should be “And,” not “Now,” as it reads in the King James Version.
Acts 13:20 talks about that terrible period of the judges. For 450 years, everybody ignored the great God and wandered around doing that which was right in his own eyes. But that verse also shows what ended that period: the Prophet Samuel. Empowered by God, he was determined to turn things around.
“And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lordwas precious in those days; there was no open vision” (1 Samuel 3:1). They didn’t have any new revelation—for roughly 450 years! Can you imagine Mr. Armstrong’s Church era without revelation? Can you imagine the Philadelphia Church of God with no new revelation from God? What a difficult time in Israel. The people were abysmally degenerate! They had no understanding of God at all. It was 450 years of the kind of democratic nonsense you see in the world today.
But God was ready to turn it around with Samuel. The same is true of us: God has chosen you and me to be here to turn it all around. That’s what raising the ruins is all about—not just sustaining momentum, but going in the opposite direction. What an honor in the midst of the worst catastrophe there is!
Samuel brought revelation back to Israel and began to disseminate it to Israel—in spite of Saul trying to kill David and stop the colleges!
Tradition says Samuel was just 13 years old when God first appeared to him. That was quite an experience. Samuel had to grow up very fast! I believe Samuel was able to accept that challenge from God because he had probably one of the greatest mothers in the whole Bible. He also had a great father, but it’s his mother who really shines in this example (read about her in The God Family Vision).
That passage in Acts 13 continues by talking about God raising up King David, “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will” (see verses 21-24). Samuel did much to prepare for the great King David to do his work. In fact, I believe he really had a lot to do with David’s success. In at least one instance when David was running for his life, he went to Samuel’s home. I’m sure he needed inspiration and direction. And he went to talk to Samuel—a good man to go to.
These two men were alike in many ways. What a magnificent king-prophet team David and Samuel made. They both sought all God’s will! And they really did turn the nation around by using God’s power. What an inspiration. Those became the golden years in Israel! Today, we are part of it in a sense, digging up the remains of David’s palace in Jerusalem. We need to be reminded about these men, when Israel was in its glory days. How did they achieve such glory? It started with a king who fulfilled all God’s will. That’s quite a king. And Samuel had an equally marvelous attitude. Everything these men did, no matter how small the project, they wanted to do it God’s way.
Turning around a nightmare like the period of the judges is extremely difficult. It’s one thing to sustain something that is already going well, but quite another to reverse a nation’s direction when it’s off course! But God gave that job to Samuel and David. They did a marvelous job, and it would have been even better if the people had followed them.
This is the kind of leader God is working to create in the members of His Church! He doesn’t want people who will drift along or fear to rock the boat. He is educating and training individuals who can really have a positive impact in a negative situation.
What a lesson for us as we pave the way for the greatest glory on Earth. Yes, times are difficult—and will get more so. But we can all thank God for the college He has given us, and the Work, and the marvelous opportunity we have!
Don’t Let God’s Words Drop
Samuel was called to his commission when he was quite young. 1 Samuel 3:19 says, “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.” He was only a teenager, yet he let none of God’s words fall to the ground! Not even one! He was hungering and thirsting for righteousness so much that, in spirit, he got it all.
At God’s college today, we emphasize this lesson to our students and encourage them to have Samuel’s attitude in all their classes. Do you realize how much it would empower your life if you did that? You can see why God used Samuel so powerfully. We all need more of that attitude—to make it our goal to get every word as perfectly as possible. If we can do that, you can be sure God will use us to direct and raise up colleges in the future!
We’ve seen 95 percent of God’s people let God’s words drop to the ground. We’re in God’s remnant Church because we didn’t let those words drop! But we have to keep improving. After all, God is going to set the world upon our shoulders! We’ll need every word—every little bit of education God gives us. I know that in my life, I really need every bit of the education God has given me—and still need a lot more. We are the lowly of the world, not the geniuses. So we need to be like Samuel and work to keep from letting God’s truth—truth straight from His mind—drop to the ground. Samuel knew what an opportunity he had. Do we?
Verse 20 says, “And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.” This was a time when there was no new revelation, and here Samuel had all this knowledge and education from God! Everyone in Israel knew he was a prophet! How very different from today in this country.
