Be a Blessing to Nations

On Sunday March, 1 2015, I was down to leading our service at Living Hope with the usual welcome, bulletin announcements, a Scripture reading and an opening prayer.

We are reminded in 1 Corinthians 14:26 ~

26  How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

A doctrine was given pertaining to evangelism where we are called to be a blessing to nations; to every tribe and tongue and people group. The Scripture reading was done in three parts. First, Psalm 67 ~

1  To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 
2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. 
3  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 
4  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. 
5  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 
6  Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. 
7  God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

This Psalm has its roots in the covenant YEHOVAH (YHVH – God) made with Abram – later to be named Abraham, father of many nations, as secondly we read in Genesis 12:1-3 ~

1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 
3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Kindly note, God says in verse 2:

1. I will bless thee;
2. I will make thy name great; and
3. Thou shalt be a blessing.

And in verse 3, God says: “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

The Great Commission started in Genesis 12:1-3. The Great Commission is the Abrahamic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant is God’s unchanging purpose for this world. Thirdly, in Galatians 3:8, we read ~

8  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

The gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God, was already preached to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Today the Church has a misconception of what it is to be blessed. The Church tends to think that to be blessed of God is that the blessings come in possessions, material objects, lots of riches for one’s self and family. But the true blessing is that you have been blessed by being saved from God’s wrath and what you have is what God has given you to be a blessing to the nations, taking the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

In the Great Commission verses in Matthew 28:18-20 the word nations is the Greek word ethnos from which we get “ethnics”, which refers to races, tribes especially foreign, pagan, Gentile, heathen, people, nation.

Whilst currently studying Missiology and evangelism I had to do a 2 Corinthians 13:5 examination of myself and it was not a pleasant experience. I do suggest that each and every person examine themselves to see whether they are being truly obedient to God’s commands. Go into your homes and see the entertainment that is there. Leonard Ravenhill said, “Entertainment is the Devil’s substitution for joy.” Entertainment robs us of what we are supposed to be undertaking for the Kingdom of God. What do you watch on Hellevision? How are you a blessing with your time and resources to the unreached people groups of the world?

Are we Jonahs? – running from our commission, that is co-mission with God. Are we asleep in the bottom of the boat while the storm rages outside, a judgment upon the earth, as we read in Romans 1:18 ~

18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Or are we as Jonah oblivious to the raging storm directed at him/us? At times the Church too sleeps right through the storm of God’s judgment passing over the world assuring herself that the winds outside has nothing to do with her.

Here is the challenge – we going to hear about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 (sermon of the day). Are we individually and corporately going to leave a mark on this generation that people will be speaking of after we have passed on, should our Lord tarry? Leonard Ravenhill hits the nail on the head when he poses the following, not verbatim: We have 24 hours in a day – if we sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, what are we doing with the remaining 8 hours? Now put that in years. You live 60 years, 20 years you sleep, 20 years you work, what are you doing with the remaining 20 years?

I will end off with Thomas Carlisle’s poem “You! Jonah!”, which possibly sums up the tardiness of being a blessing to the nations, with these lines:

And Jonah stalked to his shaded seat
and waited for God to come around to his way of thinking.

And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs
in their comfortable houses to come around to His way of loving.

Soli Deo Gloria!

You can listen to the audio Here or by clicking the Internet Archive logo >>>

The notes above are not verbatim with the audio.

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Some wording from Kairos: God, the Church and the World, 4th Edition: Living Springs International.

15 Tishri ~ You Can Know the True Day of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Birth

We can truly know the correct day of the nativity of the God-man our Lord Jesus Christ, if Christians who hold to Sola Scriptura and who live by every Word of God will only read and trust the Scriptures as they say they always do.

Those who say they celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25 each year should go back and examine, study and search out the Scriptures that speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who exegete the Scriptures and know much historical accounts of the Word of God, choose to reject the historical evidence presented in God’s Word. To say God reveals every other detail of His story, but remains silent on the incarnation – the birth – of His only begotten Son is to be downright naive. The only possible reason that this might be the mindset of many Christians is that they do not wish to surrender their desire for the heathen day with all its pagan traditions. Too many people – family, friends, children and grandchildren are going to be affected by this change in their life. If there is no change, is this not going to be a compromising of the Word of God?

What we should realise is that daily Christians should be thankful for God coming to this world in the Person of His Son in order to redeem sinners to Himself. I do not think that any Christian denies the birth of our Saviour. It is just a matter of understanding when our Saviour was born into this world. In order to find out we should understand that our Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world still under the Jewish Levitical system and every detail revealed in Luke chapters 1 and 2 are of pertinent importance. Every Word is God breathed and has a real reason why God has revealed it in Scripture for our instruction and teaching and His clear revelation.

At any given time, we have at some time dealt with and made the complex calculations of the Daniel prophecy dealing with the 70th Week, without any problems it would seem, but when it comes to making the calculations surrounding the birth of our Saviour, Christians who are “Daniel experts” have found it a problem to tie up the information given to us to calculate the time of Christ’s birth, even saying we cannot be sure of His birth, but yet how can you then be sure of the complex Daniel prophecy? Is it not a choice to want to speak with authority on the Daniel prophecy, but neglect the birth of the Saviour out of a choice to be wilful ignorant holding to the “Christmas” tradition of man? Whilst some might look into dictionaries to find the meaning of “Christmas” or the “mas” portion of the word, we should in fact look to the very Word of God, examining the law and prophets, the historical events and the translations from the original Hebrew and Greek autographs, if possible. This will reveal the Truth; but we have the added benefit of Bible helps by being able to look into lexicons and concordances without being experts in the Hebrew and Greek tongues.

The Gospel of Luke is the foundation from where we can start our study leading to the calculation of when our Lord Jesus Christ was born. To start from the course of Abia (Abijah) cross referencing the Holy Scriptures to see that it was the eighth course according to 1 Chronicles 24:10 and that the Hebrew calendar was a 360-day lunar calendar that had 51 weeks (357 days) and that due to the priests appearing twice in the year according to the 24 courses of 1 Chronicles 24 plus the three festivals when all the males had to appear before the Lord in accordance with Deuteronomy 16:16, “in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles,” we end up with 51 weeks = one year. We also know that the feast of unleavened bread was on the fifteenth Nisan (Leviticus 23:5-8) and the feast of weeks (Shavuot/Pentecost – Leviticus 23:15,16) appear in the early part of the year, therefore the course of Abia (Abijah) would be in effect week ten (2+8) and the feast of tabernacles (Booths – Leviticus 23:33-43) would appear in the Hebrew seventh month starting fifteenth Tishri (i.e. September/October). We learn that after an angel appears to Zacharias in the temple confirming that his wife Elizabeth would conceive and the child to be born would be named John (the Baptist) (see Luke 1:13) we are also told that John would be a forerunner to the Messiah who “shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias” (Elijah) (see Luke 1:17). We are then told that:

Luke 1:23  And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. Luke 1:24  And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Luke 1:25  Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. Luke 1:26  And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, Luke 1:27  To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

So Elizabeth conceived, possibly after her monthly menstruation in accordance with Leviticus 15:19,25 which was after two weeks to comply with the purity laws which would then bring the conception of John to be in or about the 12th week of the year. If John was then born about thirty-nine weeks (nine months) later then John’s birth would take place at the Passover during or just after the fifty-first week (12+39=51). Also remember that Elizabeth’s cousin Mary also conceived in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. In Luke 1:31-36 we read:

Luke 1:31  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. Luke 1:32  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: Luke 1:33  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Luke 1:34  Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Luke 1:35  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:36  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

Therefore, from these calculations that there is a six month gap between the conception of John and the conception of our Lord Jesus Christ we know that six months would take us from the Hebrew month of Nisan (March/April) to the Hebrew month of Tishri (September/October). Therefore, if John the Baptist was born at the Passover (Nisan), the Son of Man Jesus Christ was born six months later at the feast of tabernacles (Tishri). But how do we confirm these two dates. Well we need to look at what Scripture tells us. Let God speak to confirm His mandate and revelation.

In Jewish tradition of celebrating the Passover here is an extensive quote from a book penned by writer titled The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which reads as follows:

The Jewish tradition during the Passover feast has a chair left open and a wine goblet set at Elijah’s place at the seder table each year awaiting his arrival.

