Ten: Christian Afrikaners -- Forward into the Future!

In this last lecture, I would like to deal with the eschatology of victory of the Afrikaner in the years ahead. I have said previously that Zephaniah chapter three and verse ten is a significant text. In the New American Standard version of the Bible, this is translated as follows: "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshippers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings." Many have regarded this as a prediction of the Afrikaner's contribution to the expansion of true Christianity worldwide -- from South Africa, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt at all that the Afrikaner Calvinist, as indeed many another people, has much to offer the world -- even in today's atomic age. That is exactly what it is -- an atomic age! But then, books are appearing in South Africa today with titles underlining this very fact.

An important book published by Calvinists in South Africa recently, has the arresting title The Atomic Age in Thy Light. The best faculties of nuclear research in South Africa have Calvinists as their Chairmen. Much medical work, especially in the field of heart transplant technology -- as is well known -- is being pioneered in that land. And so too processes of enriching uranium at a very cheap price are being pioneered precisely there.

Professor Danie Strauss wants to have the Afrikaner take over where the Dutch have left off as the leaders of world Calvinism. He envisions South Africa becoming the new Geneva -- and importing and training foreigners in South Africa to go back to their lands as sturdy Calvinists and then to calvinise their own countries.

My own personal vision is exactly the opposite. South African Calvinism should become centrifugal, rather than remain centripetal! Rather than become a new Geneva, I think South Africa should become like the old Jerusalem. It should send forth the Law from Zion to the four corners of the earth. There it should combine the best of South African Calvinism with the best of the foreign Calvinism it meets or helps create. Then it should be the Non-South Africans living in those territories farther afield who themselves take all of this. They alone can amalgamate it in the correct mix for their circumstances -- and perfect it for each individual country. In this way, all of us who love the Lord and the doctrines of grace -- together work toward the Calvinistic conquest of the whole world.

In 1967 Dr. Rousas John Rushdoony wrote me in a letter from California: "I believe South Africa, although unfortunately now showing signs of drifting, is still more Christian than any other country of today, and has a major contribution to make. South African Reformed believers are more aware of the basic issues of our time. Too many American Reformed thinkers are prone to sentimental humanism as they view social issues!"

This year, 1980, the Presbyterian Church of Australia's Rev. Prof. Dr. Harold Whitney -- a man with three earned doctorates -- wrote me a heart-warming personal letter. Whitney is an admirer of both Van Til and Rushdoony. He is also a man who has himself written that "the whispers of Calvary must not preclude the thunders of Sinai."

As retiring Chairman of the Department of Systematic Theology at Emmanuel College of Queensland University, Whitney recently wrote to congratulate me on his General Assembly's appointment of me as his successor. Significantly, I believe, he then added the following words:

"I am personally looking forward to your coming among us because, among other reasons, of my love for South Africa. Four times I visited this fascinating land on evangelistic work -- apart from my visits to Germany, Britain and the United States several times. I visited South Africa twice in 1968, once in 1969, once in 1970 -- and, as the enclosed document will show, Dr. Lee -- I had the privilege of speaking in many Reformed churches."

Well, the enclosed document that Dr. Whitney referred to was an account of his 1970 visit to South Africa. I believe in this last lecture I can do no better than to take a few minutes to quote from this letter here. For I believe it gives an accurate insight by a Non-South African, an impartial outsider, into the true condition of Calvinism in South Africa much better than a "biased" person such as myself could do!

Says Dr. Whitney: "I learned the value of face to face confrontation. This is a good New Testament practice. Paul knew the value of witnessing before Governors. I was able, therefore, to spend a most profitable hour and a half over morning tea with Dr. Vorster, brother to the Prime Minister of South Africa and leader and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Reformed Church. It was through Dr. Vorster's courtesy that I was able to speak in the Reformed Mother Church in Cape Town." That, by the way, is the oldest church in South Africa.

Whitney continues: "Once again, I was impressed with the bond that is quickly established between men who both believe in the authority of the Word of God. Our discussion covered a wide range of theological subjects and contemporary theologians as well as missionary and evangelistic outreach. It covered Dr. Wurmbrand's visit to South Africa and his fight against communism -- against which Dr. Vorster, too, is likewise wholeheartedly committed. We also discussed South Africa's potential for revival.

"Before Dr. Vorster drove me home from his residence on Devil's Peak -- a rather ambiguous place, I laughingly reminded him, for a Minister of Christ to live on -- I left him with a copy of my book on John Calvin and the Institutes, with authority to bring out a paperback edition in Afrikaans for his people if he wished. Later, Dr. Swart of the Andrew Murray Reformed Church in Johannesburg wanted a copy -- to bring out a paperback edition in English for his new English-speaking congregation.

