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

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So the British then hit upon the next best programme. Seeing they could not episcopalise theAfrikaners, they tried to turn them at least into English-speaking Presbyterians!For the English suddenly realised that Calvinist Presbyterianism was the dominant religion of bothScotland and South Africa. Accordingly, they then imported hordes of English-speakingPresbyterian Ministers from Scotland -- and shoved them off onto the South African pulpits.This was highly resented. For up until the British occupation of the Cape, the South African peoplehad been used to having their own Sessions of Elders nominate whom they wanted to call to betheir Preacher. Indeed, such nominations also needed to be approved by the Congregations. Buthere was a foreign government now drastically cramming Preachers down the throats of the people-- without even asking them whether they wanted those Preachers. The Preachers from Scotland --though Calvinist -- could not, of course, speak one single word of Afrikaans.At first, they started preaching in English from the pulpits. At one stage, more than half of all thePreachers in the South African Reformed pulpits were English-preaching Scots Presbyterians -- andless than half were either Afrikaans-speaking South African trained in Holland, or Dutch Preachers.From 1860 onward, these Preachers began to be trained locally at Stellenbosch ReformedTheological Seminary (where I too received my own ministerial training).But what the English did not bargain for, and what actually happened, was the very opposite ofwhat the British wanted to happen. It had been their desire that the English-speaking ScottishPresbyterian Preachers would persuade their Afrikaans-speaking South African audiences in thepew to abandon the Afrikaans language and accept English. The plan back fired. Instead, theEnglish-speaking Scottish Preachers began to learn Afrikaans. To the horror of the English, mostbegan to preach the Gospel of Calvinism in Afrikaans -- which they then learned, as the languageof their parishioners!So today, if you look at the Preachers in the Reformed Churches of South Africa -- along with thevan der Merwes and the van der Westhuizens, you also find the MacGregors and the Robertsonsand the MacFarlanes and especially the Murrays.Of the many preachers in Reformed pulpits in South Africa today, scores of them bear this name ofMurray. They are direct descendants of Rev. Andrew Murray Sr., father of the great Dr. AndrewMurray. The elder Murray came from Scotland to South Africa -- to settle there, and to preach theGospel. Thus, at this point, we find the absorption of this Scottish element into Afrikanerdom.But the dissatisfaction continued. The roof finally blew off, when in 1836 -- as a result of the workof William Wilberforce in England -- slavery was abolished throughout what was then called theBritish Empire. There was an imperial proclamation, requiring slaves to be liberated. Although thisproclamation in South Africa made provision for the monetary compensation of the slave-ownerwho was by no means always compensated, the fact is that the abolition of slavery was forced uponthe slave-owners without their being consulted. Sadder still, very few slave-owners received anycompensation for the loss of their slaves -- even though they had been promised that this would beso. Saddest of all, the "liberated" slaves themselves were thereby also "liberated" from theirChristian masters -- and thus exposed to the enslaving power of primitive neo-paganism andsophisticated British liberalism!This final difficulty made many Afrikaners explode. They decided to abandon the Western Capeand the British in the southwestern corner of South Africa -- and to trek even more northward intothe centre of South Africa, and even more toward the east. Here again, we find in the biasedEncyclopaedia Britannica a famous quotation from the Afrikaner woman Anna Steenkamp. She
said: "The British have placed our slaves on an equal footing with Christians -- contrary to theLaws of God and the natural distinctions of race and religion. It is intolerable for any decentChristian to bow down beneath such a yoke. This is why we withdraw from the British in CapeTown -- in order to preserve our doctrines in purityl"You may find a reference to that in James Mitchener's book on the People of the Covenant. Butbear in mind that these people had often falsely been promised compensation for the forcibleemancipation of their slaves -- many of whom didn't want to be emancipated anyway. The slaveownershad been financially ruined by the British. In other respects too, the Afrikaners were fed upwith the British. They had already had their language suppressed; their Roman-Dutch CalvinisticLaws challenged; their churches invaded; and their children Anglicised in the schools. Now manyof them had also been ruined financially. They had now had enough -- so off they trekked.Let me read to you again that poem with which I concluded the last lecture. In the light of thesegrievances, it will perhaps take on a new