1989 issue 2 - beyond the rivers of ethiopia - counsel of chalcedon

8/12/2019 1989 Issue 2 - Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia - Counsel of Chalcedon

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evondthe Rivers of thiopia

S'outh Africa and America

in

Biblical Prophecy

Zephaniah 3:8-10

by

Joe Morecraft, i l l

" 'Therefore, wait for me,' dectares

the Lord, 'For the day when I rise up to

the prey. Indeed, My decision

is

to

gather nations, to assemble kingdoms,

to pour out on them My indignation,

all My burning anger; for all the earth

will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.

For then I will give to the peoples puri

fied lips, that all

of

them may call on

the name of the Lord, to serve Him

shOulder to shoulder. From beyond the

rivers

of

Ethiopia My worshipers, My

dispersed ones, will bring My offer

ings.'"

The Gospel

of

Judgment

and

Restoration

Zephaniah is a book so pertinent to

the age in which we live. t can be

divided into three sections: (1).

(1: 1

2:3) Look within Judgment

is

com

ing to the church God promises .swift

and terrible judgment

to

his covenant

people because they rebelled. They

would not give heed to the warning of

the prophets. (2). (2:4-3:8) Look

around Judgment

is

coming

to

all

nations Judgment begins in the

house

of

the Lord, but it does not stop there.

Nations in rebellion against God will,

sooner or later, feel the bite

of

God's

judgment, unless they repent. (3). (3:9-

20) Look ahead Restoration is com

ing to the church Having looked with

in

to

examine our own hearts to see

why judgment

is

coming to the church,

having looked around

to

see how God is

going to bring judgment on the na

tions, now look to the future, on the

other side

of

udgment,

to

see

the

restor

ation and salvation coming for the peo

ple of God universally.

f

we were to summarize Zephaniah's

message simply, it

would be

this: The

church is to wait for judgment

because

that judgment

will

bring her

restoration. . The church

of

Jesus Christ, that lives in

an

oppres

sive; anti-Christian culture, must wait

for God's judgment to fall on that cul

ture, because when

it

falls, it will bring

the church redemption, restoration and

exaltation.

This

is

a message that is sounded

throughout the Bible: Judgment ,

brings restoration. We see it also

in. Exodus. God judged Egypt severely.

Why? Not simply because it deserved

it, but to destroy its power so that

Israel might be redeemed and restored.

In Jeremiah, we see time and again that

God judges nations to purify and restore

his people. Divine judgment does bring

the restoration

of

the church. How does

God save his people from their. ene

mies? Not by rapturing them out of the

midst of their enemies, but by destroy

ing their enemies. That is why Zepha

niah says: God will judge apostasy in

the church. God will judge rebellion

against him in the world's nations. He

will do so, because

as

he brings that

judgment, it will sift, test, purify and

. bum aw;ty. Its objective

is

the restora.

Because Zephaniah believes in ultimate

victory, he does not believe that

the

destructive effects

of

judgment are the

last

word. He believes God will judge

the nations

to

give his people victory.

Zephaniah also takes care that God's

people understand the full pucture. He

tells. them: Don't think lightly of

judgment. Don't think that because you

will have

vi


2/6

The Purification o

the Nations (Zeph. 3:8-9)

Zephaniah

3:8 is

a summary

of

the

previous two and a half chapters, which

vividly declare that God will judge the

world's nations. That

is

not a figurative

or mythological statement.

It

is fact.

God does judge actual nations, (Jer. 46-

51). When God judges a nation, you

can take pictures of it, you can see it,

you can watch it, you can feel it.

Its

descriptions appear on the front page of

your newspaper. God's judgment

is

a

very literal, historical thing, because

man's rebellion against God is a very

literal, historical thing. But remember

that the final message of Zephaniah

is

not destructive judgment, it

is

redemp

tive judgment. Beginning in 3:9, Zepha

niah tells

us

about this redemption:

"For then ... (When? When God

brings judgment)

..

, I will give to the

people purified lips that all of them

may call upon the name of the Lord t

serve him shoulder

to

shoulder."