"One of the more memorable visits I had, was to the university city Stellenbosch where seven thousand students are said to worship in the various Reformed churches on Sunday, with six hundred of these students teaching in Sunday schools and doing evangelistic work on Sunday. From the scholastic angle, Stellenbosch reminded me very much of Heidelberg in Germany, with its long tradition of scholarship. But only in this respect. When I visited Heidelberg a few years ago, I entered the ancient castle on the hill and saw some of the gigantic beer casks (124' x 20') there -- eloquent testimony to the convivial habits of a city dedicated to knowledge. And this, though Heidelberg is said to be the place where the Reformation first broke out in the sixteenth century!

"Stellenbosch reminded me more of Calvin's Geneva even than it reminded me of Heidelberg. For in Stellenbosch, as in Geneva, the pursuit of knowledge went hand in hand with a church and civic discipline which in twenty-five years made Geneva the purest spot in Europe.

"I had lunch with the Dean of the Reformed Seminary in Stellenbosch, and I was then shown both the Seminary and the Dean's own church. Ds. van Wyk, related to the great Andrew Murray by blood, showed me over his church -- and spoke of the discipline of the Reformed Church in South Africa. From an earlier day, members of the church had been buried beneath the floor of the church -- so that an added holiness pervades the building each day of worship, as the worshippers today quite literally stand upon the graves of their forefathers. Also, nothing remotely approaching images is allowed in the architecture of the building -- so that stained-glass windows depicting human forms are disallowed.

"When Rev. van Wyk told me of the discipline of the Reformed Church, and how each Minister must visit each church member at least once every year (even though the membership runs over the thousand mark), I was reminded of the Scottish Church in its sterner and greater days. Both Ministers and Elders must visit the church members in South Africa. Discipline of church members is actually carried out; and a succession of visits, if necessary, is paid by the Pastor and an accompanying Elder to an erring member -- seeking to lead him to penitence and restoration.

"But perhaps the greatest feature of Reformed Church life in South Africa, is its annual Pentecost meetings. These begin with Ascension Sunday, and go on for the following ten days until the arrival of Whitsunday. People are invited by their Ministers to hear the infallible Word of God, before the Scriptures are read on Sundays. Thousands of people throughout the land attend these Pentecost meetings, and hundreds declare for Christ. The message of Pentecost is proclaimed. The Holy Spirit is honoured.

"Andrew Murray's well-known writings on the Holy Spirit are still the standard for many Reformed people in South Africa. The South African Reformed Church is opposed to the tongues movement. But it is not afraid to preach about the true blessing of Pentecost.

"This feature of Reformed church life in South Africa each year, should be publicised abroad. I doubt if such a spiritual phenomena could be found anywhere else in the world. Here is a people, the Afrikaner nation, numbering just two million souls out of a total White population of 3 1/2 million -- dedicated to the belief in an infallible Bible; of strongly Calvinistic leanings; with widespread emphasis on discipline at both ministerial and lay levels. It holds annual ten-day Pentecost meetings, where the results challenge the entire Reformed Church throughout the land.

"Such a Church, with such an emphasis... could become the spearhead -- for national revival through a revived church. South Africa could well become the key to African evangelistic expansion; and the Reformed Church of South Africa could well be the key to South African revival.

"If keen overseas evangelical Ministers or Laymen could make their way to Stellenbosch during these ten days of Pentecost meetings, it could furnish them with inspiration and challenge them to go home and seek to reproduce in their own country what they had seen in South Africa. Participation through an interpreter, or in English, would inspire them further.

"Not only the inspirational side of the Reformed Church's activities, but its missionary outreach and its theological and university training is of first-rate importance. Very large sums of money are annually given to promote missionary work among the Black Africans. The bias of theological training is very strongly conservative and very scholarly. Students are rooted and grounded in the infallible Word of God. Ties with Holland are weakening and not as intimate as they once were. It would appear that South Africa is much more conservative, on the whole, than its Dutch Motherland.

"One practical step which could spread the fire and the scholarly grasp of Scripture of the South African Reformed Church, would be the invitation of key men to lecture and to preach overseas. Dr. Willie Marais, for example -- sometimes called the Billy Graham of South Africa -- could well grace any convention platform anywhere in Australia. Likewise, Rev. Malan of Krugersdorp, and Rev. Cruywagen of Leopard's Vlei. Dr. Swart of Johannesburg, Dr. Vorster of Cape Town, Dr. Geldenhuys of Pretoria's University Church (with the pastoral oversight of two thousand students), and Professor Dr. du Toit (Head of the Reformed Theological Seminary of Pretoria) -- could well lecture at any of our Theological Colleges. By having these men of sound evangelical conviction visit our shores, for example -- it could stimulate us as Evangelicals, and encourage interchange of Preachers between the two countries.

