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

Man was to rejoice in this nature (Psalms 104, 147 and 65); and whenever the ground calls out tobe worked, whenever the animals call out to be named and the land calls out to be planted and mangives his answer to it -- there, man performs labour."Man is God's co-worker, and in this way he images God. Man who labours -- that is to say, whoworks creatingly, preservingly, and protectingly with the world -- does not merely refer to the GodWho labours, but in actual fact continues God's creation works through man's action as God's vicepresident,while man in labouring proclaims God's praise."The calling of man unto obedient labour, his equipment for this job and his destination -- all ofthis plays a role inside of the structure of a covenant which God made with Adam as head ofhumanity. Working and working, man unfolds the possibilities which have been folded into nature.And man thus expresses the forms of his own creative and imaginative spirit on the things hetouches. Just as God lovingly and caringly interacts with creation -- so too does man himself, as theimage of God."In human labour, man is thus concerned with making the earth liveable -- liveable for man, foranimals and for plants. We must therefore say that with the earth and earthly things, man is tointeract in accordance with the destination of them all -- i.e., to make them capable of providing aliving for all of the earth's inhabitants" whether humans, plants or animals."Man in this interaction with nature may therefore never maim nature -- may never exploit it ortarnish it. Because in this way, man would make the world unlivable -- both for its presentinhabitants, and for its future inhabitants."God promises us a new earth under a new heaven, which has not been prepared by any child ofman. That is exclusively God's work, and God's gift to us. But the manner in which God gives it tous is by purification -- through fire and judgment over all of the works of man's hands on the oldearth."Constantly labouring in this world, we therefore believe that the new world of the future will berevealed to us in a manner at the moment unclear to us. But in the light of Revelation 14:13 --'Blessed are they who from now on die in the Lord!' [Indeed:] 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'that they mayrest from their labours, and their works do follow them!' We must accept that the uncompletedlabour of man, of sinful man, is nevertheless accepted by God -- and that this human work willfollow man right up to the throne of God. This is the overwhelming dimension of eternity in allhuman labour today."The relationship between man and nature unfolds itself in the form of history. For, constantlylabouring at nature, it is not only man who changes -- but nature changes too. Through and in hislabour, man builds onto nature and changes it into culture -- so that culture can indeed be regardedas nature which is being continued in a certain way. We can also say: culture is nature that has beenmade liveable and enjoyable."From Genesis 2:15 man in obedience to God began to do something -- to keep and to dress theentire earth, to take care of the garden, to give names to the animals, later to make clothes, to farmwith sheep, to make musical instruments, to build an altar, to plan a city, etc. Even in the formationof culture, this must take place in obedience to definite laws and norms -- otherwise God's intentionwith nature could not be realised."In this way we also arrive at the structure of marriage and family (Ephesians 5); the structure oflabour which has its own labour rhythm (Exodus 20:10); the various labour relationships