Chapter 11 Outreach to Jews down the Centuries

             Due to anti-Semitism, outreach to Jews down the centuries has been very sparse indeed. For the first 100 years the majority of believers were Jewish, but as the apostles and disciples obeyed the last instruction of the Master to go and make disciples in all of the nations, Yeshua's body began to fill up with non-Jews from the Middle East and Europe.

             Most non-Jewish believers understood that they have been grafted into Israel (Romans 11:11) and had become citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:11-19).  They had begun to attend their local synogogue (there were no churches in those days) and thus were learning and adopting Biblical Jewish customs, and were celebrating the Feasts of the LORD.  At this time Israel was under Roman occupation and there were 2 main revolts, or wars that were carried out by Jewish zealots against the Roman Empire. Because of these revolts anyone considered to be Jewish or associated with Jews, were persecuted by the Roman Empire.

Non-Jews seen as unclean

Non-Jews were not always accepted by the non-Messianic Jews, and were often not allowed to enter a synagogue because they were seen as unclean. Many Messianic Jews were ejected because of their faith in Yeshua. Both the Jewish and the non-Jewish Christians found themselves rejected by both the Jews and the Romans. This caused a large number of Jewish disciples to leave the faith, and it gave birth to a resentment of Israel and anything Jewish amongst the non-Jewish believers. By the end of the 2nd Century the Church was predominantly non Jewish. The 2^nd and 3^rd generation of believers were almost totally disconnected from the roots of the Olive Tree – Israel and the Jews.

Church Fathers as anti-Semites

Most of the men who are seen as the Church Fathers were previously disciples of Plato, Socrates and other Greek philosophers - Ignatius, Origen, Justyn Martyr, Marcion and John Crystostom. They began to teach what we today call Replacement Theology – that because the majority of the Jewish people rejected Yeshua, God had rejected them. Now the Church was the true Israel or the New Israel of God. They left the curses for the Jews and took the blessings and promises for the New Israel. They taught that the Torah was superseded by the ‘New Testament’ and that the Sabbath, the Jewish Feasts and the ‘OT’ commandments were now obsolete.
            Many of the so-called Church Fathers were nasty anti-Semites. They seemed to resent the Jewish people.  Ignatius, an early Bishop of Antioch, said in The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians (ca. 110 A.D.): 'Do not be deceived by strange doctrines or antiquated myths, since they are worthless. For if we continue to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace. For the most Godly prophets lived in accordance with Christ Jesus.” He also said ‘Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner ….. Not in relaxation nor eating food prepared the day before, not finding delight in dancing and clapping which have no sense.’ Justin Martyr (100 -165 AD) stated in his letter to a Greek Jew named Trypho: ‘God gave the Jews the Torah as punishment for their exceptional wickedness and because of His special hatred of the Jewish people. We too would observe your Sabbath days and Festivals if we were not aware of the reason they were imposed upon you, namely because of your wickedness and hard hearts.’ Marcion taught that the Jesus of the ‘New Testament’ had defeated and even unseated the evil God of the Jews. John Chrystostom (4^th Century) delivered a series of sermons in Antioch against the Jewish people. His sermons were filled with hateful anti-Jewish venom. He singled out Torah observance and keeping the Feasts of the LORD as a disease in Christianity.

         The Roman Emperor Constantine had supposedly converted to Christianity, while continuing to worship the Sun god until he died. He made the already Biblically apostate Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. He said ‘Let us have nothing to do with the detestable Jewish rabble.’   The Council of Nicaea in the year 325 defined the future course of the Church. Legislation was introduced that prohibited Christians from following the Torah and observing the Sabbath and the Festivals including the Passover and threw everything Jewish out of Christianity.
         On this anti-Semitic seed-bed outreach to Jews was almost non-existent. Before the Reformation anti-Semitism was wide-spread. And, even within the realm of the Reformers, Martin Luther resorted to the worst kind of anti-Semitism when his project to convert the Jews failed. The prime Swiss Reformer, John Calvin, was no better. Calvin has been quoted as calling Jews “profane dogs” who, “under the pretext of prophecy, stupidly devour all the riches of the earth with their unrestrained cupidity.”

Great Minds of the Past

However, some of the greatest minds of the past did not only have a high view of Jews and Israel, but simultaneously also for the Unity of the Body of Christ. Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) discovered and popularized the scientific method, whereby the laws of science are discovered by gathering and analysing data from experiments and observations, rather than by using logic-based arguments. He introduced the essay form to the English language and completed The New Atlantis, which mixed his scientific approach and his Christian beliefs. In New Atlantis, Christianity is depicted as the right way of life and anything different is frowned upon. However, only a few pages later, Bacon made positive references to parts of Jewish culture.

Jan Amos Comenius, John Drury and Samuel Hartlib form an interesting threesome. They had a vision for the Unity of the Body of Christ and all three of them had a positive view of Jews and the Hebrew Scriptures. Of Comenius it was said that he almost knew the ‘Old Testament’ by heart.

After attending the University of Cambridge, Hartlib settled in England and associated himself with the educational philosopher John Dury, sharing his ideas on the necessity for the unity of the Protestant churches, school reforms, and teacher training. Dury was educated at Sedan, Leyden, and Oxford. By 1630 he had already begun working for unity between the churches, traveling among the courts and churches of the German states. His life became a constant round of travels, discussions, correspondence and publishing in the pursuit of his cause. In 1645 he married a wealthy Irish woman. He thereafter established his home in Kassel (Germany) in 1661 and lived there until his death, still campaigning for the unity among the churches. He wrote that the only fruit of his efforts was ‘that I see the miserable condition of Christianity, and that I have no other comfort than the testimony of my conscience.’

Famous Preachers with a Positive View of Jews

The renowned Bishop Jan Amos Comenius was a faithful scholar of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam who taught: ‘teach first the Jews and the neighbours nearby, thereafter all the nations of the earth' (Van der Linde, 1979:197).[1] Both parents of Comenius belonged to the Unitas Fratrum, the (Moravian) Unity of Brethren. Bishop Comenius later became one of the leaders of that pre-Reformation Protestant denomination. Contrary to the practice of his time, Comenius refrained from polemic writing. He differentiated between important and less important things, teaching that unity ultimately only rules when faith, hope and love are present. He furthermore suggested that the holy books of the Jews, the Law, Psalms and the Prophets are to be valued highly. He furthermore reminded that the Jews are collectively to be regarded as a light to the nations, which is a prophetic teaching from Isaiah. Isaiah 49:6 “I have a greater task for you, my servant. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations — so that all the world may be saved.”

Comenius highlighted that Isaiah 42:6 states: I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. Even though the Jews have generally rejected the Messiah and the apostles, they were allowed to keep their law and rituals until God would reveal the truth to them in his good time. The light of Moses (the Pentateuch), the rest of the Hebrew Scripture and the light of Christ (the ‘New Testament’) - form together the bright light for all nations. Comenius furthermore said that we as Christians have to respect Jews as our librarians, to expound the prophetic Word that had been entrusted to them. The resistance of Israel is merely temporary.

Count Zinzendorf had a similar view. He propagated strongly that the Gospel must be preached to the Jews. If Zinzendorf had his way, a greater effort would have been made by the Herrnhut Moravians to reach the Jews with the Gospel. The Losungen Watchwords for everyday that was printed as a booklet from 173, was soon translated into other languages, thus serving as a unifying tool of the body of Christ. Today it is still printed in over 50 languages and used by believers of many denominations.

The Herrnhut Moravian View of the Jews and Israel[2]

We have already seen how the 18^th century Moravians applied biblical principles to facilitate Church unity. I would like to examine how the Moravian and other philo-Semites have been using the love for the Jews to good effect. Count Zinzendorf appears to have been one of very few church leaders to have recognized the primacy of the Jews and Israel in biblical Theology. In general, the Jews and the Muslims have been neglected where missionary work is concerned. Moravians were the first denomination to add a prayer for Israel to a Church Litany. In one of the Sunday morning prayer liturgies also Abraham's prayer for Ishmael (Genesis 17:18) is included: O that Ishmael might live before thee! Bishop August Spangenberg (1773-75:1181) reports how Count Zinzendorf was filled with compassion when a Jewish couple, Daniel Nunez da Costa and his wife, approached him just before their return from the Caribbean in 1739. The Count paid their fare to enable them to get back to Europe. Zinzendorf understood very well that border-crossing mission work implied a holistic approach. He even went the second mile, giving his state-room to the couple, while he himself shared a cabin with other passengers (Weinlick, 1956:146).

Through personal contact with the Jewish community in Amsterdam and especially with the Portuguese refugee Nunez da Costa, Zinzendorf came to appreciate the distinctiveness of Judaism. For a while, Nunez da Costa was one of Zinzendorf ’s closest friends, and he attempted to live with the Moravians in Europe. Eventually Zinzendorf helped set him up in business in Amsterdam. It was around the time of the contact with Da Costa that Zinzendorf added the petition for Israel to the Herrnhuter Litany.

Certain Moravian communities, such as Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), celebrated Yom Kippur as a Christian festival, even though there were no Jews in the community, to emphasize the Jewish roots of Christian doctrine. Count Zinzendorf hoped that this would make it easier for Jews who wanted to follow Jesus to live in a Moravian settlement. Zinzendorf and his household ate kosher so as not to offend Jews or create a barrier between Jews and Christians. He criticized the Western Church for adopting the name “Ostern” (Easter) instead of holding to the original 'Pasch' Lamb.[3] (This was the preferred dinner at the annual resurrection celebration for many Moravian families throughout the 19^th century.) 'Pasch' makes clear the connection to our Lord as the Passover Lamb.

Interest and Love for the Jews

Count Zinzendorf had a special affinity for the Jews, because Jesus was also a Jew (Spangenberg, 1773-1775:1105). Already as a teenager at the boarding school in Halle he was impressed by August Hermann Francke’s sermons that stressed our responsibility towards the people of the 'Old Covenant'. Already in his teenage years ‘the conversion of the Jews’ can be found before ‘the conversion of the heathen’ in the hopes and expectations of the Order of the Mustard Seed (Steinberg et al, 1960:25). When he was a student, Jews were included in Zinzendorf’s prayer lists (Beyreuther, 1957:187). Count Zinzendorf’s open interest and love for the Jews were however not generally welcomed.

At the castle Ronneburg, the Jews who were living there, trusted the Count because he not only respected their religion, but he also vocalized his love for them fearlessly. Many Jews of the vast area between Darmstadt and Giessen in southern Germany called Zinzendorf their great friend (Beyreuther, 1965:95). Yet, it was never his intention to wipe away differences in inter-faith fashion. He strived for a good and harmonious living together between Christians and Jews, but simultaneously he challenged the Jewish people to fulfil their divine calling to be a blessing to the nations. In order to do this, they had to bow before the Man of Nazareth who came from their ranks as the King of Kings. The Christians on the other hand were admonished not to forget Israel as their first-born brother (Beyreuther, 1965:94).

Zinzendorf took the evangelization of the Jews seriously. He gave a rule that once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the Moravian Church should pray for the conversion of Israel (Spangenberg, 1773-1775:1105). Zinzendorf believed that the time for the conversion of nations on a big scale had to await the conversion of the Jews (Weinlick, 1956:100). This high expectation from Messianic Jews brought him to some special translations and paraphrases of Hebrew Scripture portions. Thus he would paraphrase the old father Jacob’s prophecy over Naphtali (Genesis 49:21, Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns). Highlighting that the northern land given to Naphtali is the region where the later Galilee would be situated, Zinzendorf interpreted the verse in the following way: ‘From Naphtali will come the flight-footed messengers, who will carry the Gospel to the ends of the world’ (Steinberg, 1960:39). At a Moravian conference in Berlin in 1738, the work among the Jews was seriously discussed (Spangenberg, 1773-1775:1100). The Moravians demonstrated the priority of the outreach to the Jews by allowing one of their best men, Leonhard Dober, to minister to them. (He had been recalled from St Thomas in the Caribbean to be the chief Elder after the sudden death of Martin Linner, and subsequently requested to pioneer this ministry.) Dober promptly moved into the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam with his wife. When Dober was needed elsewhere, the very able Samuel Lieberkühn who had studied Hebrew thoroughly in Halle and Jena, was asked to lead the ministry in Amsterdam. Lieberkühn preferred to go and work among the Jews in Holland, rather than accepting an offer to become professor of Semitic languages in Königsberg.[4]

A Jew to the Jews

Like very few others before or after him, Samuel Lieberkühn practiced the Pauline instruction to become a Jew to the Jews, refraining from all food which Jewish custom prohibited. He respected the views of Messianic Jews when they still preferred to follow Jewish Law, as well as their expectation of a significant return of Jews to Palestine in the last days. Lieberkühn used the life and testimony of Jesus, rather than Hebrew Scriptural quotations, to prove the Messiah-ship of our Lord in his altercations with Jews.

Many Jews came from Amsterdam to the Moravian congregation in Zeist (near Utrecht) when Samuel Lieberkühn became the pastor there from 1751. Although the Christo-centric Count Zinzendorf differed with Lieberkühn on some of his opinions and approach, he respected that. The Moravian Synod of 1764 endorsed the ministry of Samuel Lieberkühn. For both Comenius and Zinzendorf the 'Old' and 'New' Testaments belonged together. Thus the Count did not see the beginning of missions with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19 or Mark 16:15), but rather where the ‘mission’ of the Saviour started, it is before the foundation of the earth (Ephesians 1:4). His wish to see a separate Jewish sector of Moravian missionary work, was however never fulfilled, although various missionaries had a vision for it. (The astounding go-getter Christian Richter, who pioneered work amongst slaves in Algiers, wanted to see work started among the 8,000 Jews who were living in that city in 1740.[5])

On the opposite side of First Day Sabbatarianism, Jewish Evangelism as a priority could have united the Body of Christ if the biblical injunction of 'Jews first, and then also the Greeks' (Romans 1:16f) had been discerned properly. The example of the Moravian involvement in outreach to Jews in Amsterdam and a philo-semitic lifestyle in Bethlehem (Pa, USA) appears to have remained worldwide exceptions.

A special Jew

Many a Jew who came to faith in Christ made a big difference on the Christian scene. This was definitely the case with Joseph Samuel Christian Frederick Frey, born in Stockheim, Franconia, Germany, in 1773; At six years of age he was reading the five books of Moses in the original language. He was also daily instructed by a private tutor in the Jewish law and Talmud. Every opportunity was used to inspire him with a resentment of Christianity. At the age of nine the study of Mischna and Gemara – the components of Jewish Talmudic traditions - were added to his theological textbooks. On attaining early manhood he moved to Hesse, teaching Hebrew children as a private tutor.

At twenty-one Joseph Frey became a leader in the synagogue, reading the prayers and the Torah. During this period, while journeying from Hamburg to Schwerin, he met a Christian, who suggested to him ideas regarding the Messiah. Frey was intensely impressed by the doctrines of the Christian religion. After three or four years of mental struggle, he became a follower of Jesus. In May 1798, he was baptised and received into the Protestant community. In 1800 he entered the theological seminary established in Berlin for the education of missionaries. He studied there for one year, and then went to London, with the intention of going to Africa as a missionary. He afterwards changed his purpose, deciding to remain in England to be an evangelist to his own people, the Jews. Frey's family, on learning of his apostasy, enacted all the rituals, which would have been performed at his death. For the next seven years he studied and laboured in connection with the London Missionary Society, travelling through the United Kingdom, preaching to whatever Jewish congregations he could muster, suffering much opposition but meeting with little encouragement.

In 1816 Joseph Frey moved with his family to New York where he established the Mulberry Street Congregationalist Church, and was ordained its pastor in 1818. In 1820 he founded the American Society for ameliorating the Conditions of the Jews. The object of this association was to establish an asylum for Christian Hebrews from all parts of the world. The enterprise proved a failure, and occupied several years of fruitless labour. In 1827 Joseph Frey, convinced of the necessity of immersion, left the Congregationalist Church and became a Baptist. He held several small charges as a member of that denomination, and in 1837 resigned his pastorate to go to Europe as an agent for the American Society for the Conversion of the Jews. He remained abroad three years, but the mission was not favourably received.

Church Ministry among the Jewish People

The Church’s Ministry among the Jewish People, known in South Africa as Messiah's People, began in the early 19^th century, when leading evangelicals, including members of the influential Clapham Group such as William Wilberforce and Charles Simeon, decided that there was an unmet need to promote Christianity among the Jews. In 1809 they formed the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. The Jewish missionary Joseph Frey is often credited with the instigation of the break with the London Missionary Society. Abbreviated forms such as the London Jews' Society or simply The Jews' Society were adopted for general use. The original agenda of the society was:

Declaring the Messiahship of Jesus to the Jew first and also to the non-Jew

Endeavouring to teach the Church its Jewish roots

Encouraging the physical restoration of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel - the Land of Israel

Encouraging the Hebrew Christian/Messianic Jewish movement

The society's work began among the poor Jewish immigrants in the East End of London and soon spread to Europe, South America, Africa and Palestine. In 1811, a five-acre field on Cambridge Road in Bethnal Green, east London, was leased as a centre for missionary operations. The complex was named Palestine Place. In 1813, a Hebrew-Christian congregation called Benei Abraham (Children of Abraham) started meeting at the chapel in Palestine Place. This was the first recorded assembly of Jewish believers in Jesus and the forerunner of today's Messianic Jewish congregations.

The London Jews Society was the first such society to work on a global basis. In 1836, two missionaries were sent to Jerusalem: Dr. Albert Gerstmann, a physician, and Melville Bergheim, a pharmacist, who opened a clinic that provided free medical services.

In its heyday, the society had over 250 missionaries. The society was active in the establishment of Christ Church, Jerusalem, the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East, completed in 1849.

The organisation is one of the eleven official mission agencies of the Church of England. It currently has branches in the United Kingdom, Israel, Ireland, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia.

The first identifiable congregation made up exclusively of Jews who had converted to Christianity, was established in the United Kingdom as early as 1860. The first congregation of Jewish Christians in the United Kingdom was Beni Abraham which came into existence in London when forty-one Hebrew Christians assembled as Jewish Christians.

In 1866 the Hebrew Christian Alliance of Great Britain was organised with branches in several European countries and the United States. These organisations had the combined effect of encouraging Jewish believers in Jesus to think of themselves as a community with a unique identity.

In response to changing attitudes towards outreach to the Jewish people, the society has changed its name several times over the years, first to Church Missions to Jews, then The Church's Mission to the Jews, followed by The Church's Ministry Among the Jews, and finally to the current name of The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, which was adopted in 1995. The International Hebrew Christian Alliance, established 1925, was an initiative of the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America (established 1915) and the Hebrew Christian Alliance of Great Britain.

Chapter 12 Responses to an unbiblical Unity

In a very sad turn of events a product of Moravian teaching would usher in liberal theology. Friedrich Schleiermacher (November 21, 1768 – February 12, 1834) became influential in the evolution of 'Higher Criticism'. Because of his profound impact on subsequent Christian thought, he has been called the 'Father of Modern Protestant Theology.'

Schleiermacher was educated in the Moravian Boarding School at Niesky in Upper Lusatia, and at Barby near Halle. However, the pietistic Moravian theology failed to satisfy his increasing doubts as he fell prey to the general tendency to neglect the Hebrew Scriptures. As an otherwise brilliant theological student, Schleiermacher pursued an independent course of reading, neglecting the study of the Hebrew Scriptures and Oriental languages. In due course he developed a deep-rooted skepticism as a student, and soon he rejected orthodox Christianity. The German theologian and philosopher became known for his impressive attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant orthodoxy. This ultimately ushered in a deceptive demonic Church unity - liberal theology that swept like wildfire over Europe in the mid-19^th century. The Inter-faith movement and Chrislam became the spiritual descendants of liberalism.

Foils to Liberalism An effective foil operated quietly from Moravian soil – the 24 hour prayer that was still going strong in Herrnhut. The prayer movement resonated also in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania, USA) on the other side of the ocean and in other places where Moravian missionaries had started fellowships, also in the Western Cape mission station Genadendal where three new missionaries arrived at Christmas 1792. William Carey's seminal ministry, influenced by one of Bishop August Spangenberg's writings, was another important factor, blazing the trail for missionary work.

The influential Izaak da Costa, a converted Portuguese Jew who wrote poetry, was born on January 14, 1798 in Amsterdam. Through his Hebrew teacher he became acquainted with the great Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk, who, at the request of Izaak's father, agreed to supervise the boy's further education. Bilderdijk taught him Roman law. An intimate friendship between them developed in due course. As the son of an Amsterdam physician, Willem Bilderdijk grew up with strong monarchical and Calvinistic convictions. Willem Bilderdijk and Izaak da Costa led the spiritual renewal in the Netherlands. Bilderdijk had contempt for government-controlled Christianity that was softened by indifference. Izaak da Costa attacked the liberalism and ethical decay of the times.

One of the effects of this spiritual renewal in the Netherlands was the revival of Calvinistic thought, and in particular its outworking in the political arena. This revival of Calvinism was not simply a return to the 16^th century, but a contemporary application of the insights and principles of Calvinism to the issues of the day. There was also criticism, correction and expansion of various aspects of the teachings of Calvin and his spiritual heirs. In 1817 Da Costa went to Leiden, where he met Bilderdijk often. There he took degrees as doctor of law in 1818, and as doctor of philosophy on June 21, 1821. Three weeks later he married his cousin, Hannah Belmonte, who had been educated in a Christian institution; and soon after, he was baptized with her at Leiden. Da Costa was a faithful adherent of the religious views of his friend Bilderdijk. His religious views and efforts were severely criticized by liberal opponents, but his character, no less than his genius, was respected by his contemporaries. Da Costa issued a powerful protest against the religious degeneracy of the times, which he entitled Grievances against the Spirit of the Age. His denunciations were too severe and unbalanced. A storm of indignation broke over his head. His house had to be guarded by special police.

Da Costa did not protest in vain. He gathered a few good friends, of whom the most prominent was Groen van Prinsterer, a jurist, historian and statesman. Da Costa and Groen, the poet Nicolaas Beets, Dr. Capadose and others, formed the circle known as "Christian Friends”. Da Costa wrote much on missionary matters, but to the end of his life, he felt reverence and love for his Jewish co-religionists. He was deeply interested in their past history, and often defended them.

Messianic Jewry - an ally of the Cross

Two Jewish converts are recorded to have been baptized at the Cape as early as 1669. It is not clear whether these and other Jews of that era who professed their faith in Jesus openly, did it out of convenience or conviction. Everybody who came to the Cape at this time had to be of the Protestant Christian faith. The constitution of the Dutch East India Company required this from all its employees and settlers.

By the 19th century restrictions on Jewish people were relaxed. On September 26, 1841 seventeen Jewish believers celebrated the Day of Atonement and a week later the first congregation ‘Tikvath Israel’ (The Hope of Israel), was established at the Cape. To me it is not co-incidental that this was also the time when a mini revival was taking place among the slaves in the wake of the emancipation in 1838.

Dutch Revival Influence on the Cape

The Revival movement in Holland, where it was known by its French name of Reveil, would influence the Cape intensely via John and Andrew Murray who went to study in Utrecht in 1845. Its leaders were Willem Bilderdijk, the chief Dutch poet of the nineteenth century, and his pupils Izaak da Costa and Abraham Capadose, both Jewish converts. Those gatherings in Amsterdam during the decade 1845 to 1854 ‘kept alive the flame of religious fervour in Holland in the dark days of tepid orthodoxy and chill rationalism’ (Du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray, 1919). After his return to South Africa, where Andrew Murray was elected moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church many times, he spear-headed the battle against Liberalism when it reazred its head at the Cape.

Theologians in fierce Rivalry

Two Jewish brothers, both theologians, profoundly enriched evangelical Christianity at the Cape - Jan and Frans Lion Cachet. Both had been influenced deeply by Izaak da Costa. In 1873 Ds. Frans Lion Cachet pleaded in the Cape Dutch Reformed Church Synod for a mission to his people, the Jews, to be started. He moved to the Cape village of Villiersdorp in 1876. He found a ‘deep sea of love’ for the Jews among Dutch Reformed Church ministers, elders and deacons, even among the most distant congregations (Cited by Hermann, 1935:201). The passionate plea of Frans Lion Cachet was however also a provocation to the Jews. Notably, the opposition was coming from their Rabbi at the Cape, Joel Rabinowitz. Hermann (A History of the Jews of Cape Town, 1935:201) cited ‘violent opposition on the part of the Rabbi.’ Rabinowitz’ letter of 30 October 1876 to the Cape Argus was definitely not cordial, accusing Cachet of condescension and ‘casting doubts on … his motives.’ But Ds. Cachet’s reaction was not in the spirit of Christ either. The ‘lively correspondence’ between Christians and Jews – perhaps one should rather say polemics - continued in the Cape Argus for over a month.

The Struggle for Cape Outreach to Jews

The result of the controversy and discord was that by 1876 favourable conditions for Messianic Jews to win their cultural compatriots at the Cape over to faith in Yeshua had passed temporarily and it was left to Gentiles to challenge such people to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Messiah. Outreach to Jews was hereafter merely discussed in a commission of the Dutch Reformed Church Cape Synod. Only in 1894 the resolution was passed: ‘… the time has come for the DRC to pay its debt to Israel by commencing its own mission to the Jews’ (Gerdener, 1958:131). Three years later a commission recommended that a missionary be appointed. European mission agencies were however not so eager to assist as it initially seemed. A certain Rev. Cohen was appointed for outreach to Jews in Transvaal, but for the rest, this outreach was hardly attended to. In 1906 the mission to Jews was discussed once again at the DRC Cape Synod. Mr Reitmann, a Mildmay Mission to the Jews (today it is called Messianic Testimony) missionary, was approached. He started to serve at the Cape. This was the first formal outreach to Jews with the Gospel in this part of the world.

Jews as Mediators between Boer and Brit

At the turn of the century Boer-Brit relations were at fever pitch almost everywhere. An atmosphere of estrangement and hostility discouraged contacts that might have developed into co-operative co-existence. The country town of Oudtshoorn was one of the few exceptions. Rabbi Abrahams (1955:71f) pointed to the role Jewish children were playing. Jewish school children ‘often assumed, quite unconsciously, the role of mediators. Their knowledge of both English and Afrikaans enabled them not only to have playmates among both groups, but to rope them in, with juvenile impartiality, into common games and partnerships of fun.’ An ‘invaluable bond between the Boervolk and the People of the Book…’ developed among the young folk of Jewish and Afrikaner stock. Abrahams also highlights a ‘curious ‘trilingualism’ in Oudtshoorn at the time. Jannie de Jager, the mayor, got to learn jiddish fluently and ‘quite a number of local famers and not a few of the Coloured inhabitants were well-acquainted with the mother tongue of the Lithuanian Jew.’

Correction of Replacement Theology

The philo-semitic lifestyle and teaching of Count Zinzendorf and his Moravians appear to have remained worldwide exceptions for centuries thereafter.

In the last quarter of the 19^th century John Wilkenson, the Founder and Director of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, made a major attempt to correct 'Replacement Theology' through his book Israel, my Glory: or Israel's mission and missions to Israel that went through a few printings. He pointed out what should have been obvious, viz. that the terms Israelites and Gentiles are not interchangeable in the Bible, 'but are as distinct as are the peoples to whom they apply. To call Israelites, under any circumstances, Gentiles, is not less unscriptural than to call Gentiles Israelites. How strange it would seem to find Jews appropriating promises made to Gentiles by name, and yet it is far from uncommon to find Gentiles exclusively appropriating promises made to Jews or Israelites by name. We must let Israel mean Israel, and Gentiles mean Gentiles, or we miss the purpose of God in the miraculous origin, history, and preservation of the natural and national Israel.' The Mildmay Mission to the Jews changed its name a few times and is now called Messianic Testimony.

The story has been told how Hudson Taylor as head of the China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship) sent a cheque to the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, London, on which was written, “To the Jew first.” And, at the same time, John Wilkinson, leader of the Mildmay Mission, sent his personal cheque to the China-Inland Mission with the note, “And also to the Gentile.”

Chapter 13 The Word as uniting Dynamite

The role of the invention of printing is paramount in the disseminating of the Word. In this regard it is good to be reminded that exactly this was the motivation of the German Johan Gutenberg. When he saw that the Christian truths were kept imprisoned in a few manuscripts, he wanted to give wings to the truth.

The Cape has its own version of the same phenomenon. Arnoldus Pannevis, a Dutch school teacher who came to the Mother City in 1866, noticed that the people at the Cape were speaking a language which was quite distinct from Dutch. He was driven by a passion to see the Bible translated into the language spoken by the people. However, he was met with derision for his idea to have the Bible translated into a patois, a kombuistaal.[6] Pannevis’ plea with the British and Foreign Bible Society was flatly refused: ‘We are by no means inclined to perpetuate jargons by printing them.’

On the other hand, the move of the reformer Martin Luther in putting the Bible into the hand of the rank and file German has also been interpreted as the cause of the first big split of the Body of Christ after the schism that has resulted in the East-West divide when the Orthodox Church and Rome parted ways.

Only in the 1960s the second Vatican Council permitted ordinary Roman Catholic Church members to read the Bible for themselves. In the 1980s we saw a mighty turning to Christ in that denomination in South America when all church members were encouraged to read the Bible. This led to a substantial exit from the Roman Catholic Church and the simultaneous growth of Evangelicalism in South America.

A similar phenomenon occurred in the Middle East in recent years. Every Muslim who has access to Internet can now read the Bible in their own language (This was preceded by ten years of prayer for the Muslim world). Thousands became followers of Jesus and many others are still secret believers.

The Purpose of the Scriptures

The prophets knew that God’s Word was the vehicle to bring His rebellious and back-slidden people back to Himself. Repeatedly a promise is connected to obedience to the Word and its teachings on the one hand and punishment for disobedience on the other. Down the ages the preached Word was divinely used to call back-sliding Christians back to God and His ways.

The purpose of the Scriptures should be stressed: guidance and correction. David exclaimed: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Psalm 119:105) and Paul advised Timothy: "Every Scripture is ... useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

Paul emphasized that the Word should dwell richly in us (Colossians 3:16). Of course, this does not mean that we have to imitate Ezekiel who literally seems to have eaten the scrolls (Ezekiel 3:3). It does mean however that we may be radical in our obedience to scriptural teaching. In fact, Paul encouraged us in a similar way that Christ should dwell in us and from there we must be rooted[7] and established in love (Ephesians 3:17). The Word in us has the quality of purification. Therefore John can say that whosoever remains in Christ, sins not (1 John 3:6). There is of course always the occasion of lapses, when one leaves the close communion with Christ. This is the time when the enemy loves to strike, when we are overcome by sin (Galatians 6:1). In this regard there is a definite difference between wilful sinning and accidental sinning. However, confession and the conscious refraining from sinful behaviour (Proverbs 28:13) opens a clean slate for the road of victorious living in the footsteps of the resurrected Son of God (1 John 1:9 ‘if we confess our sin … He … will purify us from all unrighteousness’). Linked to this is the conscious communion with the Lord, connected as branches to the true vine (John 15:1ff).

Persecution as Gospel Seed

Carsten Thiede, in his book - Jesus: Life or Legend (1990:117) dubbed Tertullian ‘a master of the art of how to turn the tables’. This was especially the case with the adage, which stemmed from his pen: ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’ Tertullian referred pertinently to the sadder part of early Christianity: how Christians were hated, persecuted and martyred, though all they were offering was a message of kindness and neighbourly love.

In recent decades the martyrdom of Philip James "Jim" Elliot (1927 –1956) who was one of five missionaries killed while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani people of Ecuador. His journal entry for October 28, 1949, expresses his belief that work dedicated to Jesus was more important than his life (see Luke 9:24 in the Bible). "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." This is the quote that is most often attributed to Elliot, which is very close to a saying of the English nonconformist preacher Philip Henry (1631–1696) who said "He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose."

One of the most spectacular examples of the Tertullian adage took place in a North African village in the 1980s where God ‘sovereignly descended upon this coastal township with gracious bounty... He did not rest till every member of the Muslim community was properly introduced to His only begotten Son, Jesus’ (Otis, 1991:157). A massive conversion involving some 400 to 450 villagers ensued. Stunned by this special divine visitation, mission workers sought for the reason. They discovered that this took place at the site where Raymond Lull, a Spanish missionary from Majorca, had been stoned in June 1315. Lull wrote in his book The tree of Love, that Islamic strongholds are best conquered by ‘love and prayers, and the pouring out of tears and blood’ (Cited in Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, 2004:58).

Subsequently, thousands have been coming to faith in Jesus in Algeria. In 2006 the Algerian government promulgated a law that allowed evangelism of any kind and commanded several churches to close down. The churches refused to obey the government and said “You had better build more prisons because we are not going to do what you are commanding.” Since 2006, because of the persecution of Christians, the church has grown faster than before and the Algerian government has come to understand that they will never be able to stamp out the church. Recently the Algerian government said to the church “You must train your pastors!!!” and the government has given permission for a Bible Institute to be set up. Through a fasting and prayer chain the change came about.

Another noteworthy occurrence in recent Church History was achieved by the conversion – and rejection by his family – of Abdul, a Muslim-background believer of South Asia, This spiralled into hundreds of thousands of his Bangladeshi compatriots becoming Isahi Muslims, followers of Jesus. (An abbreviated version can be found in The Camel, as narrated by Kevin Greeson (2007:23-30). An unresolved question is in how far the spiritual growth of new believers becomes limited or stifled if there is no clear break with the Islamic past. Experience and the biblical injunction seems to support this notion. Didn't Jesus teach that those who put their hands to the plough should not look back? On the other hand, the so-called 'Insider Movement' has definitely been a divine instrument to assist many Islamic followers of Christ to begin a journey with the Lord. Unfortunately, many of these believers remained in Islamic bondage in this way, some going back to Islam to all intents and purposes.

The Special Gifts of Women

The special gifts of women are still by and large not used properly and sufficiently. It is fortunately no big debate any more whether females should be in the pulpit or not. The discrimination of the 'weaker sex' in the Church, the Synagogue and the Mosque has a long sad history. Talmudic Jewish writers entrenched base discrimination against women. This even found its way into the form of morning prayer for a Jewish man - thanking God every morning that he was not ‘a Gentile, a slave or a woman.’ In Jewish law a woman became a thing. She had no legal rights whatsoever; she was absolutely in her husband’s possession. He could do with her as he willed. Islam seems to have drawn richly from this sad heritage, an aberration of the creation model. It is sad to have to note that the Church by and large disregarded the revolutionary teachings of Jesus and the ‘New Testament’ with regard to women (and youth). It was only in the Assyrian (later Nestorian) Church where women were treated with exemplary dignity for some length of time. Research of recent decades shows that even widows had leadership roles in the first century or so in the Assyrian Church. But in the rest of the Church women were pushed into lesser roles of leadership and responsibility. Tertullian (and later Jerome) verbalised sentiments with regard to women,[8] of which we as Christian men should be ashamed. Women have been silenced in the Church. Expression of regret and remorseful confession by Global Church leaders in this regard is long overdue.

Occasional Need of Confrontation

In no way should we condone an airy-fairy covering up of differences. Jesus used God’s Word as a prime weapon against the devil when He was attacked in the desert. But also the assistants of the arch enemy had to be opposed. Because the Lord had observed their ways meticulously and listened carefully to what they were saying, Jesus could venture into enemy territory, telling his religious opponents to their face that they were hypocritical. He gave Simon, the Pharisee, a lesson in hospitality, while he uplifted the prostitute who 'wasted' precious nard ointment to anoint him and drying his feet with her hair (Luke 7:37ff).

The Master furthermore spoke of ‘binding the strongman’ (Matthew 12:29). Paul wrote about ‘taking captive every thought’ (2 Corinthians 10:5), about ‘strongholds’ (2 Corinthians 10:4) and ‘weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left’ (2 Corinthians 5:7). The full ‘armour’ of the believer (Ephesians 6:11ff) belongs of course to the very well-known portions of Scripture which have even been taught to children in Sunday school. In traditional theology these warlike terms have generally been over-spiritualized. (This probably happened when the superficial impression could be gained that it could clash with the impression that Christians should be peace-loving or even pacifist. Islamic adherents love to say – albeit not quite accurately as they would refer only to the Meccan Surahs and verses of the Qur’an - that their religion is a peaceful one.)[9]

In Galatians 2:11-15 it is reported how Paul criticized Peter to his face in the presence of others when he detected hypocrisy. Jesus did this also in a stinging attack on the religious establishment of his day, as we can read in Matthew 23. If the actions of fellow brothers and sisters confuse young believers, it might be necessary to do the unusual thing to reprimand them publicly.

Paul had been taught at the feet of the renowned Gamaliel. As a Pharisee, he thus had a head-start. But, like the Master, he dared to confront his opponents on their own turf. In Athens he challenged the learned Greeks who were constantly debating on the Areopagus (Acts 17:16ff). In the same vein, the apostle did not beat about the bush in his condemnation of hand-made gods as idols. This made the Ephesians very nervous, causing uproar in the process. The presence of him and Silas caused a furore in Thessaloniki, especially when Paul spoke about Jesus as the Christ (Acts 17:1-9).

Persecution at the Heart of the Gospel

The world religions, the Jewish Faith and Islam even more specifically, have difficulty with the atoning death of Christ on the Cross. All religion which has ‘works’ as its base - the earning of one’s salvation in one or the other way - has hence opposed evangelical Christianity in one or other form. Persecution goes back to the heart of the Gospel.

The persecution of the first generation of Christians however also caused the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. From Jerusalem Jews and proselytes returned after Pentecost (Acts 2:8) – many of them to places in the Middle East that are Islamic today. From Antioch the believers who hailed from different nations and races formed a dynamic congregation with the Cypriot Barnabas and North Africans in leadership. The Samaritans and the Assyrians, the ancestors of many Muslims, were possibly part and parcel of the teams spreading the Gospel from places in Assyria, the present-day Iraq, together with Jews. Thomas and Peter (1 Peter 5:13) were probably at the helm of the churches that took the Gospel to India and as far afield as China.

This phenomenal outreach was hardly discerned, let alone acclaimed in (Western) Church History although John Stewart, a British church historian, described the work of the Assyrian-Nestorian Church already in 1928 as ‘a church on fire’. This Church, that later had its centre in Baghdad, stemmed from believers, who returned to Asia after the first Pentecost. Stewart suggests that Jewish believers, of whom many ancestors had once been exiled to the rivers of Babylon, took the Gospel to Central Asia, for example to the Uigur people of North West China already by 61 CE. Was it merely politically inexpedient to highlight that the ancestors of Jewish Christians and Muslims worked together to spread the Gospel? Or was the arch deceiver behind this move?

The ancestors of this Muslim tribe in North West China would thus belong to the first century followers of Jesus. Recorded history has still not solved how the Christian female slave Marotta, whom the first Moravian missionaries found on St Thomas in 1732, had been influenced in the Guinea Coast of West Africa. The amount of biblical knowledge she possessed was just too much to be incidental. The possibility of African missionaries from either Egypt, Sudan or Ethiopia cannot be ruled out.

Serious Bible Study

An example of a much better use of Scripture than the false alternatives which are sometimes derived from it is seen in the life of Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians after 1727. From a very early age the Count was searching the Scriptures, later becoming the spearhead and driving force of the Order of the Mustard Seed when he was still at secondary school. Here it was already clear that a missionary spirit was evolving. The choice of the name of their order has of course the biblical parable as its origin, when Jesus referred to the small seed which grew into a mighty shrub (Matthew 13:31f).