meaning to you: "The White child treks into South Africa;treks on into the land both wide and far; as far as he can see until the night. And farther still, whenthe next dawn gives light. Trek on, we're not yet far enough! Let's trek! How far? As far as Godwould have us trek!"Trekking in South AfricaAs they trekked on and on, they went and settled in the beautiful and fertile south-east coastalregion. There they established the Republic of Natalia -- a Calvinist White Republic. Theynegotiated for that land, and got it by treaty with the approval of the powerful Black Zulu nation.Now the Zulu nation had been the scourge of all of the other Black tribes. It had been butcheringand annihilating one Black tribe after another -- and driving them further and further south towardthe western part of South Africa. Finally, the Zulus themselves arrived in what is now the northernportion of southeastern South Africa.So Piet Retief, the Afrikaner leader -- together with some seventy other men -- went to the Zuluking's headquarters, and sat down at his invitation to sign a Peace Treaty. But when a signal wasgiven, the Zulu king had all of the Whites murdered -- even while signing the Peace Treaty. Alsomurdered by the Zulu's were all of the non-Whites who were with the Whites -- who were
Page 1 and 2: THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERSA Brief His
Page 3 and 4: God richly bless the following lect
Page 5 and 6: There have always been, and always
Page 7 and 8: But the only one they both appeal t
Page 9 and 10: Now Zuidema was a very great Dutch
Page 11 and 12: Dutch churches at the Synod of Dord
Page 13 and 14: station -- to help the Dutch ships
Page 15 and 16: It is a country dedicated to freedo
Page 17 and 18: 1760 -- there was more and more dis
Page 19: with the Dutch. Many moved farther
Page 23 and 24: financed by White money. It is buil
Page 25 and 26: Famous Boer Generals, left to right
Page 27 and 28: Three: Unannihilated: the Resurrect
Page 29 and 30: (who had arrived in the country onl
Page 31 and 32: of success.I may add that White Sou
Page 33 and 34: General Beyers felt that those text
Page 35 and 36: Balfour Declaration. The gist of it
Page 37 and 38: Africa; treks on into the land both
Page 39 and 40: Four: The Eschatology of Victory in
Page 41 and 42: ide -- to use the instrumentality o
Page 43 and 44: Christian National Calvinist Public
Page 45 and 46: through constitutional process it h
Page 47 and 48: I guess the best way to describe Sm
Page 49 and 50: He was followed after his assassina
Page 51 and 52: So the Scots came. I am going to sp
Page 53 and 54: the Reformed Church in South Africa
Page 55 and 56: ook on Hebrews. But his greatest wr
Page 57 and 58: At that point, Du Plessis enquired
Page 59 and 60: Yet quite apart from this high view
Page 61 and 62: One last point. There is a tremendo
Page 63 and 64: African Republic in 1902, the Cape
Page 65 and 66: One of the most important Calvinist
Page 67 and 68: Pellissier, who wrote on music and
Page 69 and 70: perspective -- even while he minist
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ever encountered by the Whites in S
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Now the United States does not need
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majority of the White citizens are
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Now you will not find in any of Sto
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Finally, Stoker argues that the so-
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This then brings Stoker to another
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This Brummer just referred to, is a
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Man was to rejoice in this nature (
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enhanced. For, in the present, man
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he declared, riddled with the ungod
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Van der Waal is a very brilliant So
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World War II when he was hiding fro
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The Professor of Philosophy -- or I
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glory.There are also Christian psyc
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Then there are Christian criminolog
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Massachusetts at Gordon- Conwell fo
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well known -- is being pioneered in
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people in South Africa. The South A
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nature and of human culture (Prover
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The parousia of Jesus Christ will i
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more and more christianised. Later
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END
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THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

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