"Of course, not every country would look with sympathy on such a move -- because of South Africa's involved race problems. Indeed, the Reformed Church of America has a traditional attitude of hostility and opposition to South Africa in this regard. At the same time, visiting South African speakers could come -- not to air their government's policy, but to preach the Gospel.

"It is significant that everyone I have met who has actually spent some time in South Africa as a tourist, has invariably become more sympathetic to that country's problems. But my interest is especially in the potential for revival which I found in South Africa.

"Here, I must say that South Africa shows more real potential than any other country I have ever visited. Its very isolation has tended to keep it protected to some extent from the inroads of liberalism (which always militates against Scriptural revival because of its false view of Scripture). Even the outworking in national affairs of the [South African] Reformed Church's attitude to Scripture, is an argument in favour of its adherence to Scripture.

"The Rev. Dick Begbie of the Evangelical Church of England in South Africa -- Protestant, Reformed and Evangelical -- is a retired Colonel of the British Army who went to settle in South Africa. In a written statement, Begbie declared that it was not the English-speaking forty percent but the Afrikaans-speaking sixty percent of the White population of South Africa which held the serious view that righteousness alone exalteth a nation.

"It was the Afrikaans section of the nation -- those of the Reformed persuasion -- who were the real hope of South Africa's future. This statement from one who was a Colonel in the British Army before being ordained, speaks volumes for the strength and moral stability of the Reformed Church of South Africa -- which is the real backbone of the Afrikaans people.

"Unpalatable as it is for us who are English-speaking to hear such things as this, plus the added fact that it is not the English-speaking but the Afrikaans students who are securing the top places in school examinations in South Africa, the blunt truth remains that a liberal theology produces a liberal discipline. And a liberal discipline soon degenerates into a license which spurns laborious tasks, and seeks the easy way out.

"I repeat, the future of South Africa as a nation is with the sober-minded sixty percent of the Whites who are traditionally wedded to the belief that righteousness alone exalteth a nation -- the Afrikaners, who embrace the conservative view of the Book which preaches this austere yet salutary truth. I look to see revival in South Africa come from this Afrikaans-speaking segment of the South African Church. I came back to Australia more convinced than ever -- that if we wish to see revival in our country, we must believe the Word of God and honour the Holy Ghost." Thus, Dr. Whitney, after his last visit to South Africa.

And now I, Francis Nigel Lee -- born in Britain but raised and educated in South Africa -- am relinquishing my professorial work in the United States to go to the uttermost end of the earth to train Calvinistic Preachers in the vast world-continent of Australia.

At a theological conference in Georgia where we were both co-speakers back in 1976, Dr. Richard Gaffin (Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia), kindly referred to me as "the prototype of the new international Calvinist of the future."

By that I think Dr. Gaffin meant I try to combine the best of French, German, Swiss, Dutch, Scottish, American and South African Calvinism -- in my own personal doctrine and practice. It is indeed true that I have been much helped especially by the Frenchman Calvin; by the Germans Olevianus and Ursinus; by the Dutchmen Kuyper, Dooyeweerd and Van Ruler; by the Americans Edwards, Van Til and Rushdoony; and by the South Africans Potgieter, Stoker, Kock and Venter!

In conclusion then, I would like to suggest my own program for the Calvinistic takeover of the whole world. It hails from my fusion of Calvinian predestinarianism and of Kuyperian cultural philosophy and of Van Tilian Trinitarianism and of Stokerian structuralism and of Edwardian eschatology and of Rushdoonyan reconstructionism.

First and foremost, I believe we need to study the Bible -- before developing a doctrine of science. We need to start with the Triune God -- the real Former of culture. We must start with God's aseitas or independence -- yet recognise He is not a Deus otiosus or a lazy God. He is the transcendent Creator -- yet also the immanent Maintainer. He is the Creator Who began everything -- and Who now , culturally, forms everything. He is: the Father, alias the Creator and Maintainer of all nature as the raw material for man's culture; the Son, alias the Recreator and Redeemer of all nature and of human culture (Proverbs 8 and Psalm 19); the Holy Spirit, alias the Completer and Ruler of all nature and culture (Psalm 33 and 104).

This is the Triune God. The Author of all things is the Father. The Giver of every good gift is the Son, the Mediator, the Logos. And the consummative Spirit of both nature and culture is the One Who created the world -- in order to make it; to make it through man; through the actions of man as the image of this Triune God.