Here the Lord says that through judg

ment he will purify the lips

of

his peo

ple in those nations he judges. What are

purified lips? The lips are the instru

ment through which we express the

thoughts, inclinations, intentions, and

desires of the heart. So that, if a person

has

purified lips, it means his heart

has

beeen purified and cleansed

of

depravity

by the regenerative work

of

God. In the

context purified lips means hearts puri

fied from idolatry. When anation, such

as

Judah or

the

United States, changes

gods, turning from the true God, who

is

the fountain of living water, to false

gods, who

are

broken cisterns which

can hold

no

water, that nation needs

its

lips and heart purified. There is coming

a day when God will judge the nations,

and purge those nations of the impurity

of their idolatry so they will worship

and serve the living and true God, the

Father of Jesus Christ.

Notice something very practical here

in verse nine: "For then I will give to

the peoples purified lips that all of

them may call upon the name of the

Lord." Notice the order in this verse. t

does not say If the people call upon

the name of the Lord, the Lord will

purify their hearts." Do you see where

the initiative is? The initiative is not

with man. God does not wait for man

to act, and then respond t that prior

human act. Man, dead in his sins, can

do nothing to please God or to initiate

the bestowal of God's mercy. No man,

no woman, no child, in and

of

himself,

according to his own impulses and emo

tional states, has ever,

in

his own

strength, called upon the name

of

the

Lord, until, first, God purified his lips.

The only way that anybody can worship

and serve the true God is for there

t

be

a prior work

of

God's sovereign, omni

potent grace changing that person's

heart. Until your heart has been purified

by God, you have never worshiped him.

So here we see the great promise that

God is not going to wait for sinful

man. In grace and mercy God takes the

initiative and says: "I will come to the

nations. I will exert my sovereign omni

potence in the hearts of the inhabitants

of those nations; and I will purify their

lips so that these nations, who once

worshiped idols, will now worship

Me."

The Geographical extent

o

the Work o God (Zeph. 3:10)

God's great work of judging and puri

fying nations will extend to the most

remote parts

of

the earth. "From beyond

the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers,

My dispersed ones, will bring my offer

ings," (3:10). The most remote of the

earth's nations will

be

purified. Ethio

pia was remote to Judah. Beyond Ethio

pia was even more remote and more ob

scure. God will cause nations from the

four comers of the earth to worship him

in

Christ.

Isaiah says the same thing this way:

"For I know their works and their

thoughts; the time

is

coming to gather

all nations and tongues. And they shall

come and see My glory. And I will set

a sign among them and will send

surviviors from them to the nations:

Tarshish, Put, Lud, Mashech, Rosh,

Tubal, and Javan, to the distant coast

lands that have neither heard My fame

nor seen My glory. And they will de

clare My glory among the nations,"

(66:18-19). Jonathan Edwards,

in

his

book, The History

o

Redemption pre-

The Counsel of Chalcedon, February-March, 1989

sents a convincing case that this phrase

"the distant coastlands" beyond Tar

shish, Spain refers to lands t the West

of Tarshish, i.e., America. Here is a pro

phecy that the gospel will move west

ward from Jerusalem, through Europe

to Tarshish, and beyond Tarshish to

lands to the west of Europe, and from

there, i.e., America, to the whole

world. Here we have Isaiah stretching

the imagination of God's people: this

judging-purifying

of

nations, this gos

pel-transformation of the hearts of the

world's peoples extends westward to the

"distant coastlands" and then to the

whole world.

Zephaniah continues to stretch the

imaginations of the people of Judah by

saying that this transforming of the

hearts and nations

of

men by the gospel

will extend not only westward, but

southward, "beyond the rivers of Ethio

pia." What is beyond the rivers of Ethio

pia? Southern Africa

As

the work of

God moves westward and southward

from Jerusalem, nation after nation will

be Christianized, and these nations, for

merly idolatrous, will worship and

serve God in Christ. These nations be

yond the rivers

of

Ethiopia will serve

the Lord "shoulder to shoulder," i.e., as

one man,

as

one mighty army standing

in the service

of

Almighty God. What a

tremendous promise

The Results o

God s Purification

o Nations (Zeph. 3:11-13)

What will be the results of this puri

fying work of God on the nations? The

answer is found in Zephaniah 3:11-13 -

- No more shame and guilt caused by

rebellion, apostasy and idolatry; No arro

gance, (relatively not totally),

in

these

nations, viz. white or black supremacy,

etc., dominating their national lives.