In the congregation at Herrnhut the Bible Study was thorough and deep. Those brothers, who had a gift of Scriptural exposition, received full freedom to use it. Spiritual leadership was charismatic rather than based on formal academic training (Weinlick, 1956:87). The Herrnhut Moravians were not apologetic about it at all. When someone suggested that the group was shallow and superficial, Zinzendorf retorted in passing how eager the congregation listened to the splendid scriptural exposition of Leonhard Dober, who used the Hebrew text for this purpose although he was no academic. He was merely a potter. His brother Martin Dober - also a potter - often found distinguished and learned people in his audience. How they appreciated his teaching is proved that they even went to sit next to the potter’s wheel to listen to his teaching. ‘... he might be visited by a count, a nobleman or a professor, who found him barefoot in his shop’(Weinlick, 1956:87). Martin Dober was also the most popular preacher at the morning devotions at 5 a.m. (Uttendörfer and Schmidt, 1914:34). Count Zinzendorf set the good example to use Scripture to unite rather than divide. Thus he would use Bible verses to reconcile parties who were at loggerheads. Yet, he was humble enough to acknowledge his own limitations, by avoiding difficult or controversial portions from Scripture (Weinlick, 1956:91).

Bible Verses out of Context The Herrnhut fellowship took the Pauline exhortation at face value that the Word should dwell richly in us. The Watch Word, which started in 1728, was primarily a verse from Scripture which was passed on orally and memorized. They cannot be faulted that later generations of Moravians used these verses out of context or that the Watch Word became a substitute for the reading of the Bible itself, abusing it as a sort of oracle.

How seriously they treasured the Word, is evidenced by the fact that Bishop August Spangenberg (1971:1033) quoted various Bible verses when the community deviated from biblical practice. His book Idea fidei fratrum (The Faith Idea of the Brthren) had such a deep impact because of the profound use of Scripture. It does not seem however that the private study of the Bible – in contrast to communal reading and studying – was generally encouraged in Herrnhut extensively. But there would have been little time for that any way. The first communal daily 'Andacht' (devotions) took place already at 5 a.m. Daily meetings and prayer events occurred almost 24/7. This eventually led to a practice where in later years only the daily texts - thus verses out of their context - were read. Similarly, we cannot generally applaud the practice of using a Bible verse at random, but I am only too aware that a scriptural word out of the blue - sometimes given by a stranger - has often been a special word of encouragement. It was clearly the leading of the Holy Spirit when Zinzendorf used a Bible verse randomly for an impromptu sermon which staved off a rift in the Herrnhut congregation in 1728 (Weinlick, 1956:81).

The Observance of the Lord's Day

A very careful study of the 'Church Fathers' will reveal that, almost to a man, they did not support a legalistic approach to Lord's Day observance. The testimony of Bishop Ignatius is typical. In The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians (ca. 110 A.D.) we read:

'Do not be deceived by strange doctrines or antiquated myths, since they are worthless. For if we continue to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace. For the most Godly prophets lived in accordance with Christ Jesus. This is why they were persecuted, being inspired as they were by His grace in order that those who are disobedient might be fully convinced that there is one God who revealed Himself through Jesus, Christ His Son, who is His Word which came forth from silence, who in every respect pleased Him who sent Him. If, then, those who had lived in antiquated practices came to newness of hope, no longer keep the Sabbath but live in accordance with the Lord's Day,...'

However, the Church Fathers are known – almost to a man as well - as those who have been supporters of the so-called ‘replacement theory’. The very same Bishop Ignatius, is possibly the first known Christian writer to argue in favour of Christianity's replacement of the seventh day Sabbath with the Lord's Day.

Religious policy in the Roman Empire was about to change with three Imperial decrees issued from 311 to 313. From Nicomedia, in May, 311, the Emperor Galerius issued the first Edict of Toleration which gave Christians religious equality with Pagans and Jews. Christianity was finally a legitimate religion in the Roman Empire. Galerius was in this way a forerunner of Constantine also in his prime motive, viz. to get the Christians in support rather than in opposition. That the Jews were side-lined – actually ditched in the process – was of little political consequence. Theologically the Jews were now almost completely isolated. They were gradually marginalised until finally Constantine decreed in 321 AD that Sunday was a compulsory free day. Jews regarded Christianity to be de facto in opposition to them.

Constantine Ambivalence

Constantine was strongly attracted to Christianity but he did not fully commit himself to it until his deathbed. Despite the obvious flaws of Constantine, the sovereign Lord nevertheless worked through Constantine to relieve the pressure of the continued persecution of Christians. Superficially Emperor Constantine seems to have had at least some concern for the unity of the Body of Christ. However, he had a controversial hidden political agenda, viz. to get the difficult Christians on his side. He knew that many of them held the first day of the week in high esteem, even though it was a normal working day. They called it the Lord's Day. In 321 AD Constantine introduced the first legislation concerning Sunday: "Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun." In promoting pagan worship, he wrote in a letter dated 323 or 324 AD: 'Finding, then, that the whole of Africa was pervaded by an intolerable spirit of mad folly, through the influence of those who with heedless frivolity had presumed to rend the religion of the people into diverse sects; I was anxious to check this disorder, and could discover no other remedy equal to the occasion, except in sending some of yourselves to aid in restoring mutual harmony among the disputants.' Furthermore, that he resented Jews, also came through quite clearly: 'I have judged that it ought to be the first object of my endeavors, that unity of faith, sincerity of love, and community of feeling in regard to the worship of Almighty God, might be preserved among the highly favored multitude who compose the Catholic Church. And first of all, it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way... Beloved brethren, let us with one consent adopt this course, and withdraw ourselves from all participation in their baseness... For how should they be capable of forming a sound judgment, who, since their parricidal guilt in slaying their Lord, have been subject to the direction, not of reason, but of ungoverned passion, and are swayed by every impulse of the mad spirit that is in them?'

Easter replacing Passover

At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D the final decree was made that Easter would be observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring, and not in conjunction with Passover, thus side-lining Jews further. After this Council, the emperor Constantine sent out a letter to all those who were not able to be present informing them of the decisions made, including the resolution to reject Passover and to celebrate Easter instead.

Two Types of Christians

On the long term, the side-lining of Jews had a very negative effect on Christianity. A tragic aberration set in when the Church became the establishment. The rapidity of numerical and geographical expansion of Christianity in the third century greatly accelerated the acceptance of a double ethical standard. Acute theological problems were raised by a doctrine of two types of Christians, ordinary ones and clergy. (Already in the first century the concept was known as the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, composed of two words, nikao meaning conquer and laos which means people.) A Nicolaitan was someone who conquered the laity, the common people. This germ was disseminated in a sermon of Origen (184 -254 AD), when he spoke of an elite army that was supported by soldiers who also fought against evil but who were not involved with the actual fighting (Chadwick, 1969:176).

The State Church replacing House Churches

The secular advantages given to the Church as a result of the Constantine military victories and the subsequent reforms had a fatal side effect. The unified State Church replaced house Churches, which were actually forbidden. This was of course far removed from the biblical idea of the unity of the Body of Christ. In the process the Church lost its prophetic power over social, cultural and pagan habits. The clergy became less dependent on God and their life-style moved further and further away from biblical standards. Thus the biblical word paroikia of which Peter, the apostle, speaks in his first epistle, meaning to be a stranger on earth, evolved to become a parish. This became almost the opposite of the original concept, but understandable in the environment of a society without money. The parish was the security of the priest.

Using Force if Persuasion does not work

The well-known North African Church Father Augustine set the pattern for Muhammad to react with force if persuasion does not work. He initially accepted that there would be godless and nominal Christians in the Church, because wheat and weed should be able to grow next to each other until the harvest. Church discipline should not be practised forcefully with the iron rod, but rather like that of an operating surgeon. The erring and back-sliding folk should be brought back to the fold with the 'Gospel of grace.' The Donatists were however rigid, not to be moved.

Hereafter Augustine abused the Bible, requesting the secular authorities to use force to bring the erring Donatists back to the Church. To motivate his position, Augustine quoted Luke 14:23, ‘Force them to come in.’ Otto de Jong, a Dutch church historian, concludes: ‘With this argumentation he paved the way for the inquisition.’ Possibly unwittingly, Augustine legitimized force to subdue opposition (The Inquisition became known as a harsh international secular tribunal, where a travesty of justice became the common practice).

This precedent had two major tragic historical emulations, both affecting Jews, viz. when Muhammad was angered after theJews had mocked him. He therafter killed thousands of them. Centuries later Martin Luther turned on them when they would not respond to his Gospel overtures. Via his table-talk, Luther’s negative views of Jews supplied the venomous fuel that Hitler would abuse for propaganda purposes as substantiation and support for the Holocaust..

A total Aberration The use of force to ‘make’ Christians was a total aberration of what Christ taught about the expansion of his kingdom. The parables about the kingdom is the model which Jesus handed down, for example 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground... the seed should sprout and grow up, he knows not how...' (Mark 4:26ff). It spreads the clear message: it is not man’s labour and effort which bring about the Kingdom. It is God’s sovereign work, which comes to pass through the Holy Spirit. This parable is obviously a reply to the passionate striving of those who want to force the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mark 9:24).

One can somehow comprehend the actions of the Jews of the first century for their part in the persecution of the Christians. I have more difficulty to understand Constantine and his successors. But I cannot find any reason to exonerate the theologian Augustine at all, when he abused the Bible to propagate force and quoting Luke 14:23 to this end. He set a bad example which had dire results in subsequent centuries. Religious wars proliferated through the Middle Ages, with the Inquisition and the Crusades among the best known - next to the Muslim military conquest of North Africa, Spain and quite a few other countries.

Distortion of the Word

If we take Jesus’ dual proclamation of himself as the Truth (John 14:6) and satan as the father of lies (John 8:44) to be central to Christianity, a very sad development can be traced. What started as so-called white lies or half-truths such as those used by Abram to protect his own skin, calling Sarai his sister, one finds a development via Rabbinic-Pharisaic Judaism’s innovative legalist inventions and ploys to circumvent laws, a tragic ultimate negative pinnacle followed in Medinan teachings of Muhammad that lists four types of lies as permissible.[10] And somewhere along that downward spiral one finds heretical Christianity’s distortion and dilution of uncomfortable biblical injunctions and truths.[11]

Chapter 14 Cape Pioneers of Church Unity

Protestant missionaries were expediently abused to oppose Roman Catholicism in different parts of the world. An agreement had been reached after the 30 Years War, which ended in Europe in 1648: cuius regio, eius religio. This implied that colonial powers could enforce their national religion on the areas that they ‘possessed’, i.e colonized. The Cape inherited religious intolerance from the early beginnings of the half-way settlement in 1652. Therefore no other churches except the Dutch Reformed denomination were allowed to operate at the Cape. Thus it would be ensured that the Catholics would not have any pretext to come and join the fray. The V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagne = United East India Company), the trade company that governed the Cape from 1652, regarded Dutch Reformed Calvinism to be the obvious guarantee that this would also happen at the Cape.

One of the worst examples of denominational discrimination worldwide was practiced at the Cape in respect of Catholics. Around 1800 local inhabitants from this denomination ‘did not have liberty’ to attend mass with one of their clergymen on one of the ships in the port (Du Plessis, 1911:368). The three Catholic priests who came here, the first of whom arrived in October 1805, were requested to leave the Cape at the British re-conquest of the colony the following year.

Other religions were even worst off. Muslims were merely tolerated and Judaism was trampled upon. The Dutch Reformed Church regarded itself as the new Israel.

Early evangelical Beginnings in the Mother City

The first serious effort in the 18th century to evangelize the Muslims at the Cape is said to be that of the Dutch Reformed Ds. Henricus Beck, a Groote Kerk minister, after his retirement in 1731 (Haasbroek, 1955:58).[12] A group of evangelical Christians gathered around Ds. Beck. His pioneering labour provided the spade work for the dynamic Georg Schmidt to start lively Christian groups in due course.

It has been reported that Schmidt had a small congregation of 47 and that he was in contact with 39 other Whites (Schmidt, Afrika en die Evangelie [pamphlet], Genadendal, 1937). The evangelical group in the Mother City laid the foundation of what became the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht (Z.A. Gesticht) on the corner of Long and Hout Street. This would influence the religious life at the Cape for the next decades decisively.

A few years later in 1742, Cape residents described the impact of Schmidt’s ministry to Nitschmann and Eller, two Moravian missionaries en route from Ceylon (the modern-day Sri Lanka), from where they had been deported. In their assessment they stated that Schmidt had accomplished in three and a half years ‘what others would not have affected in thirty years’ (Du Plessis, 1911:56).

Direct fruit in the Mother City of the evangelistic work of Georg Schmidt were new believers among the colonists. Some of them were Reformed Christians of the Groote Kerk, others were German Lutherans. Schmidt proceeded soon after his arrival to pioneer ministry among the Khoi at the Sergeants River in the Overberg. These indigenous people were disparagingly called Hottentotten at the time, regarded as unconvertible barbarians.

The Dutch Reformed Church and other mainline Protestants

The French Huguenots, who arrived at the Cape after 1688 were spiritual relatives of the ruling church, but even they were not allowed to use their home language for worship. (In France the Huguenots had been persecuted.) After the Huguenot pastor Pierre Simond had protested successfully against the language ruling forbidding them to worship in French, Simon van der Stel, the Cape governor, branded him a rebel.

Although there were many Germans at the Cape by 1700, they were not permitted to have their own church building. It took the Lutherans almost 40 years of petitioning until they were finally allowed to bring their own minister to the Cape and to have their own worship in 1779. Georg Schmidt, the Moravian missionary, was the first cleric outside of the Reformed ranks to operate at the Cape. Theal (Vol. 3, 1964 [1907]:59) notes that Schmidt initially experienced ‘nothing but kindness’ from the government at the Cape. However, he was seriously handicapped after Ds. G. Kulenkamp, an Amsterdam minister, issued a pastoral letter of warning against the ‘extreme views’ expressed by the Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravian Church movement at the time. The letter branded the Moravians a mystical society, spreading dangerous opinions detrimental to the pure doctrine under the cover of pure simplicity (Kulenkamp was actually erring, referring to the ‘Blut und Wunden’ [blood and wounds] theology of Zinzendorf’s son Christiaan Renatus, but the warning was now understood to be against the Moravians in general). But also later there was a basic clash with Reformed teaching.[13] Furthermore, the free attitude of the Moravians towards the various denominations caused offence. Count Zinzendorf endeavoured to form a fellowship of all who accepted the salvation through Christ as the focal point of their faith.

At Baviaanskloof Georg Schmidt was expected to refrain from starting a new church through his mission work, although the colonial church officials believed ‘less in the possible conversion of the Khoi than in the conversion of the devil’, to quote Schmidt’s own words (Bredekamp et al, 1981:43). Schmidt was merely tolerated as long as he worked far away from company settlements.

A basic objection against Georg Schmidt was that he had no relationship to the Dutch Reformed Church. Gerdener (1937:20) highlighted Schmidt’s response to these ‘whisperings’ that were intended to halt his work, a reaction that was so typical of that generation of Moravians: ‘More than ever Schmidt sought the guidance of the Lord of the harvest and declared that this guidance demanded that he should not only continue but renew his efforts with even greater vigour.’

Worldwide the Moravians were operating with a low profile in remote places. It is quite telling of the religious intolerance that this church group was nevertheless ‘treated as criminals for attempting to reach the blacks’ (Cited in Du Plessis, 1955:419 from the Missionary Review of the World, July 1908). It did not start like that though.

The first Converts of Georg Schmidt

Georg Schmidt was a powerful evangelist. Various sailors on his voyage to the Cape had been touched and converted. Both corporal Kampen and his successor at the military base at Zoetemelksvlei described Schmidt as their spiritual father (Cruse, 1947:147). His sense of purpose is demonstrated by the fact that Schmidt moved on from Zoetemelksvlei to the Sergeants River soon after the conversion of Kampen, to get to the original reason for his coming - to evangelise the Khoi.

Schmidt gradually overcame the ‘apathy of his flock’ with ‘labour of love and patience of hope’ (Du Plessis, 1911:54). It was however no cakewalk in the light of the growing opposition against his work. In the beginning of 1742 Schmidt was very frustrated and despondent after long years of toil and little to show for it. He wrote to Zinzendorf that he intended to return to Europe, partly because of the indolence of his folk, and partly because he did not receive helpers. But then the fruit came in the form of the first converts.

Schmidt came to the Mother City to bid farewell to his friend and benefactor, Captain Rhenius, who was about to leave the country on his retirement. On his arrival, Schmidt heard that his compatriots Nitschmann and Eller, two Moravian missionaries, were on the ship ‘Marquetta’. The ship was expected en route from Ceylon (the modern-day Sri Lanka), from where they had been deported. Schmidt’s extended visit to the Mother City with Willem, one of Schmidt's converts, resulted in an unprecedented interest among colonists and officials. It was quite special that during this visit to the Cape Schmidt could pick up a letter of ordination from Count Zinzendorf. In March 1742 he thus at last had the ordination to baptise suitable candidates in his possession. The Count encouraged him in the same letter to baptise his converts ‘where you shot the rhino’, i.e. at the river.

Schmidt had to overcome his own sexist prejudices. This was possibly the result of deficient teaching in Herrnhut. Whereas the Count Zinzendorf gave full scope for women and young people – even teenagers from the age of fourteen - to grow into leadership roles. The understanding was that females would be leaders within their own gender, but definitely not ruling over men.[14]

Georg Schmidt initially only attended to males. At first he found only three men suitable for baptism. Much to his surprise an intelligent, strong-willed woman wanted to become a follower of Jesus. In the conversion and baptism of the determined first female convert, Vehettge Tikkuie, there was a clear supernatural element. Schmidt only proceeded to test her Bible knowledge on 4 April 1742. Quite prejudiced against females, he did not expect much, but Schmidt was very surprised by her answers. He had little choice than to baptise the intelligent Khoi woman as well, giving her the name Magdalena,[15] surely hoping that she would spread the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ like her biblical namesake. She had been exceptional, progressing quickly from the Dutch ABC manual, to read the ‘New Testament’ in that language (Bredekamp, 1987:138).

Schmidt succeeded - against all odds and contrary to all expectations - to convert Khoi, baptising them in or at the Sergeant’s River. Much too easily he shared with the believers at the military post at Zoetemelksvlei that he baptised the five. He was promptly called to book because he had not heeded the warning, albeit that the Calvinists had a convenient formal excuse: Schmidt was regarded as ‘not properly ordained’. Count Zinzendorf, the leader of their church, had merely ordained Schmidt by letter.

To the church authorities this was unacceptable. The ordination letter had been signed by a foreign denomination. We can hardly comprehend the thinking that caused a government to forbid missionaries to baptise their indigenous converts. This is exactly what happened to Georg Schmidt. A new pamphlet against the Moravians had arrived at the Cape. Church people expected him to be banished like the brethren from Ceylon.

A Threat to the colonial Church?

Schmidt was hereafter regarded as a threat to the colonial church. The three Dutch Reformed dominees at the Cape, Le Seur (Groote Kerk), van Gendt (Stellenbosch) and van Echten (Drakenstein) referred to Schmidt unbecomingly in a letter to their church authorities as ‘deeze zoogenaamde hottentots- bekeerder’ (so-called hottentot converter), who pretended to convert ‘de blinde Hottentotten’ (Dreyer, 1936:196f). The ministers complained that the converts were not sufficiently instructed and that Schmidt was not ordained. The ministers referred to Zinzendorf’s letter of ordination in very disparaging terms. Their real problem comes through in the sentence ‘ook mogen geen bejaarden worden gedoopt, dan in de kerken voor de gantsche gemeente’ (my italics, Dreyer, 1936:196f). They could not palate it that Schmidt baptised in the river and not in a church building.

Pressure was successfully exerted by the three ministers to get Schmidt sent back to Germany. It looked as if Schmidt’s work in Baviaanskloof was doomed, a complete failure.

Schmidt’s position had become extremely unpleasant ‘if not untenable’ (Theal, Vol. 3, 1964 [1907]:61). But even as he was waiting for a ship to take him to Europe, Schmidt evangelised among the colonists at the Cape. He hoped for many years that he could return to Baviaanskloof. It has been reported that Schmidt continued to pray for his flock in Africa until old age in the East German village of Niesky where he died in 1785.

Furthermore, neighbouring farmers instigated the indigenous Khoi of Baviaanskloof and surroundings successfully so that many of them left the mission post. The letter of the three Cape clergymen spread like a wildfire in Europe. At this time the Moravians had been banished from Saxony, in which Herrnhut was situated. This coincided with the Count Zinzendorf’s absence from Herrnhaag where the revolutionary fellowship had found a refuge. Doctrinal excesses by his son Christian Renatus exaggerated the problem. The Moravians were hereafter vilified and branded as fanatics, who held wild views of Christianity.

Church Planting by Default

The seed that Schmidt had sown at the Cape during his stint of not even seven years germinated, both in the Mother City and in Baviaanskloof, the later Genadendal. Schmidt was said to have been ‘n man van sterk geloof en ‘n bidder (Schmidt, Afrika en die Evangelie [pamphlet], Genadendal, 1937), a man of great faith and a prayer warrior. In fact, colonists told his two colleagues Nitschmann and Eller admiringly during their stay in Cape Town en route from Ceylon, how Schmidt succeeded ‘to teach a Hottentot to pray as he has done. They actually retire from time to time to pray in solitude’ (Kaapsche Cyclopedie, nr.48). Apparently, this example rubbed off on Vehettge Tikkuie, who got the name Magdalena at her baptism. Khoi Christians, with whom later missionaries had interaction, reported that she was found ‘dikwels biddend in ‘n knielende posisie’, often in prayer on her knees. Hanna, the daughter of Joshua, Schmidt’s first convert, urged the intelligent Magdalena to lead the saddened flock without a shepherd.

Andreas Sparrman, a Swedish traveller in the Cape Colony during 1775 to 1776, reported how he had heard of an aged Khoi lady, who was building on the foundations laid by a German missionary. On Sundays ‘de oude Lena’ would walk to the pear tree and pray with her folk where the pioneer missionary had preached, teaching the believers from the copy of the ‘New Testament’, which she had received from Georg Schmidt before his (en)forced departure.

‘De oude Lena’ had the copy on hand when three new Moravian missionaries arrived in 1792. Lena herself could no longer read, due to failing eyesight, but the woman whom she had taught ‘opened the sacred volume and read the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel with considerable fluency’ (Du Plessis, 1911:73). Even though she could not remember anything Georg Schmidt had taught her, his example and teaching was evidently still operating.

Almost 50 years after Schmidt had left, Khoi witnesses said that they came together at her home every evening where she prayed with them. In addition to this, she taught the believers from her ‘New Testament’. If one takes the finance minister of Ethiopia mentioned in Acts 8 as the absolute first indigenous evangelist, we can now say that ‘de oude Lena’ was definitely the first one of Sub Saharan Africa. But she was also the first known indigenous female church planting evangelist of all time.

Revival and spiritual Warfare

As a result of the vision of a young reformed pastor, Dr Helperus van Lier, who arrived at our shores in 1786, about 60 Christians in Cape Town and its surroundings set aside one day in the week for evangelistic outreach as early as 1788. They congregated in this way for the religious teaching of ‘the heathen’ at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht[16] on the corner of Long and Hout Streets. The missionary prayer circle committed themselves in an organized way to weekly prayer (later twice a week) for the outreach to the ‘heathen’ and the slaves. The influence of the Moravians operated at these prayer meetings because Van Lier saw to it that the Idea Fidei Fratrum of kort begrip der christelijke leer in de evangelische broedergemeenten (1778) by Bishop Spangenberg - and other writings of the Moravians, including reports of their mission work around the world – were read (Krüger, 1966:48).

Van Lier continued to lobby for missionary action, pleading for the establishment of a Dutch missionary society, for the admission of missionaries to the colony. He also urged the Moravians to re-enter the field. According to him, three enterprises were called for: ‘One among the Hottentots in the Colony, one among the Bantu in the East, and one among the indigenous peoples to the North’ (Du Plessis, 1911:63f). Van Lier possibly had some indirect influence on the founding of the London and Rotterdam missionary societies in 1795 and 1797 respectively. What a joy it must have been for him to welcome the three new Moravian missionaries to his table after returning from sick leave, but his days were numbered. Tragically, Van Lier was not around to see the actual founding of the first missionary society in the world outside of Europe at the Cape in April 1799. Van Lier had already died of tuberculosis in March 1793, only 28 years old.

Supernaturally Khoi converged on the settlement Baviaanskloof that was later renamed Genadendal. Soon the mission station became quite sizeable in terms of population, second only to the Mother City. One of the inhabitants recalled: ‘I remember what my late father used to say, exhorting us children to take notice and follow those people who would once come from a distant country, and show us Hottentots a narrow way, by which we might escape from the fire, and the true Toiqua (= God)’ (Catherine Pik, ??).

The mission station seemed to have formed a special attraction for all devout believers.

The second Cape Mini-Revival

The spiritual hunger of the Khoi at Baviaanskloof, has been attributed to the prayers of the Americans during their second great awakening (e.g. Terhoven (1989:153). The 24-hour prayer watch of the Moravians in Europe and America, together with the faithful prayers of Georg Schmidt until the time of his death, and those of his convert Magdalena in Baviaanskloof - will have been at least as contributory.

It is interesting to note that the three Genadendal missionaries - Kühnel, Marsveld and Schwinn - recorded in their diary the story of a man who ‘dreamt that three would come to teach them... They (the Khoi) say that they spoke about it often because they very much wished for it to happen’ (Bredekamp and Plüddeman, 1992:134).

Khoi came to Baviaanskloof, desiring to know more,

wanting to accept the Lord into their lives

In the diaries of these three missionaries one reads again and again of Khoi coming to them, desiring to know more, wanting to accept the Lord into their lives, wishing to be baptised. Evidently the Holy Spirit had prepared these people through dreams and visions. On a daily basis the new Genadendal missionaries were overwhelmed by questions such as ‘What must I do to be saved? (Viljoen, Khoisan Labour Relations in the Overberg Districts during the latter half of the 18th Century, (M.A. Thesis, UWC, 1993:221). It is striking that those who came to faith in Christ also sought protection against satanic forces (Bredekamp, Flegg and Plüddeman, 1992:155).

People came to Baviaanskloof from everywhere, drawn to the mission station as if by a magnet. Some of those from the Cape testified to the obvious: ‘... this is God’s work, no one can hinder it though many are trying’ (Bredekamp, Flegg and Plüddeman, 1992:252).

A Cape Minister with a Heart for Slaves and Khoi

Ds. Michiel C. Vos cannot be regarded as one of Van Lier’s ‘trophies’. He had been called by God independently as a juvenile after wrestling with God in prayer in such places as the stone quarry at the foot of Signal Hill. His ‘heart was grieved at the neglect of the immortal souls’ of the Cape slaves. As an orphan with a sizeable inheritance, he had a yearning to study theology. To this end he resorted to the unusual step of getting married to Elizabeth Jacobs to become legally of age so as to gain access to inheritance from his father, arranging that he would leave after two years of marriage to go and study theology in the Netherlands. It was arranged with the in-laws that his wife would remain in the Cape Colony.

Michiel Vos was converted or spiritually awakened in the circles of the so-called conventicles, that is, small house church groups where Christians shared their spiritual walk and experience with each other.

After initially being overlooked for appointment to a church at the Cape, Ds. M.C. Vos returned from the Netherlands in March 1794. There he had been inspired anew by the Holy Spirit to return to his home country to minister to the slaves and the Khoi. Ds. Vos took up the legacy of Dr van Lier.[17] Although he soon moved to Roodezand (Tulbagh), his influence was felt all over the Western Cape. He was concerned especially about the spiritual condition of the slaves in the Cape Colony. In his Dutch Reformed congregation at Roodezand, his first sermon was on Mark 16: 15, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." He told his congregation that he would therefore preach to the slaves and Khoi-Khoi (Hottentots) - something that was not generally done at the time. He also used his personal influence to improve the position of the Moravian missionaries.

In the Mother City itself, Mechteld Smit(h), a widow who had been discipled by Van Lier, was performing a similar role to that of Magdalena Tikkuie in Baviaanskloof (later changed to Genadendal). God used her - along with Ds. Vos as the main role players - to advance the evangelical cause.

A Cape spiritual ‘Revolution’

A spiritual ‘revolution’, in which the Lord used Dr van Lier, was the change in the attitude of many White believers towards slaves and other people of colour. In those days slaves were initially not allowed near the entrance of the church after the closing of services and they were punished if they dared to attend the funeral of one of the colonists. Prejudice against missionaries was still prevalent when Van Lier arrived, but the youthful minister challenged the congregation through his fiery sermons and personal example. The young dominee literally caused an ecclesiastical revolution at the Cape by shortening the duration of sermons and the length of his prayers during services. Believers were encouraged to get involved with the spreading of the Gospel.

Cape Town evangelicals – Reformed and Lutheran - were among the worldwide leaders with a passion to spread the Gospel. They were not far behind the Moravians of Herrnhut in Germany and Bethlehem (Pennsylvania, USA). A local newspaper, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Tijdschrift, reported in 1824: ‘When people in many parts of Europe were still discussing whether slaves and heathen should believe and whether they could be taught, they had already started with that work in this Colony’.

Start of the SAMS

Mechteld Smit(h) would become a powerful instrument in God’s hand at the Cape. Some farmers introduced family prayers for the whole community on their farms, which caused the Khoi to prefer them to other employers. The South African Missionary Society (SAMS) was formally constituted in 1799. The first missionaries of the SAMS at the Cape were significantly not ordained in the Groote Kerk or even in Stellenbosch, but in Roodezand (Tulbagh) where Ds. Vos was the minister. It comes therefore as no surprise to find that a Cape missionary was inducted there on 3 October 1799 in the home of Mechteld Smit(h), in the presence of forty-seven SAMS members.

Divisive elements in a brittle Cape Church Unity

Due to the combined effect of the spadework of Georg Schmidt, Ds. Henricus Beck and Ds van Lier, much of the denominationalism that came along with Dutch colonialism seemed to have been reduced considerably towards the end of the 18^th century. The LMS missionaries who arrived from 1799 unfortunately soon caused division. The committed Dutch missionary Dr Johannes van der Kemp, who joined the newly formed London Missionary Society (LMS) was one of the first missionaries sent to the Cape. He was the first missionary to work among the Xhosa (1799-1800). Strongly influenced by the philanthropic views of the Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, inter alia that man was born free but subsequently became chained, Dr Van der Kemp became interested from the start in the economic plight of the Khoi ('Hottentot') in the Cape Colony and strongly advocated granting them legal equality with the White colonists.

Influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau

One of the reasons for the negative view of the government and colonists towards missionaries was the overdrawn uncritical acceptance of the unbiblical ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Saturated with the doctrine that the Khoi were free men, with all the rights and privileges of free citizens, Dr Johannes van der Kemp, the first superintendent of the London Missionary Society, refused to use any compulsion in his dealings with the Khoi. At Bethelsdorp Dr van der Kemp and others did phenomenal work.

Both van der Kemp and his colleague James Read married Khoi women, to the chagrin not only of the rank and file colonist. Dr. George Thom, his successor as superintendent, became an important adversary, with little sympathy of the work in Bethelsdorp, regarding the mission station to be a ‘nursery of indolence and filth.’ In a problematic interpretation of the teachings of Rousseau, Van der Kemp – decades before Hudson Taylor made contextualisation known by wearing the clothing of the Chinese – would discard hat, shoes and stockings, frequently returning from some journey to a distant village with his feet lacerated and bleeding.

Dr van der Kemp , a widower of over sixty years, married a Khoi teenager. This alienated the White settlers against his work, especially when he attempted to baptise her. James Read, another LMS missionary, who held similar views by accepting all races as equal, caused discord in the LMS team, especially after it became known that he had fathered a child outside of wedlock. The race issue was destined to wreck relationships for decades.

Yet, indirectly Dr van der Kemp blazed a trail for a better understanding between the Dutch Reformed Church and the missionaries when he stuck to his calling to the indigenous, refusing to become the pastor of Graaff-Reinet. In a compromise, his colleague Aart A. van der Lingen, who had once started at the Cape and who had been refused permission by De Mist, the governor, to work among the slaves there - became the Graaff-Reinet minister. Hereafter quite a few of the earliest missionaries sent out by the London and Rotterdam Missionary societies ended their days as pastors of Dutch Reformed congregations, blessing that denomination with an evangelical stamp of commitment to the Word of God. At the same time the gulf between the pastor of the White church and the mission churches was somewhat lessened and the negative vibes of the colonists towards the missionary from abroad decreased.

Some LMS missionaries, including Van der Kemp, who married a young Khoi woman, were falsely accused of immorality and others of treason for standing up for the rights of the Khoi and slaves. The missionaries on the other hand ‘regarded themselves as the conscience of the settlers and the protectors of the “natives”’ (De Gruchy, 1979:13).

Change of Attitudes

At the end of the 18^th century, the effect of two pastoral stars of the Cape, Dr van Lier and Ds Vos, were operating in full force in mission work. Although Rev. M.C. Vos - born and bred in South Africa - initially laboured in far-away Tulbagh, his influence and that of Dr van Lier was felt at the Cape ‘soos ‘n suurdeeg in die Kaapse volksplanting, like a leaven at the Cape people’s settlement (Haasbroek, 1955:69). A century after their pioneering work, J.I. Marais wrote in the foreword to the Dutch translation of Nachtigal’s book on missions in South Africa: ‘Het tegenwoordig geslacht plukt de vrucht van hun gebed en arbeid, van hun tranen en hun strijd. Het waren donkere dagen toen zij optraden... Doch hun geloofsmoed zegevierde.’[18]

Towards the end of the 18^th century the Dutch Reformed minister of Stellenbosch at this time, Ds. Meent Borcherds, made no secret of his resentment of missionary work within the boundaries of his parish. He and his church council complained about the ringing of the bell in far away Genadendal. Of course, this situation was nothing new. Years before him, Borcherds’ predecessors at the Cape had applied pressure, forcing Georg Schmidt to leave the Cape. The complaint regarding the bell was however ludicrous in the extreme. The missionaries ‘had to construct ... (the bell) in three sections to get it round and shaped like a bell’ (Bredekamp, Flegg and Plüddeman, 1992:93). The brethren themselves were not very much impressed by the bell. It was merely an instrument to call the people of the village together because the indigenous folk had no watches.

The January 1797 visit to Baviaanskloof by Ds. Vos with Machteld Smith, J.J. van Zulch and other mission friends for a few days caused a marked changed of public opinion. A few weeks later, farmers told the brethren of a revival, caused by this visit. The colonist farmers who a few years prior to this had been ready to attack and destroy the mission institution, now asked for permission to attend the worship at Baviaanskloof. They even requested that one of the missionaries should come and live among them.

The attitude and stance of Ds. Meent Borcherds, once a fierce opponent of the Moravian brethren, changed after his study of the Moravian Bishop Spangenberg’s doctrinal exposition Idea Fidei Fratrum, even to the extent of apologizing to a visiting Moravian brother for his earlier behaviour.

Evangelical Missionaries in the Dock

Anthropologists were accusing evangelical missionaries at this time of destroying indigenous cultures. There was a lot of clout in this accusation. It has been dismissed too easily by evangelical leaders, e.g. defending the role of missions, notably via humanitarian work in education s and health care. Thus Richard Twiss, an indigenous American of Sicangu Lakota, was made to burn and destroy all his tribal carvings, eagle feathers, and his dance outfit in another part of the world. 'The pastor told me … that I was a Christian, old things passed away and all things became new, which meant all my Native cultural ways needed to be replaced with Euro-American cultural ways' (Mission Frontiers, September-October 2010, p.7).

Humanist anthropologists have been claiming that mission work destroys the indigenous culture. To some extent, this has indeed happened at the Cape. However, with regard to the Khoi, the contrary is more true to fact. One can safely assume that the pioneering work of Georg Schmidt and his successors at Genadendal 50 years later probably saved the local Khoi from extinction at that time. Colonists were furious, determined to destroy the Genadendal mission station.

A few decades later, the Anglican Bishop Gray was perhaps the most honest on this matter. He bluntly conceded in his correspondence with the Secretary of State, the Duke of Newcastle,: ‘We have taken possession (justly or unjustly is not now the question) of a new Territory. From it we have thrust out the Heathen and planted ourselves in’ (Cited by Hodgson, 1984:65). His views on the release of Xhosa chiefs from banishment might even have assisted their release in 1869. They received a big tract of land in Kaffraria. This had nevertheless little effect because when the chiefs returned, they found their people dispersed, the bulk of their land confiscated and their power gone.

A tragic tendency can be observed in the preaching of the Gospel in general. Pastors approached slaves and the indigenous Khoisan with the European mentality of superiority which could hardly have given them credibility with these people. Furthermore, discrimination was the order of the day, also in the Church. A condescending attitude towards the natives was the common pattern. They hardly gave any encouragement for the indigenous people and slaves to read or interpret the Bible themselves. Yet, there was also the occasional exception. In one of his sermons, Rev. Morgan of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church acknowledged class distinctions in the Early Church, but he stressed that ‘they were utterly repudiated and condemned by the Apostles, and in the Church of Christ there is to be ‘no respect of persons’ (Cuthbertson, 1981:60.).

A Travesty of Church Unity The practices in South Africa became a complete travesty of church unity. The Gospel that was preached was castrated. The individualistic European pattern of that time was the vogue. Sadly also, the missionaries at the Cape negated the 'New Testament' principle and practice of full sharing to all intents and purposes. That would have been so near to traditional African communal custom of ubuntu.

The majority of missionaries at the Cape definitely had an imperialist spirit, not appearing to be very interested in bringing people to a living faith. Their zeal for spreading civilization and their brand of denominational Christianity was at least just as strong. This obviously had a negative effect on Muslim outreach. This may be one of the causes of the cowardly mutual tolerance, which prevails to this day: ‘You have your religion, I have mine.’ The latter attitude - combined with indifference of Christians - effectively prevented them from sharing the Gospel with their Muslim neighbours in residential areas like District Six. A negative factor was the emphasis on spreading ‘civilisation’. Thus one found that even within the confines of the S.A. Mission Society (SAMS) this was stated as the motivation for mission work. None less than Dr James Adamson of St. Andrew’s was quoted, saying that mission work was imperative ‘ter beschaving en bekering der wereld’ (cited in Els, 1971:31). We note the order: civilisation before conversion. This was typical of the general sense of priorities.

The early missionaries understood much better to incorporate their converts in the spreading of the good news. George Barker examined five women in 1816, prior to their baptism. He discovered that ‘not one of them attributed the beginning of the work of grace in their hearts to the preaching of the Missionaries, but to their own people (Hottentots) speaking to them’ (Quoted in Elbourne, 1992:9). In fact, if the missionaries had been open to learn something from the so-called ‘primitive’ African communal life style, interesting dynamics might have developed. Even in the late 1970s I encountered scorn and opposition in Holland when I suggested that Europeans could learn from Africans.

In the 20^th century the clergyman in White Reformed churches was called dominee (from the Latin word for Lord), the colleague working in one of the Black churches was an eerwaarde, a reverend but with a connotation of inferiority. In rank-and-file Afrikaner parlance the latter clergyman was derogatorily called the kafferdominee. Black clergy with inferior training were called evangelists. In episcopal Protestant denominations the whole papal hierarchy (minus cardinals and the Pope) is still intact.

The aforementioned attitude and the indifference of the Church led to the deceptive deduction in due course that the Islamic Allah and the God of the Bible are identical. This flawed message was also indirectly spread in the struggle against apartheid when Muslim and Christian clergymen sometimes shared the same platform. It was regarded as politically incorrect at the time to speak about the Gospel. That the ‘New Testament’ portrays God as the Father of Jesus, clearly distinguishes Him from the aloof Allah of the Qur’an who has no Son.

