Francis Nigel Lee

Humanists of the World, unite – against White South Africa! As George Orwell would say in his book Animal Farm — two-legged White South Africans can only be evil!

If White South Africans were today more than 50% of the total population of that land [like White Frenchmen are 70% of the population of New Caledonia and White Australians well over 80% of the population Down Under], only deranged White Liberals and Black Racists could democratically? object to such majority rule. However, the fact that White South Africans are now considerably less than 25% of the land they themselves named and developed — is often regarded as sufficient reason for ignoring their historic rights.

In other words: vox populi, vox Dei. 51% of the people, are god. The majority – is always right. Only the rights of non-Christian minorities (such as abortionists in America), are sacrosanct; the rights of a strong Christian minority group (such as of White Afrikaners in South Africa), are unimportant.

However — most undemocratically — God says: “thou shalt not follow a multitude, to do evil!” Exodus 23:2.

In his book Reformation or Revolution, Rev. Professor E.L. Hebden Taylor of Dordt College, Iowa, astutely observes: “The South African approach of separate development has evoked the concentrated hostility of the United Nations and so-called world opinion. The impartial observer can only conclude that race is not really the issue at all, but merely the ogre created to whip up emotion and trouble in the councils of mankind.”

“What, then, is South Africa’s real crime? The answer must be that she has dared to call in question that great sacred cow of our revolutionary age, the godless dogma that sovereignty over the individual resides in the general will of the majority rather than in the revealed will of Almighty God written in the Holy Scriptures!”

To err is human. This is why — to the humanist mindset — the inhuman deeds of the Soviet Union (even in Afghanistan) and of Red China (even in Tibet) are merely venial sins. But White South Africa is sub-human, if not diabolical. So, even her very best works —— in the eyes or the international humanistic establishment -— are unforgivable filthy rags.

White South Africa’s original sin —— which gave rise to all of her subsequent aberrations — is her first Colonial Charter of 1650.

There, the decision was made to start a Dutch Calvinistic settlement in 1652 among the indigenous Pagans — the few indigenous red-skinned Bushmen and yellow-skinned Hottentots then living in South Africa. The (white colonial) Christians, says the Charter, were to “train them (those indigenous Pagans) in the Christian religion. If it pleases Almighty God to bless these good matters, may many souls be brought to the Reformed Christian religion and to God! For the preservation and salvation of many human lives…is the most important aspect in the magnification of God?s most holy Name….”

This was also the belief of Governor Jan van Riebeeck, when planting the West’s first colony in South Africa. Even while there disembarking on the beach in 1652, he prayed that “Thy true Reformed Christian doctrine…be propagated and disseminated” throughout the land! Right from the very start of the colony — in public life — the Bible was upheld, and the Sabbath was sanctified.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by persecuting Romanists, many unintimidatable French Calvinists immigrated to South Africa around 1685. This further strengthened the Reformed Religion there. During the next century, Protestant Christianity became deeply rooted. Consequently, when the first Black Migrants from Central Africa to the north streamed down into the east of South Africa a hundred years later around 1785 — it resulted in a clash not so much between Black and White, as between Pagan and Christian.

Let it be noted that the White Christians arrived in South Africa 130 years before the Blacks, who were then Pagans! Only after 1785, were the many recently-arrived Blacks first sighted (and evangelized) by the fewer Whites.

The French Revolution of 1789 led Holland to invite the British to defend and occupy to the Western Cape in South Africa. This they did, from 1795 onward. Their attempts to inflict their monarchy and Episcopalianism on the original White South Africans and to deprive the latter of their language, led to a massive migration of those ‘Afrikaners’ towards the interior (then almost uninhabited except for nomadic Non-Black Bushmen & Hottentots).

That migration was the Great Trek. As even the unsympathetic Encyclopaedia Britannica rightly observes: “Athough all the ‘trekkers’ were extreme individualists…, most of them contrived to preserve a sound domestic morality…. Almost only the Bible alone, and the Catechism, was read…: out of respect for their religion — a rather strict Calvìnism.”

Especially from 1836 onward, the White Afrikaners thus resisted and removed themselves from the British, establishing their own inland Calvinistic Republics. As the Afrikaner Anna Steenkamp then remarked: “The British placed the Pagans on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the Laws of God…. It was intolerable to any decent Christian to bow down beneath such a yoke. Therefore we withdrew, in order to preserve our doctrines in purity.”

The great Calvinistic Afrikaner poet Totius gives a similar testimony about this Great Trek. For there — our own translation from his Afrikaans into English — he too reminisces:

“The Whiteman treks all deeper into Africa;

Treks on into the land,

Both wide and far.

As far as he can see, until the night;

And farther still, when the next day grows light.

Trek on! We’re not yet far enough!

Let’s trek!

How far? As far as God would have us trek!”