Nations are proud of themselves, of

their resources, their make-up, their im

portance, their accomplishments. And

that national pride that exalts a man to

godlike levels, (and which causes na

tions

to

fall), God will blot out. The

great hallmark of purified nations

is

humility. Notice verse

12:

"But I will

leave among you a humble and lowly

people, and they will take refuge

in

the


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name

of

the Lord. A humble people is

a people that has been tried, broken,

humbled, forgiven. They recognize

themselves for what they are. They

understand the depravity of human

nature and the need for salvation in

hrist

They understand that they are

utterly dependent upon the mercy

of

God for life, breath, salvation and the

future. They have experienced the judg

ment

of

God for their sins and they

have experienced the purifying effects

of

the gospel of Christ. They know that,

if

it

were not for the mercy

of

God,

they would be hopelessly lost, for all

their righteousness

is as filthy rags.

That is a humble natio11.

We may ask the question: Why does

God use something so harsh. and so

severe

s

judgment to make nations

. Christian?

Why

isn't God a little softer?

Why doesn't he use nice, soft, sweet

things. to transform and purify nations?

John Calvin gives the answer: The

church is subdued

by

the cross that she

may know her pride which is so innate

and so fixed in the hearts

of

men that

it

cannot be removed except the Lord root

. it out by force. There is then no wonder

that the faithful are so much humbled

by the Lord and that the lot

of

the

church is so contemptible at times; for

it they had more vigor they would

soon,

as

is often the case, break out

into an insolent, proud spirit. That the

Lord then may k ~ p his elect under

restraint; he subdues and tames them

by

poverty. In short, he exercises them

under the cross. We hence see for what

purpose God deprives

us of

earthly trust

and takes away from us every ground of

glorying; it is that we may rely only

on

his mercy. Men do not profit under

God's scourges, except they wholly

deny themselves and forget their own ,

power, which they falsely imagine, and

rest upon him alone.''

When God purifies a nation, he

breaks its pride--he humbles it and

make it recognize its total dependence

upon Him and His Covenant. Only

then is a nation secure. Regardless of

its military strength, a nation is secure

from its enemies only when

it

is hum

bled under the mighty hand of God, and

when its heart is open and vulnerable to

the redemptive judgment of God, that

purifies and cleanses and transforms.

The Purification and

Humbling of South Africa

Here are some examples of how

God's judgment humbles in South

fri-

ca. In that country I visited two cities

that were centered around statues of

their heroes. One city was Potchef

stroom, which has a statue in a park in

British Empire. What does this statue

of Kruger 1ook like? Does he stand

there, big, robust man that he was,

looking proudly and defiantly into the

eyes of God and of man? No. It is a

massive statue of a massive man in his

top hat and presidential regalia, bent

over, with his face in gentleness and

humility, looking down to the earth.

Juc;Igment breaks, humbles, purifies. It

takes away self-esteem and self-con-

Anne Morecraft stands in front of President Paul Kruger's

statue in Church Square

in Pretoria, South Africa.

the middle

of

the city.

t

is the statue

of

a man named du Toit, who

was

a godly

Calvinist and who translated the He

brew Psalms into Afrikaan for singing.

He was a great and beloved Christ-cen

tered poet, theologian and scholar. How

does this statue portray du Toit? Does

he stand there with head held high? No.

The statue portrays him

as

a humble

man, crouched, looking down to the

earth--humbled under a mighty God, and

yet one of the most influential and

most loved men in South Africa.

The other statue is in Pretoria, the

capital

of South Africa. In the middle

of

Pretoria is a square, and in the middle of

the square

is

a massive, larger-than-life

statue of Paul Kruger, president of the

Republic of South Africa (Transvaal)

during the Boer

War

at the tum

of

the

century. President Kruger was the most

godly head

of

state

of

any modem na

tion. He was a beloved and a powerful

man, who, even in defeat, humbled the

fidence, and makes a man or a nation

trust

in

God alone.