A supernatural Revival Element

A supernatural element can hardly be denied as spiritual renewal ensued. On 15 June 1801 - only two weeks after the missionary Henricus Maanenberg Maanenberg’s appointment - he informed the directors that he needed a bigger place for the services. The ‘oefenhuis’ had become too small for the great number of listeners and that it would be almost impossible to have services there in the summer (Botha, Die twee-eeue erfenis van die SA Sendingsgestig, 1999:16). A zealous mission-minded group of believers rallied around the SAMS missionaries Maanenberg and Tromp, supporting Maanenberg’s suggestion for a bigger building where they could have their prayer meetings, a place for teaching of the ‘heathen’ and a residence for the missionary. Already on 5 August 1801 the building commission reported that they had bought a plot of ground in Long Street with a house and ‘pakhuis’ (storage place) for 50,000 guilders. To prevent provocation, the directors of the SAMS decided on 2 March 1802 to refrain from the traditional ceremony of laying the corner stone (Botha, 1999:19). Thus the ceremony took place without freemason ritual as was the custom. Apart from a fringe group of Christians, the Gospel outreach to slaves figured very low on the list of priorities of the first Cape churches.

A Blessing in Disguise

Maart, a slave from Mozambique, was blessed ‘with strong intellectual endowments’. He responded so well to the five years of Christian teaching under Ds. M.C. Vos that the LMS thought of educating him ‘... to qualify him to accompany some other missionaries to... introduce into his native country ...that gospel which brings healing and salvation in its wings’. Henricus Maanenberg was forced however to suspend instruction to the slave Maart because of a ban on teaching reading and writing to ‘heathen’. The blame for the ban should possibly not be laid solely at the feet of the secular authorities. It is reported that Ds. Christiaan Fleck, one of the Groote Kerk ministers, complained that Maanenberg wanted to teach slaves: ‘want daartoe hebben we hier geen afzonderlike zendelingen nodig... terwijl van kerkenraadswege daartoe perzonen zijn aangesteld’ (Hofmeyr, Pillay 1994:199).[19] One suspects jealousy at Maanenberg’s success. Governor De Mist’s reaction to the memorandum handed to him by the directors of the SAMS may have influenced Maanenberg to resign. He was so discouraged by the antagonistic attitude of De Mist that he withdrew from the work to go and live outside the city.

Supernatural Intervention

The initial interest of the Church and some colonists at the Cape in reaching out in love to the slaves decreased substantially after a few years. God intervened - surely because of the prayers of the faithful few elsewhere, e.g. evangelicals in England, in Germany and the USA. The soldiers John Kendrick and George Middlemiss couldn’t find a serious Christian among the 1,000 men. They were mocked for their seriousness as Middlemiss became Cape Methodism’s ‘first leader and exhorter-preacher’ (Mears, Methodism in the Cape, 1973:7). At that stage Cape Town was given over to wickedness and immorality and nick-named as the ‘Paris of the South’.

God sometimes appears to supernaturally use natural disasters to shake people out of their indifference and lethargy. An earthquake on 4 December 1809 at the Cape caused not only a 8-day revival and a significant increase in evangelicals (Terhoven, Breath of Heaven, 1989:60), but it also imparted a new urge towards missionary work among the slaves.

During the earthquake, not a single person was killed, but the people fled in fear and watched horrified as the city was shaken as if by the fury of a giant hand. John Kendrick, a Methodist military officer, wrote in 20 November 1810 that it was the best thing that could have happened as soldiers and civilians turned to God in prayer and pleaded for mercy. Many persons were led to think seriously about the salvation of their souls. A weekly prayer meeting was started every Saturday evening in addition to the monthly one, which continued for many years. Kendrick mentions revivals at Cape Town and at Wynberg. By 1812 there were 142 men in the Methodist Society ‘all of whom experience the love of God shed abroad in their hearts’ (Mears, 1973:8).

The 1809 earthquake impacted the SAMS in many ways. Jacobus Henricus Beck, a Cape colonist who had joined the SAMS, was deeply touched by the earthquake. Before long he was on his way to the Netherlands, Scotland and England for theological training. (Later he became the first pastor of the congregation formed at the ZA Gesticht.)

Another Cape colonist who was impacted deeply by the earthquake was Martinus Casparus Petrus Vogelgezang. He was a teacher, who went for missionary training. Vogelgezang became a powerful preacher and church planter at the Cape, starting a few small fellowships in Boand Onderkaap (the later District Six).

Other missionary Efforts of the early nineteenth Century

The work of Z.A. Gesticht flourished despite a significant simultaneous turning to Islam from the side of the slaves. Under Reverend Jacobus Beck a living ecumenical spirit prevailed in the best sense of the word. After the start of the British occupation various denominations started working at the Cape like the Anglicans, Congregationals, the Methodist and the Presbyterians. The missionary ‘Genootschap’ at the Z.A. Gesticht enjoyed the support of all the church and mission agencies at the Cape. After 1824 the Directors invited the ministers of all the local congregations to become honorary members. Nobody refused. Their stance was not founded on window dressing, but was based on sound biblical principles. Thus the secretary Metelerkamp uttered his conviction at the welcoming of honorary members on 20 May 1824 that the kingdom of God can only be credibly extended on the foundation of unity of Christians in line with John 17. Missionaries were also encouraged to come to the Mother City to meet the other spiritual leaders. Strassberger (1969:6) suggests that the Gesticht fellowship ‘was probably one of the reasons why the Dutch Reformed Church decided at their first Synod in 1824 to begin mission work…’

Racial Prejudice entrenched

Slavery as such was already in existence in biblical days. It has been a major tragedy of Christianity that Paul’s teaching was completely ignored, namely that Christian slaves were to be regarded as brothers and sisters (e.g. Philemon, verse 16). European colonists came to the Cape as a rule with racial arrogance. The prowess of Western civilization served to entrench racism, which had already been prevalent for centuries. The Greek classification of ‘Hellenes and barbarians’ - which was fairly neutral with hardly any racial connotation - was replaced by ‘Christians and heathens.’ The former were Europeans and the latter the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa and all the new areas that were discovered. It needed a ruling from Pope Paul III with his edict of 1537 to decide that Indians were human! And yet, ‘Bushmen’ ‘Hottentotten’ and slaves at the Cape remained sub-human in the eyes of Westerners. A theology developed in which racism was rationalized and defended. Thus dark-skinned people were ‘distinguished from Whites because they were said to have been created with the animals on the sixth day. Hence they were excluded from the Garden of Eden, which was a White paradise!’ (Esterhuyse, Apartheid must die, 1981:21)

Esterhuyse suggests that ‘racism as a racial ideology owes its origin in our Western cultural history to attempts at a moral justification of slavery as a social institution’ (Esterhuyse, 1981:22). From this basis it naturally developed in South Africa to a defence mechanism and justification for racial prejudice and apartheid, namely ‘the preservation and safeguarding of vested (in this case 'White') interests.’

As we have seen, the slaves were perceived as property at the Cape. Even otherwise exemplary missionaries/clergymen like M.C. Vos not only owned slaves, but these Christians were also subtly influenced by their prejudicial upbringing. It is reported by Clinton (The South African Melting Pot, 1937:30) how Van der Kemp directed new missionaries to a certain Mr Krynauw rather than to Ds. Vos, since he considered the latter ‘to be not altogether free from the common … (colonist) prejudices against the heathen nations.’

The pastors at the Cape lacked the courage to challenge the colonists with the Pauline teaching that they had to regard the believers among the slaves as family in Christ. Instead, the slaves were conveniently pointed to their duties in subordination and obedience. This sad fact represents a major factor of debt towards the Cape Muslims, that vital tenets of the Gospel have thus been withheld from them.

Negative Legacies of LMS missionary Work

Dr Philip undermined his own efforts by the unloving and untruthful way in which he presented his case. His writing - painting the picture at the Cape in a distorted way, exaggerating things here and there - became one of the causes of the Great Trek. This was expounded by the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief in his manifesto. All LMS emissaries of the Gospel were hereafter suspect in the eyes of the colonists, while the Moravian mission at Genadendal became the model. This diabolic situation was a direct result of Dr Philip’s harsh criticism of the colonists. Not so long before his stint at the Cape the Moravian missionaries had also been branded as villains in the eyes of colonists - accused of ‘corrupting the Khoisan and encouraging laziness’. The absolute distancing of themselves from politics was a tradition of the Moravians, which was not always helpful, making it difficult for the LMS missionaries to make a clear prophetic stand on ethical and racial issues.

The controversial Ministry of the LMS

The way Dr Johannes van der Kemp and Dr John Philip presented their case exacerbated negative feelings towards missionaries. They somehow failed to translate the biblical message of brotherhood of all believers. Had they done this, it might have made Ordinance 50, which made Khoi and slaves equal to the colonists before the law - more palatable. The financial losses incurred due to the emancipation of slaves, was the result of the lies and distortions of Dr Philip and his LMS cronies in the view of the colonists.

The other side of the coin was that the LMS missionaries regarded the civilization of the ‘primitive’ indigenous peoples as a close second motive in the spreading of the Gospel. White domination seemed to be primary and colonial expansion an important part of their ministry. Suspicions were aroused that the Church had ulterior motives, leading some people in the 1950s and 1960s to reject Christianity in favour of Islam or Marxism in the struggle against apartheid.

The compassionate work of the London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries like Rev James Read, Dr Johannes van der Kemp and Dr John Philip on behalf of the underdog slaves had the moral power of biblical truth on their side, but they were often opposed by their missionary colleagues. They were furthermore very unfortunate to have to battle against the pace that the Moravians had set at Genadendal. Nevertheless, the battle that raged at the Cape around the Khoi and the slaves – in which Dr Philip and Dr Van der Kemp had a big hand - had worldwide ramifications when it aided the cause of the abolition of slavery. Dr John Philip discerned that the abolition of the slave trade in 1808 caused the price of slaves to rise, leading to the enserfment of the Khoisan. (Between 1808 and 1826 the price of slaves rose by 400% (Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, 29:427). In a letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Earl Bathurst, Dr Philip called attention to several hardships suffered by the Khoi, such as the pass regulations, which prevented them from settling where they chose to do and sometimes led to the separation of families. These were thought to be legitimate grievances, which would ultimately lead to the Ordinance 50 of 17 July 1828.

Co-operation of Mission Agencies

The entry of the Berlin Mission had an interesting component. It was started in Berlin in 1800 by Pastor Johann Jänicke, a preacher of the Bohemian Church. (Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the renewed Moravian Unitas Fratrum, was consecrated as a bishop by Bishop Jablonsky in Berlin. Jablonsky came from the line of Episcopal succession of the Moravian-Bohemians.) The mission movement from Herrnhut was emulated to some extent when 80 missionaries were sent from Berlin until Jänicke’s death in 1827 (Du Plessis, 1911:211). Learning from the mistakes of the LMS where the selection of missionaries had been not strict enough, the new German background agencies - e.g. at Berlin and Basle (Switzerland) - prepared aspiring candidates for the mission for an ascetic and pietistic lifestyle, ready for hardship. Many of these missionaries came to South Africa.

It is special how the co-operation of the mission agencies impacted the Church life. Thus one finds the same Ds. Borcherds who had been so negative to missions, opening up to other denominations a few years later. In the pastoral letter of the Dutch Reformed synod of 1826, of which Borcherds was the secretary, one discerns remorse over the earlier period in which there had been ‘zorgvuldige bekommering eene heerschende kerk te willen zijn en blijven.’[20] He regarded it as ‘better days’ that they were (i.e. in 1826) preaching in each other’s churches (Dreyer, 1936:255). This formed the basis for the theologically sound synod decision three years later not to divide the church on racial grounds. It was even regarded as ‘een onwrikbaar stelregel’, a steadfast rule based on the Word of God (Dreyer, 1936:316).

When Dr John Philip became the LMS superintendent, the cat was among the pigeons. Church people regarded the LMS superintendent as ‘too political’, not behoving a missionary.

Dr Philip’s visit to England

During Dr Philip’s visit to England in 1826, he met the evangelical parliamentarian Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. The latter had close links to William Wilberforce, the staunch fighter for the complete emancipation of slaves in the British Parliament. In his subsequent correspondence with Buxton, Philip linked the slave issue to the situation of the Khoisan in the Cape Colony already in his first comprehensive report on the LMS stations. He did make a distinction between the problems with the Khoisan and those pertaining to slaves (Walker, 1964:153). Ordinance 50 of 1828 and last not least the publication of Philip’s two-volumed Researches in South Africa were major factors in the run-up not only to the Great Trek of colonists to the interior, but also to the final emancipation of slaves worldwide.[21]

Dr Philip’s role in the proclamation of Ordinance 50 has sometimes been exaggerated. John Philip however definitely played a crucial role in the run-up to this ordinance and he became a prime mover both in the eventual formal abolition of slavery in 1834 and in its implementation at the Cape in 1838. Yet, this decree dramatically changed the legal standing of the Khoisan, putting them on an equal footing with the colonists. It is doubtful if William Wilberforce would have been able to achieve what he did after his half a century of pioneering fighting of slavery, if he had not received the support from Dr Philip at the Cape.

The contribution of Dr Philip for the underdogs of Cape society was phenomenal.

Tension between Mission Agencies

As deplorable as it was that Dr Philip gave ‘partial and mutilated extracts from official documents’ (Shaw, 1836:vii), it has to be seen as unfortunate in historical hindsight that the Methodist missionary Rev William Shaw deemed it fit to publish the correspondence between him and the LMS superintendent in the heat of the battle. It cannot be defended that Philip refuted his injurious statements, but the issues at hand were definitely not worthy to be fought about in public. It merely tarnished the image of two great missionaries. The missionary strategy of Dr Philip - to identify with the underprivileged, defending the rights of the indigenous peoples in the face of an advancing land grabbing colonial power - is surely in line with the teachings and example of the Master himself. Dr Philip was hypocritical in a sense. The LMS – as all mission agencies – accepted big land grants with little scruple, albeit that it cannot be said that this was land taken directly from the indigenous population.

Rev. Shaw had the vision of a chain of mission stations. This inspired many believers in Britain to come and assist the missionary cause in Southern Africa. It is disgusting to read however that the editor of a church magazine ‘exerted his utmost ingenuity to excite the indignation of British Christians against the Wesleyan Missionaries’ (Shaw, 1836:19). Shaw and his Methodist colleagues would however have done better to leave the defence over to people from outside their fold.[22] The mission cause undoubtedly suffered because of the tension as a result of the polemics fought out in the public domain.

Apartheid Precedents by Churches and Missions

In 1824 the DRC decided to regard the missionary as a separate but inferior entity. Nico Smith suggests that this invariably had to lead to separate churches for non-Whites (Elkeen in sy eie taal, 1973:68). However, at a 1829 Cape DRC ringzitting (meeting of the presbytery) it was decided – upon a question to that effect from the circuit of Zwartland (Malmesbury) - that all members would be admitted to Holy Communion ‘zonder onderscheid van kleur of afkomst’.[23] It was also stated that this issue was not even to become a subject for deliberation at a synod. Instead, it had to be seen as ‘een onwrikbaar stelregel, op het onfeilbaar woord van God gegrond...’[24] that no person should be barred on these grounds (Dreyer, 1936:316).[25] The missionary paper of 1834 provided for ‘gemeenten der naturellen’ (congregations for natives) but it was accepted that converts could join the White churches in the meantime. The watershed decision of 1829 of the Cape presbytery of the DRC was however significantly watered down. In 1837 the DRC synod mentions that there should be enough (separate?) seats in churches for ‘heidenen die zich tot de openbare godsdienst begeven’ (Cited in Geldenhuys, 1982:29).[26]

After the abolition of slavery in 1834, the London Mission Society established a separate suburb, isolated from the town Port Elizabeth, for its people. It is ironic that the establishment of the mission stations, with the rationale to be a haven of protection for the Khoi people, set a precedent for the “locations”, which would be established in future.

The Rift between the British and the Dutch widened

Lord Somerset’s autocratic anglicising policies widened the rift between the British and the Dutch colonists. Whether the colonists either conveniently forgot or whether they were ignorant of the way in which Dutch authorities had discriminated against German and French-speakers in earlier decades, was actually immaterial. The blatant discrimination caused a desire among some Dutch colonists for freedom from British domination. It added to the grudges they bore from the effects of the emancipation of the slaves. Close to this desire was the Trekker vision of a Calvinist republic in which neither White ‘aliens’ like the British – they regarded themselves as Afrikaners, to whom African soil was dear – nor people of colour would be eligible for a meaningful role in the life of the community. (Of course, they were still completely blinded. They could not 'see' that the native Blacks and Khoi were akso Africans).

Cape Churches working together

The endeavour of the missionaries caused the working together of the Cape churches around the time of the slave emancipation in 1838. The cordial harmonious relationship between churches seems to have operated for quite a few years. A special feature of the mission effort of the early 19^th century was the apparent lack of denominational rivalry. Thus Anglican Church services were first held in the Groote Kerk.

The Presbyterian Dr James Adamson and the Lutheran Rev. George Wilhelm Stegmann engaged in combined endeavours. Soon after his ordination as a Lutheran minister, Stegmann not only felt the need to do something for the slaves, but he also started with a ministry in Plein Street. He was asked by Dr Adamson to join him in the outreach to the ‘Coloureds’ (Die Koningsbode, Desember 1958, p.34). At St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Adamson would preach in English in the morning and Stegmann in Dutch during the church service in the late afternoon. A special event to highlight the actual emancipation of the slaves was organized at the Scottish Church - as St Andrew’s was generally known. (Hence the name Schotse Kloof was given to the area where the Presbyterian ministers were residing). Dreyer wrote in the Christmas edition of the Koningsbode, 1936 (p.19) that the organized mission to the slaves started on 1 December 1838 - i.e. the date of the official emancipation. At the start of St Andrew’s Mission after the slave emancipation. In this endeavour believers from different church backgrounds worked together.

Another Blessing in Disguise

In 1837 Martinus Vogelgezang applied to be ordained, but he did not find favour with the Dutch Reformed Church authorities. Not having obtained the expected university theological training (in Holland), they referred him to the ruling for missionaries: ‘onder geene andere wijze, en onder geene andere bepalingen... dan betrekkelijk het ordenen van zendelingen’.[27]

In the spiritual realms the church ruling was to influence the Cape in no uncertain way, a blessing in disguise. The condescending attitude was indicative of the general view by the Church with regard to mission work. (The indifference to mission work is still rife in the great majority of churches. It is definitely no complement that many of them see behind all missionary endeavour only competition for the resources of the church.) On 17 October 1838 Vogelgezang resigned from the Dutch Reformed Church to start the first denominationally independent fellowship.

After the abolition of slavery in 1838, there was a rush of freed slaves to the city. Many deserted their former owners in the agricultural areas. The bulk of these newly urbanised freed slaves turned to Islam. Support from the colonists for the mission work was not forthcoming at all. It does not credit the churches at the Cape that hardly any effort was made to reach the slaves at the Cape with the Gospel up to 1838, apart from what was done at the Z.A. Gesticht. A lack of perseverance was furthermore prevalent, combined with a tendency to go for softer targets than the resistant Muslims. And not much changed thereafter. All the more the stalwart work of individuals like the evangelist Vogelgezang has to be admired, even though his initial approach to the Muslims was quite offensive.

Undeterred by the rebuff from the Church of his day, Vogelgezang preached the Gospel among the Muslims with zeal. Vogelgezang used a version of ‘tentmaking’ - i.e. working in some vocation while doing missionary work. He operated initially simultaneously from his shoemaker’s shop in Rose Street, which is part of present day Bo-Kaap.[28] That Vogelgezang gained the respect of his ecumenical contemporaries is demonstrated by the fact that various ministers of other denominations were present at his ordination in February 1839 at the Union Chapel including Dr John Philip and Rev Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society. In due course the zealous Vogelgezang planted a few churches, bringing the Gospel to the Muslims with much authority and conviction.

The Start of the Alliance Cape Evangelicals assembled in Cape Town in 1842 to work out an evangelism strategy for Southern Africa. Pastors of different denominations had a weekly prayer meeting. South Africans were among the world leaders in church co-operation when the Evangelical Alliance was formally started in 1857 in Cape Town. The start of the Alliance in Cape Town led indirectly to the opening of the Stellenbosch DRC Kweekschool in 1859. In due course the Alliance would form a powerful bulwark against liberalism which reared its head at the Cape in the late 1850s. The opposition to liberalism was led in the early 1860s by Ds. Andrew Murray as the moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church and a prime mover in the Cape Evangelical Alliance. (This worldwide movement brought a major correction in Lausanne in 1974. Marxists had successfully infiltrated the World Council of Churches.)

The Two Murray Brothers in Europe

After graduating from Marischal College in Aberdeen (Scotland) in 1844, Andrew and John Murray went to Utrecht (Holland), for the purpose of further study in theology. Spiritual life at this time in the Netherlands was at a low and rationalism had crippled many of the pulpits and seminaries. Much like the two Wesley brothers and the Holy Club at Oxford a century before them, John and Andrew joined a zealous group in Utrecht at the university called Sechor Dabar (Remember the Word). Here they found like-minded brethren, warm fellowship, and true missionary zeal. During a vacation from their classes, the Murray brothers visited Germany, where they had the opportunity to meet Pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt. This remarkable man had been used to bring about spiritual renewal in certain parts of Germany. This revival was marked by extraordinary manifestations of deliverance and healing the sick through prayer. Andrew Murray saw first-hand the ongoing work of God’s power. While studying in Utrecht, they were only a few kilometres from Zeist, where the Moravians had their Dutch headquarters. This impressed Andrew very much. (Later he sent his daughters to the boarding school on Zusterplein in Zeist.)

Andrew Murray and his brother John were in Scotland in 1843 when a controversy between moderates and strict Calvinists erupted there. John and Andrew Murray aligned themselves to the evangelicals of the Réveil, the spiritual renewal that swept through Europe in response to the religious rebellion of the Enlightenment and its pinnacle, the French Revolution.

The Murray Brothers back in South Africa While Andrew Murray was still in Bloemfontein, his first congregation, he got involved in the negotiations between the British government and the Dutch colonists for the independence of the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State, the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854. Subsequently he travelled to the UK where he attempted to recruit missionaries and preachers to come to Southern Africa. The general unwillingness among pastors there brought him to the idea of getting a seminary started at the Cape. Rev. John Murray became a founder of the Dutch Reformed Seminary at Stellenbosch in 1859. At this occasion Professor N. Hofmeyr, the co-founding professor, complained that no effort was made to bring all Christians of the country together. A committee organized a conference fairly quickly. Delegates from the Dutch Reformed, Congregational, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian and Presbyterian Churches converged on Worcester in 1860 for an epoch-making conference. Worldwide it was one of the first of its kind, preceded only by one in India (1855) and one in Liverpool in March 1860.[29]

Tragic Mistakes

Count Zinzendorf had discerned already in the 18^th century that Christians should not strive after an organic union of all denominations, but rather work towards unity which would transcend all church barriers. Andrew Murray somehow did not discern this clearly or otherwise he did not take it to heart sufficiently. His initiative to attempt a denominational merger between the Dutch Reformed Church and the Anglican Church in 1870 ended in a rather tragic disaster. Bishop Robert Gray, his Anglican negotiating partner, was open to work with like-minded evangelicals like Andrew Murray, who had been the Groote Kerk minister from 1862. The timing was however the worst one could imagine.

Gray experienced a major doctrinal tussle in his own denomination. Bishop John Colenso of Natal had been giving him headaches with his liberalism. Colenso for example 'asserted that the atonement is an entirely objective event. Christ's saving work needed no personal application to the individual' (Hinchliff, 1963:84). Bishop Gray begged John Colenso in vain to reconsider the distribution of his commentary to Paul's Epistle to the Romans which disseminated these views or to consult with friends and advisors in England at least. Doctrinal differences tragically killed not only the highly promising missionary policy of Bishop Colenso among the Zulus, but it also stifled the potential of a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church and the Anglican Church. That could have had worldwide repercussions, had they succeeded in merging Episcopal and Congregational church structures.

Ds. Andrew Murray, in his capacity as the Dutch Reformed moderator, had skirmishes against liberal colleagues which ultimately landed in court.

Bonds forged on a fragile Basis

The suppression of their language (Dutch) and a misguided paternalist perception as the true custodians of the Gospel in Africa were main factors for the Great Trek. The Afrikaners went into the interior and ultimately founded two Boer republics. Their identification with Israel simultaneously led to their feeling themselves superior to the indigenous people groups. The fear of of being out-voted helped them to rationalise discrimination, not only for the exclusion of non-Whites, but also European 'Uitlanders' who streamed to the Reef after the discovery of gold in 1881. Afrikaner Nationalism grew on the dubious and fragile basis of fear of Blacks and resentment to the rooinekke, the British.

All people who were not White were excluded from the negotiations that led to the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, where a main factor of Boer and Brit reconciliation was the retention of the colour bar in the national parliament. As a concession, the Cape Colony could have qualified franchise for the non-Whites. The suppression and oppression of races other than White was the fragile basis on which the African People's Organisation (APO) and the (South) African National Congress were formed respectively in 1904 and 1912.

The resentment by Afrikaners of the British and Blacks was cancerous. Parallel to this a dangerous air of superiority on the side of the Brits and Black nationalism that also surfaced in the Church, were also gangerous. These features were caving away at any sense of nation building. The clashing of the various nationalisms was inevitable unless God would intervene.

Chapter 15 Outreach to Jews as a unifying Factor

It is my conviction that a biblical view of Jews could be a unifying factor for Christianity at large. There is a special anointing on the Jews as a people group. Whether one likes it or not, the Word teaches that Israel is the apple of God’s eye (Deuteronomy 32:10; Zechariah 2:8). Instead of quarrelling whether it is repulsive/favouritist or not, we would do much better to use their anointing positively. Matthew 13:52 points to the possibility that the teacher of the (Jewish) law has a special faculty to bring out of the store-room of the Hebrew Scriptures treasures which we Gentile Christians could use profitably. Paul, undoubtedly the greatest missionary of all time, was a Jew.

An orthodox Jew discovers the true Messiah

In the latter part of the 19^th century people were on the move, for many different reasons. It was during this time of tremendous change that Leopold Cohn was born in Berezna, a small town in eastern Hungary. Traditional Judaism was all-pervasive in its impact on a daily existence and there was zeal for the Torah (Law). It was not surprising, then, that Leopold Cohn became a rabbi. During years of rabbinic study certain portions of Scripture brought Leopold Cohn to seek more knowledge about the Messiah. Cohn knew that there was but one course for him to follow: he must share the knowledge of the Messiah, Yeshua, with his Jewish people. He explained an early encounter with members of the local community: 'I showed them from the Scriptures that to believe in Yeshua was Jewish faith, real Jewish faith. This became Leopold Cohn's life calling. It also became a guiding principle for Chosen People Ministries, which he founded in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1894. Leopold Cohn began this ministry by holding meetings in a store which was a renovated horse stable. He founded his work upon faith, in response to the Scriptural exhortation of Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. The ministry's first Bible meeting was attended by eight Jewish people. The Lord continued to bless this work, and in the course of his lifetime, Leopold Cohn led over 1,000 people to the Lord.

Chosen People Ministries melts Judaism with evangelical Christian faith and engages in evangelism to Jews. It supports development of congregations of adherents to Messianic Judaism, which it describes as 'faith communities that stress the Jewish context of the Gospel of Jesus.' The Mission was later relocated to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. From 1924 until 1984 it was known as the American Board of Missions to the Jews. Since then it has been known by its current (and original) name, Chosen People Ministries.

The American Board of Missions to the Jews was instrumental in the growth and professionalism of the movement during the 1920s -1960s, providing training to many of the new missionaries. One of its most famous products was Martin Moishe Rosen, who became notoriously known all over the Jewish world.

Romans 1:16 re-discovered

In modern times Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, highlighted ‘to the Jews first …’in his paper delivered in Manila in 1989 as part of the Jewish Evangelism track at Lausanne II. Rosen started the evangelical Christian missionary organization in 1969 that focuses specifically on evangelism to the Jewish people. Coming from Reform Jewish parentage himself, Rosen and his wife Ceil became Christians in 1953. After graduating from Northeastern Bible College, Rosen made a commitment to be a missionary to Jews from 1956. In his paper delivered in Manila, Rosen suggested that 'God’s formula' for worldwide evangelization is to bring the Gospel to the Jew first. He highlighted the example of Paul in the same paper that ‘by not following God’s programme for worldwide evangelisation – that is, beginning with Jerusalem (Israel, and the Jews) – we not only develop a bad theology because of weak foundations, but we also develop poor missiological practices’ (Published in the LCJE Bulletin, Issue 101, September 2010, downloadable from the internet.) However, outreach to Jews still has to be regarded as a 'Cinderella' of missionary work. Even those international mission agencies who have corrected the neglect with regard to outreach to Muslims since the 1980s, have still to start in some significant way with outreach to Jews.

An Outreach with a Sting

It would take many decades before evangelism to Jews really took off. This can be attributed to Moishe Rosen. Using modern evangelistic methods like humorous broadsheets, drama and music, Jews for Jesus got a bad name among Jews for its aggressive methods. On the other hand, many a Jew, especially in the US, was challenged to at least consider the claims of Yeshua - not only to be the true Messiah, but also to commit their lives to Him. Outreach to Jews (and Muslims) remained a 'Cinderella' of missionary work to this day.

Outreach to Cape Jews

The Dutch Reformed Church pioneered the ministry to Cape Jews in the 20^th century, remaining apparently to this day the only denomination that formally had missionaries consistently set aside to minister to the Jews. The Mildmay Mission appointed E. Reitmann for work among the Jews. As many as 200 Jews attended the Mission Hall in Sea Point. In 1929 Peter Salzberg, a converted Jew from Poland, came to the Cape via the Mildmay Mission to the Jews in London, joining up with the Hebrew Christian Alliance, the worldwide movement of Messianic Jews. He was not here at the Cape very long when he passed away. His son Peter, who had just started as a missionary doctor in Angola, came in his place, working here until his retirement in 1972(3). Salzberg (junior) led many a Jew to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. (The Mission returned to the Cape in 2003 under their new name The Messianic Testimony.)

The world was stunned in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed. Suddenly it was realized that what was regarded as one of the most unlikely biblical prophesies, was actually being fulfilled. Jews started planning to return to Israel as never before. Cape Town also played a role in a new turning to the ‘Old Testament’ when the first heart transplant world-wide was performed on 3 December 1967 on Louis Washkansky, a Jew. The prophecy of Jeremiah that the Almighty wants to substitute the repentant hearts of stone with a heart of flesh, received a new actuality in evangelism. The world-wide acknowledgement by Jews - to regard Jesus as their Messiah - suddenly became more of a possibility. The Six-Days War of the same year had brought massive land gains to the Jews, a fact which had already fanned eschatological flames. This was followed with Jerusalem becoming the capital of Israel in 1980.

The Dutch Reformed Church appointed various ministers in their Mission to the Jews until 1983 when Dr Francois Wessels became their man. He is still linked to this ministry. Cecilia Burger was appointed in 1975 to reach out to Jewish women and to help create awareness within the denomination regarding their responsibility of bringing the Gospel to the Jews.

Peter Eliastam, a very creative Messianic Jewish believer, reached out to Jews through an exhibition called Homage to the Messiah. Rodney Mechanic, a Jew, came to faith in Jesus as Messiah under his ministry and influence. Later Rodney Mechanic became a minister in the Anglican Church. After coming to the Cape, Rodney started an outreach ministry to Jewish people called Messiah’s People under the auspices of Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ). Doogie St. Clair-Laing took over from Rodney Mechanic when Rodney left for the UK and Edith Sher later joined this ministry.

Over the years a number of Jewish people came to recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Services with believers were held in homes until they began regular services. After a few changes of location, the fellowship moved to the Three Anchor Bay Dutch Reformed Church where they had Friday evening services for a number of years. From the word go people from Gentile background attended the services with the Messianic Jewish component in the minority. From the 1980s annual conferences with prominent speakers were held. Christians came from far afield to attend these occasions. For many of them it was very special to discover the Jewish roots of their faith.

In 2008 Messiah's People hosted their first mini-conference at Christ Church in Kenilworth called Roots and Shoots. The former associate minister of Christ Church, Rev. John Atkinson, became the director of Messiah’s People (South Africa) and the International Director of CMJ, the organisation’s parent body. For ten years Doogie St. Clair-Laing broadcast a fortnightly half hour programme on CCFM Radio called Messiah’s People. John Atkinson and Edith Sher took over from Doogie five years ago upon his retirement. It became an hour long weekly show. Edith Sher therefter has been hosting the programme on her own.

Herschel Raysman, who came from a Jewish background, came to believe in Jesus as his Messiah when he linked up with the Jesus People in the 1970s. In later years he would lead the Beit Ariel Messianic congregation in Sea Point. From 2007 Cecilia Burger, as area coordinator for the international Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE), became a link between the various Christian agencies reaching out to Jewish people.

The Role of the David and Jonathan Foundation

When Jack Carstens was the South African Trade Attachė in Israel from 1976-80 he got in touch with four small Messianic Jewish congregations that met literally underground in bomb shelters. After returning from there, he started his own business. When Jack took his family back to Israel from 1990 a few times for the annual Feast of Tabernacles, he linked up with the International Christian Embasssy Jerusalem (ICEJ) of which Rev. Johan Lűckhoff, a South African, was the President. (The International Christian Embassy was founded in 1980 by evangelical Christians to express their support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. This transpired specifically in protest of the closure of foreign embassies in Jerusalem.) At this time Jack could also see the growth of the Messianic church movement in the country.

During 1995 Jack Carstens accompanied Ds Christo Botes of the Logos Baptist Church in Brackenfell on a trip to the Ukraine, in support of the struggling post-Communist churches there. On their return Carstens asked Ds Christo Botes whether they could not start something similar for the Messianic believers in Israel. This led to the start of the David and Jonathan movement the following year. By this time there were 20 Messianic congregations in Israel.

After a survey of the needs of the believers in the wake of the 1^st Intifada in Israel, after which many Jews were in dire straits, Jack Carstens recruited various Bible study groups to support individuals. At this time, in 2000 AD, he was elected to the South African Board of the ICJE. He remained the main driving force of David and Jonathan. In South Africa the ministry focused on sharing in churches the need for supporting Israel from a biblical point of view, highlighting Romans 1:16, ‘… to the Jews first’. The work expanded such a lot that Jack Carstens deemed it necessary to resign from the ICEJ to concentrate on David and Jonathan. He formalised the organisation as a NPO calling it David and Jonathan Foundation. As of 2016 they are able to support 14 Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel.

A Positive Tendency

Even in Christian countries people from other faiths who became followers of Jesus have been confused by the multitude of churches, which were often competing and vying for their membership. The attitude of the Church Planting Movement to discourage new believers to attend denominational churches is however no solution either. To be driven by fear of confusion is not a good motivation. Love for the body of Christ – all followers of Jesus - should be primary.

It just cannot be ignored that there is a special blessing on the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob up to this day. Therefore it should be high on the list of our priorities to pray and work that the Jews’ eyes may be unveiled to the one who was pierced on the Cross of Calvary, that they may discover that he is really the promised Messiah (cf. Zechariah 12:10). It is very encouraging how Christians have started to use this resource in recent years, notably via Jewesses. Thus Ruth Lapide has featured on television quite prominently in Germany. Here at the Cape Edith Sher has a regular radio programme on Sunday afternoons via CCFM.[30]

In Chapter 9 we looked at the two-pronged approach of Zinzendorf and his Moravians in the 17^th century with regard to Church unity and some of their practices. Love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18). Negative uncharitable references to 'mainline churches' and 'para church' organisations, as it often happens in charismatic denominations - or to the 'Church of the Pope' and an unqualified reference to 'sects' by others - are definitely not displaying the spirit of Christ. It must be stressed unequivocally that the competitive spirit of unhealthy rivalry is demonic. Any attempt to defend the disunity of the body of Christ needs to be emphatically opposed.

Chapter 16 Racial Prejudice and Correction Attempts

Racial prejudice and paternalism have been major stumbling blocks against the unity of the Body of Christ in South Africa. In the attitude towards people of colour there was still a lot of goodwill among Whites at the turn of the 20^th century at the Cape. A problem was that even radical thinkers among them hardly ever consulted people of colour. Proper consultation could possibly have averted many a crisis. From the earliest days at the Cape the ‘natives’ were regarded as inferior, their culture despised. Paternalism was rife.

This gave rise to the secessionist ‘Ethiopian movement’. The ‘Ethiopians’ have been typified by the sentence: 'We have come to pray for the deliverance of Blacks’ (Cited in Elphick et al, 1997:212). The ideological link went back to the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8 and the Church, which developed in Ethiopia without assistance and mediation of Westerners. The term ‘Ethiopian’ was derived from the concept that the first indigenous church on African soil started in Ethiopia. The ‘Ethiopian’ movement began in different parts of South Africa as breakaway congregations from the Methodist Church. Disillusioned by the imperfections of colonial society, they withdrew from White-dominated structures to start exclusively African organisations. Their policy was to throw off the shackles of White domination and reassert their former independence, while retaining what they considered to be the best elements of European civilisation. In a sense the good teaching of the Methodists backfired when they tried to make the indigenous independent, because the missionaries kept on patronizing their congregants of colour. The first ‘Ethiopian' church was established in Pretoria in 1892 after Black Wesleyan (Methodist) ministers had been excluded from a meeting of White colleagues.

Brit and Boer drift apart

Andrew Murray tried valiantly but in vain to stave off the inevitable - war between the two Boer Republics and Britain in the wake of the catastrophic Jameson Raid of the New Year weekend of 1895–96 and the rising political temperature.[31] In June 1900, after the fall of Pretoria in the South African War (1899-1902) a meeting of Transvaal Boer military leaders recommended immediate surrender to avoid disaster. Lord Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner for South Africa, came from a small circle of friends in Oxford who embraced British racial superiority. Unlike the Cape colony statesman Cecil John Rhodes who also had imperialist ideas but who respected the yearning of Afrikaners for independence, Milner mistrusted the pragmatic and dynamic Transvaal President Paul Kruger.

Fired on by a deep resentment of the British, the President of the Orange Free State, the lawyer Marthinus Theunis Steyn, resisted anything which would look like capitulation, inspiring young Afrikaners to fight to the bitter end. This was calamitous on the long run, especially when the Bittereinders came to be regarded as heroes by many Afrikaners. The heroics of sabotage and insurrection make interesting reading, but it was poison for nation building. The pervasive fear and hatred of Blacks helped the simmering Broedertwis[32]among Afrikaners to escalate.

Lofty Intentions derailed Three idealistic young men, HJ Klopper, HW van der Merwe and DHC du Plessis - supported by Ds. Jozua Naudé[33] - founded an exclusively male and white Protestant organization Jong Zuid Afrika, which was dedicated to the advancement of Afrikaner interests. In 1920 the organisation was re-styled as the Afrikaner Broederbond, consisting of 37 White men. They envisaged to use Afrikaner ethnicity and Calvinist Reformed faith as a springboard to unite White Afrikaans speakers who shared cultural, semi-religious, and deeply-political objectives for upliftment purposes. Resentment of the British and bitterness because of the Broedertwis, there however also formed a groundswell of discontentment. The chairman of the organisation that turned into a secret clique, verbalised the laudable perception as follows: 'The Afrikaner Broederbond was born out of the deep conviction that the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God, destined to survive as a separate volk with its own calling.' The exclusive nature of the organisation led to its downfall - its lofty intentions were completely derailed by the 1960s.

Early Impact of Student Christian Outreach

A significant spiritual influence at the Cape was John Mott’s Student Christian Movement, along with the Edinburgh meeting of evangelicals in 1910 that became the forerunner to the World Council of Churches. All this looked set to spawn worldwide evangelization. The Cape was in the thick of things through the presence of the aging Dr Andrew Murray. John Mott, the renowned preacher and leader of a global divine work among students, who mobilized many of them for missions, spoke at the Huguenot Hall in Orange Street on the outskirts of the City Centre at the beginning of the century. This ushered in the establishment of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA). The work of the SCA at Victoria College, which was to become the University of Stellenbosch and at the South African College, the forerunner of UCT, had a significant impact on individuals. One of the most notable influences was on Jan H. Hofmeyr, who was poised to become the successor of Jan Smuts as Prime Minister, had the Nationalists not started to govern in 1948. Hofmeyr, who attended the Cape Town Baptist Church in Wale Street, was a fervent supporter of the SCA.