I believe we must next move on from the Triune God -- to the unfallen Adam as His image. Adam was God's image in every respect -- spiritually, materially, culturally; in holiness or wholesomeness; in knowledge; and in righteousness or Law-keeping. Adam was a law abiding person in respect of the cosmic implications of all Ten Commandments. The covenant of works was established with him. The cultural mandate was enjoined to him. This was imperative, and comprehensive.

Man was and is the dresser and the keeper; the developer and protector of all things; the custodian of the gold and the onyx-stone. He is the protagonist of mining and adorning; the name-giver to the animals and to his wife; the one who cares; the one who develops science and poetry; the one who needed to multiply in order to be able to "make" the earth further through his descendants; the one entitled to ultimate cultural reward, eternal life and the eternal Sabbath, after his cultural labours in this life where he enters into the consummation.

I believe we next need to understand the teaching of the Bible regarding the Second Adam, Jesus Christ. His coming was already predicted in the Protevangelion -- which says that the Seed of the woman, our Saviour, would crush the serpent's head. This has cultural implications. Christ is the divine Logos and the human logos. He enlightened the Canaanites. Calvin tells us in his commentary on John 1 and John 8, and in Book II of his Institutes, and in his commentary on Genesis 4, that Jabal-Jubal-Tubalcain and the Cainites could only achieve what they did through the work of Christ -- and by His Spirit enlightening them without regenerating them.

Christ it is Who is the Ark of the nature-culture covenant. The Old Testament theophanies and the wisdom literature all point to Him. His earthly mission itself had cultural implications. His heavenly session, after His ascension into heaven, has further cultural implications.

Indeed, at the time of His second coming or parousia from heaven, He will return to bring about the apokatastasis toon pantoon -- the reconstitution (and the consummation) of all things.

Next, I believe we need to understand the teaching of Scripture relating to the Holy Spirit -- as the "Engineer" of man's cultural development. He is the Author of the "life spirit" given to the unfallen Adam -- one of the "Us" in Genesis 1:26. He is the Ruach hayyom, the Spirit of the day, in Genesis 3; the Spirit Who developed whatever was valuable in Cainite culture (according to John Calvin). He is the Spirit Who strove with man before the flood (Genesis 6); the Spirit of understanding and of art (Exodus 31); the regenerative and task-enabling Spirit (Ezekiel 37). He is the poured-out cosmic Spirit of wind and fire and rain (of Acts 2). He is the comprehensive and fruitful Spirit (of Galatians 5). He is the gift-giving Spirit (of First Corinthians 12). In short, He is the cosmic; the all-embracing; the heavenly Spirit -- of re-creation. Yes, He is the Spirit of culture!

We need to understand the teaching of God's Word as it relates to the lost sinner -- totally depraved, yet still cultural. Cain was a city-builder; Jabal, a cattle-raiser and an architect; Jubal, a musician; Tubal-Cain, a metallurgist; Nimrod, a hunter, imperialist, and a tower builder; Terah, an idol-manufacturer; Esau, a hunter; and Pharoah, a constructor of a treasure city. Aaron crafted the golden calf; the Philistines were metal-workers; Hiram Abiff was an architect; Sennacherib a great soldier; Nebuchadnezzar an emperor. Then there were the great cultural nations of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, Greece and Rome. All of this needs to be studied in the Bible -- in the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nahum, Luke, Acts, First Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Titus, and especially, the Book of Revelation. Important heathen persons, such as Cyrus, need to be studied. So too: the technique of idol-manufacturing; antichrist himself; and the false church. Indeed we also need to reflect as to whether there will be any culture in hell or not!

I believe we then need to take a look at what Scripture says about regenerate man as the renewed homo colens -- man the cultivator. Adam was an agriculturalist before and after the fall. Eve was the mother of all living, and the name-giver of her children. Seth and Enosh were involved in cultic worship -- i.e. worship using man-developed cultural forms. Noah was a shipbuilder, a nature-preserver, and a wine-farmer.

In Genesis nine, we find the renewal of the cultural mandate and the expansion of political governments -- as a high and a holy and a godly task. Job and Elihu were philosophers. Jacob was a geneticist and a cattle-breeder. Joseph was a statesman and an economist. Moses was a national leader and a writer and a lawgiver. Aaron was a diplomat. Miriam was a poetess. Bezaleel and Oholiab were artists. Joshua was a soldier/statesman. Caleb was a spy. The Judges were politicians and Hannah was a poetess.