The word seder is:

Hebrew for “set order”; the ritual Passover meal that is observed in specific order. (Christ in the Passover, Ceil & Moishe Rosen, Moody Publishers, Chicago, page 10 under definitions)

A quote from the book titled Christ in the Passover will also set out the setting of a traditional Jewish Passover seder table:

“Also at the seder table, beside each place setting are small wine goblets – small because four times they will be filled with sweet, red Passover wine during the seder. The custom of drinking four cups dates back to ancient Temple times. The Mishnah [Hebrew for the collection of oral law that forms the basis of the Talmud; compiled by Judah ha-Nasi (c. AD 135 to 220) – page 9 under definitions] teaches that, according to two authorities, Rabbi Yohanon and Rabbi Benayah, these four cups correspond to the four verbs in Exodus 6:6-7, describing God’s redemption: I will bring you out; I will free you; I will redeem you; I will take you to be My people.

“Two of the wine goblets at the table are usually larger and more ornate than the rest. They have silver, intricate pictures of the Bible history crafted into the metal. One of these goblets sits at the head of the table for the ruler of the feast; the other occupies a prominent place at the foot of the table, before an empty chair. It awaits the lips of Elijah, who, according to Malachi 4:5, is to announce the coming of the Messiah. The prophet is the invited guest of honor at every seder, for, should he come, it would indeed be the most festive of Passovers! The Messianic hope prevails more strongly at Passover than at any other time, for Midrashic tradition says: “Nisan is the month of redemption; in Nisan Israel was redeemed from Egypt; in Nisan Israel will again be redeemed” (Exodus Rabbah 15:12 Cf. chap. 6, 64-66) (Christ in the Passover, Ceil & Moishe Rosen, Moody Publishers, Chicago, pages 82-83)

More will be discussed later in this book under the Passover section dealing with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, during the Passover traditions, a child goes and opens the house door to see if Elijah has “arrived”, to accept the invitation to come inside and announce the coming of the Messiah, and as he is not outside the door, tradition has it that the Jewish Passover celebrators keep his place open awaiting the “arrival” possibly next year! This goes on year after year. Now let us read what Scripture says about John the Baptist coming in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). At the transfiguration of Christ, Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus and His disciples Peter, James and John. And this is recorded in Matthew 17:10-13 ~

10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already [see Matthew 11:14], and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. [See also Mark 9:10-13 and Luke 9:33]”

We also read about the account of our Lord Jesus Christ that also confirms why He was born at the feast of tabernacles. A very important Scripture that reveals the Word of God who was with God and who was God becomes flesh and “dwelt” on the earth as we read:

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Let us examine the word “dwelt” that appears in the Strong’s Complete Word Study Concordance as Greek word 4637 skēnoō, skay-no’-o; from 4636, to tent or encamp, i.e. (figurative) to occupy (as a mansion) or (special) to reside (as God did in the tabernacle of old, a symbol of protection and communion): – dwell. The Greek word 4636  skēnos, skay’-nos; from 4633; a hut or temporary residence, i.e. (figurative) the human body (as the abode of the spirit): – tabernacle. The first word skēnoō is the only time it appears in the New Testament. It is also a fact that when “a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed” (see Luke 2:1) took place it was at the time of the feast of tabernacles. For Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem for he was of the house and lineage of David (see Luke 2:4) and the place would have had also all the house of Israel to present themselves before the Lord in accordance with Deuteronomy 16:16 and as determined beforehand that our Lord would be born in the month of Tishri, there would have been an overcrowding where no place would be found in the inn. However, in accordance with the requirements of the feast of tabernacles, all Israelites were to dwell in booths as we read in Leviticus 23:39-43:

Lev 23:39  Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. Lev 23:40  And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. Lev 23:41  And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Lev 23:42  Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: Lev 23:43  That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

We therefore see that they stayed in a tabernacle – a booth for the duration of the feast as commanded by God, which then would dispel the notion of a stable, for the Holy Scriptures do not speak of a stable. The angels said the sign would be, as we read:

Luke 2:12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

There is nothing that dispels this sign, as in booths mangers were found. We read in the Strong’s Complete Word Study Concordance the Hebrew word 5521 sukkâh, sook-kaw’: feminine of 5520; a hut or lair – booth, cottage, covert, pavilion, tabernacle, tent. A feminine singular noun meaning a booth, a thicket. This term is used for temporary shelters used to cover animals (Ge 33:17); warriors (2Sa 11:11); and the prophet Jonah (Jnh 4:5). It is used poetically to refer to the clouds (Job 36:29; Ps 18:11[12]). A specialized usage is employed for booths constructed for the fall harvest festival (Le 23:42,43). The festival was known as the chag hassukkôwth (2282), the Feast of Booths (Dt 16:13,16). This was to remind the Israelites that they lived in booths when the Lord brought them up from Egypt (Le 23:43).

The feast of the tabernacle also fits with our Lord Jesus Christ being born on the first day, being fifteenth Tishri which was a Sabbath and He would have also been circumcised on the eighth day which was also a Sabbath. See also the significance that God rescued His people out of Egypt, a type of the world, and our Lord Jesus Christ was born at the festival to rescue sinners out of the world, too. Another quote from the text of The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ reads as follows:

If Jesus was born on the first day of Sukkot, “The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD” (Leviticus 23:34), then He would have been circumcised on the “eighth great day” a festival following Sukkot. Shemini Atseret (“Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly”) is a festival observed immediately after Sukkot (Tabernacles), i.e., on 22nd Tishri (i.e. the seventh month), as laid down in the Pentateuch: “On the eighth day you shall observe a holy occasion … it is a solemn gathering (Atseret); you shall not work at your occupations” (Lev. 23:36; cf. Num. 29:35). The term Atseret (lit. “concluding festival”) is also applied to the last day of Passover (Deut. 16:8) and, by the rabbis, to Shavu’Ot (RH 1:2; Shev. 1:1). This day was the original “Simchat Torah” (Rejoicing of the Law) {n. Judaism A festival celebrating the Law of Moses and the completion of the year’s cycle and subsequent new beginning, observed on the 22nd or 23rd day of Tishri (September/October) – which is now held the following day in Rabbinic Judaism. [Hebrew śimhat tôrâ, rejoicing in the Torah, Simchat Torah: śimhâ, joy (from śāmēah, to rejoice) + tôrâ, torah.]} (www.answers.com/topics/shemini-atseret).

For a moment stop and consider this, that our Lord Jesus Christ who as a growing boy would have celebrated all the feast days as His Father God Almighty had commanded in the Torah, and most specifically whilst appearing before the Lord at the feast of tabernacles, as all the males had to appear as commanded in the law, our Lord Jesus Christ would have celebrated the holy convocation of how God had delivered His people Israel out of Egypt (bondage). He most probably also heard the account from Joseph and His mother Mary of His first nativity, that He was born at one of the feast of tabernacles and He would most probably have heard how He was laid in a manger and that the shepherds had come to see this wonderful event (see Luke 2:8-14). The people present would have also known about the birth of the Saviour in and amongst them, for the shepherds – the first evangelists – went about broadcasting the news to those present (see Luke 2:15-20). As a young child, in a house, with His mother, later He would also have experienced the wise men from the east coming to worship Him and giving Him gifts (see Matthew 2:11). Our Lord Jesus Christ would have understood that He was the Saviour who was born into this world to redeem His people just as God had redeemed His people. There would have been great celebration to God in heaven by the people, whilst right in their very midst was the Saviour, the Messiah who, too, would redeem His people, Jew and Gentile, one day in the future with His own precious blood as a sacrifice and an atonement, when our Lord Jesus Christ would fulfil another feast celebration at the feast of Passover/unleavened bread. There would have been no “Christmas trees, boughs of holly or mistletoe” in His booth or any booth for that matter. There would have been no intention to celebrate as such, for God had not commanded these particular practices, and certainly there would be no fat-man with a white beard in a red-suit named Satan Claus making his rounds from booth to booth delivering gifts to those in attendance, for the attendees were celebrating and remembering their journey in the wilderness and how God delivered and kept them and lead them into the promised land. And our Lord Jesus Christ fulfiled the feast by delivering and keeping His people and leading them into heaven. Besides, the Jews would have known what the prophet Jeremiah had spoken about “Learn not the way of the heathen” (see Jeremiah 10:2).