Significant Corrections Worldwide

Events in Europe at the turn of the 20^th century continued to influence the situation at the Cape and vice versa. Ecclesiastic disunity impeded spiritual renewal and biblical revival. Serious discord was experienced at the World Church and Mission Conference in New York in 1900. Dr Andrew Murray was invited as a speaker, but he felt strongly led to be in South Africa because of the war. After receiving the papers of the New York conference Andrew Murray disclosed what he discerned as a major deficiency. He noticed that prayer did not feature there as a priority. His booklet The Key to the Missionary Problem in 1901 was the result.

The very next year however, the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch - obviously very much under the influence of Darwin’s theory of evolution - proposed that Christianity was the highest form of all religions up to that time, implying thus that a better religion could still evolve. Albert Schweitzer followed this up in 1906, declaring in his study of the historical Jesus that Christianity had no absolute authority. The influence from this side was so pervasive that the 1910 Edinburgh Church and Missionary Conference - the forerunner of the World Council of Churches - had an albatross around its neck, where the final authority of Scripture was seriously compromised. Two groups evolved which made a caricature of the Good News message, the one group emphasizing the ‘Social Gospel’. This faction received the tag 'Practical Christianity'. The other group – dubbed ‘Faith and Order’ - stressed good doctrine. The structure of two bodies fostered a theological fallacy that social involvement and evangelization/missions are two biblical alternatives.

Soil for Atheism

The disunity of the World Church and Mission Conference was soon out in the open to all intents and purposes! On this soil, atheism could grow phenomenally, inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx and Fridrich Engels. Marx had been angered in his student days by the general impression that Christianity does not seem to support justice. Some Christians indeed spread the unbiblical notion – it can also be found today among certain (groups of) evangelicals – that riches and poverty are willed by God and that one must just rest in that fact, hoping for compensation in eternity. Believers from these ranks enjoy their comfort zone, not seeing any need to fight exploitation and corruption. All too often they enjoy the fruits of such exploitation and economic injustice themselves!

Basically it was the age-old problem of ‘faith’ versus ‘works’. The Anglo-Catholic Society for the Propagation of the Gospel opposed any discussions on Church unity (Thomas, 2002:18), unwittingly thus contradicting the purpose of its existence. The impression grew that evangelisation and missionary work were separate entities, the one local - performed by the Church and the other one border-crossing, the domain of missionary societies. The statement of Bishop Azariah in 1927 in Lausanne that disunity is tantamount to sin, can be seen against this background.

Correction at World Mission Conferences

The International Missionary Conference (IMC) in Jerusalem in 1928 brought some correction, stressing that evangelisation and missionary work were basically two sides of the same coin. At this conference the paternalistic undertones of 'native churches' was changed into 'indigenous churches' where their own architecture, art and culture would be appreciated more. This encouraged the development of indigenous leaders in different parts of the world. This unfortunately also had a negative side effect, what became known as the 'euthanasia of missions'. The positive ‘three-self’ notion, which would entail that missionaries should attempt to work themselves out of the job, never got off the ground. Indigenous people groups were not taught clearly and encouraged to engage in missionary work themselves. Nevertheless, Church leaders agreed in 1937 to establish a World Council of Churches, based on a merger of the Faith and Order Movement with the Life and Work Movement. Its official establishment was deferred with the outbreak of World War II until August 23, 1948.[34]

The third mission conference took place in 1938 in Tambaram, near Madras, India. In a world where peace was increasingly threatened by fascist-type regimes (Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Japan), the discussions focused on the importance and centrality of the Church, in particular the local Church, in mission. Representatives from the so-called "younger" churches became a majority in Tambaram. While the conference defended the ultimate truth of the Christian message vis-à-vis other religions, it also advised missionaries towards a listening and dialogue approach. In due course that became an end in itself within the WCC.

Oppression sparked (Prayer) Offensives

The crying to God in the wake of oppression as the Israelites did in response to the slavery in Egypt, found emulation in different parts of the world down the centuries. This was also the case at the Cape. The manyanos (the Xhosa word for prayer unions) turned out to be instruments of Black empowerment virtually second to none. Women leaders would not only pray and preach, but here their dignity and political awareness was also developed. Dawn prayer and nights of prayer were quite common in Black churches. (These manyanos were however still very much divided along denominational lines.)

Apartheid oppression triggered united action by churches, notably after the Message to the people of South Africa, in 1968. A Study Project of Christianity in Apartheid Society (SPROCAS) was launched in the wake of the Message as a combined product of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the Christian Institute (CI). The latter was led by Ds. Beyers Naudé. Its overt political character however simultaneously created a schism, opposed by the three White Afrikaner denominations which supported the government ideology. Low-key united prayer could perhaps have bridged that gap.

Christianity became Church-centric Christianity became increasingly 'church centric', with foreign missions 'dropping into insignificance' (An unknown IMC rapporteur quoted by Thomas (2002:21). So-called 'faith missions' started to fill the gap, operating cross-denominationally, to the chagrin of churches. Friction was so to speak programmed because devout church members (and funds) were regarded to be syphoned away by these agencies. Ecumenical unions, driven by catalysts like Bishop M.M. Thomas from India, were nevertheless quite effective. In South Africa the race issue aggravated the differences. In due course apartheid became one of the dividing lines between ‘evangelicals’ and ‘ecumenicals’. The decision by the, World Council of Churches (WCC), the global Church body, to support all agencies that fight racism brought matters to a head. (This ultimately developed into a strange situation where many evangelicals in Europe hereafter thought they had to support the apartheid regime in South Africa because the WCC deemed it their duty to support the freedom fighters of Southern Africa almost indiscriminately.)

The Caricature of Biblical Christianity

The caricature of biblical Christianity as it has been exported and practised around the world is not very attractive. The advantages of superior educational opportunities and good medical care became the misleading trophies of missionary work. Indigenous people were regarded as civilized or Christian when they started to wear Western clothing. No wonder that an oppressive system could flourish - a set-up where oppression became the order of the day. The more affluent ‘Coloured’ and Black Christians in South Africa often unfortunately also adopted repugnant superior attitudes, often playing the boss in the worst sense of the word. The unity and fellowship in Christ of rich and poor, of educated and unskilled, hardly got a chance.

Lording and Servility

A lording attitude was often copied and emulated by non-Western ministers of religion. South Africa has been no exception to this general statement. Bossing is still one of the problems in churches throughout Africa. This has sometimes made it difficult for church members to submit. Often church splits were the result. Some Christians had (and occasionally still have) their domestic workers living in sub-standard living conditions on the same premises. What a change would take place in South African society if Christians of all races start doing things together on a substantial scale - including the household chores, gardening and drinking tea.

In recent years the local evangelistic agency Straatwerk set a laudable example on non-racialism where people from all race groups and from different African countries work harmoniously side by side, doing mundane work as they have been keeping our city clean.

A problematic Legacy

South Africa has another problematic legacy, which is related to the issue under discussion. People of colour have sometimes gone to the other extreme, which is best described by the ‘ja-baas’ mentality: even educated people went cap-in-hand in an undignified attitude to get favours from Whites. It was all too often regarded as ‘Christian’ to suffer under the bossy attitude of a superior. It should suffice to repeat that although Jesus taught us to have the attitude of a servant, yes even of a slave, this does not mean that it should transpire in an undignified way. Paul taught Philemon that he should take his run-away slave Onesimus back as a brother in Christ. Both the bossy attitude and the cap-in-hand mentality is outlawed by Scripture! South Africans may have to repent of both, as the case may be, and ask forgiveness from the Lord and from the other party where possible. In the true body of Christ there is no slave and master mentality.

An Emerging Church Unity high-jacked

The enemy of souls succeeded in high-jacking an emerging unity of believers in South Africa at the end of the 1950s. Professor G.B.A. Gerdener could still write in 1959:’With thankfulness we observe signs to come together and work together, also in our own Dutch Reformed Church’ (Gerdener, G.B.A., Die Afrikaner en die Sending, 1959:92). Gerdener rightly saw exclusivism and isolation as a danger to mission work: ‘Nowhere is isolation and exclusivism so deadly and time-consuming than in the fight against the mighty heathendom and nowhere is co-operation and a united front so necessary and useful as here.’ Unfortunately, the issue of race was abused by the arch enemy to send the Dutch Reformed Church on the path of isolation, causing a deep rift in the denomination. White theologians defended a biblical heresy of racial separation. Ds. Ben Marais and Professor Keet fought a lonely but losing battle in their denomination in the 1950s.

The Black, ‘Coloured’ and Indian sectors of the denomination drifted further and further away from the Moederkerk, linking up with other churches that opposed apartheid. Danger signals however also started to surface, namely a bad compromise with inter-faith notions, which undermined the unique position of our Lord Jesus as the Son of God.

Pervasive Racial Prejudice

Sometimes the impression was created that racial prejudice was only prevalent amongst the Afrikaners. David Thomas (2002:136) showed how farcical the application in 1955 of the first indigenous church, the Moravian Church of the Western Cape for membership in the British-dominated Christian Council of South Africa (CCSA) was handled. That was in sharp contrast to 1937 when the CCSA took special steps to commemorate the arrival of Georg Schmidt, the first missionary. The dominance of the English-speaking White Anglican and Methodist Churches in the CCSA at this time also co-incided with a stark decline in interest in missions. This led to a marginalisation of mission societies. Opposition to racial oppression in the Church would have dire consequences when the World Council of Churches (WCC) intervened in 1960. One of the major crises for the churches in South Africa resulted from the Cottesloe Consultation. On this occasion the Church's role regarding racism was put under the spotlight by delegates of the WCC and representatives of South African member churches. After some far-reaching decisions had been taken by this consultation, there was a strong reaction from especially the Afrikaans-speaking churches. At synods held in 1960 the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk and the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika decided to resign from the World Council of Churches. Dr Beyers Naude started the Christian Institute in protest, initiating Bible Study groups across the racial divide. (Protest is to be understood here from its Latin root pro testare, testifying for something. The mouthpiece of the CI was very fittingly called Pro Veritate, for truth.) The Dutch Reformed counterparts of colour - especially the ‘Coloured’ dominees - politicized the Church. (On the other hand, the open letter which was signed by 123 Dutch Reformed ministers in 1982, stressed the unity of the Church. This proved to be a major correction. The discussion of the letter in Perspektief op die Ope Brief (Human en Rousseau, 1982) indicates however that the theologians were merely speaking about unity in the Reformed church family. It was nevertheless valuable for the S.A. context that the document stressed that the unity in Christ is primary and the diversity secondary.)

A significant Power Encounter

Something happened in Cape Town in August 1961 which unified Christians unprecedentedly. Ds. Davie Pypers had been called to become the missionary to the Cape Muslims on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church, linked to the historical Gestig (Sendingkerk) congregation in Long Street of the Cape Town CBD. (It had been the fellowship where people from different denominations once worshipped, the cradle of missionary outreach in South Africa.[35] Ds. Pypers had hardly started with his new task there when a challenge came from a young imam, Ahmed Deedat, to publicly debate the death of Jesus on the Cross. In vain Pypers tried to get one of the Stellenbosch professors to accept the challenge. The young dominee, David Pypers, then prepared himself through prayer and fasting in a tent on the mountains at Bain’s Kloof for the event due to take place on Sunday 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track.

Because of good publicity in the media, 30 000 people of all races jammed into the dusty Green Point sports venue. The stadium quivered with excitement like at a rugby match. In the keenly contested debate, Imam Deedat started with the assertion that Jesus went to Egypt after the disciples had taken him from the Cross. He thoroughly ridiculed the Christian faith, challenging Pypers to give proof that Jesus died on the Cross. The young dominee rose to the challenge by immediately stating that Jesus is alive and that his Lord could there and then do the very things He had done when He walked the earth.

Dr David du Plessis reported: ‘Taking a deep breath, he (Pypers) spoke loud and clear, ‘Is there anybody in this audience that, according to medical judgement, is completely incurable? Remember, you must be incurable...’ (?? - David Du Plessis,:??) Of course, the stadium was abuzz by now. And then several men came along, carrying Mrs Withuhn, a White Christian lady, with braces all over her body. She was completely paralyzed. Then Pypers went ahead, asking whether there were any doctors present who could examine her and vouch for her condition. ‘Several doctors came forward, including her own physician, and they concurred in pronouncing her affliction incurable’ (Du Plessis, 1977:??).

Pypers simply walked to her and without any ado prayed for her briefly, proclaiming: ‘In the name of Jesus, be healed!’ Immediately she dropped her crutches and began to move.

The Green Point Aftermath

The Green Point Track event thus resulted in a victory for the Cross, with Mrs Withuhn being miraculously healed in the name of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Many Muslims were deeply moved, but something else unfortunately also happened. The booklet The Hadji Abdullah ben Yussuf; or the story of a Malay as told by himself (in an Afrikaans translation) was re-issued. Its distribution at the gates of the Green Point Track was definitely not helpful. The booklet refers negatively to the Qur’an and Muhammad, the founder of Islam.[36] The Cape Muslim community was enraged by the re-publication of this nineteenth century pamphlet.

The effect of the Green Point Track miracle was furthermore almost nullified by news that came from another part of the globe on that same day. The report of the building of the Berlin Wall resounded throughout the world! A new type of battle erupted – the iddeological ‘cold war’ between Soviet Communism and Western Capitalism!

However, it was also very bad that Pypers was heavily criticized by leaders from his denomination for undertaking the confrontation, without getting prior synod approval. Furthermore, the leaders of his denomination were still clinging to an untenable interpretation of divine healing – that it belonged to a past age, to the times of the biblical apostles.

As the ensuing ‘cold war’ increasingly became a hot potato internationally, the enemy of souls abused Communism with its atheist basis, in an attempt to stifle the spreading of the victorious message of the Cross, as it had been proclaimed at the Green Point Track.

A link between Islam and Communism

I believe that the events of 13 August 1961 had great importance in the spiritual realm. The Islamic Crescent was probably linked to Communism in opposition to the Cross at that occasion. This would happen again in reverse in 1990 after the demise of Communism, the result of a seven year prayer effort of Christians across the Globe. Islam took over the mantle from the atheist ideology as a threat to world peace when the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait. However, the event dubbed Desert Storm also became the catalyst for many Christians to start praying for an end to Islamic bondage. The deception at the base of the ideology as a destructive spiritual force started to get exposed. Islamist leaders from Iran have been bringing a world war closer by a rather biased Qur'anic interpretation via the hatred of Jews, to wipe Israel from the map. They may use their expected nuclear capability sooner rather than later. Israel has just as clearly stated its intention to pre-empt that, looking for support from the USA.

Unbiblical Unity of the World Council of Churches

The Bible tells us that the Church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, of which He is the Saviour (Ephesians 4:15-16; 5:23). He has the supremacy in everything (Colossians 1:18), and His followers are obliged to do what He commands (John 15). They are to bring all things under the authority of the triune God and therefore engage in missions.

The original Greek word ’oikoumene’ means ’all the inhabitants of the earth’, and the word ’ecumenical’ was derived from it. In World Council of Churches (WCC) parlance the word ecumenical soon referred not merely to Christians, but to men of all faiths and even to those with no faith at all. Although the WCC proclaimed formally that it was promoting Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world, ecumenism took on a secular meaning. Thus the World Council of Churches increasingly freed itself from its Christian identity, moving into a realm of inter-faith relativity. Jesus Christ was not perceived any more as being unique. Jesus’ words: I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6), became almost irrelevant in that context. The Biblical claim that salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), virtually lost its meaning in due course in WCC literature. The aim of the WCC shifted from seeking the Kingdom of God to promoting the concept of a united Church - without the unique Christ of the Bible. It moved from uniting Christians to uniting mankind. The WCC seemed to aim for the establishment of a world religion in which all faiths are equal - an unbiblical unity.

Bad Advice from Abroad Bad advice from abroad transpired when national Anglican sensitivities were over-ridden by the 10-yearly global Lambeth Conference of bishops. The conference of 1958 'officially encouraged member churches to seek union with any other churches willing to discuss the subject' (Thomas, 2002:165). From 1960 various churches started with talks which gained momentum, so that by 1967 a Church Unity Commission was set up with seven churches involved. The exercise was not easy but not completely futile. Here at the Cape there were some mergers in the wake of it like the Camps Bay United Church.

Worldwide there came the correction thereafter that the trouble and expense of such exercises are not commensurate with the result for the expansion of the Kingdom. That there is validity and truth in Ephesians 3:10 that the true Church radiates the manifold wisdom of God - which has little to do with external forms - did however not break through generally.

Call to Prayer for African Cities

Michael Cassidy, a Southern African spiritual giant, studied at the famous British Cambridge University in the mid-1950s. While attending a meeting with Dr Billy Graham there, he was greatly impacted. In Cambridge the conviction developed that only a spiritual renewal could remove Boer-Brit alienation, as well as the Black-White rift in South Africa. On vacation in New York in mid-1957, he attended an evangelistic campaign by Dr Billy Graham. Cassidy reported about this event: “Suddenly I heard within my spirit: ‘Why not in Africa?’ ‘Yes, why not Lord?’ I replied.” (Coomes, 2002:68). God started to prepare him for a special mission.

During a study stint in the USA in 1960 Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, invited Michael Cassidy to start work in South Africa on behalf of their agency. During the Week of Prayer at the Campus Crusade Training Institute, Cassidy participated in a period of 'Waiting on God'. There he was challenged to pray for the 31 major cities of Africa.

After being told by a friend about a ship sailing between Africa and America with the name Africa Enterprise, the 23-year old Cassidy decided to start an evangelistic agency, with the goal of reaching the influential people of the African continent. He wrote in a letter to Eternity, an American magazine: ‘We desire to have a social emphasis in our ministry as well … because evangelical Christians have presented a lob-sided message that has greatly ignored the social implications of the Lord’s teachings. Consequently ... they have lost the hearing of the people they are trying to reach; therefore, we feel it important to have a ministry to the physical needs of these people, as well as their spiritual needs...’ (Coomes, 2002:81).

During his study stint at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena (USA), Michael Cassidy was divinely touched not only to reach Africa's cities, but also to open up Black Africa to the Gospel. He and his student friend Ed Gregory visited 31 African cities during the long US college vacation, meeting many a government leader.

On 18 July 1961 in Liberia he drew a vast map of Africa in the sand on impulse, writing across it: Claimed for Jesus Christ'. As he resumed his walk, he '… also asked God for 50 years of ministry in Africa – a year for every state on the African continent' (Coomes, 2002:89). Across the 'Black continent' the new agency Africa Enterprise (AE) was destined to have a significant impact in the years thereafter, starting with an interdenominational campaign in Pietermaritzburg in August 1962.

Dr Billy Graham and World Congresses on Evangelism

From the mid-1960s the rift between so-called ‘evangelical’ and ‘ecumenical’ Protestants became bigger and bigger. It seemed almost unbridgeable eventually. When divergent and competing ‘faith’ missions and humanist social denominational ‘mainline’ church missionary work seemed logical and normal, God used Dr Billy Graham to initiate international conferences on World Evangelization and Missions. The 1966 World Congress on Evangelism, held in West Berlin, Germany, was an important event in the history of Christianity. At this meeting Protestant evangelical Christians (theologians, evangelists, church leaders) from around the world met for the first time. They began to build relationships and exchange views that led to much closer co-operation. The Congress was sponsored by two American organizations - the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Christianity Today magazine - and was planned and financed largely by Americans. The papers at the conference gave some indication of the explosive growth of the Church in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the shifting centre of gravity of the Church universal from the Western to non-Western cultures. Michael Cassidy, still a young Southern African who had grown up in Maseru in Basutoland, (as Lesotho was previously called), attended the 1966 congress in Berlin. There he got caught in the crossfire through his paper Political Nationalism as an Obtacle to Evangelism, after he had hammered both White and Black nationalisms (Coomes, 2002:130). His fledgling agency African Enterprise was condemned by evangelical Christians for calling for political change, and for a just dispensation in South Africa.

United Prayer in Spiritual Warfare

Jim Wilson highlighted united prayer in his booklet Principles of War in 1964 to revive evangelical interest to attack demonic strongholds. But it hardly seemed to make any dent in the spiritual realm. Paul Billheimer’s book Destined for the Throne (1975) approached the matter of prayer in a revolutionary manner. Although this book had a few printings, the content was probably not distributed globally by way of translation before 1989. Thus it did not mobilize believers significantly to use either praise or prayer - let alone both - to tear down demonic strongholds in spiritual warfare. Paul Billheimer had close links to the World School of Prayer, whose founder and leader, Dick Eastman, was deeply influenced by the writings of Dr Andrew Murray.

The Kivengere-Cassidy Combination Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda, a convert of the Rwandan revival of the 1940s, met Michael Cassidy the first time in 1961 when he was still studying in Pasadena. When they met again in Nigeria in July 1968 at a conference there, Cassidy, the Africa Enterprise (AE) leader challenged Bishop Kivangere to join AE. Displaying great courage to agree to work closely with a White from the polecat of the world, the notorious apartheid country, Bishop Festo Kivengere became God's special channel to open up East Africa for the Gospel. He was deeply influenced by the East African Revival - one of the great 20^th century movements of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit movement flowed via a big national church event with Dr Billy Graham in Durban in 1973. In the spiritual realm this was a significant build-up to the International Congress on World Evangelization, in Lausanne (Switzerland), the following year. In the Lausanne Covenant of 1974 wise words were penned regarding the unity of the Church: 'Unity should be marked by truth, but has room for diversity and flexibility. Joining together local churches or even denominations has not in the past brought an impetus to evangelize; we need to guard against naivety that mergers in and of themselves can take us forward... Mergers can be good, combining strengths as well as saving on costs... But we must not be starry-eyed about new spiritual energy... This is not how the Holy Spirit works' (Lausanne Covenant, p.35). This was not new at all. Count Zinzendorf had already discerned that overt co-operation could never be a substitute for unity wrought by the Holy Spirit through prayer and supplication. He knew only too well that men could join in the same ‘outward ceremonies and duties of religion, but in reality deny the truth of it’ (Lewis, 1962:99). Zinzendorf realized at that time that we should not strive after an organic union of denominations, but work towards unity which transcends all church divisions.

Third World Theologians make a Stand

At the International conference in Lausanne of 1974, third world theologians were divinely used by God, showing that two tenets of evangelical faith, social engagement and evangelism, are not alternatives, but that both are equally needed - the so-called Great Commandment (Love your neighbour as yourself) and the Great Commission (Make disciples of all nations ...). Fouad Assad, the Lebanese executive secretary, bridged the gap between the more liberal and the common Western evangelical theology during a devotional session. He pointed out that the apostle Philip broke through the taboo of the religious people of his time by communicating with an Ethiopian eunuch.[37] (Zinzendorf did the same in the 18^th century when he communicated with the likes of slaves and Eskimo's.)

At the congress in Lausanne, the Korean Okhill Kim brought the evangelicals back to the best of their roots when he reminded participants how the missionary Mary Scranton started a school for girls in their country in 1886. She intended ‘not to force Koreans to give up their own ways’ (Let the Earth hear his Voice, The official report of the 1974 Lausanne Conference, 1975:657), but to show them new ways of being Koreans. Okhill Kim brought a new challenge to the West that was reeling under the threat of a moratorium, a temporary cessation of new Western missionaries to the third world. (African theologians had been suggesting via the WCC in 1972 that the West should send them money rather than workers who had no sensitivity for the African culture.) Okhill Kim highlighted the wrong alternatives, stating that it was the task of Christian evangelism to rejuvenate the old stale practices. He encouraged the Church ‘to cultivate the educational forms of our own cultural heritage in the arts, combining the arts of the West and the East’ (ibid, p.659). (Even today the 'developed' world would do well to drop their haughty protectionism and open themselves up to 'third-world' values of human warmth, hospitality and ubuntu.[38])

The Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly

During the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization a group of forty-five Christian leaders from Africa met in Lausanne to discuss the possibility of a Pan African meeting of Church leaders to investigate the needs and possibilities of the rapidly growing Christian community on the Black continent. The group asked Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda and Michael Cassidy of Africa Enterprise to explore what could be done. Representatives from all over Africa were subsequently invited to a larger meeting in Nairobi in 1976 called PACLA (Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly), chaired by the Ghanaian Gottfried Osei-Mensah of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization.

Two Africans who broke down Church Barriers

Bishop Kivengere also linked up with South Africa’s ‘Mr. Pentecost’ David du Plessis. The two Africans from different parts of the continent contributed significantly to the bridging of the gap between evangelicals and ecumenicals. Bishop Kivengere became a blessing to Christians around the world with his challenging message of love and forgiveness. Together with Dr du Plessis, Bishop Kivengere was a divine instrument in the thawing of the relationship not only between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, but also between Pentecostals and other Protestants.

Forced to flee for his life from Uganda in 1977 at the height of the eight-year reign of terror of the dictator Idi Amin, Festo and his wife Mera remained abroad until the liberation of his country in 1979. He thereafter returned immediately to bring the message of God's reconciling love in Jesus Christ to his battered country. Festo Kivengere's ministry of reconciliation crossed boundaries of race, culture and denomination, facilitating the visible unity of the body of Christ in an unprecedented way in many places. All over the world Kivengere had been spreading the message of Revolutionary Love, the title of a book he authored (downloadable from the Internet).

As leader of Africa Enterprise's East Africa teams, Bishop Festo Kivengere laboured for decades in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - but especially also in the reconstruction of his ravaged country Uganda. Reconciliation was needed because Milton Obote, the successor of Idi Amini, turned out to be corrupt as well. Through African Enterprise he helped organize emergency relief for those who were suffering, as well as long-term help for the reconstruction of Uganda.

At a later stage Festo Kivengere teamed up with Michael Cassidy and his AE in a dynamic partnership, also inside South Africa. With evangelical involvement in the Black ghetto of Soweto after 1976, Africa Enterprise was to be God’s choice instrument for change in Africa over the next decades. Michael Cassidy and Festo Kivangere visited and preached as equals, also in the Afrikaner stronghold of Stellenbosch. This was a bold step, building on the foundation laid by Professor Nico Smith at the Theological Faculty. Michael Cassidy would become one of the pioneers to usher in the new democratic South Africa in the 1980s.
Chapter 18 Two Sides of the Racism Debate

The Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) was initiated at the World Council of Churches (WCC) plenary Assembly in Uppsala (Sweden) in 1968 as part of their Programme Unit on Justice and Service. Its aim was to develop ecumenical policies and programmes contributing to the liberation of victims of racism. Much of its attention and focus was on southern Africa, especially apartheid and the divestment campaign. It established a special fund from which donations were made to liberation movements and to solidarity organisations around the world. The fund was fed from voluntary contributions from churches. The Programme to Combat Racism was a controversial initiative of the WCC during the 1970s. It funded a number of humanitarian programmes of liberation movements and groups that were involved in their struggle against racial or colonial-related oppression.

Early 20^th Century Black Church Leaders in costly Reconciliation

Over the years the church in South Africa has been a major catalyst for peace and reconciliation. Strong personalities like Reverend John Dube and Professor D.D.T. Jabavu had been playing a moderating and conciliatory role in the early days of the African National Congress (ANC). Successive White governments failed to appreciate the gold of human resources, by not listening to Black church leaders.

Substantial resistance to the oppressive race policies came as a rule from the ranks of these church leaders until the 1950s. One of the most prominent of them was South Africa’s first Nobel Prize laureate, Albert Luthuli. After he had been dismissed as chief in November 1952, he responded with his famous address which had at its beginning the momentous words ‘thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door…’He ended with the powerful sentence: ‘The Road to Freedom is via the CROSS’ (The full address in printed as an appendix in Luthuli, Let my People go, 1962 235-238). Long before Black Theology came into vogue, Luthuli expressed his conviction that apartheid degrades all who are party to it. He was optimistic despite all evidence to the contrary that Whites would sooner or later be compelled to change heart and accept a shared society. Luthuli was elected ANC president-general by a large majority the next month. Bans imposed in early 1953 were renewed in the following years, completely silencing him in 1959. Luthuli was not around anymore to experience the freedom which Nelson Mandela could walk into, but he paved the way.

Dutch Reformed Church Opposition against Apartheid There is also another side of the racism debate. For many it will be surprising to hear that arguably the most effective church opposition against apartheid ironically came initially from the Dutch Reformed Church. The Anglican Bishop Trevor Huddleston and others were making some inroads through their stand against the race policies that became official after 1948, but the most effective counter came surprisingly from within the ranks of the Dutch Reformed denomination. I do not refer to the warnings by people like Ds. Ben Marais and Professor Keet, but specifically to the stand of a ‘Coloured’ Dutch Reformed clergyman. He was Eerwaarde (Reverend) I.D. Morkel, who in turn influenced a dynamic mover, a young clergyman, Ds. David Botha of the Wynberg Sendingkerk.

These ministers opposed the apartheid policy long before the famous Dr Beyers Naudé. The Sendingkerk Ring (circuit) of Wynberg agreed unanimously with the motion tabled by Rev. I.D. Morkel, to oppose apartheid on scriptural grounds. The participants at this meeting included quite a few Afrikaner dominees because there were still very few ministers of colour ordained in the 'Coloured' sector of the denomination around 1950. The Sendingkerk Ring protested against the proposed legislation of the new regime, appealing to the government urgently not to implement apartheid laws.[39]

That the Malan Cabinet ignored their protests was not as deplorable as the fact that the very same dominees who voted in October 1948, did not pitch when all Sendingkerk ministers were invited to a meeting to discuss the legislation. Although 28 congregations were represented, only two white dominees attended this meeting. Another meeting on 14 October 1949 resolved to encourage believers to retreat into a day of prayer on 16 December 1949 ‘to be relieved from the apartheid affliction.’

A biblical Response

‘A Message to the people of South Africa’ by the newly-formed South African Council of Churches (SACC) in 1968 was a comprehensive theological rejection of the rising social ill of apartheid that was breaking apart the nation with ever increasing intensity. The ‘Message’ did not receive the anticipated media coverage because it coincided with the government's banning of the MCC cricket tour. (The touring English team had included Basil d’Oliveira, a South African born person of colour as a political gesture in teh eyes of the government.) Notwithstanding, this powerful statement came to shape much of the Church's response in both word and deed in the years that followed.

Beyers Naudé, who founded the Christian Institute (CI), dreamed of establishing a ‘Confessing Church’ in South Africa along the model of what happened in Germany when Nazis threatened to absorb the Church in its ideology. With the help of friends and colleagues Rev Theo Kotze, a Cape Methodist minister, started the regional office of the Christian Institute near to the Mowbray train station. He regularly prepared and sent out memos explaining the implications of Parliamentary Bills. He also gave ideas for practical involvement. The demonic apartheid ideology however tilted the Bible-based beginnings of the CI. The organisation was quite prophetic when it encouraged Black, Indian and ‘Coloured’ Dutch Reformed Church leaders to look at how apartheid was destroying Church unity in South Africa. But the CI was at the same time, perhaps unwittingly, politicizing a part of the body of Christ in an unhealthy activist way. (I was personally impacted in that way in the early 1970s.)

A Catalyst for unchristian Activism

Unwittingly and unintentionally the dynamic Rev. Theo Kotze became the harbinger of a compromise of the Gospel. Thus it was surely compassionate and loving that he went to the home of Farid Esack, a young Muslim, to explain to the family that the first police detention of the high school student was not because he was a bad person. Esack later confessed in Harare years later - in the presence of Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki and Bishop Trevor Huddleston - about Kotze’s contribution in his spiritual development: ‘It was a Christian minister who taught me that Islam is not the sole repository of truth.’ (Knighton-Fitt, 2003:186).[40] Kotze and the CI of the 1970s were unwittingly sowing the seed of inter-faith teaching that compromised the uniqueness of Jesus as the divine Son of God. The uncompromising stance of CI leaders also influenced Church leaders to oppose all forms of legalism. However, many of them went overboard in the end in their actvism. In my view it is no co-incidence that quite a few ministers that were closely linked to the CI in later years supported an unbiblical view on homosexuality, sometimes with the excuse that they opposed the unloving and legalistic practices in the churches.

The CI became a catalyst for uncharitable activism. This was especially evident in the University Christian Movement (UCM) that was more or less a spiritual child of the CI. UCM was formed by English-speaking churches after the SCA changed its constitution to divide into separate ethnic organizations. Many White students withdrew from active participation when Black Theology and Black Consciousness came strongly to the fore. The mood of Black students - under the leadership of Steve Biko, who broke away with others at a UCM conference to form SASO – was very much one of polarization. 'Black man, you are on your own!' became a commonly used slogan. Sometimes their sentiments were all too often expressed as blatant anti-White racism.[41]

Correction came to the fore in the 1970s in the course of the expounding of Black Theology. Thus Manas Buthulezi, a Lutheran Bishop and prominent theologian, spelled this out with great effect at the South African Congress on Mission and Evangelism in 1973, noting that Christianity had to be liberated from every form of racial bondage if it was to speak meaningfully to Blacks: 'The white man will be liberated from the urge to reject the black man...' (Cited in De Gruchy, 1979:162). In similar vein Desmond Tutu explained what the liberation meant: It is 'fundamentally liberation from sin to which we are all (oppressed and oppressors alike) in bondage, it means a readiness to forgive, and a refusal to be consumed by hate...' (Cited in De Gruchy, 1979:163).

Defence of Racism

Atrocities by so-called freedom fighters called forth reaction that often went overboard. Rev. Arthur Lewis spent 11 years serving at various mission stations in Tanganyika and on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.[42] In 1958 he moved to Zimbabwe that was called Southern Rhodesia at the time. His book, Christian Terror, created a sensation as it documented how missionaries, pastors and other Christians were being brutally murdered by soldiers of Robert Mugabe's ZANU and Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU. These groups were among the recipients of World Council of Churches funding. Readers Digest picked up the scandalous story and the Salvation Army and Baptists withdrew their membership with the WCC in protest. To help mobilize prayer and action on behalf of Christians suffering on the frontline of the battle, against the advance of Soviet and Chinese supported Communism, Rev. Arthur Lewis launched the Rhodesia Christian Group. In other countries similar reactionary groups started like the Notgemeinschaft in West Germany.

South African Churches withdrawing support of the WCC

In due course certain South African churches followed suit, withdrawing their support of the WCC. At this time Dr Andries Treurnicht, a former editor of the Dutch Reformed mouthpiece Die Kerkbode, became Deputy Minister of Education. His instruction in 1976 to implement the policy that Black students should be taught in Afrikaans triggered the Soweto uprising. In 1978, Treurnicht was chosen - over the heads of 12 other Cabinet ministers - as leader of the National Party in the Transvaal. The impression was reinforced that verkrampte (ultra-reactionary) right-wingers were gaining control of the ruling party. When Prime Minister P.W. Botha wanted to introduce limited cosmetic reforms to apartheid, Treurnicht and 17 other MPs decided to quit the National Party to form the Conservative Party on March 20, 1982.

Opposition to racial Oppression causing Splits

Non-violent opposition to racism became increasingly unpopular among Church members of colour. More and more the White-dominated regimes were perceived as oppressors of the peoples of colour that could only be toppled with military means.

After the West had refused to help them in the battle against the apartheid regime, the ANC turned to the Soviet Communists. The military situation on the country’s borders caused White believers of South Africa to form a group called Intercessors for South Africa. This was initiated by Dr Francis Grim, leader of the Healthcare Christian Fellowship, which had its national headquarters in the picturesque Capetonian suburb of Pinelands. He was one of few people at the time to discern the growing moral dangers clearly: ‘Most people seem to be too busy making money, enjoying themselves ... to notice the dangerous downward trend in the country’s morals’.

Prayer as a Part of the Process of Change

Prayer was very much part of a process of change. This is demonstrated by times of prayer and fasting in the St George’s Cathedral. Rev. Bernard Wrankmore was convinced that the country was misled by a similar delusion as the Germans under Hitler. He decided to retreat for prayer and fasting to St George’s Cathedral for the situation in the country. However, Wrankmore was refused permission to do so by the Archbishop and the Dean of the Cathedral. He did receive permission to fast and pray in the Islamic shrine between Lion's Head and Signal Hill. Those responsible for St George’s Cathedral evidently repented after the negative response to Rev. Bernard Wrankmore in 1971, allowing other people to pray and fast with political overtones of protest.

Dr Francis Grim, the founder-leader of Healthcare Christian Fellowship, initiated a National Day of Prayer, called for 7 January 1976. However, this was not perceived by

people of colour as something to join. In fact, few people from those ranks knew about the day of prayer. The all-White organizers had still not recognized the need to draw in people from other racial backgrounds. Yet, this move may have stemmed the tide of Communist-inspired revolution, to which the June 16 upheavals in Soweto in 1976 could easily have led. Dr Grim gave a challenging title to a booklet that was published by his organisation: Pray or Perish. At any rate, God was already at work. On that very June 16 (1976), a young policeman, Johan Botha, was posted in Soweto. Supernaturally God would use him almost 20 years later to bring many in the nation to their knees in prayer.[43]

Impact of Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology that developed in Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s has been described as ‘an interpretation of Christian faith out of the experience of the poor...an attempt to read the Bible and key Christian doctrines with the eyes of the poor’.

Some third-world theologians started focussing on grievances. Many moved away from the biblical centre, some to political activism. Already in the 1950s the Indian theologian M. M. Thomas had introduced revolution as a theological concept. In the International Review of Missions of 1973 a commentator stated that 'his political theology is through and through a missionary theology' (Cited in Thomas, 2002:28). The Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church produced a theological atmosphere characterized by great freedom and creativity. This gave Latin American theologians the courage to think for themselves about pastoral problems affecting their countries. This process could be seen at work among both Roman Catholic and Protestant thinkers with the group Church and Society in Latin America (ISAL) giving prominent input.

Richard Shaull, who worked as a missionary in Columbia and Brazil, came up at this time with a Theology of Revolution, supporting the poor to throw off the yoke of oppression - if need be violently. His critical thinking on social change, prophetic Christianity, and dialogue with Marxism, as well as Christian use of Marxist analysis, preceded the emergence of the formal schools of Liberation Theology.

With some substance Liberation Theology was soon teaching that the colonially enforced Christianity led to oppression and injustice. This was definitely the case in Southern Africa. Marxism would be the answer liberal theologians suggested. A new Jesus emerged – Jesus, the militant revolutionary![44] James Cone, an Afro-American academic, adapted it and dubbed it Black Theology. This took South Africa by storm in 1970 via the University Christian Movement.

The WCC’s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) held a conference in Bangkok in 1972 under the theme ’Salvation Today’. It called formally for a ’Moratorium on Missions’. The evolution of a negative perception of Church and Missions as analysed by the Jew Karl Marx is very tragic. The call from Africa for a moratorium of (Western) missionaries[45] in 1972 may have sounded very uncharitable. Possibly this was inspired by a reaction against the bossy attitude of Western missionaries who gave the impression that they always know it better. Why is 2 Corinthians 8 still unknown by and large, namely how the poor Macedonians begged to be given the opportunity to bless the mother church in Jerusalem? How often is it taught that poor believers have much to give? Is this not what Jesus also demonstrated with the gift of the widow’s mite?

However, it was expcted very rightfully that Black Churches must become truly African. As a result of the moratorium, WCC-linked missionary societies withdrew their missionaries from Africa and elsewhere. This left many unprepared young churches with a void of proper oversight.

In a further development, the WCC’s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) changed its name into Commission for Dialogue with People of other Faiths (CWME), which basically intimated an historical judgement on the missionary movement. Missionary work which invited people to become followers of Jesus was hereafter not fashionable any more. This can also be regarded as the start of Interfaith-Dialogue

Confession as a divine Instrument

Confession is an important element of prayer as a vital ingredient towards spiritual renewal. The rebirth of the Jewish nation after the exile was prepared by the intercessory prayers of Nehemiah (1:6-9), Ezra (9:6-13) and Daniel (9:9-19). All three of them concentrated on the spiritual condition of the nation, and confession of sins.

