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

General Beyers felt that those texts teach the curse of Almighty God on anyone who tampers withthe boundary line between his ground and his neighbour's ground. Such a tamperer, he believed,commits theft even against God Himself. Beyers further felt it was not just individuals who cansteal from one another -- but nations too, in ill-founded boundary disputes! He felt that what Bothaand Smuts were doing, was transgressing the Law of God. So he protested against what they weredoing -- in the Name of the Lord.Well, a warrant went out for the arrest of Beyers. Trying to escape from the government forces, hewas drowned in one of the rivers. The rivers of arid South Africa are dry most of the year. But atthis particular time of the year, the rivers came down -- and General Beyers was drowned.There was also the great General Koos de la Rey. He had been a loyal general in the forces of theSouth African Republic in the previous Anglo-Boer war. He too was on his way to Johannesburgand Pretoria -- to speak to Smuts about putting an end to this war against the Germans which de laRey considered to be ungodly. He was gunned down in the streets.Even to this very day, there is a veil of mystery surrounding it. Some say Smuts deliberately hadhim killed. Others say -- and this is the official line -- that a very vicious bank robber had escapedfrom jail at that time. The police were alerted to shoot and to kill this bank robber. Tragically, thepolice shot General de la Rey -- thinking he was the bank robber. That was very bad. For de la Reywas a hero. But then de la Rey should not have been going through the streets at that time. Heshould have known that the police were out to shoot the bank robber on sight. Feelings ran veryhigh in the country at this time about the death of de la Rey.Then there was a young Calvinist named Jopie Fourie. He went into German South West Africawith the "rebel" General Maritz -- to try to put an end to the fighting between pro-British WhiteSouth Africans on the one hand and White Germans on the other hand. This man Fourie was beingfollowed and hunted down by Botha and Smuts. But then a very interesting thing then happened.The Sabbath day came round. Jopie Fourie, wanting to be a good Calvinist -- yet not being as gooda Calvinist as he should have been -- refused to fight on the Sabbath. He rightly felt it was a day ofrest. Yet, if he had known his Bible just a little bit better, he would have known from Joshua sixthat the armies of the Living God circled Jericho for seven consecutive days (one of which musthave been the Sabbath).Though he was tragically ignorant about the military implications of this, one can certainly admireFourie's godliness and devotion to principle. But he was captured on the Sabbath by people whohad no problem in fighting on the very day he would not. So he was shot to death -- for his role intrying to bring about peace.The situation became more and more anarchical in South Africa. Even after the defeat of Germanyin 1918, we find a steady deterioration in the situation. We find the creation of a large mass ofimpoverished White Afrikaners whose farms had been burnt out during the Anglo-Boer War. Theyhad never recovered -- neither emotionally, economically nor psychologically. So we find these"Poor Whites" -- now working alongside of Blacks as unskilled artisans in the gold mines.It is at this point that we must go to the Soviet Unions and specifically to Lenin, for the nextfascinating episode in the development of the South African saga. I wrote my second doctorate oncommunist eschatology, and read through all the works of Marx and Lenin in writing it. I thendiscovered a fascinating writing by Lenin, penned during this period -- in which he comes outviolently in favour of the White South Africans, and against the British. The latter he saw as agentsof international capitalism. Even more significantly, Lenin then totally ignored the Black people of