David was a poet, a soldier, and a statesman. Solomon was a philosopher, king, temple builder and poet. Ethan, Heman and the children of Korah were singers. Joash, Hezekiah and Josiah were rulers and cultural reformers. Amos was a farmer. Daniel was a statesman. Esther was a queen. Ezra was a lawyer. And Nehemiah was a governor.

Jesus was a carpenter; Luke, a physician; Paul, a scholar and a tent-maker; and Zenas, a lawyer. Among the callings in First Corinthians seven, we find Christian slaves, Christian freemen, Christian married people, Christian bachelors and spinsters, and Christian widows and widowers. All of them regenerate, whether they ate or whether they drank or whatever they did, First Corinthians 10:31, they were and are to do all things to the glory of God.

Next, I believe we need to understand the teaching of the Bible as regards future cultural development, its eschatological pattern and calling. First of all, diesseits, in this world here and now, there is to be a future subjugation and an ongoing extension of godly man's control over the entire earth to God's glory. First Corinthians 15; Ephesians 1; Colossians 1; Matthew 28:19 -- all linked up with Genesis 1:26-28. The cultural achievements of the lost are to be exploited, and expanded and differently applied by us (the saved). Thus Noah inherited the ante-diluvian achievements; Melchizedek used the goods of the king of Sodom; Jacob annexed Laban's herds; Joseph and Moses utilised the treasures of Egypt; Joshua occupied the land of Canaan; Solomon used the cedars of Lebanon for building the temple, etc. Isaiah 27, 28, 54 and 60; Daniel 2 and 12; Amos 9; Acts 15; Micah 4; Revelation 17 and 18.

Moreover, the elect are called upon by Almighty God to do precisely this. Isaiah 11, 35, 40, 52 and 62; Ezekiel 36 & 37 and 40 through 48; Matthew 5:5; James 3; Revelation 3:18, etc. All nations are thus predestined to become cosmically-cultural Christian peoples in this life, before the second coming. Psalms 72 & 87 and 96 through 98; Isaiah 2, 11, 49, 65 and 66; Haggai 2; Zechariah 2 and 9; Malachi 1:11 and 4:2-3 etc. But when we leave this life and go to heaven, this Christ-honouring culture is expanded even on the other side of the grave (jenseits). For in glory there will be cultural singing. Revelation 4 through 7, 14, 15 and 19. There will also be cultural worship. Revelation 4 through 6 and 15. There will be cultural adornment. Revelation 6 and 19. Indeed, there will be reigning. Revelation 20.

The parousia of Jesus Christ will involve a judgment over and a reconstitution of all of the world's cultures. Isaiah 24; Revelation 18; and First Peter 3. The new earth will be inaugurated forever. There will be an eschatological fusion of the heavenly life and the "new earthly life" -- as the consummation of our this-earthly life, to the glory of God. It will last forever and ever. There will be cultural joy, service and rulership. Romans 8; Second Peter 3; Revelation 2 and 3; Hebrews 11 and 12. There will be cosmos-embracing human law keeping unto all eternity. Revelation 21 and 22:14-15. Indeed, all of it will be from, through and unto -- the Triune God! For our baptism will then have been consummated -- dynamically, and everlastingly.

Well now, so much for the general biblical outline that I think needs to govern us. We also need a strategy -- as we move forward toward this goal.

I think the strategy needs to centre around two main poles. First, subduing the entire earth to God's glory in all that we do. Second, discipling all of the nations, and declaring to them all the counsel of God -- teaching them to subdue the entire earth to God's glory in all that they do, as well as teaching them to communicate the gospel to every man.

I believe that in doing this, we need to move from the common sense level just outlined -- to the theoretical level. We need to study each science. We need to start with the study of mathematics through geology under the inorganic sciences, and then to proceed down through the other natural sciences to the cultural sciences and then to the philosophical sciences and lastly to the theological sciences. In each science, as we deal with it, we need to explain first its practical importance; then to give a historical account of the development of that science; and last, chiefly on the basis of empirical research, we need to indicate the theoretical structure of each science -- i.e. the triune nature of the practical, historical and doctrinal approach to each science.

Now, I'm not saying that all sciences always develop in this order -- from the practical through the historical to the theoretical. Indeed, spontaneous or intuitive theoretical formulations have sometimes stimulated historical research -- which has resulted in firm discoveries of much practical importance. But I am saying that the Biblical and the logical way to study any science, is to proceed from the practical through the historical to the theoretical. Genesis 1:1-28; Genesis 2:19-20; Genesis 4:16-22; etc. I think we need to do this starting first with numbers and space and movement as the terrain investigated by mathematics; then with the men of mathematics as the ones who investigate that terrain and the manner in which it is investigated; and next to apply this approach to all of the sciences as we move up from mathematics through theology.