In revivals through the ages, prayer has always been the basis. In these cases prayer brought about a consciousness of sin, which invariably led to confession and restitution. Andrew Murray opined: ‘an essential element in a true missionary revival will be a broken heart and a contrite spirit in view of past neglect and sin’. In the most widely known revival in South Africa, in Kwa Siza Bantu (Natal), Erlo Stegen, the founding leader, had been observing an extended period of prayer. However, the Holy Spirit only broke through when Stegen confessed his racial pride. He discerned that he was lacking neighbourly love towards the Zulus.

In recent years a biographical film Faith like Potatoes depicted how Angus Buchan, a Natal farmer, experienced an amazing personal revival and then began to impact the lives of many others. His Mighty Men Conferences and other revival events would impact thousands in subsequent years.

Ministry amongst Youth and Children During and after World War II concern was raised for young people whose families had been broken up by fathers serving overseas on military assignments. The absence of a positive father figure (male role model) in the home led to other social problems. The then typical church structures were not catering for these young people. This compelled some Christian leaders to develop programmes specifically geared to reach out to these young people. The new initiative brought dynamic young evangelists into the frame, who started using revolutionary methods, conducting lively mass rallies in more than a dozen US cities under the name Youth for Christ (YfC). With the rapid expansion of the work there soon became a need for leadership and organization and in 1944 Chicago pastor Torrey Johnson was elected YFC’s first president, with Billy Graham as YfC’s first full-time worker.

These initiatives became a movement and the pioneers started to travel to other countries. Jimmy Ferguson came to South Africa as a missionary, running rallies alongside local South Africans. Youth for Christ (YfC) became an international Christian organization with its core mission and vision that of communicating the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to young people. Jimmy Ferguson pioneered YFC’s ministry at the Cape where the organization started nationally already in 1946. YFC South Africa in its early years was born out of a middle class ministry to White high school learners, also providing a valuable service to predominantly suburban churches through training, rallies and camping. Bill Parker and Nico Bougas[46] were two prominent YFC members during the 1950s and 1960s at the Cape, who were also very much involved in ministry at the insurance pioneers Old Mutual, where they worked. The slogan Youth for Christ would find emulation in different ways like Cops for Christ, Jews for Jesus and Athletes for Christ.

Scripture Union started amongst English-speaking White high schools. The Catholic and Anglican schools were the first to bridge the racial divide, with the Diocesan College in Rondebosch (Bishops) and St Cyprian’s in Vredehoek amongst the first countrywide.

At the Cape the Moravian Church was among the first denominations to organize their youth work nationally. Out of their Sunday School Union which started at the Cape already in 1942, a national Youth Union grew that was formally started in 1958. From the mid-1960s that denomination broke new ground once again with multi-racial work camps at Langgezocht, Genadendal, with the intention of building a camp site there.[47]

Recruitment from the Christian Student Ministry

The Christen-Studentevereniging (CSV), the Afrikaner sector of the SCA, produced many prominent leaders in church and society. In the latter part of the 20^th century many organisations developed out of the Christen-Studentevereniging (CSV). Stellenbosch University played a prominent role with the annual mission week at the Studentekerk. This was emulated at other tertiary institutions all around the country. Jan Hanekom (at the Hofmeyr Centre and linked to South African Association of World Evangelisation SAAWE), influenced scores of students.

Cassie Carstens came to international prominence as the executive head of the CSV from 1990 to 2000. He was the chaplain of the national rugby team that won the World Cup in 1995. Here he caught the eye of the international media. This led to the founding of the International School for Sports Leaders in Stellenbosch.

The work of the parallel student ministry among ‘Coloureds’ only really came into its own in the second half of the 20^th century where ‘Mammie’ le Fleur pioneered this work with Nic Apollis as the next itinerant secretary until the early 1960s, followed by Chris Wessels from the Moravian Church.

At a camp for theological students, a tokkelok from the Sendingkerk, Esau Jacobs, was deeply moved with regard to ecumenical work, notably for the work of Ds. Beyers Naude and the Christian Institute. He started his pastoral ministry in the Transkei. Jakes, as he became widely known, also had a definite vision to reach out to the Muslims. He inspired many a young student, including the author. At the student evangelistic outreach at Harmony Park in 1964/5, Jakes exposed the group to ‘spiritual warfare’ when he joined the students and young teachers on New Year’s Day, 1965.

The student outreach at Harmony Park in the mid-1960s contributed significantly to the spiritual maturing of leaders such as Rev. Abel Hendricks. In later years Abel Hendricks became President of the Methodist Church and Chris Wessels became a respected leader in the Moravian Church. Allan Boesak, Jattie Bredekamp, Esau Jacobs, Franklin Sonn and David Savage are but a few young men from these Harmony Park outreaches who subsequently became influential members in their respective denominations and in society at large.

Hippies radiate Revival

Under John Bond and Paul Watney’s ministry, the Harfield Road Assembly of God, situated halfway between the Cape suburbs of Claremont and Kenilworth, experienced a mighty revival known as ‘the Hippie Revival’. In 1971 it was very much of an orthodox lone ranger of the denomination among the Whites at the Cape. This would change drastically within a few years because of the Hippie movement, young people who followed an alternative life-style of sex and drugs. The congregation welcomed drugged hippies with sandals or bare feet that no other church would have allowed to enter. Many of them were supernaturally delivered from their addiction.

The Jesus Movement was the major Christian element within the hippie sub-culture. Members were called Jesus People, or Jesus Freaks. It came to Cape Town from Johannesburg in the early 1970s. Brian O’Donnell and Dave Valentine soon became the prime movers here. Back-slidden to all intents and purposes, Brian took Dave, a nominal Methodist young man, along to their church.

Impacts on Society

The bubbling young believers would go to Thibault Square with a loud hailer. At the altar calls many would kneel there on the square committing their lives to the Lord. The special move of the Holy Spirit would ultimately led to an invitation to Nicky Cruz, the former Mau-Mau gang leader of New York, to share at a meeting at Green Point Stadium. At this occasion Graham Power was divinely addressed and challenged for the first time. (Decades later Graham Power would be God's channel to initiate the prayer event of Newlands on 21 March, 2001.)

Quite a few the hippies of the revival became leaders in their own right. Former drug addict Marge Ballin started ministering to drug addicts prostitutes after her conversion. Herschel Raysman, became the leader of the Beit Ariel Messianic Jewish congregation in Sea Point at the turn of the millennium.

Charismatic Renewal erupts at the Cape In 1964 the Cape-born David du Plessis, nicknamed ‘Mr Pentecost’, introduced the charismatic renewal to the Roman Catholic Church. Before he came to Cape Town, the high profile Archbishop Bill Burnett had a spiritual conversion experience. This influenced his subsequent thinking. The charismatic renewal thereafter also started to impact individuals of other mainline churches.

A negative element of the movement was that many believers, for example those who did not practise speaking in tongues, were confused and left outside, questioning the depth and reality of their own faith. The turmoil in his bishopric, however, did not affect the clear witness of Archbishop Burnett with regard to the government. Apartheid was now rightly seen as the worship of a false god.

The charismatic renewal played a significant role in breaking down the racial barrier. Thus it would ultimately become no exception for a few Whites to regularly visit the Roman Catholic Church in the ‘Coloured’ township of Bonteheuwel in the 1990s.

While apartheid continued to rule the country, the charismatic movement had made important breakthroughs in opposition to it. Those denominations which blocked the move of the Holy Spirit on doctrinal grounds suffered greatly as scores of young people started leaving their ranks.

Surprising Results of 'Group Areas' Legislation Already in 1940 the report of E. Beaudouin, which was presented to the Cape Town City Council, envisaged ‘Slum Clearance Projects’, viz. (a) District Six (b) The Malay Quarter (c) The Docks Area. After the passing of legislation by Parliament in 1950 to divide residential areas along racial lines, many ‘Coloured’ communities living around Cape Town were destroyed. In 1961 large areas of the city were declared ‘White’ residential zones. This resulted in many ‘Coloureds’ moving into District Six, where overcrowding worsened. Many people who did not know anything about Islam, now came to know Muslims, who somehow spread the confusing message that ‘we have the same God’.

On May 7, 1961 Muslims gathered in the City Hall of Cape Town to launch the Call of Islam. This umbrella body of different Muslim organisations – founded by Imam Abdullah Haron – had the aim of opposing the Group Areas Act. Talk of slum clearance started doing the rounds, setting the scene for events to follow. On 11 February 1966 District Six was declared a White residential area. In the insecurity that followed, landlords allowed buildings to go unrepaired, causing the District to become even more of a neglected residential area.

The opposition to the District Six declaration reverberated until well into the 1980s, which was one of the reasons that caused the government to slow down on the demolition of Bo-Kaap, which was deceptively called the ‘Malay Quarter’.

Some personal Attempts at Reconciliation

My personal understanding of getting involved in a ministry of reconciliation as an exile was also aimed at trying to heal rifts where I discerned them and where I deemed it feasible. In correspondence I encouraged Professor Heyns, a prominent Dutch Reformed theologian, to include colleagues of colour like Dr Allan Boesak in the plans of their denomination for overhauling a booklet on race relations in the church.[48] Indirectly I tried to reconcile these two theologians by correspondence. They were respectively leading the influential “Broederbond” and “Broederkring”. (I knew from our student days how Allan had been raving about Dr Heyns, his lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University College of the Western Cape). Next to the attempt to bring together Professor Johan Heyns and Dr Allan Boesak, I also tried to reconcile Bishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak. The latter, along with his Broederkring colleagues, were angry at the likes of Bishop Tutu - who was still prepared to talk to President P.W. Botha. My effort to get Boesak and Heyns reconciled was unsuccessful, but I was happy to hear later that Bishop Desmond Tutu and Allan Boesak, my evangelism buddy of the 1960s, were again operating in tandem.

Professor Heyns would become one of the prime instruments of change to lead his denomination away from apartheid thinking and attitudes. A special trophy to me was when I heard that Dr Beyers Naudé was unbanned in 1985.

(C)overt Support of Violence Opposition to the apartheid government had a subtle variation of covert support of violence. Bishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak were the main proponents of a special variety when they formally promoted non-violence. His bold stance earned for Tutu the Nobel Peace Prize of 1984. Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu surely however rues that he could be quoted in London's Daily Telegraph for saying at the time, in November 1984: 'One young man with a stone in his hand can achieve far more than I can with a dozen sermons”. This was very unfortunate. Yet, this stance was quite risky, because the brutality of the regime was well known. This was problematic however, because retaliation is obviously not in the spirit of Christ who taught us to love our enemy.

The year 1984 could be regarded as the start of a new season of significant spiritual upheaval. Many Black Christians supported the call of Dr Allan Boesak at the SACC national conference of 1984 to pray for the ‘abolition of all apartheid structures’ and for ‘the end to unjust rule’. A year later, in the run-up to the anniversary of the 16^th of June Soweto tragedy, Christians were summoned to pray via a statement prepared by the Western Province Council of Churches that was called a ‘Theological Rationale’. This was in essence a cautious moderate document with an inclusive character, intended to achieve consensus. It ended with a pledge to work for Lukan liberation (Luke 4:18,19) - an invitation to pray for a new and just order in South Africa. The words ‘that God will replace the present structures of oppression with ones that are just, and remove from power those who persist in defying his laws...’, were however taken out of their context in an alarmist fashion by a Witwatersrand university professor, coupling it with ‘overthrow’ and (violent) ‘revolution’.

After his unbanning in 1985, Dr Beyers Naudé succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu as secretary general of the South African Council of Churches. In this role he called for the release of political prisoners (especially Nelson Mandela) and negotiation with the African National Congress. Dr Naudé pressed Christians to continue to publicly pray for detainees, despite government threats of imprisonment. I asked him at this time to state publicly – without success however - the opposition of the SACC to all violence. He felt that he could not do this as a White, and also because he was only fulfilling the position in the interim until a suitable Black could be appointed. He was ultimately succeeded by Dr Frank Chikane, the great bridge builder between Black and White in the years of transition into the new era, who became Director General in the office of the president from 1999-2008.

Increase of the Yoke of Repression Racial tension escalated towards a major climax. Amidst brutalities and repression which took place nearly every day, a group of pastors and theologians in Soweto came together to reflect on the Christian ministry in such a situation. Through a process of discussion and consultation with an ever widening group of Christians of all races, a document took shape that was issued on 25 September 1985. It became known as the Kairos Document (KD). Some people interpreted this document as a blanket endorsement of violence. On the other hand, the document encouraged many of those Blacks who had already abandoned the Church, writing it off as an irrelevant institution that in their view was supporting, justifying and legitimizing the cruel apartheid system. These Christians began to feel that if the Church became the Body as expounded in the Kairos Document, then they could return to the Church. Biblically much sounder advice came from UCT's Prof. John de Gruchy. He noted about the impact of the crucifixion of Jesus that the Church is destined ‘to live beneath the cross not in power but in weakness’ (2002:134).

Unity in Diversity

Tenets which are destructive and unscriptural, which are not conducive to unity, should not be tolerated.

The unity in the diversity of believers should

demonstrate ‘the manifold wisdom of God’

Unbiblical sectarian views and practices must be addressed and rectified, but at the same time the unity in the diversity must be stressed. The diversity of believers should demonstrate ‘the manifold wisdom of God’ to the spiritual powers in the heavenlies. It is no optional, but part and parcel of being the Church of Jesus Christ to make the unity of His Body more visible.

The trend of ‘back to basics’ and ‘back to the Bible’ in the mid-1990s looked promising, but seems to have fizzled out since then. A radical honesty - to listen in humility to what the Bible teaches - has often challenged followers of Jesus to go out to spread the Good News. It probably basically boils down to the question of how radical we are prepared to be. Are we prepared to take a critical look at the roots of our denominational divisions in the light of the Word?[49]

Co-operation on the missionary front is slowly coming into its own. The coming together for prayer across denominational boundaries at venues like Rhodes Memorial and at Signal Hill since 1998 had the potential to unleash a new power. Prayer can create a vision of what God can do, building mutual trust and sound relationships. Regular monthly prayer events since 2007 have been occurring at the Civic Centre of Cape Town on Saturday mornings and later also in the Provincial Parliament. The believers received significant answers as a result in the sphere of community and national transformation. Dramatic divinely orchestrated answers to prayer transpired on 11 December and 28 February 2016 when serious political blunders by the State President and his cronies could have pushed the South African economy very definitely to the realms of junk status.

The Danger of a superficial Type of Unity

But we must be careful not to get excited too soon. A word of warning is appropriate in the light of any euphoria because of superficial net-working. Dr Andrew Murray discerned this when he read the reports of two big international conferences, in New York and Edinburgh respectively. After the first conference in New York he wrote the seminal booklet The Key to the Missionary Problem when he noticed that the importance of prayer was hardly taken into account at the New York conference.

A superficial 'New Age' type of unity would in fact dilute the 'New Testament' message. A theology which endeavours to cut away the sharp edges of the message of the Cross has throughout been looming on the horizon. The arch enemy knows that one of his biggest opponents is the unity of Bible-believing Christians. He will do everything in his power to prevent Christians from co-operating in love and harmony! It must, however, be a unity at heart. There is a significant difference between superficial ecumenism and true unity birthed by the Holy Spirit. Just as the Father and the Son are different persons and yet joined in love, the Body should depict this image - where the various parts can bring in their different functions. Are we aware that due to the lack of visible unity of the Body of Christ – and not mere lip-service to the notion – we are actually obstructing evangelisation? Real networking and practical support would demonstrate to the world out there that God has sent his Son. Jesus prayed '… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me' (John 17:21).

Networking with a Sound Base

In all networking with a sound base, the Word and prayer must have pre-eminence. It was the discovery of the Law that brought the teenage King Josiah (2 Kings 20) to discern how far the nation had strayed from God's ways. The Word is a mirror which leads to reforms for the common good of the nation. Let us pray that our nation may take God's word seriously again. And let us get serious about it in our private lives.

In all networking with a sound base,

the Word and prayer must have pre-eminence.

Unity in the Spirit - built around a bond of peace and accepting each other in love (Ephesians 4:2, 3) - gives a good biblical framework. Bible-based net-working has its base in Scripture, otherwise it becomes ‘work of the flesh’. The latter kind of co-operation is doomed to strife, to points scoring and a competitive spirit. Also personally we must be closely linked to God like the branches to the vine. That will bring forth luscious fruit. The big catch of fish in Luke 5 was only made possible after Peter and his fisherman colleagues were prepared to lay aside their rational thinking and experience. When Peter was prepared to act in obedience, at the Word of the Master, the foundation for the networking was laid. The big catch could have been lost, perhaps even with net and all if they had not joined forces! Likewise, I dare to say that the big catch for Jesus will only be brought in if individual churches and fellowships put aside their pride and their own man-made doctrine, which so often has a sectarian side to it.. The danger of glossing over serious differences came to the fore most starkly in recent years around the ordination of homosexual practising ministers. The 10-yearly Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church of 2008, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, got into a deep crisis when various bishops, notably from the 'third world', preferred to refrain from attending. Evading discussion and healthy confrontation is however not a good way to resolve differences over non-peripheral issues.

Positive Responses to Sinful corporate Practices

Defence by church leaders as a response to sinful corporate practices has a long history in our country. Before I highlight a few examples I want to enumerate and applaud a few on the other side of this spectrum

The shipwreck of the Haarlem in 1647 gave the decisive input when the Dutch intended to create a half-way station between Europe and the East. Significantly, Leendert Janzoon and Nicolaas Proot, two from the stranded crew, motivated the beginning of such a station with the need of bringing the Gospel to the indigenous Khoikhoi. They contradicted the common prejudice regarding the indigenous people of their day, referring to ‘a popular error’: ‘Others will say that the natives are savages and cannibals, and that no good is to be expected from them.’ The Khoikhoi at the Cape impressed the leaders of the ship crew as possible candidates for ‘the magnifying of God’s Holy Name and to the propagation of the Gospel.’ Willem Barentsz Wijlant, the zieketrooster (comforter of the sick), who came with Jan van Riebeeck’s group in 1652, endeavoured to reach out to the Khoikhoi. Botha (1999:10) describes Wijlant as the first missionary at the Cape. Missionaries from different countries in the 19^th century definitely contributed to create a spiritual landscape in South Africa that was rare indeed. Elsewhere we also highlight the role of the French Huguenots at the Cape when moral degradation was rife with corruption, alcoholism and sexual immorality aplenty.

The Rift between Rich and Poor

A sad rift of the Church universal is the huge gap between rich and poor. One of the biggest problems in the churches of the third world is a dependency syndrome that has been predominantly created by 20^th century Western missionaries. The massive rift between churches in the affluent West and the poor churches of the third world is a tragic indictment on the body of Christ.

A general deficiency was empowerment for leadership. Later generations of missionaries were content with schools and hospitals as trophies of missionary endeavour. A system evolved where Whites remained at the top of a hierarchical echelon. These missionaries would send or take their own children back to their home countries to be trained sufficiently to take over leadership positions on the mission fields. It remained a big exception to send a prodigy from the mission fields overseas to be trained properly for leadership.[50] When this happened, many of them remained in Europe or America unfortunately, to the detriment of their home countries.

Spiritually healthy churches were planted in Africa and Asia when the missionaries themselves had few resources at their disposal. With regard to loving open-minded dialogue, we need to highlight that the dependency syndrome killed honest sharing of ideas. Due to the fear of offending the ‘generous’ givers from the Western nations, own initiative on the part of the recipients was stifled. It also perpetuated a beggar mentality among the bulk of the churches of the third world. In recent decades paternalism strangled Church unity. Refugees who wanted to retain their East African Swahili or West African culture (or whatever home culture) were all too often given limited space. Thus many a church building was refused for use to refugee-type foreigners. In isolated cases church premises were offered with empire-building conditions. On the other hand, an undignified beggar mentality was also not helpful either.

Defence by Church Leaders as a Response to Malpractices

Land grabbing was condoned already when the Cape grain and wine farmers gradually extended their territory at the expense of the indigenous Khoikhoi people. It is interesting how Western historians have been writing euphemistically about this process.

Professor of Theology Johannes Du Plessis’s euphemism of the land grabbing is inexcusable. He has to get much of the blame for the perpetuation of the myth surrounding the stealing and plundering Khoi when one considers how he actually quoted from the Remonstrance of Janssens and Proot (1911:20). He states that the Khoi were ‘unmitigated thieves’ (1911:26), Du Plessis’s repetition of the myth that they were thieves almost by nature, displays bad taste, referring to the ‘inveterate propensity of the Hottentots to steal and plunder’ (1911:38). He was aware of the text of the Remonstrance of Janssens and Proot, who had put the blame of the cycle of thieving and plundering squarely on their Dutch countrymen. Spilhaus (1949:96f) notes that the Dutch were inciting Khoi to steal from English ships and also set a bad example with bribery in bartering. Spilhaus concludes that it must have been difficult for Khoi to appreciate the enormity of theft as a crime in European eyes.

If we make the jump to the middle of the 20^th century, the defence of White theologians of racism and its attempts to white-wash apartheid with the Bible in hand became quite well-known. The introduction by Dr Allan Boesak of a motion declaring apartheid a heresy at the conference in Ottawa of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982, led to the suspension of the White South African reformed churches from the world body. A few months later, in January 1983, Boesak's call for a united front resulted in the formation of the United Democratic Front, an umbrella organisation that swiftly became the main anti-apartheid group in South Africa.

A Spiritual Earthquake in Pretoria

Since 1978, Gerda Leithgöb, an Afrikaner believer, has been directing spiritual warfare in Pretoria. She and her prayer team offered confession at the Voortrekker Monument. This response was also much more effective than defence of past sinful corporate practices. Their prayers and confession surely helped to bring about a change in the spiritual complexion of the country’s capital. That made true democracy possible. Their prayer ministry for the city of Pretoria was the prelude to the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) event in the national capital the following year. This conference was the equivalent of a spiritual earthquake. Professor David Bosch, a giant rebel against apartheid, spear-headed the event. SACLA influenced the whole country deeply in a positive way. The conference was evidently part of God’s reply in answer to prayer, transforming the apartheid stronghold and capital of South Africa. Pastor Ed Roebert initiated a gathering of like-minded pastors with the purpose of fellowship and mutual encouragement. Soon he met regularly with other pastors including Reinhardt Bonnke and Ray McCauley. In due course many new charismatic churches were established and men with unusually anointed ministries appeared on the scene.

Praise into the Mix

Praise is used in the ‘OT’ a few times in the attacks on God’s enemies. Probably the most well-known of them is Joshua and the seven trumpets. The Israelite congregation marched around Jericho silently on the seventh day, culminating in the united shout after the seventh time. (We note the repetition of the number seven, the biblical number for completion and perfection). Sometimes fasting, prostrating worship and praise occur in close proximity in Scripture (e.g. Joshua 6, Nehemiah 9:1+4; 2 Chronicles 20:3ff).

A valuable rediscovery in 'Spiritual Warfare' was praise. Paul Billheimer noted in 1975 in his booklet Destined for the Throne how praise caused an international spiritual turn around once again via the Pentecostal movement. This was especially mooted by Merlin Carothers, a Methodist minister and former army officer, who stressed the power becoming available through praise! Thousands of people accepted Christ after reading Prison to Praise. In his book Power in Praise he teaches how miracles are wrought by the simple application of biblical truth, viz. by accepting in faith that all things work together for good, for those called according to God's purposes (Romans 8:28). Carothers' teaching included how the spiritual dynamic of praise can revolutionize lives!

The work of the Foundation of Praise was conducted from the garage of Merlin and Mary’s home in California. By 1980, requests for free books for prisoners, military personnel and patients had sky-rocketed. Merlin Carothers preferred to send millions of free books to different parts of the world rather than building an impressive organisation.

Praise implemented at the Cape

From 1981Mercia and Vincent Pregnalato led a dynamic local fellowship in Greenhaven, a Cape Flats suburb. This couple and their fellowship held the fort of Christianity in an area that was becoming Islamic at an alarming pace in the late 1980s. They also ushered in spiritual dancing, using visible artefacts like flags and processions as part of worship and praise. This spread in due course to audiences throughout the country. A weak link was the lack of unity of the Body of Christ locally. Two other churches nearby had prominent pastors, viz Pastor Barry Isaacs of the Evangelical Bible Church and the Methodist Rev. Cecil Begby, who was involved with the Haggai Institute. Networking was non-existent while the area became increasingly Islamic.

A Forerunner of the ‘Boiler Room’ Concept

Paul Billheimer made some profound statements about the role of the prayerful church that might have influenced world history deeply, had his book Destined for the Throne been taken seriously. He suggested for example that the church wields the balance of power ‘in overcoming disintegration and decay in the cosmic order’. (This has become especially relevant at the beginning of the new millennium, with increasing moral decay and an almost universal increase of violence and organized crime.) In the above booklet Billheimer does not only refer to the Moravians and their 24 hour prayer chain, but he also included notes from Dick Eastman. These were added as an appendix in Destined for the Throne. There one can also read about the start of ‘The Gap’, based on Ezekiel 22:30 (I sought for a man to stand in the gap for me for the land). In this venture young people committed their lives to the Lord for a year during which they would intercede for two hours a day in an ‘upper’ room. This was indeed a harbinger not only of the gap year concept after finishing secondary schooling but also of the ‘boiler room’ concept at the turn of the 21^st century.[51] YWAM and OM took short term missionary involvement to a new level. Rosemarie, my wife, blazed a trail in Germany although she was refused permission to go and work as a volunteer for two months at the Elim Home in 1974. After this possibility became known via the Lutheran Church in Germany, the institution on the mission station where my parents had relocated after their eviction from Tiervlei, received many volunteers down the years. German young people hereafter went to different places of the third world in a ‘gap year’.

Bibles and Prayer in a Coalition

In 1984 Open Doors invited Christians around the globe to pray for seven years for the Soviet Union and the collapse of its atheist ideology. The founder of Open Doors, Anne van der Bijl, generally known as Brother Andrew, was a member of the official Dutch delegation at a conference on human rights in the 1980s. At this event in the conference centre De Burcht in the Dutch village of Heemstede, Brother Andrew offered one million Bibles to the Russian Orthodox Church on behalf of Open Doors at their millennial celebration. Along with the seven years of prayer for the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the ‘iron curtain’ can be attributed to the acceptance of the gift. A parallel move was the covert operation to smuggle one million Bibles into China in the same era.

Things changed dramatically when the results of the seven years of prayer became known, including millions of new followers of Jesus in China. New opportunities for the spreading of the Gospel were there to be utilized. The demise of Communism received its major impetus from the demolition of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. This had been preceded by mass prayer rallies at different churches, for instance in the East German cities of Leipzig and Dresden. By this time there were already millions of new followers of Jesus in China, the result of the secret smuggling operation of a million Bibles. There is nevertheless no cause for triumphalism - this never behooves a believer any way.

Also in 1989, Edgardo Silvoso and Tom White presented papers at the Spiritual Warfare Track workshop of the Lausanne II Congress in Manila. White’s paper on spiritual warfare there set the evangelical world on course for the biggest missionary decade of the 20^th century. The outcome was the founding of a Spiritual Warfare Communication and Referral Network. Since then Peter Wagner and others have developed this further. A spate of books followed on the topic. In the 1990s, Ed Silvoso would influence many countries with his teaching and example of bringing churches together in unity and practising restitution as part of genuine repentance. His additional emphasis on market place outreach resulted in the city of Resistencia (Population 400,000) in Argentina becoming the first city to be reached for Christ. From a mere 5,143 believers in 1988, it grew within a matter of a few years to over 100,000 in the entire city. (Ed Silvoso, Transformation, 2007:162).

Communism exposed as a spent Force

With the increased awareness of spiritual warfare in Christian circles, the power of occult strongholds was also recognized more and more. Things started to change dramatically on a worldwide scale after the results of such prayer became known. The effects of seven years of persevering prayer for the Soviet Union were already quite apparent towards the end of 1989. A lot of spadework had been done through the use of Patrick Johnstone’s seminal work Operation World.[52] For the first time in the modern era thousands of prayer warriors were mobilized globally.

Communism was exposed as a spent force.

Worldwide prayer brought it down.

It is probably due to the faithful prayers of many over the years that South Africa did not fall into the communist camp. By the time Nelson Mandela was freed in February 1990, Communism had been exposed as a spent force. Worldwide prayer brought it down. The demise of the atheist ideology was ushered in by mass prayer rallies at different East German churches, but especially also prepared by the faithful prayers of believers around the world.

Spiritual Warfare spirals

Only in the last two and a half decades has it been duly recognised - but still not generally as yet - that occult forces are at work, which hamper the spread of the Gospel. ‘Spiritual warfare’ as such had been either completely neglected or had become fairly unknown up to about 1990. Of course, the example of Hur and Aaron in the Bible might have been noted. Their holding Moses’ arms aloft had often been taught as a model for intercessory prayer. Occasionally, lessons were taken from the battle of Gideon against the Midianites or Joshua taking Jericho so dramatically. But it was hardly emphasized that the ‘sword of Gideon’, which brought such awe in the camp of the Midianites in the end, turned out to be a torch. In biblical context the Word is the (two-edged) sword (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12). Furthermore, Psalm 119:105 describes the Word as a light and a lamp, the equivalent of a torch.

At the GCOWE conference in Pretoria in July 1997 a significant development and correction took place when churches and mission agencies discerned that they had been working in competition with each other. But there hardly followed any implementation of the discovery in terms of action. In fact, there has been a dramatic decrease of Bible School students and full time Christian workers since then. This will possibly only be reversed in South Africa by a spiritual renewal and networking of the poor and more affluent churches, to tap into the dormant goldmine of a vast potential of missionary recruits from Black communities and refugees who could return to their countries of origin with expertise that they have acquired in South Africa and as emissaries of the Gospel.[53]

A Reply to the Dependency Syndrome

Glen Schwarz, an American missionary, held seminars in various countries from the 1990s on how to overcome the dependency syndrome. He highlighted how condescending charity destroys dignity. An undignified cap-in-hand beggar mentality exists in many a third world country because of missionaries who never took hold of the three-self biblically derived principle, which Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson had been propagating in the mid-19^th century as aims of church planting. New fellowships should strive to become self-supporting, self-propagating and self-reproducing as soon as possible.

Thankfully there are quite a few positives to report in this area. The Church Planting movement especially strives to encourage new fellowships to be completely independent.

Cape Pioneers of the Church Planting Movement

At the beginning of the new millennium the City Mission discerned that the emphasis on welfare projects and the good name they won through the various ministries, had not been without a cost: their earlier focus on church planting had fallen away and new leadership was not coming through. Charles, the son of the City Mission pioneer Fenner Kadalie, left the more traditional confines to start work on farms in the Philippi area. His wife Val became the directress of a church planting movement that grew out of their new focus as they searched for men and women of peace. Defining a church planting movement as a church that has planted at least 100 new churches through three generations of reproduced new fellowships in two years, the movement New Generation and their covenant partners has seen many new fellowships started in various African countries throughout the continent. But also in South Africa itself, through the sacrificial ministry of David Broodryk and from here throughout the continent, new multiplying 'simple churches' mushroomed. The term 'home church' became a misnomer in the movement, that was ably led by the dynamic David Watson. The groups met in all sorts of venues in the market place and on different days of the week. The strategy was to pray for a 'person of peace' who already had access to some group of unevangelized people in the community that could be reached, evangelised and later discipled.

Chapter 19 South Africa as a Case in Point

In this chapter I want to highlight some precedents of efforts of recent decades where the Body of Christ operated in harmony. Then I will be looking at possible practical steps that can be done to get out of the present malaise of a narrow parochial mind-set of local churches in general. Simultaneously we applaud what has been done here at the Cape in recent decades as combined Christian endeavours. I am nevertheless very much aware that ultimately only God in his sovereign will can ultimately let such seed of unity and revival germinate and grow.

Cape Town is special. Only very few cities in the world are not only so cosmopolitan, but only a few of them have such a significant representation of the world's religions. The Cape sadly however also hosts theological institutions that have been disseminating unbiblical views such as a complete and overdrawn identification with the nation of Israel.[54] It is also still disseminated by some that the Church replaced Israel and that miracles belong to the times of the apostles. I pray that we may soon witness a universal corporate expression of regret and remorseful confession because of this.

We have noted in Chapter 3 that uncharitable doctrinal bickering in the Church resulted in confusion, which is also reflected in the Qur’an. This was clearly used by the arch enemy to mislead Muhammad, the gifted leader of the Arabian Peninsula and founder of Islam. Through him millions have been led astray up to this day - millions who now hail Muhammad as their prime prophet.[55]The call ‘back to basics’ which resounded throughout South Africa during the early 1990s, is still valid. Perhaps we should say ‘Back to the undiluted and unadulterated Word of God’. With a good representation of all three Abrahamic religions, Cape Town is in a special position to lead the way in different ways, e.g. through united confession and prayer.

Community Disruption leads to Missions
A tragic result of the Group Areas Legislation of the apartheid era was the disruption of communities and the spread of gangsterism. Old townships like Kewtown in Athlone became violent and new ones like Manenberg and Hanover Park became notorious for this very reason. A very special phenomenon evolved where community desperation led to Church involvement BABS (Build a Better Society) was a local community organisation of Kewtown, a gangster-ridden Cape Township at the beginning of the 1980s. In 1982 the gangs of Kew Town killed seven people in 3 months. After approaching other organisations without success, BABS asked the local Docks Mission Church to do something about the situation. A coffee bar was started specially for the gangsters, led by Rodney Thorne and Freddy Kammies. Every Sunday evening between 60 – 80 of them attended. Many of the gang leaders were challenged to put down the weapons and guns. Soon the crime rate came down. As a denomination the local Docks Mission faithfully prayed for the ministry which continued for quite a long time. The ministry sowed seed for missions. Eugene Johnson was the first missionary sent out by the Docks Mission on one of the Operation Mobilisation (OM) ships already in 1978.[56] He was followed by Peter Ward, Freddy Kammies, Theo Dennis and his wife Norma, as well as Peter Tarantal from the same denomination. Divine over-ruling was the result when suddenly missionaries from the ’coloured communities were thrust out.

United Opposition to Apartheid The United Democratic Front (UDF) was an anti-apartheid body that incorporated many anti-apartheid organisations. Steps towards forming the UDF began in the late 1970s, and moved forward when Dr Allan Boesak called for a 'united front' of 'churches, civic associations, trade unions, student organisations, and sports bodies' to fight oppression on 23 January 1983. It was decided to join with organisations, on a regional and federal structure, as long as they were non-racist. The UDF had a Christian heritage, like the ANC, and in many ways looked like an internal wing of the ANC, but it did not associate with the armed struggle. The UDF character however changed in the mid-1980s with the people’s insurrection, and some organisations identifying with the UDF took a more militant path.

The UDF was formally launched on 20 August 1983 the UDF in a community hall in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain. Dr Frank Chikane, was the first major speaker. He spoke of the day as a turning point in the struggle for freedom. The keynote speaker, Dr Boesak, highlighted the bringing together of a wide range of groups.

Cape spiritual Warfare Encounter The township of Valhalla Park witnessed one of the most visible expressions of spiritual warfare encounters on Sunday, May 6, 1984. Christ for all Nations brought the biggest tent in the world to the Cape township in May 1984. As big as three football fields and seating 34,000, the tent had taken four years to construct. In its two months of use throughout the nations of southern Africa, God used the virtually unknown German background evangelist Reinhard Bonnke to bring thousands into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hundreds were delivered from demons, healed of disease and handicaps, and ‘brought into the joy of the Lord’. Valhalla Park is situated near to the Black townships of Langa, Gugulethu, Nyanga and the gangster-notorious ‘Coloured’ ones of Manenberg and Bonteheuwel.[57] African witch doctors would not allow the world's biggest revival tent, a mobile auditorium to invade the spiritually dark area with divine light unopposed. The shamans and voodoo practitioners bragged mong the people ‘We are more powerful than your Jesus!’ - cursing the evangelistic event that proclaimed the ‘white-man's Jesus’. That their power was not unfounded would become evident very soon.

In the early hours of Sunday, May 6, 1984, a freak wind suddenly swept across the Cape Peninsula. The gigantic tent pitched on the Valhalla Park Sports Field was caught in the unexpected tempest that weathermen were at a loss to explain. The tent's fibre-glass fabric was shredded into 100 large pieces and uncountable tiny remnants littering nearby neighbourhoods.

A Gale Catapults an Evangelist into Prominence

What looked like a defeat for the Gospel initially, God turned around spectacularly. The destruction by a gale of a gigantic tent where Reinhard Bonnke would hold an evangelistic campaign in the Cape township Valhalla Park, created unprecedented interest for the event. The organisers were forced to conduct the campaign in the open. Thousands attended who would never have fitted into the gigantic tent. Instead of the planned 15 nights, four extra nightly services were added amid clear skies in mid-June, which is known to be part of the Cape rainy season. An interesting sequel of the Valhalla Park campaign was that Reinhardt Bonnke became a household name throughout the African continent and beyond. The networking of township churches in the run-up to this campaign was unprecedented, accompanied by a massive response at the altar calls.

Lack of Networking of Cape Township Churches

Many Muslims gave an indication that they wanted to become followers of Jesus. However, tardy follow-up by the churches prevented a massive spiritual turn-around. The indifference of Christians, in combination with the apartheid oppression, saw Cape Islam grow significantly in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Demonic Backlashes

The enforcement of apartheid enhanced the spread of Islam. An unknown number of nominal Christians embraced Islam in protest because the apartheid laws were perceived as the dealings of a ‘Christian’ government. The arch enemy reaped the benefits of the political unity forged by church leaders via the United Democratic Front in various ways. Seeing Christian clergyman sharing the platform with imams spread the fallacious message unwittingly that the God of the Bible and Allah of Islam are identical.

At this time the government completely over-reacted, e.g. to preparations for a funeral in Gugulethu,by deploying the Defence Force for the first time for such an event. A door-to-door search in the township Langa and the prohibition of anybody outside the Black townships to attend the funeral was the sort of measure to let the anger rise all around the Cape. The arrest of a few religious leaders including Dr Allan Boesak and Imam Hassan Solomons ahead of the funeral further hightened the tension. Police brutality, notably the killing of children, became associated with the clampdown on anti-apartheid activism. Collusion with gangsters followed in exchange for information about the whereabouts of activists.

Legislation enhancing Immorality

When the ANC came to power in 1994, all religions were given equal status. Increasingly occult elements became fashionable, witchcraft was accepted uncritically and even Satanism was regarded by some as just another religion. That people had to be ‘sacrificed’ (i.e. murdered) in the process by Satanists, was uncritically taken on board. The poor argument used was: so many people are also killed in political and other forms of violence, so what! A spokesman of the South African Council of Churches went even so far as to state that Satanism is a matter of personal conscience. The pervasive negative influence of the TV with the poisoning of young minds proceeded unchecked; violence, extra-marital relationships and sex are depicted in many films as ‘normal’, thus encouraging promiscuity. From some pulpits homosexuality was covertly defended and encouraged.

The legislation and practices of the new South African government drove people further away from a living vibrant relationship to Jesus Christ, notably with perceived laxity regarding sexual immorality. Among the first laws of our secular government was the legalisation of abortion. The former UDF leader Dullah Omar became the Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Nelson Mandela. He introduced legislation that made easy bail possible. Hardened gangsters took the gap. They had access to funds to make use of the new bail conditions. Some of them were soon thereafter back behind bars. The spiral had already caused untold damage before the bail conditions were tightened.

More Satanic Deception and a Backlash

Islam staged a major coup when the old Dutch Reformed Church in Taronga Road was bought from the Jubilee Church when it was still known as the Vineyard Church, to be used as a madressa. The 1999 loss hit evangelical Christianity of Cape Town, following the 1997 sale of the Cape Evangelical Bible Institute (CEBI) in Athlone as the Cornerstone Christian College had been called previously.