The discovery of gold and diamonds in those largely uninhabited new territories, however, quickly attracted British fortune-hunters. They soon clashed with these new Calvinist Governments of which that of the South African Republic (alias the Transvaal) was the most famous.

Matters exploded during the Presidency of Paul Kruger, who obdurately declared: “God’s Word shall be my rule of conduct in politics, and the foundation upon which the State must be established!”

The 100%-gold krugerrand still attests to this — surrounded as it is by the adulterated plastic dross of today’s paper currencies. Isaiah 1:22.

Those nineteenth-century clashes between White Briton and White Afrikaner finally led to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Then, a mere twenty thousand Calvinist farmers held at bay a quarter of a million highly-trained troops from all over the British Empire as the Worlds mightiest military machine. Yet, only the incarceration of Afrikaner women and children in British concentration camps — an institution later to be borrowed from the British and then perfected by Nazi Germany during World War II – finally defeated the much more inferiorly equipped White South Africans.

However, even throughout this sad period, the White minority continued to evangelize the Non-White majority throughout Southern Africa. Never had so much been done, by so few, for the benefit of so many!

Listen to the eye- and ear-witness testimony to his own children of South Africa’s greatest man of God, the famous Rev. Dr. Andrew Murray, about the last President of the old South African Republic: “Mr. Kruger says that when God gave him a new heart, it was as if he wanted to tell everyone about Jesus’ love, and as if he wanted the birds and the trees and everything to help him praise his Savior; and so he could not bear that there should be any poor Black People not knowing and loving the Savior whom he loved!”

Elsewhere, Murray himself confessed: “It is in very deed God’s purpose that the fulfillment of His eternal purpose and the coming of His Kingdom should depend on those of His people who, abiding in Christ, are ready to take up their position in Him their Head…. As image-bearer and representative of God on Earth, redeemed man has by his prayers to determine the history of this Earth. Man was created, and has now again been redeemed, to pray — and, by his prayer, to have dominion.

“Lord Jesus! It Is in Thee the Father hath again crowned man with glory and honour, and opened the way for us to be what He would have us! O Lord, have mercy on Thy people, and visit Thine heritage! Work mightily in Thy Church, and teach Thy believing disciples to go forth in their royal priesthood, and in the power of prayer, to which Thou hast given such wonderful promises — to serve Thy Kingdom, to have rule over the nations, and to make the Name of God glorious in the Earth!”

South Africa regained her independence from Britain, peacefully, in 1926, and then commenced a determined attempt to expand the system of Christian National Education throughout the land. The humanists fought it tooth and nail, and still do.

Only in 1948, was ‘Bible Study? again elevated to the status of an academic subject in every school in the nation. Only in 1960, was the Republic of South Africa established as a result of a national Referendum “in humble acknowledgement of Almighty God” and “according to Christian principles” (thus the Preamble to the 1961 Constitution). Indeed, only thereafter could proper attention even begin to be given to the increasingly important problem of race relations — in what was now a sovereign national republic for the first time.

Today [1987], there are no laws against racial intermarriage. Members of all racial groups are eligible for election to the National Parliament. In addition, Black Citizens resident in their own States are eligible for election to their own State Congresses.

Left to herself, South Africa would remain pro-western, anti-communist, and soon become a non-racial Republic. With constant international leftist agitation or interference, however, she could certainly be taken over even by Communist [or Islamic?] agents. They would then effectively torpedo the U.S. once and for all – by cutting off the vital supplies of South Africa’s plenteous precious metals, which are the very life-blood of American industry and defense.

Wrote the famous American Historian Rousas John Rushdoony: “I believe South Africa…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.” Indeed, the late Professor Cornelius Van Til regarded the South African Professor Hendrik Stoker as the World?s greatest living Christian Philosopher.

In 1980, my noted predecessor, Rev. Professor Dr. Harold Whitney, a man with three doctorates and a warm admirer of both Van Til and Rushdoony, sent me a heart-warming letter while I was still resident in America.

As retiring Chairman of the Department of Systematic Theology at the Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Dr. Whitney wrote to congratulate me on his General Assembly’s appointment of me as his successor. Significantly, he added the following important words:

“I am personally looking forward to you coming among us because, among other reasons, of my love for South Africa. Four times I visited this fascinating land on evangelistic work — twice in 1968; once in 1969; once in 1970…. As the enclosed document will show, I had the privilege of speaking in key Reformed Churches.”

The “enclosed document” referred to above, was an account of Dr. Whitney’s 1970 visit to South Africa. I can do no better than quote from it here. For I believe it gives an accurate insight by an impartial outsider into the true condition of Calvinism in South Africa — far better than I myself could do.

Writes Dr. Whitney: “I learned the value of ‘face to face confrontation.’ This is good New Testament practice! Paul knew the value of witnessing before governors…. I was able to…spend a most profitable hour over morning tea with Dr. [Koot] Vorster, brother to the Prime Minister….