In point of fact, we need to start with the eternal Triune God above the time barrier in eternity and then, under Him, we need to see creation in time and with time -- creation embracing everything that has been made; creation lasting as long, lineally, as does the world itself. We need to see that God created man in His image -- in time, and gave His great dominion charter to man: to subdue the earth and the sea and the sky. This means to subdue the earth meaningfully and epistemologically; to realise it at the common sense and experiential level (Genesis 2:15). It means to analyse it at the specialised scientific-knowledge level (Genesis 2:19-20). And finally, it means to synthesise all this -- to bring it all together at the general scientific knowledge level.

In analysing in the sciences, we have what I shall call the analytical sciences -- man's systematisation of God's total revelations in scripture and in nature about functions and things governed by the inorganic sciences such as mathematics, surveying, mechanics, engineering, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and geology, etc. For God has told man to be lord over all the earth.

Second, we need to analyse the animals and the plants in the organic sciences (micro biology, bacteriology, botany, agriculture, zoology, animal husbandry, veterinary science, animal psychology, etc.). For man is also to be lord over the plants and the animals.

Third, man is to systematise the humanitarian sciences (medicine, human psychology, logic, history, linguistics, sociology, economics, aesthetics, music and art, law, politics and ethics). For all men are the co-images of God.

And last, man is to analyse the theological sciences. They are sciences sui generis (bibliology, ecclesiology, dogmatology, diaconology, missiology and all of their sub-branches). For man is the image of God, Ecclesiastes 12:13 and Genesis 1:27-28.

So then, all of these natural sciences dealing with man's relationship to the inorganic the organic sub-human creatures; man's endeavours in the cultural sciences dealing with man himself; and man's undertaking of the theological sciences dealing with his relation to God -- form yet one more trinity reflecting the Ontological Trinity.

After this analysis has been undertaken, we reach the third stage -- that of synthesis. Realise; analyse; and synthesise. Here we reassemble, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, man's general scientific knowledge in the realm of philosophy (the science of the sciences of creation); and in the realm of theology (the science of the Creator to the extent to which it has pleased Him to reveal Himself to man).

All of this then becomes an educational instrument at the disposal of godly man -- in promoting the coming of the kingdom down through the future centuries. Indeed, it will also be preserved forever, on the new earth -- for all time!

Now when we promote God's kingdom in this way at the common sense level, and also at the scientific level (through both culture and evangelism) -- we need to see that we are disobedient Christians if we have not been trying to subdue the whole earth, the whole sea and the whole sky (in our businesses, in our home life and in our national society) exclusively to the glory of the Triune God.

We are disobedient Christians if we have not been involved in attempting to christianise all nations everywhere -- including the Russians and the Red Chinese and the North Vietnamese just as much as the American Indians and the Mexican Americans and the American Jews. We are disobedient Christians if we have just been sitting on the fence waiting for the second coming of Christ. For God has clearly revealed that He would have us to subdue the earth and to convert the nations -- rather than to sit and to speculate about the times and the seasons of the second coming.

Let us then admit that we have been disobedient Christians! But let us, right now, also resolve to obey God in the future -- for Christ's sake. We have the power to do this, the power of the indwelling omnipotent Spirit of God. At Pentecost, the Church received that power -- when the Holy Spirit came down. He gave and gives power to be Christ's witnesses in all that we think and do -- both here at home, and even unto the uttermost part of the earth.

There is much idolatry to be overcome, as we do this. The idolatry at Ephesus, for example, was great. But it was overcome by the Christians' uncompromising worship of the risen Christ alone. The Ephesian Christians knew that the temples of Diana would ultimately crumble under the spiritual battering ram of the Christian Church. Matthew 16:18. The Christians knew that this would happen -- as the little flock of Jesus slowly expanded into the Spirit-empowered army of the living God, and became His holy and impregnable fortress.

Widespread public pilfering would gradually cease in Ephesus -- as the Roman Empire became more and more christianised. Later still, it would expand even more -- as the Puritan work ethic began to dominate early Protestant society in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, the United States and South Africa.

Christians today must be able to ward off the attacks of the devil and his agents. They must actually take the offensive. They are commanded to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With a secularistic society no longer optimistic as to its ultimate success -- humanist society more and more torn apart by doubt and despair -- today is perhaps the most favourable time of all since the French Revolution itself for us to launch a Christian counter-attack worldwide -- and to regain control of Western culture and to reprogramme the direction of future history -- Christward!