The World Parliament of Religions from 1-8 December 1999 became a spur for churches to get some idea of the spiritual threat on the country. It soon became clear that the uniqueness of Jesus was under attack. Dr. Henry Kirby, a medical doctor who has close links with YWAM, joined Brian Johnson who had been targeting the New Age movement in the late 1980s. A prayer event in District Six on 27 November 1999 brought together a broad spectrum of Christian churches, which in itself was a memorable occasion.

The role of drugs has still not been acknowledged sufficiently in spiritual warfare. For centuries the scourge of alcohol as a drug obstructed all church and evangelistic work at the Cape. The roots of cannabis (dagga) abuse goes back many centuries. The Khoisan bartered cattle with Arab traders in Mozambique for the plant which they chewed before they got to learn to smoke it with a pipe.

Many new converts to Jesus became backslidden spiritually over the Christmas period when the increased consumption of alcoholic beverages took its toll. In due course Muslims took to drugs in a similar way as they saw Cape Christians abuse wine. Mitchell’s Plain Muslims have strikingly been quoted as saying - in an effort to excuse their drinking of wine at Lebaran (Eid-al-Fitr) -’It is mos our Christmas!’

The prayer initiatives displayed significant strides in terms of church unity. The distribution of a video by George Otis on the transformations of four cities was a major catalyst for citywide prayer, after it had been shown in the Lighthouse Christian Centre on 15 October 1999 at a night of prayer. Transformation of Communities, led by Reverend Trevor Pearce, saved the Cape Peace Initiative (CPI) after it had come into disrepute. Some clergymen were unhappy that the CPI had been speaking to PAGAD. At a half night prayer meeting on the Grand Parade, an event which was organised on short notice, the unity was restored. The same week-end two Dutchmen, Pieter Bos and Cees Vork, representing the prayer movement of Holland, joined local Christians in confession for the sins of the forefathers and in praying against satanic strongholds in the Peninsula.

There were indications that the Church in South Africa was awakening to its prime responsibility towards the Muslims, who still form the prime unreached group of the Cape in terms of the Gospel.

Bliss Brings Blessings

Under the auspices of Africa Enterprise (AE) David Bliss came to South Africa in 1967 from the USA as a student. The relatively young missions and evangelistic agency AE started by Michael Cassidy in 1962 had a profound effect on Dave Bliss. He decided to postpone his return to Princeton University for a year. After his marriage to Deborah (Debby) in 1972, the couple came to South Africa in 1979 as AE workers on the Witwatersrand University campus in Johannesburg. That year the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) took place in Pretoria, an event that changed their lives. The Holy Spirit confronted them with the issue of unreached people groups and the possibility of seeing South Africans sent out as missionaries.

The next year Dave and Debby Bliss participated in the students’ conference in Edinburgh, which ran parallel to the 70^th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the World Council of Churches. The 1980 event brought the use of non-Westerners as missionaries into focus. For Dave and Debby Bliss this was a natural follow-up to SACLA in Pretoria the previous year.

A Wave of Prayer Starts at UWC

Dr Charles Robertson, a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) from 1971-76, became part of a Cape prayer emphasis in 1983. After his father’s death in 1979, Robertson was thrust into a quagmire of spiritual turmoil. The business he had started was failing. The combination of these experiences brought him to his knees. Hereafter he broke through into a living faith in Jesus as his Lord.

Dr Robertson was approached to help fund the hiring of a bus to take participants to a prayer service at the historical Sendingsgestig Museum in the Mother City’s Long Street, which coincided with a Frontiers Missions Conference at UWC. (The venue was the former DRC Gestig church building of the 'Coloured ‘Sendingkerk’, that had been ‘saved’ by Dr Frank R. Barlow, a Jewish academic with a keen sense of history. The congregation had to move because of the Group Areas Act, and thereafter the former church was turned into a museum).

A National Prayer Awakening Erupts

The Sendingsgestig Museum itself would become the venue for Concerts of Prayer. That event would reverbarate throughout the country, ushering in the growth of the prayer movement. In 1983 a prayer awakening started in a few congregations all around South Africa. One of these was a small group of intercessors led by Gerda Leithgöb in Pretoria that had already set them on a path previously unexplored in this country. Simultaneously, Bennie Mostert, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, started a newsletter to mobilize prayer in Namibia. Mostert dubbed his newsletter Prayer Action Elijah.

In 1987 the Lord led the group in Pretoria to do more intense research into spiritual matters. In that same year, a similar initiative started spontaneously all over the world. The Lord also called pastors in South Africa to start writing on prayer. Books appeared concerning this issue.

The World gets 'smaller'

The 1984 call of Open Doors for world-wide prayer against the Soviet Communist oppression and the persecution of Christians set the tone for 'spiritual warfare' on a global scale. The harsh and brutal suppression and killing of innocent children turned the tables in South Africa. Some prayer groups started in different places, also in the City.

Gerda Leithgöb from Pretoria requested prayer warriors from other countries at a conference in Singapore in 1988 to pray for South Africa, which had been in constant crisis since 1985. Ds. Bennie Mostert founded a national prayer network known as NUPSA (Network for United Prayer in Southern Africa), which became closely linked to the spiritual transformation of the continent. In 1993 the first teams started praying also on site, using information gained from serious research. During 1993 South Africa also participated in the Pray through the Window[58] initiative, that was launched internationally by the AD 2000 Prayer Track.

Intercession was also done for our country in many places around the world in the run-up to our first democratic elections in April 1994.

Initiatives towards Racial Reconciliation

It was surely special in the spiritual realm when the Vredehoek Pentecostal Protestant Church initiated 24 hour prayer in a few offices of Boston House in the city. To have Christians from different churches and different racial backgrounds coming together for prayer in the New Life Centre, as it was called, ushered in change like few other moves at that time.

Another mighty move of God in the mid-1980s was the National Initiative for Reconciliation. In a sense this was a spin-off of SACLA (1979), but even more it was a result of the political tension of 1985 - when the country seemed to be speeding towards the precipice of civil war.

God used Michael Cassidy and his Africa Enterprise at this time in a special way to heal wounds of racial polarization in the run-up to the National Initiative for Reconciliation, which was convened in September 1985. Cassidy wrote about this preparation: ‘I felt while travelling around South Africa that I was seeing a new thing – the birth of an embryonic national humility…’ (Cassidy, 1989:295).

A Call for a National Day of Prayer

The most significant outcome of the National Initiative for Reconciliation was the call for a National Day of Prayer, set for Wednesday 9 October, 1985. How politicized the country had become was obvious when it was deemed necessary to debate the prayer day on television. But God intervened, in answer to intensive intercession.

How different this National Day of Prayer was to the one in 1976 when only a slice of the population – some Whites - participated. This time – 1985 - Christians from different denominations and races came together for prayer services all around the country. In Cape Town over thirteen hundred people crammed into the St George’s Cathedral for a lunch-hour prayer service. According to the report of a participant: ‘In Cape Town we broke out of our islands as never before’ (Cassidy, 1989:302). Significantly, concerned Christians all over the world across denominational barriers joined in prayer for South Africa that day. Thus the Pope, speaking to seven thousand Catholics in St Peter’s Square in Rome, called Catholics everywhere to pray that ‘South Africa should soon find peace founded on justice and reciprocal love through a sincere search for a just solution to the problems that torment that dear country’ (Cited in Cassidy, 1989:303f). The well-known evangelist Luis Palau relayed the prayer call to hundreds of radio stations across Latin America.

Waves of Astonishment

The elation did not last very long however. Yet, the contacts which Africa Enterprise made to Christians in other parts of the continent proved invaluable for reconciliation in the strife-torn beloved country. Waves of astonishment went through the country when Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, the leader of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP) opposition and former Stellenbosch professor, announced his resignation from party politics in 1986 to start IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa). History proved him right. Subsequently he took a group of Afrikaners to meet ANC leaders in exile in Dakar (Senegal) in 1987.

A New Age Onslaught

The mid-1980s coincided with the office of Gordon Oliver as Mayor of Cape Town. He proved to be a forceful agent of the New Age movement, fighting for the erection of a Peace Pole apiece on Table Mountain and at Rhodes Memorial. With its syncretist-universalist elements (the mixture of different religions whereby people can get saved in any way), the claims of Jesus to be the unique Saviour of the World (John 4:42) were clearly challenged.

1989 was a year of spiritual clashes. What was interesting in the response to the New Age onslaught was that an Afrikaans clergyman, Dominee E. J. Sevenster, linked up with the Pentecostal Pastor Paul Daniel of the Lighthouse Christian Centre. It was also significant for the unity of the body of Christ that a ‘Coloured’ Christian from Mitchell’s Plain, Mr Norman Scheffers, had prayed at a gathering of 1000 Christians at the St George’s Mall, ‘that this pole be removed and that the name of Jesus Christ will triumph.’

New Age and Satanism given a mighty Blow

The efforts of the mayor of Cape Town to push the New Age ideology through by using his high office, backfired. It caused prayer networking in the Cape Peninsula. Stiff resistance was given by Christians, with Jamie Campbell and Brian Johnson the prominent personalities. The involvement of evangelicals like Pastor Richard Mitchell, who had been apartheid-relatedly imprisoned, widened the scope of the united prayer. Both New Age and Satanism were inflicted major defeats. Evangelicals took the presence of Gordon Oliver and the inter-faith involvement on board as they joined a massive march on 13 September 1989 through the city. God answered the prayers that the police would not interfere with brutality as in previous years. For some of the participants this was also a prayer march for an end to the apartheid oppression. Looking back, we can say now that this event, along with the prayer day of 9 October 1985, possibly ushered in the new democracy more than anything else before that.

The overt involvement of clergymen in political matters had interesting ramifications. Indoctrination of centuries still had a profound effect. Devout Christians thought that they should not even remotely get involved in politics. This confused some believers, because apartheid ideologists were abusing the Bible to that end. More and more Afrikaners, however, saw the need of confession. Gerda Leithgöb and her fellow prayer warriors had been leading the way in Pretoria since 1978 at the Voortrekker monument of all places.

Cape Prayer Endeavours of the Early 1990s

In the late 1980s the Concerts of Prayer - inspired by David Bryant - drew good crowds to the Sendingsgestig Museum, a fitting commemoration of the inter-denominational work that started there in 1799. On one occasion, Dr Charles Robertson was asked to chair a Concert of Prayer meeting as an Afrikaner. That was not to be the last time for him to do this. He led the Concerts of Prayer hereafter not only at the monthly meetings at that venue, but also later when the event relocated to the Presbyterian Church in Mowbray. (These Concerts of Prayer were held there for many years.) It was very fitting that Charles Robertson and his wife Rita would donate the property where the first NUPSA School of Prayer was to be erected in AD 2000 where 24/7 prayer is practised.

Prayer was the biggest factor in the start of new ministries at the Cape in the 1990s, undergirding the events that led to the birth of the new South Africa.

Personal Precedents[59]

While I was still a teenager, I thought that it would be wonderful if Christians could display unity in Christ concretely and overtly.

The major change in my own life had happened at Christmas 1964 when I was spiritually empty, just before participation in a beach evangelistic effort in Harmony Park near Somerset West in the Cape. A few of the participating young people went on to play a significant role in the throwing off of the shackles of racial oppression in South Africa in later years. Among those, Allan Boesak and Franklin Sonn were the most prominent.

To me the prayer unity in Christ and the lessons in spiritual warfare I had learned at Harmony Park in 1964, formed the paradigm for new action. I hoped that united prayer and evangelization by believers across man-made ecclesiastical and doctrinal boundaries would make some impact when I joined the Wayside Sunday School movement and when I attempted to join White folk linked to Youth for Christ for early morning prayer. In later years I also endeavoured to apply the lessons learned in attacks on the walls of Communism and Islam. Harmony Park was also my model as I tried to get Cape Church leaders working together on behalf of the harassed Black women of Crossroads and KTC in the first half of 1981, working closely with Rommel and Celeste Roberts-Santos, a Roman Catholic couple with whom we shared a house for 3 months. Rev. Douglas Bax, our friend from my seminary days in District Six, was our connection to other ministers connected to the Western Province Council of Churches.

Blessed Ripple Effects

We returned to Europe in June 1981, unaware of the effect, which our involvement in Crossroads and Nyanga would continue to have. Only many years later did I read of how the homeless people of Nyanga and Crossroads had scored one moral victory after the other, encouraging many Blacks to resist the oppressive race policies. The plight and determination of the women of KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads played a role in another sense. Churches now started to take a clearer stand in opposition to apartheid laws. Rev. Rob Robertson and our friend Rev. Douglas Bax played a crucial role in the political stand of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa as a denomination (PCSA).[60] When other Churches also supported the Presbyterian Assembly’s decision to defy the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, this sparked a political debate that eventually led in 1985 to the abolition of this keystone of apartheid legislation. The successful fight of the women of Nyanga and Crossroads ushered in the scrapping of the hated influx legislation the following year.

In the Dutch town of Zeist, where I spent the bulk of my enforced exile of close to 20 years, we started a local evangelistic agency in October 1982, the Goed Nieuws Karavaan. In this endeavour we succeeded to enlist believers from different denominational backgrounds, including students from different Bible Schools of the region. The networking of believers from doctrinally quite diverse backgrounds demonstrated to all and sundry that it was possible to work together on a sound biblical basis – over a period of more than ten years - if our unity in the Lord would be stressed and doctrinal differences not allowed to cause disruption.

The Regiogebed (Regional Prayer) for Driebergen-Zeist started in August 1988 as the first one of Holland. Other Goed Nieuws Karavaan co-workers were prominent in this move of networking across denominational lines.

International Prayer Involvement

Via the Regiogebed we had the special joy to become a part of God's mighty work to achieve spiritual breakthroughs elsewhere. We prayed concertedly not only for local evangelistic outreach and missionaries that left our region, but also for certain countries. Very special was the spiritual victories we could enjoy via big changes, first in Hungary and then in East Germany. This was part of seven years of prayer against Soviet oppression. The big prize was the demolition of the Berlin Wall on 9 November, 1989. That signalled the beginning of the end of Soviet Communist domination of Eastern Europe and of Communism at large as a global ideological force.

The Regiogebed of October 4, 1989 was unforgettable when the whole prayer meeting focused on my beloved South Africa. The event targeted strife-torn South Africa, when one of the attendees heard of my personal letter of confession because of my arrogance and activism that was posted that day to President F.W. de Klerk, i.e. shortly after he had taken office. Unbeknown to us, the new State President F.W. De Klerk was due to meet Archbishop Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak a few days later. In the spiritual realm our prayer event and my letter of confession to the new South African President may have played some role – along with other prayer events at that time - in preparing the big changes in the country the following year.

Tackling the Wall of Islam

The run-up to the Gulf War (in 1991) spawned the call of the mission agency Open Doors for ten years of prayer for the Muslim World in 1990. With the increased awareness of spiritual warfare in Christian circles, the power of occult strongholds was recognised more and more.

However, that lies and deception are ideologically basic to Islam, still has to be clearly exposed. Yet, the Holy Spirit had been revealing to different people the demonic nature of the Islamic Jibril, the figure that Muslims deem to be identical to the Angel Gabriel of the Bible. During early morning prayers - as part of a missionary stint with students from the Cape Town Baptist Seminary in March 1994 - this was revealed to Rosemarie, my wife, as she was reading the first verses of Galatians 1. We discerned anew that a supernatural figure has brought a distorted message, masquerading as an angel of light (1 Corinthians 11:14). [61]

Rustenburg 1990 and its Impact

The Rustenburg meeting of church leaders in November 1990, where delegates from 97 denominations had gathered, sent signals of reconciliation throughout the land that augured well for the future. There, Professor Willie Jonker[62] of the University of Stellenbosch started the tide of confession rolling: 'I confess before you and before the Lord, not only my own sin and guilt, and my personal responsibility for the political, social, economic and structural wrongs that have been done to many of you and the results [from] which you and our whole country are still suffering, but vicariously I dare also to do that in the name of the NGK,[63] of which I am a member, and for the Afrikaans people as a whole.' Archbishop Desmond Tutu accepted the confession in a spirit of forgiveness on behalf of the denomination. It was also very significant that Professor Potgieter of the University of Stellenbosch, well known to be an arch conservative theologian, stressed the next day that Professor Jonker had spoken on behalf of the whole denomination.

The Rustenburg Declaration, the document issued after the event, contained specific and concrete confession like the abuse of the Bible by some Church people. It noted also that many of the delegates had been ‘bold in condemning apartheid but timid in resisting it’. The confessions were not one-sided at all. Apartheid victims acknowledged for example their ‘timidity and fear, failing to challenge our oppression.’ The conference finally resulted in the signing of the Rustenburg Declaration, which moved strongly towards complete confession, forgiveness, and restitution.

The government of the day and Afrikaners in general nevertheless slammed the Rustenburg confessions, claiming that the theologians at Rustenburg were not representing the bulk of the church members. Were they forgetting that it had been President F.W. de Klerk himself who had originally suggested such a national Church conference, or were they too surprised at the outcome? Be it as it may, a deep impact was definitely made in the spiritual realm.

Two years later the Dutch Reformed Church's response to the observations and resolutions of the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in Athens (May-June 1992) demonstrated that the DRC was indeed clear in its rejection of apartheid. It helped them to take back from Athens the message to their Afrikaner compatriots that rejection of apartheid does not mean to turn your back on the Afrikaans language and the Afrikaner heritage and culture. The obvious repentance and change in the denomination was achieved at a great price. Professor Johan Heyns had played a major role in the transformation in the Dutch Reformed Church when the synod of 1986 made a major turn-around. It is generally accepted that a right wing extremist, who could not come to terms with Professor Heyns’ role in the dramatic summersault of the denomination, was responsible for his assassination on 5 November, 1994. This highlights the fact that reconciliation is not cheap at all.

Strategic Contacts and Jesus Marches

The Western Cape Missions Commission, to which our WEC missionary colleague Shirley Charlton took me soon after our arrival at the Cape in January 1992, proved very valuable in terms of contacts. Here I met strategic people from the Cape mission scene. One of the events organised in 1993 by the Western Cape Missions Commission was a workshop with John Robb of World Vision. The list of participants at this event was used to organize the Cape Jesus Marches the following year. In this way I updated my contacts for further mission endeavour in the Western Cape.

Prayer used in Evangelism

After we returned to Cape Town in January 1992, I soon got involved in local attempts of spiritual warfare. When Rosemarie and I discerned a dark demonic presence over Bo-Kaap during prayer walks in February 1992, we immediately saw the need to rope in assistance from other believers. Regular prayer meetings focused on the prime Muslim stronghold of the Cape. The weekly Friday lunch hour prayer meeting that was started in September 1992 became the catalyst for many initiatives. The meeting itself was initially proposed by Achmed Kariem, a convert from Islam. He had been attending the fortnightly prayer meeting in the home of Cecilia Abrahams, the widow of a Muslim background believer from Wale Street in Bo-Kaap from its beginning. (Her husband had been in a back-slidden state, but he returned to faith in the Lord just prior to his death.) This event was actually a resumption of the prayer meetings, which had been conducted by Walter Gschwandter, a SIM Life Challenge missionary, before he and his family left for Kenya.

The venue of the weekly prayer meeting at the ‘Shepherd’s Watch’ (98 Shortmarket Street) had to be changed to the Koffiekamer in the basement of the historical St Stephen’s Church in Bree Street when the ‘Shepherd’s Watch’ building was sold. The Bo-Kaap prayer meeting in Wale Street was later changed to a monthly occasion, where intercession for the Middle East was the focus. This monthly meeting at our home also included prayer for the Jews, those in Israel as well as those in Cape Town.

Bread thrown on the Water

I still had to learn the scriptural principle of Cast your bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days Ecclesiastes 11:1). The parallel one, not to throw pearls before swine was must easier to comprehend. All too often I was disappointd when a lot of effort and input, e.g. via weeks of teaching at various church venues in Muslim Evangelism appeareded to be a waste of time on the surface.

This was very much the case after we did ten once a week teaching at the Logos Baptist Church in Brackenfell in 1997. There appeared to be no immediate success, such as people willing to join us as co-workers. Yet, a few of the participants were deeply impacted. Among the participants there were for instance Johan Groenewald and his wife. The couple took the message to the rural village of Eendekuil where he found a willing ear in Chris Saayman, the Dutch Reformed minister.

Prayer walking one a month was another method used to break down strongholds of the deceiver at the Cape. A few Christians joined from as far afield as Melkbosstrand and Eendekuil. Results might not have been spectacular, but the gradual lifting of a spiritual heaviness over the Muslim stronghold Bo-Kaap could already be discerned after a few months. Although breakthrough there has still to transpire after almost another 20 years, it was a tremendous encouragement at that time to prod on and hang in there. Regular monthly prayer walks from 1998 were attended by individual believers from as far afield as Melkbosstrand and Eendekuil.

Another case in point was I attended Beth Ariel, a fellowship that had been started for Messianic Jewish believers occasionally, especially in the years prior to 1999 when Bruce Rudnick led the fellowship. (Bruce Rudnick changed his name to Baruch Maayan during their stay in Israel thereafter). When he returned with his family from Israel for three years in 2010, that would have significant ramifications in the spiritual realm when we worked together quite closely.

Sports Uniting the Nation

Church unity in South Africa is closely linked to nation building in the light of our punctured past of racial friction. In the sports-loving country God used international events to forge unity in an unprecedented way.

When President F.W. de Klerk announced a Whites-only election on 20 February 1992, it was still unclear in which direction the country would go. The possibility of unprecedented civil war could definitely not be ruled out. The Whites were asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: ‘Do you support continuation of the reform process which the State President began on February 2, 1990 and which is aimed at a new constitution?’

The success of the national cricket team at the World Cup tournament in Australia at that time possibly influenced the vote decisively. A ‘no’ vote would most certainly have sent the country back into the sporting wilderness. The latter possibility was for many in the sports loving country just 'too ghastly to contemplate'! (This formulation was a dictum coined by Mr B.J. Vorster, a previous Prime Minister, to portray the civil war option.[64]) With a resounding ‘yes’ - 68% - from all corners of the country, Mr de Klerk was given a mandate on 17 March, 1992, to negotiate a new constitution with African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela.

Blessings of United Prayer at the Cape

The stimulus for Operation Hanover Park was given by a police officer, who approached the churches of the township in a last-ditch effort to secure peace in the township Hanover Park in mid-1992. The law enforcement agents could not handle the criminality and gangster violence in the area any more. The local City Mission Saturday afternoon prayer meeting, which had become a monthly missionary event, was soon the precursor to a united prayer occasion as a part of Operation Hanover Park towards the end of 1992. Operation Hanover Park involved believers of diverse church backgrounds who prayed together on a regular basis.

It looked as if the Hanover Park churches were finally getting out of their indifference with regard to community involvement. At the same time, this would also give a good example to the rest of the country to combat criminality and violence – through united prayer! A miracle happened: the crime-ridden Hanover Park had experienced its ‘most quiet Christmas ever’, according to a senior resident!

At least, this was how it seemed outwardly! At the same time, this would also give great impetus to the rest of the country to combat criminality and violence – through united prayer and action! Operation Hanover Park was however very short lived. It was on the verge of achieving an early version of community transformation at the beginning of 1993 when a leadership tussle stifled the promising movement.

Efforts to minister to Gangsters and Prisoners

The area of gansterism and ministry in prisons was one where ministry crossed denominational barriers significantly. Johaar Viljoen, who had won over many Christians to Islam, came to faith in Jesus in the prison of Caledon. His conversion in 1992 - which was a demonstration of the power of prayer - shook many Islamic inmates who regarded him as their imam.

Compassion paid dividends when AEF (Africa Evangelical Fellowship) missionary Jenny Adams started corresponding with a befriended prisoner, Jonathan Clayton. They finally got married while he was preparing for the Baptist ministry. The mission to prisoners got a major push by them as a couple from the Strandfontein Baptist Church. Clayton did sterling work trying to get more unity into the efforts of a plethora of churches which minister to the inmates of Pollsmoor prison. In 1999 he became a prison chaplain. At one of their services at Pollsmoor on a Saturday morning in 1997, the prisoners were challenged by a visiting missionary to see Rashied Staggie, the (in)famous Muslim drug lord, as the equivalent of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. Jesus looked up to Zacchaeus in a double sense, giving dignity to the reviled and hated little man upon whom everybody else looked down.

Shona Ali, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and former Muslim, won general appreciation for her work in the gaols country-wide. After being terribly abused and beaten, Allie caused many Muslim eyebrows to rise when she honestly mentioned her conviction in a mosque that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and that he died on the Cross for our sins.

One of the most prominent from the gangster world from recent years to be used in prisons extensively was Eric Hofmeyer. He has done stalwart work in Pollsmoor prison for years since 1998. As a former gang leader it was not extremely difficult for him to win the trust of both employers and gangsters. A few of the former inmates of Pollsmoor could be placed into some form of employment, an important start to their rehabilitation in normal society. To find employment for people with a criminal record remains an uphill battle. A recurring problem was that many of them got back-slidden once they had money in their hands.

The Goodwill of promising Beginnings evaporate

Much of the goodwill of the promising beginnings seemed to evaporate after 1992 during the transition to democratic government. In Kwazulu, a simmering condition of civil war had been prevailing for years. The tension between ANC followers and those of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) was just waiting for the final ignition of the proverbial powder keg. The apparent - if perhaps not intentional - simultaneous side-lining of Dr Mangusuthu Buthelezi and his IFP in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) talks, spelled danger. At the infamous Boipatong massacre on 17 June 1992 in the Vaal triangle, 46 township residents were massacred by local Zulu hostel-dwellers. The perpetrators were taken to have been Inkatha followers of Dr Buthelezi, highlighting how volatile the situation still was. A major Zulu versus Xhosa tribal battle was ominous in the worst sense of the word.

Over the Easter weekend of 1993, the country seemed to have been pushed to the precipice of major racial conflict. On 10 April, 1993, the news reverberated throughout the country that the outspoken Communist Chris Hani, who had been groomed for a top position in a possible ANC-led government, had been assassinated. The fact that a White woman provided information leading to the prompt arrest of the alleged perpetrators, two right-wing activists, helped to lower the political temperature momentarily, but the situation remained extremely tense. Nelson Mandela used this incident cleverly to force President de Klerk’s hand to announce a date for the democratic elections, but a racial war of great magnitude was a feared reality, still widely expected.

But satan overplayed his hand. The massacre at St James Church (in the Cape suburb Kenilworth) of July 1993 turned out to be the instrument par excellence to spur prayer and ignite the movement towards racial reconciliation in the country. Those family members of St James Church who lost dear ones received divine grace to forgive the brutal killers. The killing of innocent people during a church service sparked off an unprecedented urgency for prayer all around the country.

Jesus Marches

One of the events organised in 1993 by the Western Cape Missions Commission was a workshop with John Robb of World Vision. I used the list of participants at this event to organize the Cape Jesus Marches in June 1994. They were planned for June 1994 all over the world. In a letter from a friend from Sheffield (England), he wrote about their preparations for a Jesus March in their city. Inquiries on this side of the ocean brought the co-ordination of the whole effort in Cape Town into my lap. I had high expectations when I co-ordinated about 20 prayer marches in different parts of the Cape Peninsula, making strategic contacts at this time.

I had been hoping that this venture would result in a network of prayer for a breakthrough among Cape Muslims across the Peninsula. However, the initial interest that our second attempt with an updated audio-visual had ignited in various areas, soon fizzled out. I deduced that it was not yet God’s timing and that we should do a lot more to stimulate the unity of the body of believers.

Strategic Contacts

A strategic contact of this initiative was Trefor Morris, who was closely linked to Radio Fish Hoek, a pioneering Christian Cape radio station. Trefor had been a regular of our Friday lunch time prayer meeting, while he was assisting with the work done on the OM missionary ship the Doulos in the City dockyard. For the first time I shared publicly at this time what I had researched about the influence of the Kramats, the shrines on the heights of the Cape Peninsula.

Another important contact of this initiative was Freddie van Dyk, a link to the Logos Baptiste Gemeente in Brackenfell. Freddie's attendance at our Friday lunch hour prayer meeting led to strategic hospital outreach, notably a Groote Schuur Hospital.

A concrete positive at that time was the start of a movement towards Christ in many Muslim countries, with Algeria one of the most prominent ones. YWAM mission leaders had decided at an event in Egypt to call the Christians worldwide to pray for the Muslim world during Ramadan. This was a natural follow-up of the call of Open Doors for 10 years of prayer for the Muslim world in 1990. Everybody was still vividly remembering the spectacular result of the 7 years of prayer for the Soviet Union. The contacts that I gained during the Jesus Marches were used extensively to disseminate Ramadan Prayer booklets in different congregations for quite a number of years.

Ministers’ Fraternal of Mitchells Plain

In the early 1990s various Mitchells Plain pastors met for prayer every Friday morning. The ministers’ fraternal of Mitchells Plain succeeded in bringing well-known evangelists to come and minister in the area. That gave them a lot of credibility among the churches there. After an approach to the ministers’ fraternal in 1994 to join in the Jesus Marches, they were immediately eager to do so, organising a separate march in no time.

During prayer drives believers would

target strongholds of the arch-enemy

The Mitchells Plain ministers’ fraternal was also the driving force of the very special prayer meetings which took place every second Thursday of the month from the mid-1990s. This prayer meeting for pastors and their wives soon included other church leaders from all over the Peninsula. Pastor Eddie Edson of the Shekinah Tabernacle was pivotal in the formation and organisation of these prayer drives and meetings where believers would target strongholds of the arch-enemy, going to pray there every last Friday evening of the month.

A massive Prayer Effort gets underway

On 2 January 1994, the first of three consecutive 40-day fasts started - to coincide with preparations for the general elections. Before this, the concrete fear of civil war inspired prayer across the racial divides.

At this time Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Methodist Bishop Stanley Mogoba convened a meeting between Dr Nelson Mandela and Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi,[65] trying to resolve the deadlock posed by Inkatha Freedom Party’s threat to boycott the elections. Foreign missionaries were seriously considering leaving South Africa because of the escalation of violence.

Africa Enterprise enlisted prayer assistance from all over the world.

Rev. Michael Cassidy and his Africa Enterprise enlisted prayer assistance from all over the world. Few other countries participated in the international prayer effort like Kenya and Nigeria. In a special move of God’s Spirit, Pastor Willy Oyegun from Nigeria and a group of prayer warriors from that country were led to come and intercede in South Africa in February 1994. It was a risky move as they could have been sent back from Johannesburg International Airport without entering the country. But God intervened sovereignly. Pastor Oyegun subsequently became God’s choice instrument for healing and reconciliation at the Cape in the post-apartheid era.

In East Africa God laid it on the heart of many Kenyans to pray for our country as we were heading for the general elections on 27 April, 1994. God used Rev. Michael Cassidy and his team to get a massive prayer effort underway, combining it with the negotiating skills of Professor Washington Okumu, a committed Kenyan Christian. God's sovereign ways became evident, not only through the way in which the Kenyan negotiator got involved, but also that he had met Dr Buthelezi, the leader of the IFP, already in 1972.

The country was very close to a civil war.

God furthermore called a police officer, Colonel Johan Botha, to recruit prayer warriors. The press took up his story, reporting how God supernaturally came to him in a vision. An angel stood before him on 23 March, 1994 with the message: “I want South Africa on its knees in prayer”. A national prayer day was announced for 6 April, 1994 - a national holiday at that time called Founder’s Day. The country was very close to a civil war, which surely could have sent many foreigners and other Whites fleeing in all haste just before or after the elections.

The first democratic Elections

Whether the release of Nelson Mandela was mere political acumen or pragmatic realism of President F.W. de Klerk might be debatable. Without doubt however, it turned out as an answer to the prayers of many around the world that Nelson Mandela was leading the ANC so ably at that time. He was very sensitive to the need of wooing the right-wing Afrikaner Volksfront party to participate in the first democratic elections of 27 April 1994. A divinely orchestrated intervention brought the Zulus and their recalcitrant side-lined leader Dr Mangosuthu Buthulezi to the ballot box. After he took office in 1994, Mandela attempted to tackle the country's largest problems - crime and unemployment, among many others - in a state that was almost bankrupt.

The overall result was very encouraging - miraculous peaceful elections – when mayhem and civil war was anticipated.[66]

Spin-offs of the Jesus Marches

As the 1994 Jesus Marches approached, the vision grew in me to start a prayer network throughout the Cape Peninsula to effect a spiritual breakthrough among the Cape Muslims. I was very much aware that concerted prayer was needed. We were able to start a few prayer groups, but the bulk of them petered out. In the mid-1990s, Sally Kirkwood faithfully led a small prayer group for the Cape Muslims at her home in Plumstead. Later she played a prominent role among Cape intercessors, notably in the PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) era. Another group was formed by Gill Knaggs in Muizenberg after she had attended our Friday lunch hour prayer meeting. Soon God used Gill to get the YWAM base in Muizenberg more interested in reaching Muslims. Concretely, an Egyptian connection was established, with YWAM starting to network with the Coptic Church via links through Mike Burnard of Open Doors.

The Country not unified

When President Mandela attended a game of the Springboks, the country's Rugby Union team in 1994, he noticed that the Blacks in the stadium were cheering the opposing team squad. In their view the Springboks (their history, players, and even their colours) represented prejudice and apartheid - the oppressor's sport. South Africa was preparing to host the Rugby World Cup the following year. President Mandela took a big political risk by convincing a meeting of the newly-formed black-dominated South African Sports Committee not to change the Springboks' name and emblem. Mandela understood the message below the surface: if the Springboks can gain the support of non-White South Africans and succeed in the upcoming Rugby World Cup, the country could be unified and inspired to exceed its expectations. Mandela dared to swim against the stream, harvesting disapproval from friends and family. Many more, both White and Black citizens and politicians, began to express doubts about his efforts to use sports to unite a nation that was still basically still torn apart by some 50 years of racial tensions. For many non-Whites, especially the radicals, the Springboks symbolised White supremacy and decades of oppression.

However, both Mandela and Francois Pienaar, the Springbok captain, stood firmly behind their theory that the game can be used to successfully unite the country. The Springboks were not expected to go very far in the competition; they were expected to lose in the quarter finals. During the opening games, support for the Springboks began to grow among the non-White population. By the second game the previously injured Chester Williams, the only Black player in the team, was fit once again. Citizens of all races turned out in their numbers to show their support for the Springboks.

A Rugby Game that united the Nation

With the whole nation behind them, the Springboks proceeded to the final. In a nail-biting match they actually won the World Cup, after beating the highly fancied world-beating All Blacks from New Zealand - considered an invincible team before the tournament. Nelson Mandela's attendance caused a stir of appreciation in the huge and overwhelmingly Afrikaner crowd. In an intensely emotional moment of joy Mandela sported a Springbok cap and a jersey with the captain Francois Pienaar's number 6 when he handed the trophy to him. NELSON! NELSON! was chanted repeatedly by the home crowd during Mandela's entry on to the field. What a contrast this was to a previous rugby match scene of the Springboks, in which he was booed by some people in the crowd. Through various other symbolic gestures Nelson Mandela succeeded hereafter to win over the hearts of Afrikaners.

The whole nation went on to mourn the gigantic statesman, possibly the greatest of the 20^th century in December 2013. The world still cherishes the memories of the grandfather of this nation, the towering gift of God at a critical time. His death had a personal sequel. At that time, I was moved to set the process in motion that ultimately led to the printing of an autobiographical booklet with the title What God joined together.

Lapses into traditional racial and denominational Divisions

The concrete fear of civil war before the first democratic elections in 1994 was a common goal that spurred prayer meetings which straddled the racial divide. Although much of the prejudicial mutual distrust was overcome, Christians thereafter however more or less lapsed back into traditional racial and denominational divisions. Though for example many prayer meetings were convened in South Africa for the gateway cities since October 1995, they were all too often either confined to prayer within the own church or limited to prayer within the own racial grouping. Therefore Grigg’s recipe is very appropriate: ‘If there is not significant unity, the first step is to bring together the believers in prayer or in renewal and teaching until there is reconciliation and brokenness.’

A demonic Response in Disguise

In the spiritual realm the evil one responded with a bang. In 1995/6 living conditions in the township of Manenberg were almost unbearable for the local people, and things seemed completely out of control. Rev. Chris Clohessy, the local Roman Catholic priest, had earned the trust of many people there, moving fearlessly around, also in gangster territory. PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was initiated by a group of Muslims in 1996, striving to create a gangster-free and drug-free society. The group was joined by Rev Chris Clohessy. However, in the ensuing inter-faith venture, Muslims were soon dominating proceedings. He had to withdraw when his companions in the new organisation were prepared to go to extreme measures like the public burning of a drug lord.

PAGAD developed anti-government and Western sentiments. The organisation believed that the new secular South African government posed a threat to Islamic values. It also aimed to create better political representation for South African Muslims. They were actually grossly over-represented in Parliament, compared to their percentage of the population. Prominent figures like Imam Achmat Cassiem were reported to have performed a palace coup. As the leader of the extremist group Qibla, Achmat Cassiem subtly changed the anti-drug, anti-crime movement into an organization that sought to bring Islamic rule into the Western Cape by any means. PAGAD radicals saw this move merely as part of the plan to implement anOctober 1995 decision in the Libyan capital Tripoli - to attempt Islamising the African continent from the South by the year 2000 AD.

The PAGAD Threat unites the Church

The intention to make South Africa Islamic, stating that the Muslims have the money to do it, was verbalised and publicized. It soon became clear that this was no empty threat. The assistance of the Libyan State President Muhammad Khaddafi and other oil states was made practical through the provision of Islamic literature in African languages and mosques built in the Black townships. The widely reported visit in February 1996 of Louis Farrakhan, a high profile Afro-American Muslim, further brought the message home. That it happened during Ramadan was just the tonic for Cape Christians to pray in an unprecedented way.

Within a matter of weeks all Ramadan Prayer Focus booklets were sold.

From Cairo to the World!

A combined youth service in the Moravian Church of Elsies River in the northern suburbs on Sunday evening 28 July 1996 would have world-wide ramifications. Egypt-born Mark Gabriel shared his testimony in that church at a on, 28 July 1996. This event added a new dimension to the Cape Muslim ministry effort. Gabriel’s printed testimony had just been published in South Africa under the pseudonym Mustapha with the title Against the Tides in the Middle East. (Mark Gabriel was previously forced to flee his home country where he narrowly escaped assassination.) Within a few days, the booklet which contained his story was in the hands of a Muslim leader. Maulana Sulaiman Petersen correctly suspected that Mark Gabriel had contact with local missionaries.

Mark Gabriel was forced into hiding

Reminiscent of the situation when Martin Luther was taken to the Wartburg castle for safety,[67] Mark Gabriel was forced into hiding. The televised Staggie 'execution' by PAGAD as a part of the national news on 4 August reminded Mark Gabriel of Muslim radicals of the Middle East. He now started with significant research of jihad (holy war) in Arabic Islamic literature, finishing his manuscript in 2001 in Orlando (Florida, USA), where he had moved to in the meantime. The September 11 event of that year made Mark Gabriel's book on the topic a best-seller when it was published at the beginning of 2002. It came out under the title Islam and Terrorism. That book became a major factor in the exposure of the violent side of Islam.

Subsequently the book was translated into many other languages. Arguably it exposed the intrinsic violent nature of Islam like no other book before it. If there were still any doubt, the violence perpetrated by Al-Queda in Afghanistan and elsewhere - along with that of Al Shabbab and Boko Haram in East and West Africa in recent months - brought a crisis in many a Muslim heart. The brutal ISIS terrorists ushered in a movement in 2014 in North Africa which brought the religion in greate disrepute.