You see, the a foregoing Scriptures and many others, confirm the true birth day of our Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no other way, for Christ knows when He was born. Therefore, how can man, Christian or heathen, say the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was on December 25th? Why would anyone remember and celebrate the birth of God’s Son on a day He has not commanded in Old and New Testaments. In fact, it is clear that God’s Word speaks of another day in which the anointed of God took on human form, as we read:

Galatians 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: Galatians 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, Galatians 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

In “the fulness of time” was at the feast of tabernacles, no other time. We are to be witnesses for Christ in this world sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are given a command how to remember our Lord Jesus Christ, by everyday, or as often as we partake in it, “this do in remembrance of me,” as we read:

Luke 22:19  And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Luke 22:20  Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

1Cor 11:23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 1Cor 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 1Cor 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 1Cor 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

Answer to Sandile ~ Part 2

Repent and Believe South Africa ministries presents:

Here is Part 2 dealing with another comment received from Sandile on May 30, 2013 in respect of a blog posted by us on December 16, 2011 titled “16th December The Day of The Vow” (please read first) that is being dealt with here explicitly, quote:

“you say a lot about the boers’ struggle, but I don’t see anything about the struggle of black people in this against the most evil system in the world which preached against the bible that the boers has when they first came in the country. I find your reporting here very bias as if the boers were God’s chosen people who were justified to kill and discriminate against other people. i only see you as a boer sympathiser more than being Christian.”

Dear Sandile

I refer you to my above reply (Part 1) to your comment and hereby also attach a short witnessing of my life during the so-called Apartheid days. Did you ever live through them? This is a comment I posted in another blog posting of mine:

The reason we preach the Gospel – The Good News – of Jesus Christ, is to warn all of the Judgment Day to come. Christians are commanded by God Almighty to go and preach the Gospel to all nations and teach them, making disciples (see Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15,16).

What I do remember about growing up in 1976 [I was 11½ years at the time], living in 3 Blesbok Street, Empangeni Rail, Empangeni in the heart of Zululand (Zoeloeland) was being non-racist in an otherwise racist nation. I was soccer crazy (idolatrise) who spend my time playing with an older African boy, if my memory serves me correctly, whose name was ‘Blessing’ (16) and who was our neighbour across the street’s ‘garden-boy.’ We would live out our fantasy dream world of emulating our soccer heroes of that time, playing on a sand heap with two bricks as goalposts, a plastic ball and the shopping centre’s car-park as our very own arena; oblivious to the world around us. As I write this text I wonder where my dear friend ‘Blessing’ is today – it brings tears to my eyes and my heart is heavy as I would have loved to share the Gospel with him and possibly say thanks to my friend for those times of friendship in a mixed up world. I do remember playing soccer for Empangela Park and having some team mates and opponents of colour, traveling to places like Felixton, Durban, Amatikulu, Eshowe, Stanger, Mandini, KwaMbonambi, Hluluwe and Richard’s Bay for matches in the Zululand Junior League. It was not always easy for a young white English kid growing up in apartheid South Africa. I remember being ostracised and being labelled a ‘rooi-nek’ (red-neck – reference to colonial ‘pommie’ Englishman), ‘kaffir-boetie’ (vulgarity for a un-believer brother, the word kaffir comes from an Arabic word (kafir) used in Islam for unbeliever / infidel) and even being protected by my older sister from the older bigger Afrikaans bullies who lived on our street who wanted to beat me up for being a ‘rooi-nek’. It shows how mixed up and sinful the world was, because I recall even having some dear friends who were Afrikaans, too, like Freddie Du Plooy in Durban and Deon our neighbour in Empangeni.

I even remember befriending the Putco bus driver Derrick Buthelezi (we were told that he was the nephew of IFP Leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi), who was a kind man and used to drive the bus from the bus terminal around the block to our residence to drop my mother off with the monthly groceries from her shopping in the main town centre – yes, this was taking place in 1976 in apartheid South Africa, in the heart of Zululand north of the Tugela River.

And now as a parent myself of a 16 year old son, he has Coloured and African friends and the children of today get on well together, but one day I am concerned that he will be maligned by not being equal whilst searching for a job, because he happens to be of the “wrong colour.” The politicians have written this into law, but we know God is Greater than man’s evil and wicked ways.

Irrespective of one’s background, I am thankful that God was already working in my sinful life back in 1976 and now by His grace I preach the Truth for Colossians 1:28 is the reason:

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

Answer to Sandile ~ Part 1

The Repent and Believe South Africa ministries have received some comments from time to time from visitors to this blog and we occasionally deal with some of their comments specifically as a blog posting.

Here is a comment received from Sandile on May 29, 2013 in respect of a blog posted by us on December 16, 2011 titled “16th December The Day of The Vow” (please read first) that is being dealt with here explicitly, quote:

“what a load of rubbish !! if the Boers were Christians as you claim, why didn’t they turn another cheek like Jesus said ? are you trying to say that Apartheid was God’s punishment for Africans ? and if the British were against God, why were the Boers defeated ? the reason the Zulus were defeated is because they did not have guns like the British. your commentary is about this topic is very offensive to Christianity, especially that you seem to be convinced that God was on the Boers side and not that of the Africans. was hendrick verwoerd chosen by God to be the president of the country ? you made Mr. Mandela as the terrorist, what about eugene terreblanche, clive derby-lewis,etc.”

Here is the response by the Repent and Believe South Africa ministries:

Dear Sandile

It appears that you have missed the point of this post, and it does appear that you have made your response one clouded in racism. It also appears that you cannot see or understand that this posting is also one of historical events that took place in our South African history. The author of the post was not me, but a person named “Deirdre Fields.” Your accusations are not founded! From historical sources it can be found out that these events did take place, whether you believe them or not. Many historians have recorded these events that unfolded during that time of what we have come to learn and understand to be a part of our South African history.

What you also fail to understand is that many of the Afrikaner boers of Dutch decent were of “reformed-theology” which brought about the Dutch Reformed Church that spread from the Cape Colony. Not the Dutch Reformed Church of the Apartheid era. They were part of the reformation that took place in Europe. Even to this day, if you want to put a political twist to these people, the Dutch of the Netherlands are renowned for being very liberal and far from racist! These Dutch descended peoples of European origin were mostly God-fearing Christians, some fleeing the persecutions in Europe – including the Huguenots who were French Protestants forced to flee France due to religious persecution and settled at the Cape of Good Hope from “1688 to 1689 and for a further three quarters of a century.” “It is interesting that the first Huguenot to set foot at Table Bay was Maria de la Quellerie, the wife of commander Jan van Riebeeck.” [History of the Huguenots in South Africa www.hugenoot.org.za/histSA.htm]. What you have failed to grasp is that when Jan van Riebeeck, a God-fearing man of Dutch descent was commanded by the VOC to come and establish a replenishment station and build a Fort (the Castle) at the Kaap de Goede Hoop (Cape of Good Hope) and landed here on 4th April 1652, it was the advent of bringing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to these Southern African shores. Prior to these colonialists arriving no Holy Scriptures were found here. Even the local Khoikhoi (Hottentots) were educated by these men that brought with them the Holy Bible. In fact in 1883 Zulus received a complete Bible in their mother tongue for the first time (see the end part hereafter dealing with African translations of the Bible). Apartheid never came to Southern Africa when Jan van Riebeeck landed at the Cape. Apartheid was a political policy in the twentieth century. In fact historians record that Jan van Riebeeck was against slavery in the seventeenth century!

You make reference almost immediately about Apartheid in your third sentence when the posting was not about Apartheid nor about politics, but remembrance of the Day of the Vow – December 16 – it shows the direction in which you wanted to respond! If the ANC wants to keep people in bondage perpetually remembering the past, especially days like June 16, why can Afrikaners (incidentally I am an African rooinek) also not remember a day in their Heritage? You need to understand that I have not advocated the practice of Apartheid as it was a practice that was inhumane, especially when treating humans created in God’s image as lesser beings, but if you knew anything about South African history you would realise that the term Apartheid was introduced during the 1948 election campaign by D. F. Malan’s Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP – ‘Reunited National Party’). The two events are poles apart when you look at the people concerned at each time in history. However, I do believe that Nationalist Apartheid came about because of the wickedness of men’s hearts, just as we still have evil and wickedness in the present ANC-led government. During the dark days of Apartheid the NP-led government used the church as a vehicle to further their agenda, just as in the dark days of the present reverse-Apartheid ANC-led government uses communist ideals and interfaith religion to exclude the Holiness of God’s commands to further their agenda.