At present, between Christ's ascension and His second coming, the living Saviour is expanding His human dominion. We Christians are called by God to proclaim an anti-nihilistic cultural optimism. We are to attempt nothing less than the reduction of every facet of the culture of the whole world to the recognition of the all-embracing Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the implication of both the dominion charter and the great commission -- as Calvin himself so clearly taught.

This will involve, of course, the evangelisation of the whole world and our own personal engagement in this. Together with this, it will also involve our working for the recognition of the Ten Commandments as the supreme standard not only in the private lives of Christians but also in the public affairs of all nations -- including the United States, the Soviet Union and Red China.

The gospel of Jesus goes forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer. The Christians overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. The everlasting gospel is preached to every nation and kindred and tongue and people that dwells on the earth -- until all nations shall come and worship Jehovah-Jesus.

Let us then evangelise all that we can -- condemning sin and upholding God's Commandments; preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit; preaching indiscriminately to friends and foreigners; commoners and kings; preaching to the entire man in terms of the dominion charter and man's daily work; testifying uncompromisingly in public and in private; patiently and enthusiastically enjoining all-out dedication to the total kingship of Christ; and confidently labouring in the knowledge that the risen Saviour, through His power flowing from His heavenly throne into His Spirit-filled Church here on earth, shall overcome all opposition. By and through the Church's powerful gospel-preaching and consistent living, Christ shall yet reduce His enemies to a footstool under His feet.

The doom theologians have pessimistically made a major contribution to the state of defeatism of many of the present-day people of God. These theologians have regarded the antichrist as a powerful end time personal potentate and one-world dictator -- who either all but destroys the Church of Christ, or who alternatively enslaves all of the people of the world.

But, such, I believe, is not the teaching of the infallible Word of God. Indeed, the many "whomsoever" texts of the Bible themselves tend to militate against this position. There is no scriptural warrant in assuming that the lost will always numerically predominate over the saved. For the Word of God itself clearly prophesies that this very earth of ours shall yet become full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

God did not create His earth in vain. He formed it to be inhabited; to be subdued; to be christianised; and to be filled with the knowledge of His glory. This teaching of Scripture, then, is the ultimate ground of our confidence. For we are to pray each day, as enjoined by the Lord Jesus Himself: "Thy kingdom come! For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory -- forever!"

Twenty-five lectures ago, we commenced looking at the faith of the fathers. We started with Adam in the Old Testament. Then, we went through the Apocrypha and the New Testament. Next, we surveyed the early Church Patristics down through the Protestant Reformation. And finally, we traced the development of subsequent Calvinism -- through Holland, and down to South Africa today.

That great Afrikaner Professor F.J.M. Potgieter urged me to go to America fifteen years ago. He pointed out that many of these cultural treasures that we have imbibed by God's grace in South Africa, are now concealed to many of the English-speaking people in the world.

Well, humbly, I would now propose to export this faith of the fathers from Adam's thought through Afrikaner thought -- to export it again from America, through Australia, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. With apologies to Totius: "I am the White child of South Africa; trekking further to America; and then, yet further, to Australia. Trek on! How far? As far as God would have me trek!"

I believe that the Calvinistic words of the last verse of the South African National anthem, composed by the Calvinist Rev. M.L. de Villiers and the great poet C.J. Langenhoven, are appropriate at this point. Let South African Calvinists and American Calvinists export to Australia and everywhere else whatever they have to offer. Let each nation borrow from the other -- and give to the other, in return. Let us together, as those that love God, go forward as one body -- undertaking the Christian conquest of all the earth for our great Saviour King!

In the words of the South African national anthem:

"Op U Almag vas vertrouend, het ons vadere gebou.
Skenk ook ons die krag, O Here -- om te handhaaf en te hou;
Dat die erwe van ons vaders vir ons kinders erwe bly --
knegte van die Allerhoogste, teen die hele w�reld vry!
Soos ons vadere vertrou het, leer ook ons vertrou, O Heer --
met ons land en met ons nasie, sal dit wel wees: God regeer!"

Let me attempt an approximate translation of the above into English. In closing, may these words then be an inspiration to Calvinists everywhere -- so that God's true people may triumph from sea to sea, and from the rivers of Ethiopia even to the very ends of the earth!

"In Jehovah God Almighty did our fathers safely trust.
Give us too, O Lord, the power -- to keep building firm and just.
May the treasures of our fathers for our children treasures be!
We are slaves of God Almighty in the world, and so we're free!
As our ancestors have trusted, Lord, teach us to trust Thee still.
For then Thou wilt rule our nation, and we'll gladly do Thy will!"



END


Calvinisme en die ondergang van die ou S.A.