Egypt-born Mark Gabriel's book Islam and Terrorism was conceived while hiding from Islamic reprisals in the City bowl suburbs of Vredehoek and Devil's Peak in the wake of the PAGAD scare in August 1996. It became a best seller soon after its publication at the beginning of 2002 – i.e. soon after the September 11 event in New York. Islam and Terrorism brought a significant correction in unexpected ways. That book became a major factor in the exposure of the violent side of Islam. (Subsequently the book has been translated into over 50 languages.)

Suddenly it appeared that Islamic right-wing folk became ready to move away from the medieval tendencies in dealing with their critics. They still however had no scruple to bomb churches, e.g. in Indonesia and Nigeria, or to bury female adherents alive who had been caught in adultery (while the men involved get away with impunity.)

Female Islamic Critics to the Fore

Who would have thought that Africa would one day set the pace in the twentieth century in the criticism of Islam? A female speaker at a liberal mosque in the Cape suburb of Claremont was as big a surprise as anyone could expect, but this was not followed up. Islamists had difficulty to handle female critics. It was significant that Noni Darwish, the daughter of a prominent Egyptian general, became a critic of Islam after she had become a Christian. In the new millennium outspoken females from their own ranks made it clear that they were not to be muzzled. Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Holland, a refugee from Somalia, ruffled the feathers in no uncertain way. She was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. In criticizing Islam she was followed by Irshad Manji, who fled from Uganda as a little girl with her family to Canada during the mad rage of Idi Amin when he started persecuting Indian traders. Manji (The Trouble with Islam, a wake-up call for honesty and Change, 2003:11) dared to call for ‘an end to Islam’s totalitarianism, particularly the gross human rights violations against women and religious minorities.’

Christine Darg, a prominent US television journalist, encountered Jesus supernaturally as a child. Facing a life-threatening illness, Jesus appeared to her in an open vision as a Jewish king and healed her. Because of her love of both the Jewish and Arab peoples and all the spiritual descendents of Abraham in the Church, Christine Darg received a most unique ministry to share God's love and ministry of reconciliation. Her Exploits Ministry embraces all the peoples of the Bible Lands. She gives of her ministry time, resources and efforts to all the parties involved. Christine's healing tours of the Holy Land, 'Tabernacle of David' and 'Women on the Walls' intercessory prayer conferences in Jerusalem are inspired by the ongoing fulfilment of Bible prophecies.

Significant Initiatives related to the Middle East

Musalaha was founded in 1990, when the need for unity among Israeli and Palestinian believers was especially lacking due to the First Intifada,[68] Dr. Salim J. Munayer, an Israeli-Palestinian from Lod, narrates how this lack of unity was recognized by leaders from both sides. In response they founded Musalaha as a vehicle to bring Israeli citizens into the process of Biblical reconciliation.

An aged Coptic priest, Zakaria Butros caused bewilderment in many a Muslim country with candid revelations about Muhammad for months until a massive surge to achieve democracy started in Egypt on January 25, 2011. Dubbed the Arab Spring, the winds of change raged through North Africa like a wild fire, jumping later also to other countries in the Near East. The rise of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, plus the likelihood of a third world war as Iran threatened Israel with annihilation, has been hanging like a sword of Democles over the globe ever since. Israeli leadership on the other hand has made it clear that they are not prepared to wait for that to happen. Divine intervention is needed to prevent what looks like the inevitable.

Chapter 18 Evolving International Prayer for Unity

It is sad that the prayer for Christian Unity has not yet functioned completely unitedly. We need not be surprised however, because the arch enemy loathes and hates united prayer. Down the centuries this has been a divine ‘tool’ par excellence to usher in spiritual renewal and revival.

South Africa was possibly the first country where the tradition of prayer services between Ascencion Day and Pentecost went nationwide.

Roots of international united Prayer

The Evangelical Alliance tradition of a Week of Prayer the first full week of January goes back to the year after its launch in 1846. It was one of the agreed initiatives that came out of the founding conference.

The Week of Prayer has been in vogue in many countries in Europe for a very long time. In countries of the former communist world in Europe it was only the Evangelical Alliance issue that stayed alive through the communist era. So, even when people had heard of nothing else about the Evangelical Alliance, they had often heard of the Week of Prayer.

Pentecostal Prayer Meetings in South Africa

Ds. G.W.A. van der Lingen of the Dutch Reformed Church in Paarl was one of very few pastors who stemmed the tide of liberalism that swept over the Cape in the 1850s. It is no surprise that he became God’s instrument for introducing the blessed Pinksterbidure, the tradition of prayer services between Ascencion Day and Pentecost that became such a blessing to the Dutch Reformed Church for over one and a half centuries.

It all started on 6 February 1861 as an overflow of the revival that started in Worcester the previous year. Ds. Van der Lingen of the Strooidak (Straw Roof) congregation arranged a special meeting of approximately 100 prayer leaders - including women and children - to discuss their concerns. After experiencing the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit and His quickening power, the congregation was fearful that the divine presence would decrease over time and finally stop. They wanted, therefore, to find ways of preserving and spreading the blessing. They started cell groups.

Gideon Malherbe, a son-in law of Ds. van der Lingen, suggested that the cells should combine each evening for communal prayer during the ten days between Ascension Day and Pentecost. These prayer events had taken their cue from the Disciples who were unified, with one mind (Greek homothumadon) in the Upper Room after Ascencion Day (Acts 1:14). The believers intended to follow the example of the believers who had been meetting for prayer while waiting in Jerusalem to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Just like them, they too would plead down the promise of the Father.

Malherbe’s cell group published an invitation in De Kerkbode for all existing prayer groups in Paarl to participate in corporate prayer between 9 and 19 May, 1861. Ds van der Lingen was at first reluctant to join meetings. There was a gradual built-up of expectation during that week, mingled with cries for mercy. He not only finally relented but he also became God's anointed vessel of blessing on Pentecost Sunday, 1861.

When this news began to spread to neighbouring congregations, they too decided to follow Paarl's example. Over the next few years more and more congregations would join in. As a direct result, the 1867 Dutch Reformed synod advised all congregations to conduct 10 days of prayer in the run-up to Pentecost every year. The tradition became a major blessing to the nation. The Pinksterbidure would impact Afrikanerdom for many decades. Many Afrikaners look back to some Pentecost prayer season as the time when they were converted or when they recommitted their lives to the Lord.

In 1894 Pope Leo XIII also thought of Pentecost as a symbolic date (the traditional commemoration of the birth of the Church) for the unity of the Church. Protestant leaders suggested in 1926 via the Faith and Order movement in the mid-1920s to have an annual octave of prayer for unity amongst Christians, leading up to Pentecost Sunday.

A Roman Catholic Week of Prayer Initiative

A somewhat different date for a Week of Prayer began in 1908 as the Octave of Christian Unity. The dates of the week were proposed by Rev. Paul Wattson, co-founder of the Graymoor Franciscan Friars. He conceived of the week beginning on the Feast of the Confession of Peter, the Protestant variant of the ancient Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, on 18 January, and concluding with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on 25 January.

Evolution of the Week of Prayer for Unity

Abbé Paul Couturier of Lyons, France, who has been called "the father of spiritual ecumenism", advocated prayer "for the unity of the Church as Christ wills it, and in accordance with the means he wills", thereby enabling other Christians with differing views of the Roman Catholic Church to join in the prayer. In 1935, he proposed naming the observance Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Couturier's message influenced a Sardinian nun, In 1941, the Faith and Order Conference, at that time a Protestant daughter group that developed out of the Edinburgh international conference of 2010, changed the date for observing the week of unity prayer to come in line with that observed by Catholics. In 1948, with the founding of the World Council of Churches, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity became increasingly recognised by different churches throughout the world. The proposal was finally accepted by the Catholic Church in 1966.

In 1958, the French Catholic group Unité Chrétienne and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (a body which includes, among others, most of the world's Orthodox churches as well as many Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, United and Independent churches) began co-operative preparation of materials for the Week of Prayer. The year 1968 saw the first official use of materials prepared jointly by the Faith and Order Commission and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, representing the entire Catholic Church. Collaboration and cooperation between these two organizations has increased steadily since, resulting recently in joint publications in the same format.

Other Efforts towards Global United Prayer

The roots of the Women's World Day of Prayer go back to the USA in 1887, as Mary Ellen Fairchild James, wife of Darwin Rush James from Brooklyn (New York), called for a day of prayer for home missions, and Methodist women called for a Week of Prayer and self-denial for foreign missions. A Baptist Day of Prayer for foreign missions began in 1891. In 1895, a day of corporate intercessions for mission was initiated by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Anglican Church of Canada. By 1897 the women of six denominations formed a joint committee for a united day of prayer for home missions. In 1912 the Woman’s Boards of Foreign Missions called for a united day of prayer for foreign missions.

In 1910-1911 women celebrated the 50th Anniversary or Jubilee of women’s missionary activity by organizing a series of speaking engagements across the United States that provided women with a powerful experience of what they had achieved in ecumenical cooperation, in local and global linkage, in prayer and information sharing, and in biblical reflection. All of this had been in the hands of women. Out of this experience many local interdenominational women’s groups were formed.

After the devastation of World War I, women incorporated the conviction that world peace was intrinsically tied to world mission. Therefore, women renewed their efforts for unity. In the United States, the first Friday of Lent was established as a joint day of prayer for missions, beginning on February 20, 1920. Due to the enthusiastic facilitation of local denominational and interdenominational women’s groups, the day of prayer spread rapidly throughout the USA. Canadian women took up the same date in 1922.

In the second half of 1926 women of North America distributed the worship service to many countries and partners in mission. The response worldwide was enthusiastic. By the beginning of 1927 a call to prayer that was issued was for a World Day of Prayer for Missions.

Women’s World Day of Prayer

Since 1927 the first Friday in March is known as Women’s World Day of Prayer. Catholic women were allowed to join the movement after the Second Vatican Council, beginning in 1967. In 1969 The Organizations linked to the World Union of Catholic Women decided to change their international day of prayer from March to May in order to take part in the World Day of Prayer.

Western women learned the great lesson in due course of ‘praying with, rather than for our sisters of other races and nations, thus enriching our experience and releasing the power which must be ours if we are to accomplish tasks entrusted to us.’

Chapter 21 Transformation at the Cape in the 21^st Century

Having experienced first-hand how powerfully the principle of united prayer operated both in the wake of the St James Church massacre of July 1993 and the threatening PAGAD scourge of August 1996 to November 2000, South Africa could show the way. Positive examples of treating groups on the fringes of society in a dignified manner could go a long way to demonstrate the spirit of love, compassion and care. An expression of regret - or better still, a confession in respect of the omission and neglect towards Muslims and Jews on a broad level - is something that still has to be addressed. With regard to the former group, I take liberty to note that we have repeatedly taught the use of ISLAM as an acronym that the well-known Brother Andrew has spread far and wide: I Shall Love All Muslims or better still I Sincerely Love All Muslims .

A Watershed for World Evangelism

The 1974 Lausanne Conference became the watershed for world evangelism during the last quarter of the 20^th century. Many movements flowed from it, which aimed at reaching the unreached people groups of the world before the end of the millennium. The DAWN (Discipling a whole Nation) and AD 2000 movements, along with the ‘Concerts of Prayer’ of Dave Bryant, have been a few of the catalysts towards a resurgence of prayer.

In many quarters denominational division is still not recognised as a demonic stronghold. The Republic of South Africa has no excuse any more to be hesitant about engaging in missions. Opportunities have opened up all over the world. South Africans are welcome everywhere: in fact, we must pray to be able to remain humble, not to be carried away by pride. An abundance of untapped language talent still lies dormant in the Black townships. These South Africans have an almost unparalleled faculty for language learning. There is hardly a Black in the urban townships who does not speak three or four languages, and the mastery of six or seven is not a big exception. I suggest that these people could be ideal missionaries in pioneer areas where oral communication is required, where the Word should rather be made available on CD/DVD and SD cards. Some form of over-arching unity – perhaps using a vehicle like the Consultation of Christian Churches (CCC) – would go a long way to achieve this goal.

Churches from different Denominations joining Hands

It was truly significant for the Cape Town Metropolis in April 1997 when churches across the city and from many denominations joined hands for a big campaign on the Newlands Cricket Stadium with the evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of the renowned Billy Graham. Pastor Walter Ackerman from the Docks Mission Church in Lentegeur and the late Pastor Elijah Klaassen from a Pentecostal fellowship in Gugulethu/Crossroads, worked tirelessly to enlist people from the Cape Flats and Black churches for this event. Transport from the townships was provided free of charge. This served as a model for the Transformation stadium events of the new millennium.

Gerda Leithgöb introduced research into spiritual influences at the Cape at a prayer seminar in Rylands Estate in January 1995. Such research especially investigates the demonic or anti-Christian nature of these influences. It has been dubbed 'spiritual mapping'. It seems that the exercise was only significantly implemented in 1999 at the Cape. Manenberg was a Cape township where it was practised with visible results. This township depicted a change in the religious climate more than any other at the Cape within a matter of months. In the mid-1990s, Eben Swart became the co-ordinator of Herald Ministries for the Western Cape. He worked closely with the Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa (NUPSA), which had appointed Pastor Willy Oyegun, a Nigerian, as their Western Cape coordinator. Together they did important work in research and spiritual mapping, along with Amanda Buys (Kanaan Ministries), who counselled Christians with psychological problems.

Prayer Efforts in the City Bowl

From 1995 I got fairly close to Rev. Louis Pasques of the Cape Town Baptist Church after the fellowship had experienced a difficult time. Together with his student colleague Edgar Davids of the Baptist Seminary, who was the minister of the struggling sister 'Coloured' congregation in Woodstock, a mere 3 kilometres away, we came together for weekly prayer. This grew into a ministers' fraternal with a few other local pastors.

Some churches in the City participated in a forty-day period of prayer and fasting from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day 1998. Louis Pasques spearheaded this endeavour. The weekly meeting with a prayer emphasis gained ground slowly after the 40-day effort from April to May 1998. Later that year, combined evening services were held once a month in the City Bowl in participating churches, with the venue rotating every time.

A corresponding period of prayer and fasting in 1999 - this time for 120 days - was concluded in the Western Cape in the traditional Groote Kerk celebration of the Lord’s Supper when pastors from different denominations officiated. This was a visible sign of a growing Church unity. At that Ascension Day event, Dr Robbie Cairncross was divinely brought into the situation. He came to the Mother City with a vision to see a network of prayer developing in the Peninsula. His prayer for an office for his Christian Coalition/Family Alliance near to Parliament was answered in a special way when he moved into the premises of the Chamber of Commerce (SACB), a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament.

Seeds for 24/7 Prayer

The pastors’ and pastors’ wives monthly meetings of eh 1990s became the run-up to the city-wide prayer events at the Light House Christian Centre in Parow, on the Grand Parade in the City and at sports stadiums from 1998. These occasions, along with prayer events like the one at Moravian Hill in District Six on 1 November 1997, brought about further correction. This ultimately led to the Global Day of Prayer in 2005.

After a visit to the USA, Rev. Trevor Pearce, an Anglican minister who also had some ministry experience on one of the Operation Mobilization (OM) ships, brought back copies of the Transformation video and an audio copy of the book Informed Intercessions by George Otis, jr. This documented account of what happened in Cali (Columbia) also included principles for successful community transformation. At the city-wide prayer event at the Lighthouse Christian Centre on 15 October 1999, the first Transformation video of George Otis was viewed by the audience.

A special Aftermath of weekly Prayer

Regular weekly prayer at the Central Police Station in Buitenkant Street had a special aftermath. (In due course die Losie, a former Freemason lodge at this police station became the regular prayer venue.) As part of the preparation for the 2006 Global Day of Prayer, a prayer drive where participants prayed Scripture, converged at the Central Police Station. God used this event to touch at least one person in a special way. Wim Ferreira had been a transport engineer working with the City Council. He was challenged to resign from his employment at the time to concentrate on prayer for the City. He was hereafter invited to work with the Deputy Mayor of the Metropolis.

Wim Ferreira was touched at that occasion to request a room for prayer in the metropolitan Civic Centre, where he had just started to work. This was another divinely orchestrated move. A few months further on, a regular Friday prayer time was functioning in one of the board rooms there. I soon joined him for prayer in the board room of the ACDP. Pastor Barry Isaacs linked up with us there in due course.

The Lord challenged Wim Ferreira to start 24-hour prayer at the Civic Centre premises. On Wednesdays at lunch time believers from different denominational backgrounds gathered there to pray and intercede for the city. Hereafter the prayer room near to the parking area on the ground floor was frequented by various people throughout the day.

Hereafter Wim Ferreira linked up more intensely with Pastor Barry Isaacs, who took over from Graham Power as the new co-ordinator of the Transformation Committee. As a result of their deliberations, prayer meetings started in October 2007 at the Uni-City Council Chambers on the third Saturday morning of every month at 5.30 a.m. Wonderful answers to prayer were subsequently experienced month after month. At one of these occasions, the lack of the availability of the Civic Centre Banqueting Hall for a combined prayer event on Ascension Day touched Peter Williams, the secretary of the Provincial Parliament. He promptly extended a provisional invitation to the group to come and pray there as well.

Pro’s and Cons of religious Tolerance

We should be really grateful for the spirit of religious tolerance that had become a cherished tradition of South African society. We have been spared the violence stemming from religious fanaticism, with which many other countries are still battling. In areas like the old District Six and the Malay Quarter of Cape Town, where Muslims formed an influential part of the population, there was hardly any religious conflict ‑ in fact, Muslim children attended church schools on no mean scale and individually the converse also took place.

The solidarity of Muslims and Christians in the opposition to apartheid legislation played a significant role in the demise of the resented ideology. The mutual tolerance had a significant deficiency: we hardly spoke to each other about our faiths. Whereas Muslims theoretically had ample opportunity to get to know the basics of the Christian faith, e.g. through the radio, TV and open air services, a general lack of basic knowledge about Islam even among the Christian clergy is still prevalent. This led to unnecessary tension and bitterness. Many ‘Coloured’ women, who got involved in a relationship with Muslim men leading to marriage, became completely estranged from their families. This is a sore point in the Cape ‘Coloured’ community. However, religious pluralism played some role in ameliorating the effect.

Philoxenia and Compassion ushered in

After a prayer session at Customs’ House where Home Affairs were serving refugees on Friday 13 April 2007, Friends from Abroad decided to start feeding the refugees and other foreigners there once a week in conjunction with Straatwerk and local churches. This looked lilke another wonderful opportunity to get local churches involved in a combined effort to demonstrate the unity of the Body of Christ practically. With the agency Straatwerk we networked wonderfully, but from the churches’ side only the German Stadtmission came on board with two volunteers.

The influx of Black African refugees into the suburbs Woodstock and Salt River has been turning around a situation where gangsters and prostitutes had threatened to make these township-like suburbs hotspots of crime. Because of other reasons however, these new residents were not valued. The flood of refugees – many of them came because of economic reasons - caused xenophobia. South African Blacks saw the newcomers as a threat and competition to the already tight employment market. This unfortunately drove some of the expatriates to the lucrative drug trade - and criminals were soon on hand to take control of mafia-style operations.

In contrast to that, the Cape Town Baptist Church turned out to become a model for other congregations, not only by taking care of some foreigners from 1996, but also in being blessed by them - indeed a 21^st century version of the French Huguenots.

On 21 May, 2008 a nationally orchestrated mass xenophobic outburst also came to the Cape. At a well-attended Transformation/Consultation of Christian Churches planning meeting on 31 May 2008 in Parow, it was exciting to hear how various churches enquired how they could join in compassionate action on behalf of the displaced foreigners.

Interdenominational Initiatives The intensive prayer on many a Friday night into the next morning, plus intercession on some Saturday mornings, especially by those coming from the Congo region, augured well for the future. There are unfortunately however still only few links between fellowships of foreigners and the rest of the Body of the Messiah at the Cape.

For many years I hoped that a prayer meeting with local intercessors across denominational barriers would be started. Over the years a few of them started and dissipated again. Therefore I got quite excited that such a prayer meeting at a facility of Operation Mobilisation called Chanua, 86 Long Street, has been going strong for a number of months. They start at 21h every Friday night, going into the early morning hours of Saturday morning. This has been initiated by our long-time friend and board member of Friends from Abroad, Pastor Anaclet Mbayagu from Burundi, who started the initiative in mid-2015. It is still early days to see if other local believers who also started to join in, will do so perseveringly.

Other Expressions of Bondage

Other forms of bondage have to be tackled before Black South African missionaries can stream forth in numbers of any magnitude. All sorts of magic, horoscope, witchcraft and ancestral worship have brought millions in bondage through the influence of the occult. Secret curses and spells have been put on Christians. Many Black pastors have made compromises with ancestral worship and hereditary occult forms, sometimes under the pressure of the family or their community. Even though the power of the blood of Jesus has protected them, it may still be that a ministry in power is effectively hampered through these occult influences of the past. As a rule, the people involved must first be liberated and the hereditary effect of their ancestor worship cut off in the name of Jesus.

On the other hand, an over-emphasis on healing has also caused bondage. Some Christians have been running from one faith healing service with a prominent speaker to the next, becoming addicted to consumerism in the process. Even some gifted speakers have been deceived in this way, unwittingly encouraging superficiality instead of encouraging believers to seek holistic liberation. It has often been overlooked that Jesus denounced the chronic sign-seeking attitude of people. We read that he ‘sighed deeply’ because of this (Mark 8:10-12). Could it be that his sigh was so deep because the religious leaders of his day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were taking the lead in this sign seeking? We note that Jesus warned his disciples to watch out for the ‘yeast’ of these people. The ‘yeast’ is still fermenting, operating unchecked. Churches often radiate a sour or morbid atmosphere, rather than a sweet fragrance unto the Lord. Thus one often finds serious and sour faces singing ‘halleluja’, clearly not conveying the content of the hymns. Matthew 23 contains a stinging attack on the religious establishment of Jesus' day. Much of this could be applied to present-day conditions in churches, where the words of men, notably via Prosperity Theology, ferment like yeast. Yes, they are like cancer that makes the Body of Christ very sickly indeed.

The watering down of the authority of Scripture at the ecumenical conference in 1910 at Edinburgh ushered in a fermenting process. Fairly big denominations now have difficulties to define marriage in a biblical way, viz. as the union between one man and one wife. A return to the undiluted and unadulterated Word of God is absolutely necessary to stop the rot.

Run-up to a new Season of Spiritual Warfare

The intention of the ANC to commit the country to the ancestors of ANC founders and past leaders at its centenary celebrations from 6-8 January 2012 caused a season of renewed intensive spiritual warfare. Pastor Light Eze, a Nigerian pastor, responded obediently to a divine call to rally the Church at the Cape to repentance and prayer. He initiated '8 Days of prevailing prophetic prayers ...' I shared with the folk how the believers were challenged to uplift Jesus at a Bar Mitzwah occasion on 3 December at Rhodes Memorial. This was the cue to make Jesus we enthrone you our theme song.

Subsequently it was suggested that we cherish and celebrate the Christ-like legacy of ANC founders like John Dube and Albert Luthuli, but oppose the abomination of ancestor worship.

South African Messianic Jews

Various South African Messianic Jews played a special role in the outreach to Jews in this country over the years. Two names stand out in recent decades, viz. Manfred Nochomowitz and Baruch Maayan. The former ministered predominantly in Gauteng. Baruch Maayan hails from there. Hecame into prominence as pastor of the Beth Ariel Jewish Messianic congregation in Sea Point in the mid-1990s.

A Continental Prayer Project, with the theme ‘The Spiritual Highway of Revival from Africa through the Middle-East to Israel’ was formally started on 15^th November 2014 during the All Nations Convocation at the Lighthouse Christian Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The “Four Giants Confronting Africa” were idedntified as the Giant from the North - the Bondwoman Religion Islam; the Giant from the East - the Chinese Re-colonization Agenda; the Giant from the South - Idolatry; the Giant from the West - Religion of Human Rights. Under this theme, intercessors in Africa were invited to focus on these areas every three months.

The future will reveal the impact of regular radio programmes among Cape Jews, notably thatof Messiah’s People presented by Edith Sher on Sunday afternoons via CCFM and Esther Krűger via Radio Tygerberg. Leigh Telli (Messianic Testimony) has been spreaking often on the latter programme.

A new Pan-African Lobby Group

Millions of pro-Israeli Christians are on the move – and linking up in a newly-formed Pan-African lobby group. Well-known Cape Israel lobbyist-couple Luba and Ncedi Mayekiso have signed up 600,000 followers of their new Africa for Israel Christian Coalition (AFICC) and many are joining weekly. Luba Mayekiso became the South African President of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ) in 2015(??) The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem has its conference in Cape Town this year that will culminate in the final events in the International Convention Centre on Sunday 22 May, 2016.

A possible Catalyst towards spiritual Renewal ` To get the Body of our Lord at the Cape in action for bringing the Good News to its two main unreached groups, the Muslims and the Jews, remains a major challenge. I propose that combined expression of the Body of Christ in remorseful confession and repentance could be a catalyst towards spiritual renewal. It would be great if local churches could muster forces in prayer and action towards godly governance. This would be but a small - and yet significant – step. How wonderful it would be if church leaders could be the channel, voicing regret which could ignite remorse; that so many of our forebears claimed that the Church came in the place of the nation of Israel. Some of our co-religionists like Waraqah bin Naufal have been misleading Muhammad and because of that, millions are now caught in the web of religious bondage. Confession for doctrinal bickering that led to centuries of religious conflict is long overdue.

A nudge - humanly speaking - could be the acknowledgement that Islam is the result of heretical Christianity and distorted Judaism.[69] A precedent has been set in Rustenburg in 1990 when White participants confessed their ‘racial arrogance toward black culture’. It is high time that the Church (not only) in this country should follow this up regarding Judaism and Islam. It is my firm belief that the verbalizing of remorseful regret – along with any restitution that might be appropriate - could go a long way towards ushering in a new future for all of us on the African continent and beyond, as followers of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! In Luke 4:18-21 our Lord has set out the path of God’s mission to the world, viz. an evangelizing dimension – Good News to the poor; a healing and liberating dimension - restoring sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed, also to the spiritually blind and those bound with religious chains!

The Middle East Conflict Divides and Unites

Anti-Semitism was for many centuries a blight in European history but it has spread and taken root in many countries. During the presidency of Nelson Mandela this country could still play some mediatory role, given the fairly fresh memory of negotiations that led to the democratic set-up after 1994. Anti-Semitic cancer evolved however at the turn of the millenium also in this country. Hatred of Israel among Muslims via false religious doctrine went to the more pervasive realm of politics and human rights.

One of the most active theatres in this relentless global campaign against Israel has been crafted around the false libel that Israel is an apartheid state. This originated primarily from the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, during September 2001 that was organised by the United Nations. On 9 July 2005 the global campaign started targeting Israel, attempting to increase economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with the stated goals of the movement: the end of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

A significant impact on faith among Jews in Israel started here at the Cape with the formation of the David and Jonathan Foundation. The founder and leader, Jack Carstens, had been living in Israel with his family from 1976-80 where he was the Trade Attachė on behalf of the South African government. The David and Jonathan Foundation was founded in 1996 to support the small Messianic congregations in Israel, whose numbers were significantly augmented by additions from the former Soviet repubics.. This had a huge impact nevertheless. From a few hundred followers of the Messiah Yeshuah at that time, there are now quite a few thousands spread all over the country.

Well-known Cape Israel lobbyist-couple Luba and Ncedi Mayekiso played a special role in the fight against the negative effect of the Boycott Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign which is centred in South Africa. While working as a banker, Luba also began to study and preach as a lay minister. Though he considered pursuing ordination, he felt God clearly leading him into public advocacy. At the same time, he and his wife began to explore the biblical roots of their faith. Luba Mayekiso, along with his wife Ncedi, is a rising voice for biblical values and support for Israel in his native land and across Africa.

Various South African Messianic Jews played a special role in the outreach ot Jews in this country over the decaades. Two names stand out in recent decades, viz. Manfred Nochomowitz and Baruch Maayan. The former ministered predominantly in Gauteng. Baruch Maayan hailed from there but he only came into prominence as pastor of the Beth Ariel congreation in Sea Point.

Conclusion

Paul Billheimer made some profound statements in his book Destined for the Throne about the role of the prayerful church.[70] He suggested for example that the church wields the balance of power ‘in overcoming disintegration and decay in the cosmic order’. Unity of the Body of Christ is unquestionably a top priority. Will Cape Christians rise to the challenge? Questions like these will keep us busy in time to come. Sharing of resources – material and spiritual – and visible demonstration across the board that all walls of partition have been broken down, would be a signpost indicating that we are en route to God’s new age, to the reign of the Messiah. It would be great if local churches could start dropping their narrow parochial mind-sets, and begin to radiate the image of the rainbow nation, reflecting a full spectrum of colours of the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). This does not mean that every fellowship would be involved with all these aspects, but as the Church – with the capital C - joins and networks, the coming of the Bridegroom could be ushered in. Together we would then be able to cry out with joy and expectation: Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, our King of Kings!

The new millennium brought significant growth in the house church movement. Sometimes this caused some stress and/or strife. We must pray that this may be overcome through co-operation and networking. The emphasis should be to get to those who would never otherwise be reached with the Gospel.

May I highlight Psalm 133 once again, ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes’. Would it be too preposterous to suggest Church unity as something which is so powerful that it would incur God’s special blessing, if we could unite the disparate but related Abrahamic three religious groups under the banner of the Lamb locally? I refer to groups such as Muslim background followers of Jesus and Messianic Jews - along with those who enjoyed a Christian upbringing and who have been born again by faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Selected Bibliography

Berger, Klaus – Qumran und Jesus – Wahrheit unter Verschluss?, Quell Verlag Stuttgart, 1993

Beyreuther, Erich - Der Junge Zinzendorf, Francke Buchhandlung, Marburg/Lahn, 1957,

Beyreuther, Erich -Studien zur Theologie Zinzendorfs, (Neukirchener Verlag, 1962)

Brother Andrew - Building in a broken World, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, 1981

- Light Force, the only hope for the Middle East, Open Doors International, London, 2004

Cassidy, Michael – The Passing Summer: A South African pilgrimage in the politics of love,

Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1989

Coomes, Anne - African Harvest, Monarch Books, London, 2002

De Gruchy, John - The Church Struggle in South Africa, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1979 Knighton-Fitt, Jean - Beyond Fear, Pretext Publishers, Cape Town, 2003

Lewis, Anthony J. The ecumenical pioneer, (SCM Press, London, 1962

Lütjeharms, Het philadelphisch streven der Herrnhutter in de Nederlanden in de 18de eeuw, Zeist, 1935

Matthews, Arthur, Voor de strijd geboren, Evangelische Lektuur Kruistocht, Apeldoorn, n.d

(Original title: Born for Battle, 1978)

Murray, Andrew - Key to the missionary Problem, published by James Nisbet, London, 1901; contemporised by Leona F. Choy and published by Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, 1979.

Nielsen, Sigurd – Der Toleranzgedanke bei Zinzendorf, Vol.1, Ludwig Appel Verlag, Hamburg, 1951

Piper, John – Let the Nations be glad, Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, 2003

Praamsma, L - De Kerk van alle Tijden, Volumes 1-IV I, T.Wever, Franeker (NL), 1979-1981

Spangenberg, August -Das Leben des Herrn Nicolaus Ludwig Grafen und Herrn Zinzendorf und Pottendorf,

facsimile reproduction of the edition 1773-1775, Georg Olms Verlag, 1971,

Steinberg H.G., Schütz, H.I.C., Lütjeharms, W., Van der Linde, J.M., Zinzendorf, Callenbach, Nijkerk (NL), 1960

Thomas, David – Christ Divided, Liberalism, Ecumenism and Race in South Africa, Unisa Press, Pretoria, 2002

Tucker, Ruth – From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, Zondervan, Grand Rapids (USA), 2004

Uttendörfer, Otto and Schmidt, Walter (ed) Die Brüder, aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Brüdergemeine, Verlag des Vereins für Brüdergeschichte, Herrnhut, 1914

Van der Linde, J.M., - God’s Wereldhuis, Uitgeverij Ton Bolland, Amsterdam, 1980

Verkuyl, J. - Breek de Muren af, Bosch en Keuning, Baarn, 1969

Visser ‘t Hooft, W.A. - The pressure of our common calling, SCM, London, 1959

Wagner, C. Peters and Wilson, (ed) - Praying through the 100 gateway cities of the 10/40 window, YWAM publishing, Seattle, 1995,

Wagner, C. Peter (ed.) - Breaking strongholds in your City, Regal Books,, Ventura (USA), 1993

Walker, Williston - A History of the Christian Church, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1976 (1919)

Weinlick, John R. - Count Zinzendorf, Abington Press, New York, 1956

Zinzendorf, N - Nine Lectures, Edited and translated by George W. Forell, University of Iowa Press, Iowa, 1973

Appendix 1: Some Autobiographical Background

Ever since my sister Magdalene returned excitedly from an ecumenical week-end youth event at Applethwaite in Elgin – in the apple growing district of Grabouw around 1960 - I recognised that the unity of believers across the racial and denominational barriers could be quite important in the spiritual realm. A young White student from Rhodes University had rattled my sister's inculcated and socially conditioned racial mind-set. (In a country as ours where racial classification has caused such damage, I am aware that the designation Coloured has given offence to the racial group into which I have been classified. For this reason, I put ‘Coloured’ consistently between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to this racial group. To the other races I refer as ‘Black’, ‘White’ and 'Indian' respectively, with a capital B, W and I. The former two races, Black and White, are written with capitals to note that they do not refer to normal colours and the latter group refers to persons from Indian descent, but born and bred in this country.)

I thought as a teenager that the most effective opposition to the heretical apartheid ideology would be to assemble Christians from different racial and denominational backgrounds as often as possible, to demonstrate the unity of followers of Jesus in this way. However, my conviction was more intuitive because my knowledge of the Bible was still very limited,

A turning Point in my Life

A major turning point in my life occurred when two different teenage friends nudged me to attend the evangelistic outreach of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA) at the seaside resort of Harmony Park near Gordon's Bay that was scheduled to start just after Christmas at the end of 1964. There I was not only spiritually revived, but there I also received an urge to network with people from different church backgrounds. Multi-racial work camps at Langgezocht in the mountains of the Moravian Mission station Genadendal from the mid-1960s - to help build a youth camp site there - gave me the rare opportunity to meet students from other racial groups in a natural setting.

A church-sponsored stint in Germany in 1969 and 1970 included study and practical experience in youth work as well as studies of the biblical languages. Wherever I had the opportunity to address groups in Germany, I highlighted the ecclesiastical disunity, the fragmentation of the Body of Christ in my diagnosis of the einzigartige (unique) problems of South Africa. (The other two problems that I mentioned in these talks were racial discrimination - apartheid was still fairly unknown in Germany - and alcoholism) At this time I would also read everything that I could get hold of what Martin Luther King (jr) had written (This was banned material in South Africa).

Quest for visible Expression of the Unity in Christ

The importance of the visible expression of the unity of followers of Jesus grew further after my return to my home country in October 1970. However, in a rather overdrawn and misguided anti-apartheid activism, I joined the Christian Institute (CI) soon thereafter, hoping that White members would also be willing to expose themselves to the possibility of arrest for breaking petty apartheid laws. (The CI was started by Dr Beyers Naudé to bring Christians from the different races together to study God’s Word. The CI policy at that time was to respect the law, although the apartheid laws were so immoral and discriminating.)[71] My activism probably estranged the young White friends.

I met my future wife Rosemarie in May 1970 in an infatuation-at-first-sight encounter in Stuttgart. After my wife-to-be had been refused a work permit and thus entry into South Africa in order to get reclassified as a 'Coloured', the Moravian Church Board assisted me to return to Germany.[72] Rosemarie and I married in March 1975.

(In)voluntary Exile

In the first few years of my (in)voluntary exile in Germany there was little opportunity to translate my conviction of a clear expression of the Unity of the Body of Christ practically.

During the final part of my theological studies in Bad Boll, near to Stuttgart in Southern Germany, the legacy of Jan Amos Comenius, the 17^th century theologian and last bishop of the old Czech Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren) and Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Renewed Moravian Church, became very dear to me. I was ordained as a Moravian minister in September 1975. Thereafter Rosemarie and I left for West Berlin where I co-pastored a Moravian congregation. Two years later we moved to Broederplein in the historical town of Zeist in Holland. There Rosemarie and I served the predominantly Surinamese Moravian congregation of Utrecht.

I discerned ever more clearly with the passing of time that racial and ecclesiastical divisions were hampering a deep work of the Holy Spirit, notably in South Africa. The need for racial reconciliation and the attempt to help close gaps between ‘ecumenicals’ and ‘evangelicals’, as well as between the rich and the poor, became increasingly important to me as I became aware how much of a micro-cosmos my home country was. In November 1978 I needed divine healing from my anger towards the apartheid government and my denomination for their indifference towards the gross injustices of the day during a six week stint in the country with my wife and our first born son Danny. God used the banned Dr Beyers Naudé - who was basically under house arrest to make me determined to labour towards reconciliation between the estranged population groups and races.

I hereafter entered into intense correspondence with various agencies in what I perceived as a calling to achieve reconciliation in my divided home country. I felt an intense challenge to oppose the demonic tenets of church rivalry and competition, by stressing the unity of the Body of Christ, as well as fighting the diabolical economic disparity and structural injustice in a low-key manner. I hoped and prayed that South Africa might give an example to the world at large, not only in respect of racial reconciliation, but also in the voluntary sharing of resources.

Blessing of united Prayer

Linked to this was also the blessing of united prayer, which was repeatedly confirmed during a six-month stint in South Africa[73] - as we attempted to address the racial barrier in a low-profiled way. We were very much encouraged by a multi-racial group of believers from different denominations in Stellenbosch. The group had been started by Professor Nico Smith and a few pastors as a sequel to the South African Church Leaders’ Assembly (SACLA) event in Pretoria in 1979. At that special occasion church leaders across the board broke ecclesiastic and racial barriers unprecedentedly.

Another networking initiative with local ministers of other churches saw me deeply embroiled in the Crossroads saga of May 1981 taking big risks and linking closely with Rev. Douglas Bax, who had been a friend of our Moravian theological seminary in District Six. We were very thankful to hear later that two pivotal apartheid laws were removed from the statute books - influx control for Blacks, which led to the establishment of Khayalitsha, and the prohibition of racially mixed marriages. What a special privilege it was that I could contribute to some extent to the repeal of these two pillars of apartheid.

In Holland I tried to put the lessons of the unity of the Body of Christ to good effect that I had been learning. A first big nudge came in 1982 from Rens Schalkwijk, a teenager who had returned from Jamaica with his Moravian missionary parents a few years earlier. He suggested that we pray together - in the footsteps of our Moravian ancestors - early in the morning in the nearby Zeist forest.

Soon Rosemarie and I were leading the Goed Nieuws Karavaan (GNK) initiative of Zeist and surrounds. This we did from 1982 until the end of 1991. Our vision to give visibility to the Body of Christ locally was partially realized during this ministry when soon we had about 30 co-workers coming from the full ecclesiastic spectrum, from Roman Catholic to Pentecostal. We were blessed with holistic practical fellowship, in which believers from different denominational backgrounds participated.

Concerts of Prayer

Rens Schalkwijk gave us another nudge in early 1988, this time to start a small prayer group, along with two students of the local Pentecostal Bible School. The US prayer leader Dave Bryant visited Holland to promote Concerts of Prayer. A Dutch YWAM leader initiated regional prayer groups as a sequel to Dave Bryant's visit. In no time our geographic area became the first Regiogebed of the country, attended by Christians from quite diverse denominational backgrounds. The monthly events included prayer for local evangelistic work, praying for missionaries that had been leaving our region to serve in missions and for individual countries.

At the prayer meetings of the ‘Regiogebed’, with Christian participants from different church backgrounds we prayed for local issues, for missionaries who left from our area, but also for countries. In 1989 we prayed especially for Communist countries, notably for the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Romania.