“One of the most memorable visits, was to the university city of Stellenbosch, where seven thousand students are said to worship in the various churches on Sunday — with six hundred of them teaching in Sunday Schools and doing evangelistic work…. From the scholastic angle, Stellenbosch reminded me of Heidelberg in Germany with its long tradition of scholarship. Heidelberg is said to be the place where the Reformation first broke out in the sixteenth century. Stellenbosch reminded me of Calvin’s Geneva, where the pursuit of knowledge went hand in hand with a church and civic discipline that in twenty-five years made Geneva the purest spot in Europe.

“Lunching with the Dean, I was shown the Seminary. Nothing approaching images is allowed in the architecture of the building; so stained-glass windows depicting human forms are disallowed. Each Minister must visit each Church Member– even where the membership runs over the thousand-mark — at least once each year. I was reminded of the Scottish Church, in its sterner and greater days. Both Ministers and Elders must visit the Church Members. Discipline of Church Members is actually carried out, and a succession of visits of necessary is paid by the Pastor to an erring Member – seeking to lead him to penitence and restoration.

“Perhaps the greatest feature of the…church life, is its annual ‘Pentecost Meetings’ —— which begin with Ascension Sunday, and go on for ten days [cf. Acts 1:9 to 2:1]. People are invited by their Ministers to ‘hear the infallible Word of God’ before the Scriptures are read. Thousands of people attend these ‘Pentecost Meetings.’ The message of Pentecost is proclaimed. The Holy Spirit is honored. The [South African Dutch Reformed] Church is opposed to the ‘Tongues Movement’ – but is not afraid to preach about the blessing of Pentecost.

“Andrew Murray’s well-known writings on the Holy Spirit are still the standard for many people. This feature of church life each year should be publicized abroad. I doubt if anywhere in the World, such a spiritual phenomenon could be found. Here is a people [the Afrikaners], numbering three million out of a total White population of five million, dedicated to belief in an infallible Bible, of strongly Calvinistic leanings, with widespread emphasis on discipline at both ministerial and lay levels — holding annual ten-day ‘Pentecost Meetings? where the results challenge the entire Church.”

Such a Church, with such an emphasis and background, in the context of South Africa’s isolation from world opinion because of its peculiar racial problems, could become the spearhead for ‘National Revival through a Revived Church.’ South Africa could well become the key to African evangelistic expansion.

“If keen overseas Evangelistic 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. South Africa…shows more real potential than any other country I have visited. Its very isolation has tended to keep it protected to some extent from the inroads of liberalism….

“The future of South Africa as a nation is with the sober-minded…who are traditionally wedded to the belief that righteousness alone exalteth a nation – and the conservative view of the Book which preaches this austere yet salutary truth…. 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.”

To the humanists of the World, South Africa is indeed totally depraved! Here is a nation which defies all antinomians and their programmed opinions – theonomically committed to upholding the death penalty against murderers and rapists; and prohibiting prostitution, gambling, abortion and even Sabbath-desecration. No wonder she is resented by ‘the natural man’ everywhere!

However, Calvinists throughout the World must oppose international humanism! Reformed Christians in America and elsewhere should come to their senses. Indeed, they should carefully consider — and then courageously confess — the degree of depravity (or absence thereof) so very evident in the final verse of South Africa’s national anthem:

“In Jehovah God Almighty,
Did our fathers safely trust?
Give us too, O Lord, the power –
To keep on building, firm and just!
May the treasures of our fathers,
For our children treasures be!
We are slaves of God Almighty
In His 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!”

[Postscript: On re-reading the above in 2003, sixteen years after writing this article, and nearly ten years after what’s left of “the civilized world” pressured White South Africans to hand over their country to the ANC-CP Alliance’s convicted terrorist Nelson Mandela and his henchmen – I know how CSA President Jefferson Davis must have felt toward the end of his life after looking back on the Christian Confederacy’s conquest by Red Republicans in America’s own War of Northern Aggression. Just read the Biblical Book of Lamentations!

Looking back on the old White South Africa, I am reminded too of the title of Margaret Mitchell’s best seller about life in the old pre-reconstructed Deep South: Gone with the Wind. But has it gone permanently -- irrecoverably, and for ever?! Revive Thy work, O Lord!

Professor-Emeritus Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, 2003.]

[The above was an excerpt from Journey Magazine, Lynchburg, Va., USA (November–December 1987). There, Journey Magazine Editor Rev. Dick Knodel wrote: “The Rev. Prof. Dr. Lee grew up and was converted in South Africa, where he acquired most of his twelve earned degrees (Ph.D., Th.D., DMin., among others). He then taught and preached in the U.S.A. for more than ten years. Since 1980, he has occupied the Chair of Systematic Theology at the Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Australia. He is one of Calvinism’s unique ‘globetrotters.]