“And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lordrevealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (verse 21). How impressive! I’m sure we’d drop dead if God appeared to us that way! I’ve done four television programs from Shiloh, and I was probably more stirred there than any other place I’ve been, just thinking, as I walked among the ruins there, that God appeared to Samuel right here.
The ruins in Shiloh tell a tragic story. The ark of the covenant was once positioned there. That’s where God spoke from. That’s where Israel heard this voice of God. But Israel fell away from God. The nation rebelled—and God was very upset—and Shiloh was destroyed, and the ark was taken away. Once it left, it never returned to that city. That is a symbol of what happens when someone who once knew God turns away from Him. Jeremiah prophesied that in this end time, all Israel would be destroyed like Shiloh! (See Jeremiah 26:2-6—this is explained in The God Family Vision.) That prophecy applies primarily to the Laodiceans.
Today, God speaks from His Church. Once you hear the voice of God, you will be held accountable for all those words! Samuel realized that and said I’m not letting any of them fall to the ground. God loved that attitude.
“And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places” (1 Samuel 7:15-16). Samuel made that circuit because it was in those three cities that he had established schools.
“And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the Lord” (verse 17). Samuel built an altar at his home! He really focused on worshiping God. The inner man is renewed day by day. Samuel wasn’t just talking about religion—he had an altar of God at the center of his life, and everyone knew it.
That was how Samuel made sure everyone understood that the school he founded wasn’t just another college: It was God’s college!
We too must let the world know there’s a big difference here in our college and the colleges in the world. What a beautiful difference there is. We are studying and holding on to education from the very mind of God, doing our utmost not to let any of it drop to the ground. And soon we’ll be establishing similar colleges all over this Earth!
We are the loyal Bride of Christ, and we have to yearn for the same things that our Husband does. The first part of this commission is to get the message out to the world. The second part is to help God bring the world into His Family. Today we’re just warning people as a witness, but we’re getting ready to teach them so they can enter God’s Family! We must internalize this message and yearn for this Family of God! That must become our number one passion!
The Poetry of the Prophets
When Samuel anointed Saul king over Israel, he gave him some detailed instructions that included this: “After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets” (1 Samuel 10:5). The commentaries will tell you that this “company of prophets” is referring to students at some kind of college. This is another biblical reference to the schools of Samuel.
But notice what these students were doing: “coming down from the high place with a psaltery [something like our modern bagpipes], and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy.” In their music, these students were prophesying. Their music was inspired, and it taught prophecy, and it prophesied.
At God’s college today, we hear beautiful music—and we do prophesy through it! Much of that music is about God’s Word and about prophecy.
Samuel was doing a lot of what we’re doing today with our music program. He wasn’t thinking about the college just for the moment. He was thinking about a permanent college program—one that would inspire God’s people throughout the ages and forever! Considering how much effort he and others like Elijah put into these schools, I would say it’s likely that many of the prophets that came on the scene throughout biblical times probably came from those colleges, or were heavily influenced by them.
Those schools had sacred music. They taught poetry. After Ezra and Nehemiah, just about every book in the Old Testament is poetry. I believe we need more poetry in God’s college today!
When Winston Churchill wrote his great speeches, they were poetry! Written in poetic style! You can see why they moved people, and still do even today. Perhaps he read too much in his delivery, but those speeches were poetry. We need to learn more poetry today. The Bible has quite a lot of it. Look through the Revised Standard Version: The biblical poetry is written in poetic verse style—unlike in the King James Version. That captures more of the sophistication of the culture these prophets had and adds more impact to the message.
During the horrifying and murderous rule of Stalin, Russia had some illustrious poets. One was Osip Mandelstam. Mandelstam was in jail a lot of the time during Stalin’s reign. In the early days, when he still had a lot of hope, he wrote, in an ode to Stalin: “Heaped hills of human heads go off into the distance. / I grow smaller there, they won’t notice me any more. / But in much loved books and children’s games / I shall arise to say that the sun is shining.”