I am now a born-again disciple of Jesus Christ first and foremost living with a hope in Him, but there was a time when in my sin I was a reprobate white African born in Africa. If you are younger than 48 years of age then I would suppose I am more African than you for I was born in Africa and that makes me an African. Have you never read what God says in His Word when the Apostle Paul was preaching to the Greeks as he stood atop Mars Hill in Athens in Act 17:26 ~

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

It was at that time in history when God brought the Dutch to Southern Africa, and if they would appear to be more God-fearing in their making a Covenant with their Creator than the local tribes who from historical accounts were the perpetrators at Blood River, who are you to judge O man? Whilst the Afrikaans-speaking pioneers were  persecuted and decided to leave the Cape Colony which was under British rule at the time as they wished to retain their religion, identity and customs, they soon found out that the persecutions would still follow them after leaving and on their travels as Voortrekkers into the hinterland, new challengers awaited them!  Another point you also seem to miss is that many of the African tribes that we have come to know as South Africans were of Nguni descent in origin and were never truly natives (persons of origin before you call this racist) of South Africa. They came from the central African regions, so that makes them also colonialists.

What I need to remind you from the Holy Scriptures is that whenever God’s chosen people rebelled against Him and turned and served other gods and idols in their promised land, God would hand His very own people known as the ‘children of Israel’ over to the very enemies of them even to oppress them or kill them. God’s ways are His ways, and His ways always bring glory to Himself. Maybe you should read Judges 10:6-18 ~

Judges 10:6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.

Judges 10:7 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

Judges 10:8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

Judges 10:9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

Judges 10:10 And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

Judges 10:11 And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

Judges 10:12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

Judges 10:13 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.

Judges 10:14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.

Judges 10:15 And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.

Judges 10:16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

Judges 10:17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

Judges 10:18 And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

I would suggest that you should stop looking at things from a racist worldview perspective, and get rid of that un-forgiveness in your heart. And sir, no I did not make Mr Nelson Mandela a terrorist – he chose to be a terrorist by taking up the arms struggle, giving orders to bomb soft targets (civilians), by propagating communist Marxism / Stalinism ideologies and enacting laws that hate Almighty God by saying homosexuality is okay, abortion is fine and idol worship through religious practices is right!

Maybe also read up on how the translations of the Bible came about for the African brethren – mostly by white colonialists:

• Sotho (South Africa) – Samuel Rolland (1801-1873), first missionary of the Paris Missionary Society, translated some parts of the New Testament and several hymns into Sotho language in the 1840s. Today there are Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho versions. [Robert C. Germond Chronicles of Basutoland 1967 “Samuel Rolland – Born at Pierrefontaine (Doubs), on 13th May, 1801. Died at Hermon (Basutoland), on 18th January, 1873. With Prosper Lemue and Bisseux, Roland belonged to the first team of missionaries sent to South Africa by the mission.”]
• Xhosa (South Africa) – Henry Hare Dugmore, a Methodist, translated into Xhosa language. Tiyo Soga (1829-1871) was ordained the first African Presbyterian minister in 1856 and also translated. Translation John (uYohane) 3:16 Bible Society of South Africa (1975) Kuba wenjenje uThixo ukulithanda kwakhe ihlabathi, ude wancama uNyana wakhe okuphela kwamzeleyo, ukuze bonke abakholwayo kuye bangatshabalali, koko babe nobomi obungunaphakade.
• Zulu (South Africa) – In 1837, the first portions of the Bible in the Zulu language were published, in the “First Book for Readers” portions of Genesis and two Psalms were published. The first book of the Bible to be translated into Zulu language, was Matthew’s Gospel, published in 1848 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). This was translated by George Champion (missionary), and revised by Newton Adams. The complete New Testament was published in 1865, translated by a several missionaries of the ABCFM. And the complete Bible, translated also by many members of ABCFM, and corrected by Andrew Abraham, and finally edited by S. C. Pixley was published in 1883. [Faith and Narrative by Keith E. Yandell, pg. 27][The Zulu Yesterday and To-day: Twenty-nine Years in South Africa by Gertrude Rachel Hance, pg. 45] It was revised in 1959, and published in London by the British and Foreign Bible Society. A Modern Zulu New Testament, and as the Psalms was completed in 1986 and published in Cape Town by the Bible Society of South Africa. This was translated by Dean Nils Joëlson, and project co-ordinated by, Mr. D. T. Maseko and Mr. K. Magubane. John William Colenso and Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder are also said to have worked on Zulu Bible translation. Translation John 3:16 (American Bible Society, 1883) uTixo wa li tanda izwe kangaka, wa nika iNdodana yake e zelwe yodwa, ukuba bonke aba kolwa iyo ba nga bubi, ba be nokupila okupakade.

My intentions were not to make a posting of a political nature, so stop making it one. Ukupenduka!

_________________

Source: Bible translations into the languages of Africa, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations

Psalm 33

There is no other God, but the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob who is the One and Only Living God our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.

2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.

5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

1965 PROPHECY by Stanley Frodsham

I received a typed letter in the post (a practice from the old school) from a dear Brother-in-Christ named Peter Macgregor dated January 2013 wherein he enclosed a copy of this prophecy! Take heed of this prophecy lest you be deceived in these end days!

STANLEY FRODSHAM (1882-1969)

[Biography by Keith Malcomson]

Given by the Lord through Stanley Frodsham in 1965 at Elim Bible Institute: “COMING DECEPTION”

Stanley Frodsham

“ With great judgments will I plead with the population of this country. Great darkness is coming upon the countries that have heard my gospel but no longer walk in it. My wrath shall come upon them. The darkness shall be so great, and the anguish so sore that men will cry out for death and shall not find it. There shall be a lingering death, famine, and great catastrophes.

My wrath shall be manifested against all ungodliness. It shall come with great intensity. You have known My love but have not known My wrath, My severity. My judgments are literal and not a thing to be lightly passed over. Realize the severity of My judgments and My intense anger against the sin in My household. My judgments shall begin in My house. For I will cleanse My house that it be not partaker of My wrath against the iniquities of the cities. Before I visit the nations in judgement I will begin at My house. When I do cause My wrath to come upon the cities of the world My people shall be separate. I desire a people without spot or wrinkle, and such shall be preserved by Me in the time of My wrath coming upon all iniquity and unrighteousness.

I am going to prepare you for the coming days by a hard path that will cause you to cry out continually unto Me. For when the going is easy, men do not seek Me, but rejoice in a temporary blessing. And when that blessing is removed they so often turn this way and that way but do not come to Me. I am showing you these things that you may seek Me continually and with great diligence. As you seek Me, I will open up truths to you that you have not seen before; and these very truths will be that which will enable you to stand in these last days. As you are persecuted, reviled and rejected by your brethren then you will turn unto Me with all your heart and seek Me for that spiritual life you have need of. And when tribulation comes you will have that which will enable you to stand. For many shall be tossed to and fro. Men’s hearts shall fail them because of trouble on every hand. For these days shall be very terrible, the like of which has never been seen before.

When I visit My people in mighty revival power, it is to prepare them for the darkness ahead. With the glory shall come great darkness, for the glory is to prepare My people for the darkness. I will enable My people to go through because of the visitation of My Spirit. Take heed to yourselves lest you be puffed up and think that you have arrived. Many shall be puffed up as in the olden days, for many then received My message but they continued not in it. Did I not anoint Jehu? Yet the things I desired were not accomplished in his life. Listen to the messengers, but do not hold men’s persons in admiration. For many whom I shall anoint mightily, with signs and miracles, shall become lifted up and shall fall by the wayside. I do not this willingly; I have made provision that they might stand. I call many into this ministry, and equip them; but remember that many shall fall. They shall be like bright lights, and the people shall delight in them. But they shall be taken over by deceiving spirits and shall lead many of My people astray.

Hearken diligently concerning these things, for in the last days shall come seducing spirits that shall turn many of My anointed ones away. Many shall fall through divers lusts, and because of sin abounding. But if you will seek Me diligently I will put My Spirit within you. When one shall turn to the right hand or to the left you shall not turn with them, but keep your eyes wholly on the Lord. The coming days are the most dangerous, difficult and dark, but there shall be a mighty outpouring of My Spirit upon many cities, and many shall be destroyed. My people must be diligently warned concerning the days that are ahead. Many shall turn after seducing spirits; many are already seducing My people. It is those who DO righteousness that are righteous. Many cover their sins by great theological words. But I warn you of seducing spirits who instruct My people in an evil way. Many of these I shall anoint, that they may purify and sift My people; for I would have a holy people.