The Future of Nations

Humbled by God

(Zeph. 3:14-20)

Zephaniah 3:14-20 depicts the

glorious future that awaits the nations

purified and humbled

by

God in Christ.

It

is a future

of

joy, forgiveness, vic

tory, absence

of

terror, restoration of

national fortunes, prosperity, security

and international exaltation.

The Lord has taken away His

judgment against you, He has cleared

away your enemies, the king of Israel,

the Lord is in your midst, a victorious

warrior. He will exult over you with

joy, He will

be

quiet in

his

love, He

will rejoice over you with shouts

of

joy.'' (3:15-17)

Here

is

the reason for Israel's restored

security and blessing: Jehovah dwells

(Continued on page 33

P a g e ~ ~

The Counsel of Chalcedon, February-March,

1989


4/6

Rivers of Ethiopia

Continued from page 44

in the

midst of his people. The mighty

King, the victorious Warrior,

the

Fountain of all blessing, the loving

Husband of the church

is

with his

dearly beloved church; and as long as

He

is

with us, it does not matter who

rises up against us. t doesn't even

matter if the whole world is against us,

i

God

is

for us

l.n

Christ It doesn't

matter

how

little one's strength and

energy are

if

God

is

for

us

no one can

terrorize us, because Jehovah-Jesus

is

our protector and our love, who loves

us

deeply, so very deeply.

In verse seventeen

we

are told that

God loudly demonstrates

his

love, re

joices in it, and declares it to the world:

I love My people with whom I dwell.

Then, notice the profound sentence: He

will be quiet in his love. The Lord not

only joyfully demonstrates his love for

his

people, but He will also be silent in

his

love for

us.

What

is

silent love? It

is love deeply felt, love which is so

absorbed in that which it loves that it

is

all wrapped up in thought and

in

adora

tion. And

so

we not only have a pic

ture of a triumphant king and warrior

4welling in the midst of his people, de

fending and ruling them, but we have

the

picture of a loving husband, who

bums with love for his bride, who is

absorbed in her love, lost

in

his love

for her and her love for him, at the

same time loudly declaring that love to

everybody. What a moving picure of

the protecting, satisfying, love of the

divine Bridegroom and

his

human Bride.

The Vision and Mission

of the Church

This is a great passage of Scripture

with so many practical applications for

our lives today. There

is

hope in this

passage. There is a vision of a future,

and of a nation, once

in

rebellion, once

defiant against God, now humbled by

God by judgment. Through that judg

ment it has been brought to repentance

and humility before God with forgive

ness and restoration. That vision of

hope of the conversion and humbling of

nations that are presently anti-Chris-

tian, apostate or backslidden, that are

now humanistic, Islamic, Hindu,

Buddhist, Marxist, etc.,

is

a glorious vi

sion which must also be the goal and

mission of the church of Jesus Christ.

God has promised that the nations now

in rebellion he will judge in order to

restore them

to

humility before Him.

Now, take that hope, that vision, and

do not rest until every nation has been

brought to submission to Jesus Christ.

Allow that great vision of the future to

be your program, your strategy, your

goal, your mission,

as

a church and

as

individuals. Never rest

in

pressing the

claims of Christ upon the consciences

of men until men and nations through

out the world have been humbled by

providence and the gospel, and brought

to saving faith in Christ. As you make

that your mission, make sure that all

your strategies, tactics and methods of

reaching that goal of a worldwide hum

bling of nations, are based totally upon

the Word of God. Do not be naive

enough to think that the nations will

bow because of your efforts or your

sincerity or your persuasiveness. Re

member that before a nation can call

upon the name of the Lord, the Lord

must purify it. Therefore,

as

we pro

claim the word of God,

as

we actively

wait for God's judgment to fall

pray

that God would touch the hearts of men

and women in ways we cannot, and that

he would use that judgment, and the

gospel, to change their lives.

The Purifying, Humbling

Judgment of America

Therefore,

as

judgment continues to

come

to

America with increasing severi

ty, understand, although its fruit will be

the restoration of God's people, it will

not

be

a party. It will not be fun. It

will be a time

of

darkness and gloom.