Another of these poets was Anna Akhmatova, whom one of her fellow poets called “the Anna of all the Russias.” In other words, she was so good that all of the Russias listened to and read her poetry. She endured very rough times; her son also spent considerable time in jail. She wrote a poem about Osip Mandelstam toward the end of his life. Mandelstam had been exiled into a little city, where he was getting close to death, and she went to visit him and wrote this poem after she left. Her son was, I believe, still in prison at that time. She said: “In the room of the exiled poet / fear and the muse stand duty in turn / and the night is endless / and knows no dawn.”
Pretty sad poetry. “The night is endless and knows no dawn.” That has been the reality for 6,000 years of human history. But we understand that this 6,000-year night is about to end!
David had a very different view in his poetry! It is truly inspiring to see the poetic view of the biblical writers. Look at how the last words of King David appear in the Bible (in the Revised Standard Version). First of all, here is how they are introduced: “Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, / the oracle of the man who was raised on high, / the anointed of the God of Jacob, / the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). Quite poetic in and of itself!
Now here are the words: “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me, / his word is upon my tongue. / The God of Israel has spoken, / the Rock of Israel has said to me:
“When one rules justly over men, / ruling in the fear of God, / he dawns on them like the morning light, / like the sun shining forth upon a cloudless morning, / like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth” (verses 2-4; rsv).
That is powerful poetry—perhaps some of the most powerful you’ll ever read. What a contrast to “the night is endless and knows no dawn”! That’s the way the world sees it—and how could you view it any other way when you think about Stalin’s style of leadership? But notice these beautiful words: “Yea, does not my house stand so with God? / For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, / ordered in all things and secure. / For will he not cause to prosper / all my help and my desire?
“But godless men are all like thorns that are thrown away; / for they cannot be taken with the hand; / but the man who touches them / arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, / and they are utterly consumed with fire” (verses 5-7; rsv).
I believe some of the poetry in the Old Testament is among the most beautiful writing in human history. It was inspired by God.
The Miracle at Naioth
When David was on the run from Saul—even in the midst of his worst trials—he was still writing poetry. We can write poetry in our trials as David did.
In 1 Samuel 19, David fled to Samuel, and the two of them went together to Naioth (verse 18). One of Saul’s men found out and, with great excitement, informed Saul. Behold! this soldier said. We finally found David and we can go down there and kill him at last! (verse 19).
In Naioth, we again see a company of prophets—another of Samuel’s colleges. “And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them”—and what happened?—“the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied” (verse 20).
Can you imagine that? They came to kill David and maybe Samuel too, and they started prophesying! What was happening at this college? “And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also” (verse 21).
This is a mind-staggering miracle! These men who just couldn’t wait to get to David and kill him actually started to prophesy! At least to a great degree, God simply took control of their minds!
What are we going to do if somebody comes into this Church to kill one of us? Well they’re probably going to start prophesying right along with us—maybe singing the same songs we’re singing!
Saul became so enraged he went down there himself to take care of the situation. “And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?” (verse 24). Can you imagine Saul trying to kill David—and at the same time prophesying for God? That was quite a day! And this was quite a college!
God’s College Today
It’s worth noting that when it talks about Samuel’s schools it refers to “the company of the prophets.” With Elijah’s schools it speaks of “the sons of the prophets.” I believe that indicates Samuel’s college was just for ministers—more like purely a Bible college. They were on the run at that time and didn’t have the time or the luxury to educate both men and women in all of the liberal arts training we have today. Still, Samuel certainly did lay the foundation for Elijah and Elisha and for Mr. Armstrong and for us today.
Today, we need women and men together. We need family. That’s God’s way. That’s what this college is all about—God’s Family.
We want to have a kind of revival in the right way. We have the monumental commission to prophesy again (Revelation 10:11), raising up a work after a great catastrophe in spiritual Israel. This college has a message for the world! God promises to open the doors for us to get the job done. How important is God’s college to this Work? Mr. Armstrong wrote, “It was the development of the college in Pasadena that made possible the growth of the whole gospel Work” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 2).
This college is just about to introduce Christ to the world! We should be a college for all the ages! We ought to do things that they’ll talk about forever—just as they did in the schools of Samuel and Elijah and Elisha. We need students who are urgent, students who understand what these words are all about and won’t let any of them drop to the ground. If we have that attitude, and we follow Samuel’s example, we’re going to impact this world in a way it will never forget!
From the Archives: Philadelphia News, September 2008