Many shall come with seducing spirits and hold out lustful enticements. You will find that after I have visited My people again, the way shall become more and more narrow, and fewer shall walk there in. But be not deceived, the ways of righteousness are My ways. For though Satan come as an angel of light hearken not to him; for those who perform miracles and speak not righteousness are not of Me. I warn you with great intensity that I am going to judge My house and have a church without spot or wrinkle when I come. I desire to open your eyes and give you spiritual understanding, that you may not be deceived but may walk with uprightness of heart before Me, loving righteousness and hating every evil way. Look unto Me and I will make you to perceive with the eyes of the Spirit the things that lurk in darkness, that are not visible to the human eye. Let me lead you in this way that you may perceive the powers of darkness and battle against them. It is not a battle against flesh and blood; for if you battle in that way you accomplish nothing. But if you let Me take over and battle against the powers of darkness then they are defeated, and then liberation is brought to My people.

I warn you to search the Scriptures diligently these last days. For the things that are written shall indeed be made manifest. There shall come deceivers among My people in increasing numbers, who shall speak forth the truth and shall gain the favor of the people. For the people shall examine the Scriptures and say, “What these men say is true.” Then when they have gained the hearts of the people, then and THEN ONLY shall they bring out these wrong doctrines. Therefore, I say that you should not give your hearts to men, nor hold people’s persons in admiration. For by these very persons shall Satan enter into My people. WATCH FOR SEDUCERS. Do you think a seducer will brandish a new heresy and flaunt it before the people? He will speak the words of righteousness and truth, and will appear as a minister of light, declaring the Word. The people’s hearts shall be won. Then, when the hearts are won, they will bring out their doctrines, and the people shall be deceived. The people shall say, “Did he not speak thus and thus? And did we not examine it from the Word? Therefore he is a minister of righteousness.

This that he has now spoken we do not see in the Word, but it must be right, for the other things he spoke were true.”

Be not deceived. For the deceiver will first work to gain the hearts of many, and then shall bring forth his insidious doctrines. You cannot discern those who are of Me and those who are not of Me when they start to preach. But seek Me constantly, and then when these doctrines are brought out you shall have a witness in your heart that these are not of Me. Fear not, for I have warned you. Many will be deceived. But if you walk in holiness and uprightness before the Lord, your eyes shall be open and the Lord will protect you. If you will constantly look unto the Lord you will know when the doctrine changes, and will not be brought into it. If your heart is right I will keep you; and if you will look constantly to Me I will uphold you.

The minister of righteousness shall be on this wise — his life shall agree with the Word, and his lips shall give forth that which is wholly true, and it will be no mixture. When the mixture appears then you will know he is not a minister of righteousness. The deceivers speak first the truth and then error, to cover their own sins which they love. Therefore I exhort and command you to study the Scriptures relative to seducing spirits, for this is one of the great dangers of these last days.

I desire you to be firmly established in My Word and not in the personalities of men, that you will not be moved as so many shall be moved. I would keep you in the paths of righteousness. Take heed to yourselves and follow not the seducing spirits that are already manifesting themselves. Diligently inquire of Me when you hear something that you have not seen in the Word, and do not hold people’s persons in admiration, for it is by this very method that Satan will hold many of My people.

I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly, that you may triumph where I triumphed. On the cross I triumphed over all the power of Satan; and I have called you to walk in the same path. It is when your life is on the cross that you shall know the victory I have experienced. As you are on the cross, and seated in Me, then you shall know the power of the resurrection. When I come in My glory, the principalities and powers in the heavenly places shall be utterly broken. Fear not, for I have given you power whereby you may tread down the powers of darkness, and come forth victorious through every trial. As you are on the cross then you are victorious. It was on the cross that I triumphed over all the powers of the enemy. My life shall flow through you as you enter into these precious truths. Look unto Me, and appropriate My life. As your eyes and desires are toward Me, and you know what it is to be crucified with Me, then you shall live, and your anointing shall increase. It was not in My life that I walked upon the earth, but it was in My life when I was upon the cross that I openly spoiled principalities and powers.

I am showing you truths that shall cause you to overcome, to have power over the wicked one, truth that will liberate you and those round about you. You shall know also the fellowship of My sufferings. There is no other way whereby you may partake of this heavenly glory and reign with Me. “If we suffer with Him we shall reign with Him.” I desire to make those truths real within you. As you keep them before you, you will liberate many who are in bondage. You will have revelation of those who are in darkness and will have the keys to liberate the captives. Many seek to liberate, but they have not the keys. Upon the cross continually you will know the power of My resurrection that you may also partake of My glory. As you are willing to walk with Me and rejoice in your sufferings, you shall partake of My glory. Look unto Me for you have need of power to overcome the wicked one, and the bondages in other lives.

If you will indeed judge yourself you shall not be judged. As you seek My face and desire to be cleansed by Me in all truth and sincerity of heart I will judge you in the secret place, and the things that are in the secret place of your heart shall not be made manifest to others. I will do it in the secret place and no man shall know it. And the shame that shall be seen on many faces shall not be seen on your face. Therefore in love and mercy I am instructing you. And therefore I have said that if a man judge himself he shall not be judged. It is not My good pleasure that the shame of My people be seen by all. How can I judge the world if I judge not first My own house? Hearken unto these things I am telling you. If you will not hearken unto Me thy shame shall be evident to all.

I would have you consider My life on earth — the anointing upon Me was great and yet the temptations were great on every side; in one form and then in another, offering Me first the glory of the kingdoms of the earth and then reviling and persecuting Me. There will be great glory given to My people, and yet the temptations shall be intensified from every side. Think not that with the glory there shall be no temptations or persecutions. The glory of My church shall be great, and so shall be the temptations from the enemy to turn My people from My paths. I am warning you that when the glory shall be manifested, the temptations shall be great, until very few that start shall finish. First there shall be offered them great worldly possessions, and then great revilings and unbelief.

Consider your Lord, that as He walked so it shall be for you. There shall be need of great intensity of purpose. At times everyone shall rise up against you, simply to turn you from the course that I would put you in. It is written of Me that I set My face as a flint to go to the direction My Father had prescribed for Me. If you will finish the course the Lord has laid down for you, you will have to set your face as a flint. With great determination you must walk in the course laid down for you. Many of your loved ones and those who follow with you shall persuade you and try to turn you from the course. With many words that seem right in the natural will they speak to you. Did not Christ rebuke Peter who would turn Him from the course God had prescribed?

Understand these two things and meditate upon them solemnly — the persecution and the darkness shall be as great as the glory in order to try to turn the elect and the anointed ones from the path the Lord has laid down for them. Many shall start but few shall be able to finish because of the greatness of grace that shall be needed to be able to endure unto the end. The temptations and the persecution of your Lord was continuous. He was tempted by Satan in many forms throughout His entire life and even to the cross when the ungodly cried out, “If thou be the Christ come down from the cross.” Think not that there shall be a time of no persecution, for it shall be from the time of your anointing until the end. Difficulties, and great persecution to the end. The Lord must prepare you to be an overcomer in all things, that you may be able to finish the course. The persecution shall increase even as the anointing shall increase.

In paths of judgement and righteousness shall the Lord God lead His people and bring them into that place which He has chosen for them. For the Lord has chosen a place for His people, a place of righteousness and holiness where He shall encamp round about them. And all who will be led of the Lord shall be brought into this holy place. For the Lord delights to dwell in His people and to manifest Himself through His people. The holiness of the Lord shall be manifested through His people. Let the Lord lead you and He will lead you in difficult places. He led His people of old through a place where no man dwelt, where no man had passed through, in a place of great danger and in the shadow of death. The Lord will indeed again lead His people through such places, and yet He will bring them out into a place of great glory. Understand that the way toward the glory is fraught with great danger and many shall fall to the right or to the left, many shall camp on lesser ground. But the Lord has a place of holiness and no unclean thing shall dwell among His people.

Put your trust in Him and He will bring you into a place of holiness. He desires to bring His people into great glory — the like of which has never been seen for what the Lord will do for those who put their trust in Him. It is a place of darkness and great danger that separates His people into the place He would have them walk in. He will protect them from the voices that would turn them from His path. He will bring them through the dark places, and through the treacherous paths, out into the light of His glory. He will rejoice greatly over His beloved and cause you to be filled with joy unspeakable. He seeks to lead His people into a new place of grace and glory where He will indeed encamp among them. Put your trust in Him and He will surely bring you into this new place.