But, lest we give up hope, lest we grow

weary in well-doing, lest we grow to

despair, do not every forget what the

purpose of judgment is: When God

judges America it will be to

humble her, to purify her, to

restore her,

and

to exalt her

among the nations.

Throughout all our coming experi

ence of judgment, earnestly pray for

the return of the presence of

God to America. We have no future

unless this great victorious King, this

unconquerable Warrior, this loving, for

giving Husband returns to his people.

Those nations have no future unless

God judges them, clears the ground,

makes it holy ground, where he can

come to live. Pray that Jehovah-Jesus

would return to these distant coast

lands, because when He comes back to

his churches, when

e

comes back to

those cultures that have turned from

him, those churches and those cultures

begin

to

blossom and flourish again.

The Responsibility of

Western

Christians toward

South Africa

Since the gospel is going to be

triumphant in the regions beyond the

rivers

of

Ethiopia, the church in the

West must understand the role South

AFrica has played and has yet to play in

the glorious plan of God. God has great

things in store for the region beyond

the rivers of Ethiopia.

Southern Africa has experienced and

is experiencing the purifying, humbling

judgment of God. It has been under

severe judgment for a long time. Study

Angola, Zambia, Zaire, SW Afri

caiN amibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mo

zambique and see that nations like An-

gola, Zambia, Zaire, Zimbabwe, and

Mozambique were once thriving na

tions. Angola is the richest piece of real

estate in the world. Now all these na

tions are economic basket-cases, and

most of them are ripped about in civil

war, because of their totalitarian, pre

dominantly Marxist, governments.

Now in utter poverty, these nations are

not even a part of the third world any

more. They are not developing nations.

They are crushed nations, under the

thumb of socialism, Marxism, Lenin

ism. They all have dictatorships, who

look to the USSR for direction and

support. They are all starving. And the

governments of these nations are fierce

ly persecuting the church of Jesus

Christ.

These nations are under the judgment

of God and will continue to

be

until

God purifies their lips, and they repent


Page33


5/6

and

tum

to Christ

as

nations. Praise

God Judgment brings victory for righ

teousness and for the church. And, by

every sign, God is going to bring a

great victory in southern Africa some

day, when Angolans, Zimbabweans,

Mozambiquans, etc. will worship and

serve God in Christ.

South Africa has suffered heavy judg

ment for many years and in many ways.

For generations the Afrikaaner8, i.e.,

pioneer settlers

of

German, Dutch, and

French Hugenot descent, who went to

South Africa to build a culture upon the

principles of the Protestant Reforma

tion and the Reformed Faith, have been

harassed and persecuted by British Im

perialism. In the middle and later

1830's, the Afrikaaners, living peace

ably in and around the Cape

of

Africa,

were forced by arrogant British Imperial

ism to leave their farms and wineries

and move inland, where they could be

free to live by the Word of God. Some

14,000 trekked into the interior to build

the Christian nations of the Transvaal

and the Orange Free State, where there

quirement for citizenship was, at one

time, subscription to the Canons of

Dordt, i.e., the five points

of

Calvin

ism. In order to establish these nations,

they had to fight the mighty imperial

istic Zulu nation, which had by the late

1830's slaughtered two million blacks

in their quest for domination over

others. Many. hundreds of Afrikaaners

were slaughtered by the Zulus.

After God's deliverance from the

Zulus, at tbe end

of

the Nineteenth

Century and the beginning of the

Twentieth, the Afrikaaners had to face

again greedy and blood-thirsty British

Imperialism (Jingo{sm). In order

to

steal the diamond gold mining

industry' frorn the Afrik:aaners, Britain

sent 400,000 troops into the Transvaal

and the Orange :Free State, in the second

Boer War, against 70,000: Afrikaaner

boers (farmers). The war began in 1899,

and it was not until 1901-1902. that

Britain won the

W:ar.

They did it in a

shameful way, making Great Britain the

first modem nation to

use

concentration

camps to subdue another nation. Unable

to

defeat the courageous and tenacious

boers (Afrakaaner farmers), the British

allowed 30,000 innocent Afrikaaner

women and children

to

die of starvation

and disease in concentration camps.

That horror, along with the burning

of

the boer farms by the British, finally

broke the back of the Boer armies.

