One major aspect of the godly education offered at Herbert W. Armstrong College and Imperial Academy is athletics. All the students participate in the physical education program and most in the intramural sports leagues.
God has provided a variety of athletic facilities for His campus: a gymnasium, a softball field, two soccer pitches, rugby fields, flag football fields, a grass track around the soccer pitch, a swimming pool, a fitness center for CrossFit and weightlifting, tennis courts, and dance rooms. To provide all these facilities, God clearly values athletics as part of a balanced education. Do you see athletics that way—as a major part of your education?
Military leaders such as General Douglas MacArthur and President Eisenhower did. When President Eisenhower was looking to assign a leadership position in the military, football players especially impressed him. He said: “I found myself in the midst of war. I had occasion to be on the lookout for natural leaders. I noted how well ex-footballers seemed to have leadership qualifications, and it wasn’t sentiment that made it seem so. Nothing brings out the qualities of leadership, mental and muscular co-ordination, aggressiveness, and courage more quickly than athletics.”
Our college’s namesake also recognized the value of athletics. Mr. Armstrong made sure Ambassador College was equipped with state-of-the-art materials. The college was furnished with an athletic field including a track, broad jump, high jump, pole vault, shot-put facilities and an indoor pool. It also had two full-size championship tennis courts that were designed by a former World tennis champion. The college also had some of the best game rooms imaginable, with large areas for table tennis, tumbling and weightlifting.
The July 1957 Plain Truth stated: “We do not enter competitive sports with other schools but follow the Bible principle that ‘bodily exercise profits for a little while,’ (1 Tim. 4:8) realizing the great value of good, solid physical health.” Ambassador students were encouraged to get enough exercise to maintain radiant health, and this in turn, made them more successful academically. This is one of the major reasons why God invests in athletics. Clearly athletics are important to God but why? Is God really concerned about you being able to shoot a perfect jumper or is there a deeper reason for being physically active?
Spiritual Development
There is a one paramount spiritual reason for why God values athletics so much: Athletics can build character.
In the July 1984 Plain Truth, Herbert Armstrong wrote: “If basketball is played according to the rules — in a right attitude — it can be a very invigorating, enjoyable game, not violating God’s law. All depends on the attitude of the players … when played in God’s attitude toward others these are acceptable.” Competition can be good or evil depending on the attitude. As long as it doesn’t harm anyone, competition that stimulates the opponent to perform his best is healthy—and beneficial! Sports challenge us to play them and therefore are a wonderful means of building character. However, it also means that sports can destroy our character if we do not respond to challenges in the right attitude.
A spectator who came to observe a basketball game at Ambassador College wrote: “Those young men were totally involved. They were determined, responding to the challenge posed by that game” (Tomorrow’s World, 1971). They had good sportsmanship and effort— and people could see that from the sidelines!
Does this describe the way you play basketball, workout, or play any other sport? Do you see athletics as part of your godly education and make the most of them?
Let’s examine two impressive athletes in the Bible.
“And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. … And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:4,10-11). Israel was threatened by a mighty giant, and they needed someone to fight. They needed a fearless athlete.
How about God’s Work today—do we need fearless athletes? How do you feel about playing sports? Are you afraid? Fear can take on different forms: fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of being pushed beyond your comfort zone. Sports and physical exercise help us overcome these.
Israel needed an athlete, and David delivered. “And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (Verse 32). David backed his words with actions. He was a young man well-rounded in the arts of music, poetry, and fighting. He put in the work preparing beforehand to succeed in this moment.
But Saul thought differently: “And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth” (Verse 33). Saul doubted David because of his youth, but David was armed with strength and faith in God.
In his book Shoe Dog, Phil Knight, founder of Nike, writes about his experience running track in college. He observed that during a long race, a person’s mind and body are going to argue with each other. The body says, “You are not able.” But the mind must say “You are able.” Fight against your body with your mind. Override the body by saying “No.”
Pushing yourself physically develops confidence. David was always pushing himself to work harder. This built his confidence, so when he battled Goliath, he knew he could confidently defend Israel with God on his side.
“And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock… Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God…The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee” (verses 34, 36-37). David credited God for the victory, but God was able to give David the victory because of his physical training and faith.
The 1971 Tomorrow’s World article continues, “Sports and athletics can also be misused. It is hard for human beings to have the right balance about certain things. On the one extreme are those who practically worship sports heroes … At the other extreme are those who consider any form of sports as beneath them and a waste of time. They can’t swim, can’t ski, can’t golf, can’t throw a ball or catch it, etc.”
If that last sentence describes you, how much can you contribute to your dorm at S.E.P.? How will you teach your children to play sports or play a fun game of ball with them?
At Ambassador College, every student spent four hours a week in athletics. A sports class began with a “circuit-training routine” consisting of ten stations where students would spend 15 to 30 seconds performing a calisthenics movement. Next, they did an endurance workout, usually a one-mile run, after which they would spread out to their selected activities, which included: touch football, basketball, track and field, swimming, water polo, handball, weight training, volleyball, softball, tennis, badminton, tumbling, gymnastics, golf, bowling, etc. Many girls especially enjoyed precision-marching and cheerleading classes. This was the program they followed back in 1971!
“We consider, as an example, a basketball game as an educational function of the college, a character-building activity. The boys play hard, develop important skills, but they don’t overdo it. They are not there to become professionals. We recognize that a student must spend quite a bit of time in order to develop a certain level of proficiency in any given sport. Yet sports in no way interfere with studies. Rather, they are designed to enhance and augment the student’s academic life.” Athletics improve your academics!