Fear not the days to come, but fear this only — that you shall walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord. In this time I am ordering and setting up My church and it shall indeed be pure, without spot or wrinkle. I will do work in My beloved that has not been seen since the foundation of the world. I have shown you these things that you may seek the Lord diligently with all your heart, and that you may be a preserver of His people.

Run not to this one nor to that one, for the Lord has so ordained that salvation is in Him and in Him alone. You shall not turn to this shepherd or to that one, for there shall be a great scattering upon the earth. Therefore look unto Him for He will indeed make these things clear to you. You shall not look here nor there, for the wells that once had water shall be no more. But as you diligently seek Him He shall increase your strength and your faith, that He may be able to prepare you for this time that is coming.

The truths that I have revealed to you must become a part of you — not just an experience, but a part of your very nature. Is it not written that I demand truth in the inward parts? It is the truth of the Lord expressed in your very being that shall hold you. Many shall experience the truth, but the truth must become a part of you, your very life. As men and women look upon you they will hear not only the voice but see the expression of the truth. Many shall be overcome because they are not constant in My ways, and because they have not permitted the truths to become part of them. I am showing you these things that you may be prepared, and having done all, to stand. ”

Purge the leaven …

Church, the Xmas issue will not go away and will not rest until the leaven is purged from among us. Please read the Holy Scriptures first and then view the Chart below (enlarge the same in the window that opens).

1Cor 1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Cor 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1Cor 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

1Cor 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

1Cor 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

1Cor 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

1Cor 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

2Cor 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

2Cor 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

2Cor 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Cor 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

2Cor 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

1Cor 10:14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Please read more at this link below and remember:

Proverb 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

You are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ:

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Luke 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

1Cor 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

1Cor 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

1Cor 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it,in remembrance of me.

1Cor 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

It is idolatry to put the Son of God Jesus Christ in a ‘celebration‘ He does NOT belong in. Aaron’s sons, priests Nadab and Abihu were killed by God for what offence?

Numbers 26:61 And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.

Do Not do likewise.

All Glory to GOD alone!

The Face of Evil and Wicked South Africa

This is the sad face of evil and wicked South Africa. When a nation is sold out to the devil and serves no longer the Creator God exclusively, this is what you get – interfaith debauchery. On 28th November 2012 the President of South Africa met with the National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA) which has been dissolved and is now known as the National Religious Leaders’ Council (NRLC). Here are two news articles for the NRLC meeting [(1) and (2)] that took place. They want to resolve “poverty and general social upliftment” together with other issues through an ecumenical system by bringing all faiths together – it will never work! God will not be mocked by having His Son Jesus Christ riduculed with such blasphemy! This is the type of debauchery that we are talking about. Look at some of the other websites here in South Africa that make a mockery of the One True Creator:

• Church Supports Interfaith Memorial Service for Marikana Deaths (24 August 2012)
• Cape Town Interfaith Initiative

I wonder if the “reverend” Ray McCauley seazed the opportunity at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and actually preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unbelievers who were present at that meeting – or is that possibly asking too much? This is what our Lord Jesus Christ said:

John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

It is an abomination in the sight of a Holy God that man can blaspheme the One True God who revealed Himself as the Lord Jesus Christ who is LORD of all:

Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Act 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Act 10:36 The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)

Act 10:37 That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

Act 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Act 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

Act 10:40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;

Act 10:41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

Act 10:42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.

Act 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

Here are the other blogposts (and a few historical posts) that have called on our President and peoples of South Africa to Repent and Believe the one and only Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – the ONLY WAY God our Creator has given us:

• Mandela Day – 67 minutes (July 23, 2009)
• Open Letter to the South African President: Mr Jacob Zuma (February 26, 2010)
• Doctrines of Devils (September 1, 2010)
• The Ancestors Will Get You ~ Satan’s Lie (May 17, 2011)
• Serving Ancestral Spirits (June 6, 2011)
• Youth Day ~ June 16 (June 16, 2011)
• Nelson Mandela Day 2011 (July 16, 2011)
• 16th December The Day of The Vow (December 16, 2011)
• Are You Ready? (May 25, 2012)
• “Christian bias on calendar” – The Witness (June 13, 2012)
• Eastern Cape Mission (July 24, 2012)
• A Gospel Tract for Catholics (August 2, 2012)
• South Africa: Hillary Clinton pops in on Nelson Mandela for lunch (August 9, 2012)
• Ingabe Wena Usukulungele? (August 9, 2012)
• The Twelve Apostles’ Church in Christ Heresies (August 15, 2012)
• South Africa Oppressed (October 7, 2012)
• Anarchy (October 17, 2012)

Scripture warns us:

Proverb 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

And South Africa can learn from the Ugandan President who Publicly Repented! He did not just say he is sorry to the people – his prayer was directed to GOD!

16th December The Day of The Vow

This heart gripping piece of history about The Battle of Blood River as related by Deirdre Fields must be told to the Aryans of the world, as at this moment again we are faced by overwhelming odds:

 

The Battle of Blood River

It Was Boer versus Zulu in a Life & Death Struggle For the Survival of the ‘White Africans’

By Deirdre Fields — MP3

The 16th of December 2008 marked the 170th anniversary of the Battle of Blood River, an event that lies at the heart of Afrikaner nationalism. It is a story of courage, determination, sacrifice, suffering and of undaunted faith in God. It even has mystical aspects. But it is a battle that could have spelled the fate of the Boer nation—perhaps even should have been their end—but miraculously was not. It enabled an entire saga of the whites of South Africa to unfold. Here, then, is the remarkable saga of the Battle of Blood River.

The Boers climbed “Execution Hill” (Hlomo Amabutu) in the hot, subtropical, Natal sun; the stench of rotting flesh filled their nostrils. This had been the Zulu King Dingaan’s execution site—and many had been the executions he had ordered. Thousands had found their tortured, final resting place here. Mostly, executions were conducted with the aid of a sangoma or witchdoctor, who would conduct “smelling out” ceremonies, during which he would claim to sniff out those people who were evil, wizards, or plotting some mischief against the chief.

Sometimes he would “smell out” hundreds at a time. Then they would be taken to Hlomo Amabutu to be executed, their bodies left for the vultures (which Dingaan affectionately referred to as his “children”) to feed upon. Holding their noses, the Boers picked their way over countless bones and bodies. Vultures rose to the air reluctantly, squawking their protest, their stomachs distended—with rotting human flesh.

At last, the Boers recognized the remains of the bodies of the white men: Piet Retief and his party, whom Dingaan had murdered treacherously and cruelly.

The Zulus had held Retief and forced him to watch, as one by one, his comrades, and finally his own teenage son were murdered before his eyes—bludgeoned with a knobkerrie (war club) or sliced up with an assegai (Zulu spear). When it was all over, Retief’s heart and liver had been cut out and presented to Dingaan. But what was that? Beside Retief’s body lay a leather pouch. Inside lay that precious treaty he had signed with Dingaan, granting the Boers all the land between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers. Here was proof that the Voortrekkers had won the land two ways: by treaty and by battle.

But something was strange—here, in this place of iniquity, where the vultures gorged on their accustomed diet of the flesh of black victims; as though kept at bay by a hidden hand, they had not touched the bodies of the Voortrekkers. Looking at the treaty, Andries Pretorius thought back on the events that had led up to this moment—back to the cape, in the years between 1835 and 1838.

British Oppression 

British rule had long favored the non-white peoples of the area to the detriment of the Boers.

The British had no time for the Dutch-Afrikaans speaking, freedom-loving Boers, and they used the race issue against the Boers to hinder and control them, to the extent that they felt neither secure nor free to conduct their lives in such a way as to ensure their own security, and they could see no future for their children. As the British government had grown in strength, British authority and military presence had became increasingly heavy-handed in the region, and with this came the curtailment of the (Boer) burgher commandos.

Another ongoing problem was created by homeless bands of Hottentots and former slaves—Malays and some West Africans—brought to the cape by the Dutch East India Company. These roving gangs presented a real risk to the safety of whites and more civilized blacks.

Furthermore, missionary societies, mainly acting as agents for the British government, had set up a type of “ACLU,” [American Civil Liberties Union] which made it their business to collect any and all minor anti-Boer grievances and reports of maltreatment, and champion them through the courts.

In court, it seemed that the animist[1] complainants were automatically believed—they who had no value system that deterred lying, and they who had nothing to lose in making such claims and everything to win. Many spurious cases were prosecuted against the Boers, who were thus persecuted in the courts.