Thousands

of

Afrikaan men were sent

to prisoner of war camps all over the

world.

Throughout the history of South

Africa, blacks have slaughtered blacks,

from the Zulu conquests of the early

Becky Anne Morecraft with Dr.

Victor D'Assonville of Potchefstroom

University, standing in a British con

centration camp

In

Potchefstroom used

during the Boer Wa r. During

th t w r

30,000 Afrikaaner women children

died in British concentration camps

of

disease starvation.

1800's, leaving two million dead,

to

the

African National Congress today still

killing people by "necklacing" and

other forms of terrorism. Couple with

that the exploitation of black people by

white people, such

as

Cecil Rhodes,

Lord Milner, and pragmatic politicians,

who oppress all races, black and white,

by statism and petty apartheid.

Immoral, racist sanctions policies

of

the United States government cause

thousands of black people to lose jobs.

A slanderous media, world-wide embar

gos, Soviet manipulations, and com

munistic terrorism, combine to isolate

South Africa, in

an

attempt

to

destroy

her economy and her Christian base and

to drive her into the "evil empire" of

Communism through bloody revolu

tion.

Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia God s

judgment has been falling for

g e n e r ~

tions; and, wherever God's judgment

falls, there comes purification and restor

ation. And so, God

has

used and

is

using all

of

this throughout the years

as

his cleansing, humbling, transforming

judgment, driving his people in South

Africa to obey him, to repent, and

to

trust in him and

in

his word alone. He

has carved out in South Africa,

especially among the Afiikaaners, the

one remaining Christian (but imperfect)

culture in the modem world. t is far

from perfect, but it is far more Chris

tian than America. While

in

South

Africa, I lectured at several major

universities, all of which were either

predominantly or totally Christian uni

versities. Several time I was inter

viewed on prime time on SABC-TV

and Radio, the nation's only nation

wide TV and Radio stations, owned by

the

Government. In contrast

to

Ameri

can media, a large percentage of re

porters, broadcasters, etc. in South Afri

ca is distinctly Christian, so the inter

view

o

the nightly news had a speci

fically Christian tone and direction be

cause

of

the Christian sympathies

of

the interviewer.

In

S o ~ t h

Africa because of God's

humbling, plirifying judgment through

the years, there is a solid and large base

of people, both black and white, who

believe the Bible and who are devotees

of the worldview and theology of the

Protestant Reformation. This

is

an aca

demic and a grassroots foundation,

which

is

still in place after all these

years, however with some slippage.

That Reformed Christian base and

consensus in the United States have al

most disappeared.

Let me give several examples

of

the

grassroots Reformed Christians have.

(l)After I was interviewed on national

TV,

which millions of people saw,

as

I

traveled from city to city around South

Africa, people of all kinds, would come

up

to me in restaurants and stores, or

stop their cars along the street

as

I

was

walking along, to speak

to me

and

to

say how much they appreciated my.

statements on TV that the solution for

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6/6

South Africa lies in the thorough-going

reconstruction of every area

of

that

society by the word

of

God

to

the glory

of Jesus Christ. (2)The motto of South

Africa, inscribed on its currency

is

Soli

Deo Goria, i.e., Glory Be to God

Alone. Politicians, educators and media

personalities understand this Christian

emphasis

as

much

as

the average South

African. (3)The people of South Africa

feel a close affinity

to

former president,

Paul Kruger, a godly, calvinistic, head

of

state. I have seen parents take their

children

to

his statue in the center

of

Pretoria, and with tear-filled eyes,

remind them of their Reformed/Chris

tian heritage, which they must carry on

into the future. On that statue

of

Kruger

is

a quotation by Kruger in Dutch,

which paraphrased means - Our nation

shall always be governed

by

the eternal

principles

of

the word

of

God. (4

On

another occasion, I met a young judge

in

a restaurant in Potchefstroom. We

sat and talked, and

as we

chatted, he

made it clear that he believed the Bible

was

foundational to jurisprudence and

to

the administration of justice. (S)Later

that day I went into the Public Rela

tions Office

of

the same city

to

find

directions

to

a local museum. The PR

Officer greeted me, and

we

began a

conversation

in

which

he

told

me

that,

whereas there were many philosophies

offered

as

solutions to their problems,

the only principles and solutions that

would have any lasting effect were

those taken from the word

of

a

sovereign God. The point I am trying

to

make

is

this: in South Africa there

is

a massive core

of

people humbled and

purified by the judgment of God, who

long

to

see South Africa, and the

United States thoroughly reconstructed

by the Word and Spirit of God

in

the

direction and according

to

the worldview

of

the Protestant Reformation of the

Sixteenth Century.