At our ‘regiogebed’meeting of 4 October 1989, I mentioned in passing to someone that I had posted a letter to President De Klerk that day. Spontaneously Mr. van Loon, a teacher from the nearby town of Doorn, who was no regular at our prayer meetings, who overheard this, suggested that we devote more time that evening to pray for South Africa. Nobody objected. The whole prayer meeting was hereafter devoted to praying for my beloved country. That was the only occasion when we prayed so intensely for a single country.

Nobody present at the prayer meeting was aware that President De Klerk would meet Archbishop Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak the next week. That strategic meeting became in a sense a watershed in the politics of the country, the prelude to the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid. Also in other countries - especially in South Africa itself - people had been praying for a change in the suicidal direction of the political system.[74]

Back in Cape Town

I was back in Cape Town in January 1992 – this time with my own family, including my wife and our five children. We wanted to bring into practice what we had learned about spiritual warfare during our training as missionaries of Worldwide Evangelization for Christ (WEC). Thus we endeavoured to stimulate non-denominational targeted prayer almost from the outset. Initially we targeted the residential area Bo-Kaap, an Islamic stronghold because of apartheid. With a few other believers we started praying for Bo-Kaap fairly soon. Later we also added Sea Point and the Middle East, praying for Jews and Muslims.[75]

We prayed during the lunch hour on Fridays with individual believers for many years. From this prayer initiative many a blessed ministry evolved such as hospital ministry and outreach to foreigners.

One of the events organised in 1993 by the Western Cape Missions Commission was a workshop with John Robb of World Vision. The list of participants at this event was used to organize the Cape Jesus Marches the following year. In this way I updated my contacts for further mission endeavour in the Western Cape. I had high expectations when I co-ordinated about 20 prayer marches in different parts of the Cape Peninsula, making strategic contacts at this time. I had been hoping that this venture would result in a network of prayer for a breakthrough among Cape Muslims across the Peninsula. However, the initial interest that our second attempt with an updated audio-visual had ignited in various areas, soon fizzled out. Nevertheless, Sally Kirkwood, a Cape intercessor, had already been prepared by the Lord when she started a prayer meeting at her home in Plumstead. Along with other intercessors she became God’s instrument for increasing prayer awareness in the Mother City.

In the beginning of 1997 I was able to give the contact details that I still possessed from the Jesus Marches of 1994 to Reverend Cynthia Richards from Africa Enterprise was another instrument in this regard. She visited the various ministers’ fraternals of the Peninsula, while organising prayer meetings in preparation for the Franklin Graham campaign at the Newlands Cricket Stadium.

It was truly significant for the Cape Town Metropolis in April 1997 when churches across the city and from many denominations joined hands for a big campaign on the Newlands Cricket Stadium with the evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of the renowned Billy Graham. Pastor Walter Ackerman from the Docks Mission Church in Lentegeur and Pastor Elijah Klaassen from a Pentecostal church in Gugulethu/ Crossroads, worked tirelessly to enlist people from the Cape Flats and Black churches for this event. Transport from the townships was provided free of charge. This served as a model for the Transformation stadium events of the new millennium.

Fighting PAGAD

My participation in the Western Cape Missions Commission became the backdrop of my organizing Jesus Marches in the Western Cape in 1994. This coincided with an attempt to start a regional prayer network for Muslim Evangelism. The most visible result in this period was when I worked alongside various local pastors in the Cape Peace Initiative (CPI). We succeeded with God's help to nullify the PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) attempt from 1996 to islamize the Western Cape. A big factor in this regard was the networking with the local Christian radio station Cape Community FM (CCFM). At this time I was also very much involved with city-wide prayer events, led by Pastor Eddie Edson of Mitchell's Plain. Those city-wide prayer events ultimately became the forerunner of the big Newland Rugby Stadium event on 21 March 2001 and the annual Global Day of Prayer that started in 2005.[76]

Praying at different Venues

With Pastor Louis Pasques and the late Pastor Edgar Davids, , I came together for prayer on a weekly basis. From this base we attempted to get pastors and local believers of the Cape Town City Bowl to operate in unity, but we harvested only limited success.

Pastor Richard Mitchell had been praying over the city with Christians from the heights at Rhodes Memorial. We adapted this cue to start monthly early morning prayer from Signal Hill in 1998, praying for Bo-Kaap, Sea Point and often also for a greater expression of the unity of the body of Christ in the CBD.

Unity appears on the Horizon

In preparation for the 2006 Global Day of Prayer, prayer drives were organised. The prayer drives converged at the Central Police Station in Buitenkant Street. God used this event to touch at least one person in a special way. Wim Ferreira had been invited to work with the Deputy Mayor of the metropolis.

When all the groups had arrived at the former freemason lodge, Daniel Brink, the co-ordinator of the event, asked me to share in a few words how God had changed things at the police station. I became too emotional. However, at this moment, Wim Ferreira was deeply moved. He promptly requested a room for prayer in the metropolitan Civic Centre where he had just started to work. This was another divinely orchestrated move. After a few months, a regular Friday prayer time with Wim Barry and me was functioning in a board room of the Civic Centre.

Before long, a trickle of workers from all walks of life was coming to faith in Jesus as their Lord as a result of these prayers. On Wednesdays at lunch time believers from different denominational backgrounds gathered there to pray and intercede for the city. The Lord also challenged Wim Ferreira to start a 24-hour prayer facility at the Civic Centre premises. Soon a prayer room near to the parking area on the ground floor was frequented by many people throughout the day. The foundation stone towards 24/7 prayer in the CBD of the metropolis was laid.

The Lord put the unity of

the Body of Christ on our

prayer agenda once again

The Lord had put the unity of the Body of Christ on our prayer agenda once again. We continued with efforts to get Capetonian believers to pray together. This was to us an important step towards the revival we yearned for.

Pastor Barry Isaacs became the new co-ordinator of Transformation Africa. As a result of their deliberations, prayer meetings started in October 2007 at the Uni-City Council Chambers on the third Saturday morning of every month at 5.30 a.m. Wonderful answers to prayer were subsequently experienced month after month. At one of these occasions, the lack of the availability of the Civic Centre Banqueting Hall for a combined prayer event on Ascension Day touched Peter Williams, the secretary of the Provincial Parliament. He promptly extended a provisional invitation to the group to come and pray there as well.

On 31 May 2008 more than 100 believers gathered in the legislative house of the Western Cape for prayer at 6 a.m. Three days later there was a hush – and no mocking - as two Christians shared their biblical convictions at the same venue, as part of normal parliamentary procedure. This was for Peter Williams a direct result of the united prayer at that venue! The implementation of unity on biblical grounds in the spirit of the person and example of Jesus - without semantics (notably playing with words) and doctrinal bickering around issues like baptism and women in the pulpit – started appearing on the horizon.

The 2010 Soccer World Cup

After the failure of the Church in our country to hone in on an opportunity towards effective networking during the xenophobic mob attacks of May and June 2008, we latched on to the national outreach effort that was launched in the country with the 2010 Soccer World Cup called The Ultimate Goal (TUG). This was a very positive experience but it still only resulted in limited networking. In attempted mediation between two strong missionary personalities of Muslim evangelism, I had a very traumatic experience.

Both the Global Day of Prayer and Lausanne III events of 2010 did not live up to our high expectations to foster unity among the Bride of Christ in the city. The 2011 initiatives of 'Strengthening the Ties' of followers of Jesus and 'Fire Trails' straddled man-made boundaries and barriers, but these events had no significant noticeable impact.

The Church universal still has to acknowledge collective guilt for the doctrinal squabbling that led to the establishment and rise of Islam. The maltreatment and side-lining of Jews by Christians fall in the same category. If they are not repented of and confessed, these issues will remain hurdles in the way of a collective turn around by Islam or Judaism in my view.

Study of Revivals

In the course of my love for historical research I furthermore discerned how revivals followed as a rule from a unity or fellowship of praying believers. By way of contrast, disunity – accompanied at the Cape by denominational rivalry, personal ambition, envy and racial prejudice - seems to have been a major stifling factor for the work of the Holy Spirit to come to full fruition[?].

Renaming of 'Devil's Peak'

At the beginning of 2009 the Lord put the public demonstration of the unity of the Body of Christ quite strongly on my heart once again. This time I hoped to assist in uniting believers with the possible renaming of 'Devil's Peak'. I linked up with Pastor Barry Isaacs and Murray Bridgman, a local advocate, who had been praying with us at different venues over a number of years. Our attempt included a meeting on 4 February 2012, I almost became the tragic victim via a massive heart attack in the night from 30 to 31 January of that year. A new missionary colleague, Tess Seymore, started out excitedly with me and another young brother, as we contacted churches all over the City Bowl in the Dove’s Peak Prayer Network. This petered out quite soon however to bring me back to Psalm 127:2 ‘If the Lord does not build the house… the builders toil in vain.’

The mistakes of the arch enemy tend to be among the best weapons in the arsenal of the Holy Spirit to unify the body of Christ at the Cape. The brutality of the SA police in the mid-1980s, fuelled by a callous government when many innocent children were killed, was the run-up to country-wide prayer and ultimately to an end of apartheid. The St James Church (Kenilworth) massacre of July 1993 by Azapo guerilla freedom fighters and the PAGAD threat of 1996-99 to islamise the Western Cape, as the start of a process to capture the continent by the turn of the century, were possibly the most significant catalysts the last few decades to get Christians praying across denominational boundaries.

Divine Nudges towards One-ness of Followers of Christ

At the beginning of 2010 I was deeply touched when I discerned that Isaac and Ishmael, the two eldest sons of Abraham, had actually buried their father together (Genesis 25:9). The evident reconciliation was probably preceded by confession and some remorse. Or was there some reconciling agent involved?

On 11 October 2010 the Lord ministered to me from Romans 1:16 when we received the Lausanne Consultation for Jewish Evangelism (LCJE) Quarterly Bulletin. That edition of the LCJE Bulletin highlighted the legacy of Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus. In the paper that Rosen delivered as part of the Jewish Evangelism track at Lausanne II in Manila in 1989, he highlighted 'Jews first' from Romans 1:16. The very next day our friend Brett Viviers, a Messianic Jewish believer and long-time friend, visited me. This led to the beginning of Ishmael Isaac Ministries and another attempt at Muslim/Jewish dialogue and reconciliation, an effort to link Messianic Jewish believers and Muslim background believers at the Cape.

I thought to have discerned another 'missing link' that same month, viz. that revivals were, as a rule, accompanied by deep remorse over personal and national sins. This would then often result in the shedding of 'rivers of tears'. I shared this insight on Signal Hill and at a few other occasions. In the run-up to Lausanne III in October 2010 in our city, I was deeply moved to 'discover' the disobedience and neglect of the Church at large in reaching out 'to the Jews first' (Romans 1:16f). I was especially moved again how the Jews were side-lined by our Christian ancestors. (In my research I had been discerning anew how our Christian forbears have haughtily stated that the Church replaced the nation of Israel and the Jews.)

Soon thereafter I was thoroughly humbled and embarrassed when I sobbed publicly and uncontrollably. I was completely overwhelmed by a sense of guilt towards Jews while I felt an urge to apologise on behalf of Christians for our disobedience and for the fact that we have been side-lining the Jews. The trigger at that occasion was the return of Pastor Baruch Maayan and his family from Israel. He and the family was responding in obedience to a call by the Holy Spirit to come to the Cape. He shared that he felt like Jonah to have received a second chance to minister to believers here.

I started to pray more intensely that a representative body of Christians might express regret and offer an apology on behalf of Christians for the side-lining and persecution of Jews by Christians. A meeting on the Saturday afternoon of 23 October at a private address in Milnerton with the Maayan family was a defining moment. Baruch shared his conviction that he was sent to Cape Town a second time to challenge believers with the highway message. This would lead to Highway meetings every last Saturday of the month in Sea Point. A close link developed between us and the Maayan family, a visit to Israel in 2011 and ultimately to the building of a north facing prayer facility at our home that we dubbed the Isaiah 19 prayer room.

The threat of our country to be put under the rule of ancestors at the centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein in January 2012 caught the imagination of intercessors in a big way. Here at the Cape the Lord used Pastor Light Eze, a Nigerian pastor, to bring believers together unprecedentedly. We linked the ogre of demonic ancestor spirit rule to the effort to change the name of a well-known mountain summit to Doves' Peak. The result was a new season of spiritual warfare including '8 Days of prevailing prophetic prayers...' during which we sang every evening Jesus, we enthrone you! Fairly spectacular answers to prayer followed and there were also supernatural phenomena which gave us great expectations. Events to highlight the five-hold ministry later in the year kept the prayer for revival alive.

A significant move in the spiritual realm occurred when Pastor Maditshaba Moloko was appointed as the co-ordinator for the annual Jerusalem prayer convocation.in 2014. The gifted intercessor and visionary moved with her business into office space to the 20^th floor of the Thibault Square Building on the Capetonian Foreshore in mid-2015. Soon thereafter a monthly prayer meeting for Jerusalem started there. This would become the venue for many strategic city-wide meetings linked to prayer events, such as meetings ahead of the big event at the Lighthouse in July 2015 and a prayer event with Pastor Baruch Maayan at Cape Point on 11 December that was organised on very short notice.

Appendix 2: Passover – Easter Divergent dates in 2015.

From the time of Yeshua’s death and resurrection until the third century A.D., believers in Yeshua tied the Lord’s resurrection to the celebration of Passover. However, as various bishops took the place once held by the apostles, decisions were made in order to separate the faith from its Jewish roots. It was from this turn of events that the Resurrection came to be celebrated apart from the Passover. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., the final decree was made that Easter be observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring, and not in conjunction with Passover. After this Council, the emperor Constantine sent out a letter to all those who were not able to be present informing them of the decisions made, including the decision to reject Passover and to instead celebrate Easter:

“It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom[the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter… We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way…. we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews…” (From “Letter of the Emperor to all those not present at the Council: Eusebius, Vita Const., Lib. iii., 18-20. http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/const1-easter.asp).

Appendix 3: Precedents with South African Church Leaders

South Africa had a notable example of the result of reconciliation of Bishop Tutu and Dr Allan Boesak in 1980. The reason for the rift was the willingness of Bishop Tutu and other clergymen to speak to Prime Minister P.W. Botha, while Dr Boesak and his Broederkring[77] colleagues maintained that this would only give credibility to the evil system. After getting reconciled the two clergymen teamed up in their opposition to apartheid.

South African Church leaders also set a precedent where confession of failure had major ramifications. The occasion was a big conference in Rustenburg in November 1990, which became a major catalyst of change in the country at large, albeit that the final declaration was perhaps too overtly political as opposed to prophetic in the biblical sense. Thus one finds slogans like 'church theology' without giving the biblical link.

The combination of the above elements was used by God - along with the prayers of God’s people around the world - to stave off a major bloody conflict in our country. Could it be that unresolved estrangements or strained relationships and unforgiveness by certain Church leaders locally, regionally or nationally might still be blocking the free flow of Holy Spirit revival? A statement in 2010 by the revered Archbishop Tutu, who had been so instrumental in bringing about reconciliation in our country, was clearly divisive and unbiblical. Taking sides in the Middle East conflict is definitely not helpful. It is regrettable that he did not show any willingness to respond on efforts to revise his stance, e.g. after a group of Israeli students had visited him, brought no change.

Appendix 4: (Draft) Declaration on Christian-Muslim-Jewish Relations -

Preamble to the (Draft) Declaration

Deploring the recent outcry against Israel by certain Church leaders, the following declaration is presented to South Africans by a group of Cape followers of Jesus. Some of them have been raised as Jews and others as Muslims - augmented by local Christians.[78] We are aware that we have no mandate to speak on behalf of Christians in general.

We would like to highlight that the Bible teaches clearly that Abraham blessed both Isaac and Ishmael. We also invite followers of Jesus to let the acronym ISLAM stand for I Shall Love All Muslims.

Furthermore, the possible rift between Abraham's two sons – which would have been natural after all that had transpired with Ishmael and his slave mother - was evidently amicably resolved in their life-time. It is recorded that both sons buried their father together (Genesis 25:9), possibly reconciled to all intents and purposes. We believe that it is incumbent upon followers of Christ to strive after reconciliation between the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We do however also wish to express our regret of the side-lining of Jews from the first century AD onwards by Gentile Christians and that ultimately the Church was taken to have replaced Israel.

The location of the Lausanne III Conference, the Cape Town International Convention Centre, a mere Kilometre respectively from the prime localities of Judaism and Islam in the Western Cape, has been a renewed stimulus for some of us to pray more intensely that a representative body of Christians might express regret for the above and offer an apology on behalf of Christians for a) the side-lining and persecution of Jews by Christians b) that Christian theologians misled the founder of Islam at the inception of that religion.

In the light of strained Christian-Muslim relationships and violent encounters in the past, we deem it necessary to write down down some of our convictions that could assist to "clear the table" for fresh meaningful interaction between the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

The (Draft) Declaration is not primarily a confession with regard to past failures and transgression of Christians Yet it hopes to stimulate thought among individuals or groups to evaluate it and take appropriate action. Knowing how powerfully God has used confessions in the past to bring about meaningful change in our country – notably the confession of Church leaders at Rustenburg in 1990 – we do ask however that Christians and Church leaders in particular would consider drafting a confession in respect of wrongs perpetrated by our forebears to Muslims in general, and more explicitly to Cape Muslims. Similarly, we believe that a general confession on behalf of Christians for arrogantly regarding the Church to have replaced Israel and the Jews is long overdue.

The (Draft) Declaration however merely suggests steps of an appropriate response which could be contemplated and prayerfully applied under God's guidance for each local context. In short, the Declaration should make us think, pray and act.

The (Draft) Declaration is written from the understanding that the Bible spells out clearly that we do have a biblical mandate to proclaim the truth, to witness and to serve. It suggests also a reappraisal of the role of the Church at large with regard to the situation in the Middle East. The notion that the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael have been eternal enemies (and should remain that way,[79]) has hardly any biblical basis. We regret that Church leaders have all too often compounded the age old problem of Israel and Palestine in an unreconciling way instead of being an agent of reconciliation, e.g. by bringing together Jews and Muslims who got reconciled through common faith and working with followers of Jesus Christ from those backgrounds.

We also regret the disobedience of the Church at large to the example and precepts of Jesus with regard to Jews, as exemplified and taught by Paul, the prolific first century letter writer and missionary. Instead of seeing the preponderance of the apple of God's eye (Deuteronomy 32:10; Zechariah 2:8) as God's formula for world evangelism – loving concern for and outreach to Jews first (Romans 1:16f) - the Church in general neglected the loving and compassionate outreach to them completely. Instead, our Christian forebears haughtily rejoiced in the perceived rejection of Israel by the Almighty and arrogantly accepted the erroneous concept by and large that the Church replaced Israel.

(Draft) DECLARATION[80]

As followers of Jesus, the Christ, we have an unpaid debt to Jews and Muslims - the message of hope in Him, our Lord and Saviour. We believe that God calls us to share His love for the World (John 3:16) with every human being, especially with Jews and Muslims as co-spiritual (and in some cases natural) descendants of Abraham.

1. The early Muslim Community.

There is no historical evidence that the man Muhammad, who is revered by Muslims as God's final prophet to mankind, ever came to know God through faith in Jesus personally. On the contrary, we are sad that the founder of Islam apparently had contact with confused Christians, some of whom even denied Jesus Christ's divinity. Strikingly, he was evidently deceived by the unbiblical veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, after which he thought that Christians believed her to be a consort, a partner to God. The founder of the religion was apparently also devoid of clear and patient guidance by followers of our Lord who could explain to him that God revealed himself in the person of Jesus. We deem it our task to introduce Muslims to the God who spoke to us through Jesus the Christ and through his revealed Word, the Bible.

2. Side-lining of Jews

We take note that the religious leaders of Jesus' day rejected him as the promised Messiah (John 1:1-11). In fact, Jesus described it as the unpardonable sin that the Pharisees asserted that he was demonically inspired after he had healed and set a demon-possessed man free from his bondage (Matthew 12:22-37). The move caused that generation of Jews, to reject him as Messiah - the veil that is still by and large to be removed. Arrogance of Gentile believers towards Jews because of perceived divine rejection of Israel and the Jews was apparently already discernible among the first century churches. (Some Christians later deemed the Church to have replaced Israel. This is to us tantamount to another veil covering the eyes of the Church.) In Romans 11 Paul clearly intended to rectify this situation, stating that the Gentile Christians were merely grafted into the true olive tree Israel. Our vision is to see the prayer of Jesus in John 17 fulfilled that it will become one flock and one shepherd – Jew and Gentile believers who follow and serve him as their Messiah and Lord - and that his followers will be brought to complete unity (v.23). This is to us congruent with the yearning of Paul that the branches of the olive that have been broken off from the olive tree may be grafted back, that the veil from Jews be removed.

We thankfully note that the respective emperors of the Roman Empire, Constantine of the West and Licinius of the East proclaimed the Edict of Milan in 313, which established a policy of religious freedom for all. With regret we however also take note that Constantine's proclamation of a free day on the day of the sun, the first day of the week, side-lined Jews. In effect this also more firmly established the erroneous view of certain Christians that the Church replaced the nation of Israel as God's elect.

3. The Abuse of Force.

The secular advantages given to the Church as a result of the Constantine military victories and the subsequent reforms had a fatal side effect. The example of Emperor Constantine to subjugate peoples was emulated by Muhammad and his Islamic successors to bring whole nations under Islamic bondage in this way.

Augustine, the renowned North African Church Father, set the pattern for Muhammad to react with force if persuasion would not work. He initially accepted that there would be godless and nominal Christians in the Church, because wheat and weed should be able to grow next to each other until the harvest. Church discipline should not be practised forcefully with the iron rod, but rather like that of an operating surgeon. The erring and back-sliding believers should be brought back to the fold with the Gospel of grace. Augustine requested the authorities to use force to bring back the erring ones to the church. To motivate his position, Augustine quoted Luke 14:23, ‘Force them to come in.’ With this argumentation he.’ Unwittingly, Augustine legitimized force to subdue opposition, paving the way for the Inquisition and the Crusades (The Inquisition became known as a harsh international secular judiciary, where a travesty of justice became the common practice. Jews were given the option to become Christians or be killed).

The Crusades (1096-1270) were not honouring God, but were mostly done by Christians seeking revenge and who were motivated by earthly gain by way of domination. The 'Crusaders' did not spread the Gospel of salvation to Jews and Muslims. In no way can these monstrous acts be condoned. We utterly deplore them as a grave caricature of the Gospel. It is our task to be on our guard not to fall prey to other agenda's other than that of the Kingdom of God coming through in the person and ministry of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When we hereby attempt to express regret in a small way, we would like to emphasise that we want to refrain definitely from any"points scoring'.

4. Jews and Muslims in the colonial Era

Government officials of the Dutch East Indian Company (DEIC), pastors and European settlers dissuaded slaves to become Christians and thus be freed. This was contrary to the noble DEIC decrees.

We deplore the religious intolerance of the colonial era at the Cape when Jews and believes from other denominations were expected to join the colonial church to participate fully in normal activities of their society.

The colonial period at the Cape of Good Hope was a time of little hope for slaves. This era was marked by a decline in the missionary fervour in the Church. Due to materialistic greed Christian slave owners encouraged their workers - as their possessions - to rather become Muslims. Consequently, many slaves were neglected by the Christian Church at the Cape. Many slaves subsequently embraced Islam towards the end of the eighteenth and in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Christian Church and many Cape Christians have largely neglected their prophetic task to pass on to Muslims and Jews the Good News of salvation through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

When so-called "Christian" Western countries became obsessed with a lust for territorial power, it resulted in colonial empires that were dominated by Western nations of the Northern hemisphere. Muslims in Islamic countries sadly usually came to see a distorted Jesus in the lives of so-called "Christians", such as traders who invaded, annexed and exploited their territory, without really intending to build the Kingdom of God. We cannot ignore what happened or make it go away. We however want to show the love of Jesus to Muslims through our lives. We believe the Message of Jesus the Christ needs to be brought to Muslims (and Jews) in the uncompromising servant attitude of Jesus.

We are however grateful towards God for the example of individual Christian believers who displayed compassion for downtrodden people at the Cape of Good Hope, the slaves, the Khoi and San people. These individual believers did not shy away from sharing their faith also with Muslims (and Jews).

5. Muslims in the Apartheid Era

It is significant that so many apartheid laws and practices had their precedence in the attitudes and measures against the Cape Muslims of the colonial days. We are aware that the ideologists of apartheid took their cue from a misguided interpretation of Scripture via the demonic ideology of Germany's Nationalist Socialism. (The Anti-semitic Nazi leaders not only discriminated against Jews but they were also responsible for the extermination of 6 million Jews – the Holocaust.) The enforcement of apartheid enhanced the spread of Islam. An unknown number of nominal Christians embraced Islam in protest because the apartheid laws were perceived as the dealings of a ‘Christian’ government. We note sadly that the legislation and practices of our new South African government have also been driving people further away from a living vibrant relationship to Jesus Christ, notably with perceived laxity regarding sexual immorality.

6. Let Your Kingdom Come.

In the light of what happened, we as followers of Jesus Christ, concede that the Evangelical witness through the ages, especially during recent decades here in South Africa, was not always bold and clear. The impression was given that Allah of the Qur'an and the God who revealed Himself in the Bible and through Jesus as the Messiah, are identical. Notably, in the Bible, God confirmed Jesus as his Son, whereas the Qur'an states that God does not have a son.

The impression that Christians, Jews and Muslims serve the same God, caused many Christians to be deceived and disillusioned after marrying into a Muslim family and then required to forsake their faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. We admit that the Church did not stand up to clear the confusion. With the co-operation of Christian denominations and individual Christians we want to bring fresh hope to all people.

We accept the challenge to bring the message of salvation within the reach of all Jews and Muslims in our vicinity and to invite Christians to become educated regarding this challenge. Realising that in our own lives, as well as in the generations before us, there has by and large been sin of omission with regard to Muslims to a large extent. We now invite all South African Christians to bring this guilt personally before God and repent of it.

May God in his Almighty power use us to spread His love to all our neighbours irrespective of faith, nationality or creed!

Ishmael-Isaac Christian Ministries,

Cape Town, February 2011

[1] Van der Linde, J.M., De Wereld heeft toekomst, Kampen, p.197 Rather ambivalently, Erasmus resented Jews fiercely, but as a priest and scholar, his greatest wish was to see the Church restored to the simplicity and holiness of the Gospels.

[2] I gleaned some of the information from the article Zinzendorf and Judaism, by Craig Attwood of the Moravian Theological Seminary, Bethlehem (Ps, USA), downloaded on 9 November 2010.

[3] Only in recent years the pagan roots of Easter have been re-discovered, but only highlighted in certain circles.

[4] Lütjeharms, 1935, in the footnote on p.110

[5] His ministry among slaves had to be aborted in later years. Richter had also ministered to gypsies in the Ronneburg castle when the Moravians had been exiled from Herrnhut and he also wanted to go and assist Georg Schmidt at the Cape, but he could not get any permission in Amsterdam.

[6]The reference to kombuis was probably not meant as a normal kitchen, but the one on a ship where the sailors practiced the notorious uncouth language.

[7]Radical is derived from radix, the Latin word for root.

[8]This has especially been highlighted by Karen Armstrong in her book The Gospel According To Woman, London, 1986). It may be somewhat overdrawn what she stated, but there definitely is validity of her statement that 'Christianity has formed Western society and Christianity has been the only major religion to hate and fear sex. Consequently it is in the West alone that women have been hated because they are sexual beings instead of merely being dominated because they are inferior chattels'. Armstrong's statement has to be disputed because this is not true only for the West. Arab desert culture permeated Islam so much that slavery of women (and children) after subjection of any tribe was very normal.

[9]In his booklet The Destiny of Israel and the Church, 1992, Derek Prince wrote about three P's as spiritual warfare weapons: Proclamation (pp. 109-112), Praise (pp. 112-116 ), Prayer (pp. 117-120 ). (Suffering under) Persecution could be added as another P. Brother Andrew expanded this significantly in 1998, devising ten strategic steps, ten P’s (prophetic, planning, persistence, preparation, presence, penetration, profiling, permanence, proclamation and power) to which he linked a prayer apiece.

[10] In Medina Muhammad not only erred through deceit and untruthfulness himself, but he also taught that lying is only minor sin, permissible if it can be used for the spreading of the religion.

Muslims are allowed to lie in four cases: In the Holy War, to reconcile two enemies, a man to his different wives and a wife to her.

[11] I showed in my manuscript The Spiritual Parents of Islam how almost every Islamic doctrine developed either from Judaism or heretical Christianity

[12] Other written evidence does not support the deduction of Haasbroek. The good result among the Muslims in the Boland during Ds. Beck’s tenure there was probably more the work of the devout French Huguenots and their descendants, who started to arrive at the Cape from 1688. In the church of Stellenbosch where Beck laboured, he appears to have baptised only two Muslims.

[13] The Moravians embraced the Arminian doctrine of universal atonement, which held that in converting to Jesus Christ, the individual accepted the salvation that had been achieved for everyone by his death on the Cross. This teaching was condemned by the Reformed Synod of Dort in 1618-19, flying in the face of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination.

[14]In this regard Zinzendorf and his role models Luther and Comenius were obviously guided by the Pauline teaching of 1 Timothy 2:11-12: A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. At most a woman was allowed to teach next to her husband like the house church leaders Aquila and Priscilla. Biblical-era society was very much male-dominated. It would have been considered scandalous and an affront to the sanctity of worship for a woman to take a leadership role. Women were prohibited from taking any role that would appear to be dominant over men.

[15] The other woman to be baptised received the name Christina.

[16] In due course the oefenhuis or gesticht would become the place where separate religious exercises for people of colour were conducted, where they would receive devotional teaching.

[17] Dr G.B.A.Gerdener (1951;14) described Ds. Vos as a 'boesemvriend', a close friend of Van Lier. However, I have not found any written evidence that the two ever met personally. Van Lier died in September 1793 and Vos arrived at the Cape on 8 March 1794. They could have met in the Netherlands before Van Lier came to the Cape but their friendship could of course have developed through correspondence, with Ds. Vos being born and raised in the Cape and Dr Van Lier known to have been a keen letter writer.

[18] Nachtigal (1893: foreword). Translation: The present generation picks the fruit of their prayers and labour, of their tears and their battle. Those were dark days when they operated... but their courageous faith conquered.

[19] Translation: for this we do not need special missionaries... because the church council has appointed persons for that purpose.

[20] Translation: there was meticulous concern to remain the ruling church

[21] Kapp (1985:285) plays down the role of Dr Philip in the emancipation of the slaves. It might be true that John Philip did not play that big a role, but his indirect contribution was surely just as important, even as that of Earl of Caledon was in this way and may not be minimized.

[22] In a sense this also happened. Shaw quotes in the Appendix to his 1836 booklet A Defence of the Wesleyan Missionaries in Southern Africa no less than seven other churches or missionaries from other societies (p. 65-70) who were supportive of their position.

[23] Translation: without distinction of colour or descent.

[24] Translation: a firm rule, based on the infallible word of God

[25] The unfortunate polarization in South Africa created a situation where (political) activism was equated with prophetic Christianity. Jesus was a prophet, but hardly anybody would describe him as an activist. Some publications, for example Prophetic Christianity and the Liberation Movement by Professor Peter Walshe (1995), do not make this important distinction.

[26] Translation: For heathens who attend the public religious services. At the church in Stellenbosch the ‘Coloured’ members sat separately next to the pulpit (Schoeman, 1996:80).

[27] Haasbroek (1955:75). Translation: in no other way and under no other rules than those regarding the ordination of missionaries.

[28] Van Niekerk, F.N. Sending onder die Mohammedane, handwritten report, 1948, n.p.

[29] Faced by hostile climates and populations, pragmatic comity between mission agencies developed as they discovered that co-operation was better than competition. As a result a 'home-based missionary conference was conducted in 1819 in London and an agreement was reached between Methodists and Anglicans in Tonga in 1830 (Thomas, 2002:13).

[30]A similar role can be attributed to Muslim background believers like the Egyptian Noni Darwish in the exposure of some uncomfortable facets of Islam.

[31] Various reasons have been given for the actual outbreak of the war. The bottom line was undoubtedly British Imperialism.

[32] This was a rift between two Afrikaner factions.

[33] He was the father of the renowned Dr Beyers Naudé.

[34]Subsequent mergers transpired with the International Missionary Council in 1961 and the World Council of Christian Education - which has its roots in the 18^th century Sunday School movement - in 1971.

[35] The building is at the same premises at which the SAMS was started in 1799. Later it was turned into the Missionary Museum.

[36]Some of the insensitivities are listed in Gerrie Lubbe's article Wit Afrikane en Afrika se ander godsdienste (page 60.) in Wit Afrikane?, an anthology to commemorate Professor Nico Smith’s 70^thbirthday.

[37] For our day and age it is relevant to note that some eunuchs were known to be 'gay', men who could be entrusted in the private chambers of highly ranked females like queens.

[38] A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of other people, someone who does not feel threatened when other people are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole. He or she is diminished when other people are humiliated, when others are tortured or oppressed.

[39] Ds. D.P. Botha later became the moderator of the Sendingkerk, the ‘Coloured’ sector of the denomination.

[40]Farid Esack is recognized in the Islamic world as one of the first ‘liberation theologians’, who dared to criticize the religion from within its fold.

[41] I heard it myself, e.g. at the 1972 UCM conference in Roodepoort. I also used the raised clenched fist uncharitably, walking down Adderley to scare Whites.

[42]Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar later merged to form a new state Tanzania.

[43] The supernatural intervention by God in the run-up to the miraculous elections in April 1994 is beautifully documented in Michael Cassidy's A Witness for Ever (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1995).

[44] The basic idea was not new at all. Already during the Reformation 'lesser magistrates' were told to oppose 'higher authority' with arguments taken - albeit somewhat distorted - from the Bible. In recent times, James W. Douglass wrote a book published in 2006 on the same theme but from the opposite angle, The Non-Violent Cross: A Theology of Revolution and Peace.

[45] At that time there were still very few missionaries known who did not come from the affluent Western countries.

[46]Nico Bougas later became the pioneer and editor of the periodical Christian Living Today.

[47]The camp site was never completed. Participants experienced hassling from the Special Branch of the police because the young folk came from races other than ‘Coloured’.

[48] In translation the booklet received the title Human Relations and the South African Scene in the Light of Scripture.

[49] The word radical comes from the Latin word radix, which means root.

[50] South Africa benefited tremendously when Pixley Seme was sent to the USA, getting the name of the missionary who had influenced him a lot. After his return to our country, he became one of the founders of the ANC.

[51] This might also be the origin of the term ‘gap year’ when teenagers engage in some sort of ministry after leaving high school. In 1979 Dave Bryant published the influential book In the Gap, premiered before 20,000 university students at that year's URBANA 79 (the national, triennial student missions conference staged by Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship).

[52] The very first booklet, with basic information which covered 30 countries, was printed by the Dutch missionary Cees Lugthardt at the presses of the Dorothea Mission in Pretoria, as was the first edition of Operation World. The updated version has been published in October 2010, edited by Jason Mandryk.

[53] In my manuscript A Goldmine of another Sort I examined how the Moravians implemented biblical principles, applying it to the South African context.

[54] A modern-day variation is the rather racist Ephraim movement. Whites Afrikaners predominantly claim that they are the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. In his 2005 booklet on the topic, Jack Carstens, an Afrikaner, refutes these claims very ably.

[55] We should nevertheless not be blinded to see who is behind it, viz.a demonic force. Even the great reformer Martin Luther was misled by the arch enemy. In his hatred for the Jews, Adolf Hitler quoted Luther more than once. Partly as a result of this, millions of Jews were killed during the holocaust in Germany and Eastern Europe.

[56]Along with the Anglican priest Trevor Pearce, Peter Ward and Eugene Johnson boarded one of two Operation Mobilisation ships, the Doulos, in 1978 as the first missionaries of colour with an international mission agency, to be followed by two young people from the Cape, Caroline Duckitt from Bishop Lavis Township in 1979 and June Domingo of Steenberg in 1980. The latter two females became WEC International missionaries.

[57] Nyanga is one of the world's most dangerous areas, and had the highest number of murders (262) in South Africa during 2012.

[58] The so-called 10/40 Window denotes a geographical area between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude, where the main unreached people groups with respect to the Gospel can be found.

[59] I narrate these events in more detail in the manuscript Jumping over Walls.

[60] Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. Proceedings and Decisions of General Assembly 1981, p.180ff. The Assembly also recognized ‘the bona fides of those Christians who in good conscience before God, took up arms to fight either for “liberation” or for “law and order” in South Africa’— and paid tribute to conscientious objectors.

[61] Subsequently I made an in-depth study of Jibril, including a comparison with the biblical Angel Gabriel. This can be accessed on our blog.

[62] It was Dr Jonker who took me aside at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to explain that he was not a member of the secretive Afrikaner Broederbond in 1979. At that occasion I urged the delegation to use their influence to get Dr Beyers Naudé unbanned.

[63] The Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) is the White sector of the Dutch Reformed Church,

[64]In a speech 23 November, 1974 he said literally: S.A. is at the crossroads. The alternative to a negotiated settlement is too ghastly to contemplate.

[65]It was sad to discern that someone of Dr Buthelezi’s stature - he had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because he also had been regarded as a rebel against the apartheid status quo - appeared to stall negotiations because of personal ambition. In research that was published subsequently, Dr Anthea Jeffreys however also revealed how the ANC pulled out all stops to demonise Dr Buthelezi and the IFP so that they could rule almost unopposed after the first democratic elections.

[66]A similar scenario transpired on January 9, 2011 when intercessors were called to pray for the referendum in South Sudan. More than 98% voted for secession, a result so clear that the North could not doubt or contest it in any way.

[67] From May 1521 until March 1522, Martin Luther stayed at the Wartburg castle, after he had been taken there for his safety at the request of Frederick, the Wise, following his ex-communication by Pope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms. It was during this period that Luther, under the pseudonym Junker Jörg (the Knight Jörg), translated the ‘New Testament’ into German.

[68]The First Intifada (1987–1993) was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in a refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

[69] I trust that I have shown conclusively that this is the case in the manuscript The spiritual Parents of Islam, which could be accessed on our blog.

[70] A serious flaw of the booklet is in my view that Billheimer assigned too much authority to satan.

[71]That was to change later de facto, when Dr Beyers Naudé, our leader, preferred imprisonment to a monitory fine because he would not testify to the biased government-appointed Schlebush commission of enquiry into the funding of the CI.

[72]A fuller version of these experiences our story is called (In)voluntary Exile, accessible on our internet blog.

[73] The government of the day allowed us to live in the country for six months as a family of four pypersto assist my late sister's family. She had been suffering from leukaemia, passing away in December 1980. During this period I taught at Mount View Senior Secondary School in Hanover Park.

[74] I do not want to minimize the political efforts, e.g. by the moves behind the scenes sponsored by the Swiss government or by Dr van Zyl Slabbert’s IDASA, but I nevertheless assert that it was ultimately the concerted prayer that made the difference.

[75] After substantial research into missionary work to these groups, I deemed it appropriate to dub outreach to Jews and Muslims neglected 'Cinderella's' of evangelism and missionary work.

[76] A fuller version of how this transpired is recorded in Seeds sown for Revival and in Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape. Both titles can be accessed on our internet blog >.

[77] Later it was called the Belydende Kring.

[78]Some of these Christians have been working alongside Muslim background followers of Jesus here at the Cape and elsewhere and who who have been discipling some of them - in certain cases over a lengthy period of time.

[79]Some enmity did develop over the centuries though, as the prophet Isaiah attested to seventeen hundred years later.

[80] The background of the following can be accessed at www. isaacandishmael.blogspot.com

Isaac and Ishmael

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Unity of the Body of Christ – what sort of Priority? (Part 2)