The infamous “Ordinance 50” set out the basis for a raceless society which spelled, then, as now, the end of cultural and ethnic integrity for all races and the extinction of the white race. Their descendants understand this intimately. Since 1994 they have been the victims of an ongoing attempt launched by the Xhosa-dominated[2] government to genocide whites in South Africa. The conditions of whites today is strikingly similar to those of the Boers on the cape in the 19th-century.

The British authorities either could not or would not give the Eastern frontier Boers protection against the constant raids by the Xhosa from across the Fish River. The Xhosa would plunder their cattle and attack Boer homes, often murdering the occupants and burning their houses, before Boer commandos could mobilize. During the Sixth Frontier War, 40 farmers were murdered, 416 homesteads burned and thousands of horses, cattle and sheep stolen. The British authorities pursued a policy of appeasement toward the Xhosa.

Unable to tolerate the oppressive British rule any longer, from 1835 onward, some 15,000 Boer families packed up the few possessions they could fit into their canvas-covered wagons and set off for the interior, hoping there to find land, freedom, and self-determination, whilst preserving the integrity of their people—that essential pre-requisite for maintaining one’s unique cultural identity. They could speak their own language, worship their God and live according to their own culture, without interference. This Great Trek was the calling out of the people who would form the Boer nation. [See TBR’s “The Great Trek of the Boers,” the cover story of the November 1997 issue.—Ed.]

These were passionately independent, freedom-loving people summed up what it meant to be a Boer decades later in their anthem (as translated into English): “slaves of the Almighty, but before all others, free and uncompromised.”

These were principled people rather than materialistic: The cape had been so built up that it was known as the “fairest cape in all the world,” and “Little Paris” thanks to the efforts of the Boers.

But they left behind their beautiful “Cape Dutch” homes and farms, to travel into the unknown hinterland, with nothing but their pots and pans and the few small items they could carry in their wagons. Those unable to make the sacrifice for their principles, or who did not share these principles, stayed behind. Thus was the Boer nation born—in the spirit of self-sacrifice, with a big Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. The events of the Great Trek would provide a common history of hardship and sacrifice, and a belief in divine intervention that would forge the Boers indelibly into a distinct national identity.

For the first Voortrekkers, things did not go well: Jan van Rensburg’s small group, which left in 1835, was ambushed by blacks on the high veldt and massacred. Louis Trichardt’s party survived attacks by blacks, only to be vanquished by malaria.

The few survivors struggled on to Lorenzo Marques, Mozambique, where the friendly Portuguese put them on a ship returning to the cape. This disaster might have deterred other treks in a more complacent people, but the Boers in the cape were unable to meet the dangers that faced them on their own terms, because the British laws effectively tied their hands. They were determined to gain self-determination.

The Manifesto 

In 1837, Retief delivered his manifesto to The Grahams town Journal, in which he laid out the grievances of the Voortrekkers (pioneers). This document served as a declaration of independence for the Boers. As the historian Dr. Gustav Preller was later to evaluate him, Retief’s greatest virtue, “in his deeds and in his death, [was that] he compelled the Dutch-Afrikaans emigrants to believe that they were not merely isolated, roaming individuals, but that everyone was a participant in a great national bond, with one concern and one destination.”

Of French Huguenot ancestry, Retief was an educated man, of a refined and intelligent character. His experience fighting the Xhosa and his leadership role in mediations with the British had developed in him just the skills necessary to lead such a trek. Retief led his party across the Orange River, and out of British-held territory to Thaba Nchu, where they met up with other parties of Voortrekkers who had left earlier. Retief was promptly elected as the leader of the combined group. Retief led the largest group of Trekkers across the formidable Drakensberg Mountains (Dragon Mountains) into Natal, while yet others crossed the Vaal River into the Transvaal or remained in what was to become the Orange Free State.

Previously, in return for 49 cattle and Boer protection against the Matabele chief Mzilikazi (a renegade Zulu captain), the black leader Makwena had granted Hendrik Potgieter’s party the land between the Vet and Vaal rivers. When, in 1836 Mzilikazi attacked, Potgieter’s commando brigade succeeded in driving Mzilikazi and his Matabele (Ndebele) from the western Transvaal into what is now Zimbabwe, where they have remained to this day.

For the Retief Trek, crossing the formidable Drakensberg Mountains in itself was an almost superhuman feat, requiring an indomitable determination, resilience, and perseverance not to mention an optimistic, adventurous spirit. These intrepid qualities were required of even the children and women, for the ordeal was easy on none, and it became indelibly etched into the Boer psyche.

Tottering over near-vertical inclines, they ascended the Drakensberg, and on the other side, they descended often near vertical declines, requiring that the wheels be removed from the wagons, and saplings tied in their place; while the men would hold fast onto ropes at the front of the wagons, to prevent them from running over the oxen—making their laborious descent, almost on their knees; or careening to their destruction far below. There were no stores en route, and Voortrekkers had to be resourceful in creating all of their own commodities, from making their own soap, candles, bullets, wagon parts, shoes, clothes, makeshift ovens—from termite mounds—to developing their own medical cures, “Boererat” (Boer remedies), which drew heavily on the knowledge of nature and the use of local herbs.

As they left the cape, they started reading their Bibles at the point where God leads the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and leads them to the land of milk and honey in Canaan, the Promised Land. Naturally, they identified strongly. When they saw the green lands that lay before them, as they surmounted the Drakensberg, they could not be blamed for thinking that they too, had reached the Promised Land, and they called it Blydevooruitzicht— “Happy Prospects.”

Leaving the bulk of his party encamped along the Bloukrans River, Retief led a party of some 60 men and teenage boys to negotiate for land with Dingaan, the chief or king, at his kraal [enclosure], Umgungundlovu (“Place of the Elephant,” meaning Dingaan himself). Dingaan promised Retief and his trekkers that if they could recover the cattle a local chief had stolen from him, he would grant them land. With little difficulty, the Boers recovered the cattle, and on February 2, 1837, they arrived at Umgungundlovu with the some 7,000 retrieved cattle.

On February 5, Dingaan and Retief signed a treaty granting the Boers the land between the Tugela and the Umzimvubu rivers in Natal. (Natal was occupied at the time by the warlike Zulu tribe, like the Xhosa, part of the Nguni people, a branch of the Bantus who originated in the Uganda area.) Dingaan signed with an “X.” During the ceremony, a little Zulu child knelt at Dingaan’s side, with his hands cupped. At intervals, Dingaan would spit into his hands, and the boy would rub the spittle into his belly, praising the king. The honor was greatly coveted. Festivities followed the signing of the agreement. The following day, February 6, the Boers rose before daybreak to return to Bloukrans, where the rest of the trek party awaited them.

Just then, a messenger arrived from Dingaan, inviting Retief and his party to meet once more with the king, before they left. Retief and his trekkers, as well as two Englishmen from Port Natal, were persuaded to unwisely leave their weapons outside the kraal, as a mark of respect to the Zulu king. Offering them some sorghum beer, Dingaan toasted their friendship, attested to by the signed treaty Retief carried in his bag.

Then Dingaan commanded two of his impis (regiments) to entertain them by dancing. For some 15 minutes the warriors danced, shouted and made feinting movements with their spears. Advancing three steps and retreating two—they advanced toward the Boers. Suddenly, Dingaan arose shouting “kill the white wizards,” and immediately some 2,000 Zulus fell upon the unsuspecting Boers.

Some leaped to their feet, drawing their small hunting knives, but they were no match for the numbers and spears of the Zulu warriors. Feet trailing, they were dragged off to a hill next to Umgungundlovu, called Hlomo Amabutu, “the Hill of Execution,” there to be savagely murdered, one by one—where Andries Pretorius and the victors of Blood River would eventually find them.

About two hours after Retief’s heart and liver had been presented to Dingaan, his impis, under the captains Ndlela and Dambuza, set off to massacre the rest of the Boer party, who were camped out at Bloukrans, a considerable distance from Umgungundlovu; chanting, “We will go and kill the white dogs.” The English missionary, Francis Owen and an American, William Wood, witnessed the murder from Owen’s hut overlooking Hlomo Amabutu. Fearful for their own lives, they fled several days later for Port Natal.

Not suspecting any treachery, the Boers had not formed their wagons into a defensive circle (laager), but were camped out in groups of varying sizes. As they slept on the night of February 16, 1838, the Zulu army of some 10,000 attacked: The Liebenberg family was slaughtered in their beds. Having been left for dead, along with his murdered wife, mother, and sisters, a badly wounded Daniel Bezuidenhout managed to mount his horse and ride to warn other camps.