Show me a young man or a young woman that gives their all on the field, and I can probably show you someone who will give it their all in their studies, their career, and in their family—because it’s a character issue. If someone is a slug on the field, they are probably going to be a slug in the classroom.
Besides, not giving it your all hurts the team. Basketball is a great example of this. “We play to win, yet we have bigger goals. Valuable lessons like teamwork and unity are learned through sports and athletics. When an individual on the team decides to rest, take it easy or not do his part, the whole team suffers.” If you don’t give it your all, if you are indifferent or too self-conscious to try, you hurt the entire team. Your selfishness inhibits your growth and everyone else’s! Athletics have little to do with you; they are about everybody else. Sports teach us to be there for the team despite our insecurities.
“Players learn to control their emotions, and thereby they mature emotionally—because in sports a person is totally involved and his deep emotions run on the surface.” If you care, you will have emotions on the court, but this is how you learn how to control them. When you don’t care, you don’t get involved. As a coach, I would rather have a player who I tell to tone it down over someone I can’t motivate. Consider Peter who was known for having strong emotions. They weren’t balanced at first, but he gave Christ something to work with, and look at the success he became.
“Willingness to listen and follow instructions is another valuable lesson. This shows up in team play. Students are taught through results that persevering and enduring pays off. That extra drive and hustle gets results.” Sports teach you to follow directions, work as a team and push through challenges. You learn to work with other people, which is a vital part of life. That’s why athletics is part of the education of God’s schools.
Athletics Makes Leaders
Are athletics still important after your schooling years are past? Do you stop studying the Bible after you graduate? Well, I’ve already read it. Being athletic is a lifestyle. We must get in the habit of being active physically.
The Ambassador College article said a lot about that mindset. “That’s all right for the kids, some will say. But when you get older and have more responsibility, there is no time for that sort of thing. Don’t kid yourself! If it’s for no other reason than health alone, you must be active. A fundamental law of life is that disuse results in deterioration.” You will become sluggish if you don’t move. Isaac Newton’s laws of motion apply to physiology as well. A body in motion will stay in motion, and a body at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by a force.
“What do the leading executives and the faculty do? What do those whose articles you read in The Plain Truth and Tomorrow’s World do?” It says they spend about 4 to 5 hours a week engaged in some sort of exercise. “It may be energetic walking for some. For many it is a vigorous game of handball. Why do they do it? Because they know it makes them more effective! They have more desire, more drive, more enthusiasm. They can contribute more to the really important team”—God’s team! That is the team we really want to be helping. Athletics not only teach us how to serve God, but they make us stronger so we can!
Christ is paying attention when you are on the sports field or working out in the gym. Ask yourself, what does Christ see in me when I am engaging in physical activities? Does he see a hard worker, or a slug? God paid attention to David in the field, and He saw someone who put forth effort.
“God’s servants have always been active men, dynamic men, not spending their lives in rocking chairs, not in introverted isolation, not the take-it-easy types—but those who live abundant lives, brimful of interesting and exciting times. These are the type of people that God uses.” Ask yourself, do you want to live your life in a rocking chair, or do you want your life to be exciting, awesome and full of of adventures?
David’s athletic education provided indispensable leadership for Israel. “And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine … And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines …” (Verses 48-52).
After they watched this incredible feat, all of Israel was encouraged. This kind of can-do attitude is what those younger than you need to see from godly leaders. If someone is afraid and they see you do it first, that can inspire them to think, Well, maybe I can do it too! The example David set came from the training and character he developed in his athletic pursuits.
Benefits of Sports
A Youth 84 magazine lists four main qualities that sports develop, the first of which is courage. “Sports provide a ready-made environment for learning about real-life experiences. The first major value of sports that should be stressed is courage. Courage is a quality of mind that enables one to meet difficulties with firmness and resolution” (emphasis mine).
Second is endurance. It says, “Sports, with its real-life environment, provides for the development of endurance, of perseverance, of never giving up. It’s easy to give up, especially when behind or when the odds are against you. We all admire and respect the person who tenaciously hangs in there despite the odds until the race is over or the game has ended.” That’s one of the biggest challenges of sports. When you are down too low and you know you are not going to win. Do you still give it your all? Perseverance is one of the seven laws of success. If you endure to the end of the game, that reveals how you will approach life.
Thirdly, we learn patience from sports. “Sports will always have its obstacles, failures, delays, trials and pains. Players must learn to meet these difficulties with calmness, composure and without complaint.” One big obstacle that emerges in sports is the fake injury. Then later that day, someone calls seconds on dessert, and the so-called injured person rushes toward another bowl of ice cream. Was it really that bad? Could you have played on? Could you have mustered up some more willpower?
Lastly, sports teach teamwork. They teach you to get along with others, sacrifice personal glory for the sake of the team and how to set aside insecurities.
“Sports can be beautiful or ugly or anything in between. It all depends on the attitude of the players, coaches and spectators. To know what the right attitude is we need to look to our Maker, the great God. His basic law is love—an outflowing concern toward others.”
Consider how Mr. Armstrong valued athletics and how Pastor General Gerald Flurry continues his legacy today. Think about all the opportunities God provides for his young people. God has made it clear: Athletics is a major part of a godly, balanced education. Take advantage of athletics, glean every lesson you can from them and practice them for the rest of your life.