97/11/08
Soos Rev. Nigel Lee in "From Adam to the Afrikaner" oor die ontstaan en oorsprong van die Afrikaner tereg aantoon is dit 'n volk met noue konneksies met die reformasie; Calvyn, Luther, Zwingli. Ons kan dit 'n Calvinistiese volk in die wyere betekenis van die woord noem. Die vraag ontstaan egter in die post-1994 'New SA'; Hoe is dit moontlik dat dinge verkeerd geloop het? Sonder 'n skoot te skiet is daar oorgegee en staan ons vandag onder 'n goddelose bestel. Was ons volk werklik so Calvinisties in die 80's toe die aanslag 'n hoogtepunt bereik het? Was daar tog dinge verkeerd in ons volk se lewensuitkyk? Was dit 'n Bybelse-w�reldbeskouing waarvolgens geleef en besluite geneem is?

Om hierop antwoord te gee moet ons miskien kyk na die geskiedenis, alreeds so vroeg as van die ZAR. Paul Kruger was 'n Gereformeerde staatsman en het hom ook baie laat lei deur die Calvinistiese invloed wat die Anti-revolusion�re Party (Groen van Prinsterer) en later Abraham Kuyper (Vrye Universiteit) in Nederland gehad het. Tog het die ZAR se staatsbestel nooit so ver gekom as die in Nederland nie. Korupsie (veral oor konsesesies) is nooit volledig hokgeslaan nie. Die Uitlanderprobleem is benader uit 'n humanistiese-selfgesentreerdheid waar die geld wat die Uitlanders tot die staatskas by gedra het as te belangrik geag is. Die Burgers het immers hulle plase (in die goudvelde) teen fenomenale bedrae aan die Uitlanders verkoop. Daar was 'n gebrek aan insig om die Uitanders 'n aparte gebied met selfbestuur toe te ken. (Sien voorstelle van Chamberlain 1896 en Leyds in 1902). Alhoewel die oorlog onvermydelik was, verklaar die ZAR oorlog in 1899 (Was dit Calvinisties / Bybels?)

Met die nederlaag in 1902 was dit moeilik om te verklaar hoekom die Boere die oorlog verloor het. 'Het die HERE dan nie aan ons kant gestry nie?'. 'n Manier om dit te beskou was uit die pe�tistiese of geestelike manier. Gods oordeel kom eers aan die einde van dae. Ons moet maar hier op aarde geduldig wees en die ander wang keer. "A true spiritual man is someone who gets stepped on for Christ" - D. Chilton. Dit het die populariteit van die NG Kerk laat toeneem bo die van die Gereformeerde Kerk. Die aandag is gerig op die siel en die regverdigheid daarvan. Daar was geen oog meer vir die taak van Gen 1, 2 en 'n Bybelse w�reldbeskouing nie.

Hierdie tendens het bly voortduur alhoewel daar in 1910 met Uniewording, 1948 en 1961 met Republiekwording gepoog is om vryheid vir die Afrikaner te herwin en die vergeesteliking terug te druk. Die beleid van afsonderlike ontwikkeling het gestagneer in die 70's onder Voster. Dit het net nog 'n imperiale beleid geword wat op oorheersing neergekom het. Die Swartvraagstuk het die Uitlandervraagstuk geword en weereens is nie aan Volkstate gedink nie. Die oorlog is weer, alhoewel hierdie keer bloedloos (deels a.g.v. verraad en deels as gevolg van die pe�tistiese houding dat die stryd slegs geestelik is), verloor. Dieselfde vrae van toe is nou weer ter sprake 'Hoe kan die HERE hierdie bestel toelaat?'. Daar sal ook in retrospek teruggekyk moet word en die foute van die imperiale laaste klomp jare raakgesien moet word en berou gedoen moet word oor 'n nie Bybelse-w�reldbeskouing.

Die vergeesteliking en selfs 'n totale rugkeer op Christus is nou sterker as ooit. Dink maar aan die opmerkings van kerkmense: "ons is pelgrims op hierdie aarde", "gaan jy/ons Hemel toe?" en gebede wat begin met "Liewe Jesus". Van die Bybel se "Onse Vader" en Calvyn se "Aan God die eer" kom niks tereg nie. Ons volk kan nie op die stadium asook die afgelope 30 jaar roem daarop dat ons Calvinisties (miskien nog wel konserwatief) is nie. In die verband kan liberales ook nie Calvyn verwyd vir die gruweldade van die onlangse verlede nie. Calvyn het orde en doelgerigtheid hoog aangeslaan en gewys dat ware vryheid uit Gods geregtigheid voortkom. As ons (individu, gesin en volk) dus Sy wil doen (soos vervat in die Bybel) kan ons Sy verbondse�n daarop verwag.

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