There is some significant slippage

and spiritual decline. Some have for

gotten or neglected their heritage.

Others have caved in

to

the anti-Chris

tian influences

of

America and the

West. Others have

been

subverted

by

humanistic and Marxist thought. South

Africa

is

not what it ought

to

be, but

the base on whom to rebuild is still

there. Spiritual revival in the churches

is

needed, but revival appears to be on

its way. South Africa

is

in a better

position than any other nation on earth

to apply distinctively biblical solutions

to her complex problems; and, in fact,

it

is

only the applications

of

biblical

solutions that will solve her problems.

The encouraging thing is that more and

more black and white South Africans

are realizing this. They are beginning to

meet together in racially integrated

seminars and conferences

to

discuss

how the political institutions, the eco

nomy, the racial issues, problems con

nected with the family, etc., can be

dealt with exclusively and totally from

a biblical/Christian perspective.

Generations

of

experiencing God's

judgment is having its effect. And, you

and I have a Christian duty to our

South African brothers and sisters.

We

must pray for their spiritual revival and

their spiritual protection from Satan's

fiery missiles. We must pray that God

would continue to purify and humble

them, and us; that He would revive

powerful Bible preaching there, and

here; that He would give His churches a

renewed faith in the victory of Christ's

kingdom coupled with a renewed com

mitment

to

the Reformed Faith there,

and here; that the Christian people

would increase in number and in their

faith that the solutions

to

their, and

our, problems are found

in

the Word of

God; that God would protect this church

there, and here, from the corrupting,

anti-Christian influences of the West

and the revolutionary Marxism

of

the

East; that God would cause their poli

ticians and educators, and ours, to see

that the Bible does work in this modem

age, because it

is

the source

of

truth and

light, and that the politicians would not

succumb to the pressure of the insanity

of the U.S. Congress; that South Afri

can, and Americans, would find biblical

solutions to racial problems; that South

Africa would be restored in Christ; and

that you and I will see Zephaniah 3

come true

in

our lifefime; and that

beyond the rivers

of

Ethiopia, we


would see a Southern Africa purified

and humbled and restored, standing,

as

one man, in praise and honor of God in

Christ.

The reason South Africa should be in

our prayers constantly is not only be

cause

of

the pain and suffering Chris

tians are experiencing there, not simply

because the United States' security

is

dependent upon what happens in South

Africa; but, because of all the nations

of the world, as she experiences true

Christian Reconstruction, South Africa

can be the one nation that can lead the

West away from its suicidal humanism

into the bright light

of

a Christ-filled

future.

I conclude with the words

of

the

former head

of

state

of

South Africa in

the 1960's, Prime Minister Hendrik

Verwoerd:

Perhaps it was intended that

we, (South Africans), should have been

planted here in the crisis area, so that

from this resistance may emanate the

victory whereby all that has been built

up since the days of Christ may be

maintained for the good of all mankind.

We are here to hold the fort so that the

Western nations can regain their

strength and start anew the battle for

Christianity and for civilization.

0 God, we pray that you would not

only give the Christians

of

Southern

Africa the protection and the strength to

hold the fort, but to march on

to

vic

tory. e pray that you would give

them the strength to lead us,

if

we will

not lead. Father, send revival there.

Send revival here. May the West once

again rejoin the army of God. Rekindle

our strength. Help

us

fight for Chris

tianity and for Christian civilization

again. Purify our lips. Humble us.

Restore us. Cause Zephaniah 3 and

Isaiah 66 to come true in our lifetime,

we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

0

Page 35

1989 issue 2 - beyond the rivers of ethiopia - counsel of chalcedon

Documents