THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

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 SouthAfrica. In a written statement, Begbie declared that it was not the English-speaking forty percentbut the Afrikaans-speaking sixty percent of the White population of South Africa which held theserious view that righteousness alone exalteth a nation."It was the Afrikaans section of the nation -- those of the Reformed persuasion -- who were the realhope of South Africa's future. This statement from one who was a Colonel in the British Armybefore being ordained, speaks volumes for the strength and moral stability of the Reformed Churchof 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 factthat it is not the English-speaking but the Afrikaans students who are securing the top places inschool examinations in South Africa, the blunt truth remains that a liberal theology produces aliberal discipline. And a liberal discipline soon degenerates into a license which spurns laborioustasks, and seeks the easy way out."I repeat, the future of South Africa as a nation is with the sober-minded sixty percent of theWhites who are traditionally wedded to the belief that righteousness alone exalteth a nation -- theAfrikaners, who embrace the conservative view of the Book which preaches this austere yetsalutary truth. I look to see revival in South Africa come from this Afrikaans-speaking segment ofthe South African Church. I came back to Australia more convinced than ever -- that if we wish tosee 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 -- amrelinquishing my professorial work in the United States to go to the uttermost end of the earth totrain 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. RichardGaffin (Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia), kindlyreferred 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 isindeed true that I have been much helped especially by the Frenchman Calvin; by the GermansOlevianus and Ursinus; by the Dutchmen Kuyper, Dooyeweerd and Van Ruler; by the AmericansEdwards, 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 thewhole world. It hails from my fusion of Calvinian predestinarianism and of Kuyperian culturalphilosophy and of Van Tilian Trinitarianism and of Stokerian structuralism and of Edwardianeschatology 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'saseitas or independence -- yet recognise He is not a Deus otiosus or a lazy God. He is thetranscendent 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 Maintainerof all nature as the raw material for man's culture; the Son, alias the Recreator and Redeemer of all