It was a bloody massacre: the Zulus were said to have snatched up babies, thrown them into the air and impaled them upon their short thrusting spears or dashed their heads on rocks. One man grabbed his baby daughter and ran for miles through the bush, clutching his child to his chest, only to find that she had already been murdered while still in her crib. One woman, having survived the initial onslaught, was seeking her opportunity to warn the others, when she was surprised by some Zulus, returning from their bloody pastime.

Trying to crawl into a wagon, her leg was still protruding as they came in sight of her. She lay motionless, feigning death. As they passed her by, each Zulu stabbed her leg. To flinch or cry out would have meant certain death so, with incredible will power, she managed to remain absolutely motionless, as tens of Zulus stabbed that exposed leg—and survived to tell of it. At last, some of the larger camps managed to draw their wagons into a laager, and the Zulus were fended off. 

Weenen 

As dawn broke on February 16, the specter of the mutilated corpses of some 300 people assailed the eyes of the survivors.

The senseless brutality of the Zulus impressed itself upon all. The body of Johanna van der Merwe was found to have been stabbed 21 times and Catherina Prinsloo 17 times. Elizabeth Smit lay with her three-day-old baby beside her—her breast hacked off. Anna Elizabeth Steenkamp’s diary describes the gory scene of a wagon filled with the corpses of 50 people, mostly children, all of whom had been hacked apart, their blood drenching the wagon. Altogether, 41 men, 56 women and 185 children had been murdered. Together with the Retief party, more than half of the Boer party in Natal had been massacred.

So, the Voortrekkers named the place Weenen, or “Weeping,” the name it is called by still, though the Black African National Congress government seeks to erase all such reminders of the Boer presence in South Africa, and how they watered the ground with their blood, and still do. Leaving their bloody handiwork at Bloukrans, the Zulus turned on the British trading settlement of Port Natal, seeking to exterminate the whites there too. Some Englishmen from Port Natal, including Thomas Halstead and George Biggar, had been murdered along with Retief’s party.

Wishing to avenge the deaths of their friends, the British set out to meet the Zulus, but only four Englishmen and 500 displaced Zulus (refugees from Dingaan) escaped to Port Natal. The English eventually took refuge on a ship in port, leaving the Zulu refugees to face Dingaan’s forces. Other Boer parties came to the aid of the Boers at Weenen but were ambushed at the Battle of Italeni.

Andries Pretorius 

The news of the treachery of Dingaan aroused much indignation, and a wave of sympathy for the Natal Boers resulted in hundreds of Boers joining Andries Pretorius’s Trek.

Pretorius was a successful farmer from Graaff Reinet—an area that along with Swellendam, in opposition to the autocratic rule of the Dutch India Company, had declared itself an independent republic in 1795—before the British had occupied the Cape, though the British had reversed this the next year when they occupied the Cape during the Napoleonic wars. Many Voortrekkers hailed from this area. Pretorius’s trekkers arrived in Natal in November 1838. He was elected commandant general by the Natal Boers.

Pretorius swiftly organized a commando group of some 464 men. He would not attack the Zulus, but waited for them to attack him. First, Sarel Cilliers, the pastor, led the Boers in taking an oath to Almighty God, that if He would deliver them from the Zulus and grant them victory, then forever more, they and their descendants would celebrate the day as a sacred day and celebrate it as if it “were a Sabbath.” Then, on December 15, as his scouts reported a large Zulu army in the area, Pretorius chose the site of his camp.

He formed a laager of 64 wagons into the shape of a capital “D”: the straight side ran along a deep donga or ditch which extended for some distance at a 90 degree angle to the Ncome River; the lower part of the “D” ran parallel with the Ncome, and the rest of the rounded part faced the northwest, where there were no natural defenses. The two muzzle-loading canons were positioned in openings between the wagons, while 900 oxen and about 500 horses were penned up in the center of the laager. The motto of the Boers has ever been “Boer maak ‘n plan” (“a Boer makes a plan”), and they plugged the spaces between and under the wagons with thorn bushes, which worked like barbed wire, to bar the entry of the Zulus into the laager. They also lined the donga with thorn bushes.

As it grew dark and a mist descended, the Boers hung their lanterns on the ends of their long whips, and secured them on the wagons, so that the lights shown from the wagons. To the Zulus, creeping up for a surprise attack under the cover of dark, it appeared that a halo of light hovered over the laager, protecting the Boers. “Be witched! Be witched!” they screamed as they fled in terror, leaving the Boers safe for the night.

The Battle of Blood River  

The Boers fought with muzzle-loading rifles, loaded by pouring gunpowder down the barrel, then ramming leaden, musket balls down the barrel with a ramrod. On pulling the trigger, the gunpowder ignited and a second later, the shot was fired. The Boers made their own bullets. Traditionally, while the man was shooting, his wife, mother or daughter would be loading another gun, and they would shoot until the guns were too hot. Sometimes, if the blacks were too close, the women would have to make the shot, or hit a black on the head with the butt of the gun, as they tried to crawl under the wagons. As in America’s own pioneer times, women were integral to the survival of the community.

The Zulu attack came at dawn on December 16, 1838. Looking out on the veldt before them, the Boers were greeted by a seething black mass of between 15,000 and 20,000 Zulu warriors, chanting and stamping their feet in a war dance, working themselves into a killing frenzy. The sight and sound were enough to send chills through the stoutest of hearts. They had no desire to replay the events of the massacre at Weenen.

Heavily outnumbered as they were, the Boers needed to hold their fire until they were sure it would count. At the first burst of fire, the Zulus fell in the hundreds, and at every successive round, their corpses stacked up.

The successive waves of spears thrown by the Zulus came hurtling through the air like a black rain, but miraculously, throughout the battle, they caused no deaths at all. Inside the laager, the air grew blue with smoke. The Boers could hardly see their hands before them. Fortunately, the Zulus retreated out of range of the rifles, allowing the guns to cool and the air to clear before a second charge. Again and again they charged, swarming into the donga and through the river, and again and again the Boers shot into their midst, taking a heavy toll.

The Boers used their two cannon to maximum effect, at one stage aiming one as far as possible into the rear lines, and the other into the center of the front lines. Attacking en masse, the Zulus crossing the river were shot in the water, until the river ran red. The river came to be known, until this day, as “Blood River.”

The Boers pulled aside a wagon, and a commando of around 100 men galloped out. Shooting from the saddle, they caused havoc among the Zulus until their forces were divided and routed. The Zulus fled, and the Boers pursued them until dark, leaving around 3,000 Zulus dead on the battlefield, and countless more off the site, with even more dying later from their wounds. Remarkably, there were no Boer casualties to speak of, though Pretorius himself was slightly wounded in the arm, and another two Boers were nicked by spears.

It was truly a miracle, and the Calvinistic Boers gave the glory to God, taking their amazing victory as a sign from the Almighty that He was with them and that just as He had given the land of Canaan to the Israelites, He had delivered Natal to the Boers.

After the battle, Dingaan fled into Swaziland, where he was subsequently assassinated, and in 1840, Andries Pretorius and a Boer commando unit of around 400 helped Dingaan’s half-brother, Mpanda, establish himself as king. And so it was that the Boers of Blood River made a pilgrimage to Hlomo Amabutu, “The Hill of Execution,” to find the murdered bodies of Retief and his party, and to give them a Christian burial.

It was there that they retrieved the treaty from a corpse untouched by the vultures. The Boers kept their part of the vow, and built a church to God and ever after their descendants have honored December 16 as a sacred day—that is, until the traitor governments of P.W. Botha and F.W. De Klerk (1980s onward) ceased observing it as a public event at the Voortrekker Monument. Even so, there have always been Boers who kept the day holy at private and political rallies.

One hundred years later, in 1938, when the Boers had once again gained power in their own country, they built the mighty Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria to commemorate the Battle of Blood River and the covenant they had made with God. On the lower floor of the massive monument stands a cenotaph to the Voortrekker dead, which from the ground level, can be seen through a circular well in the marble floor.

In the domed ceiling, some 120 feet above, there is a little hole, and at exactly midday on the 16th of December, the Sun shines through that little aperture, down onto the cenotaph, to illuminate the words on it: “ONS VIR JOU SUID-AFRIKA.” These are the words of the South African anthem, “Die Stem,” (“The Call [or Voice] of South Africa”), which pledges our lives for our country and volk. The site of Blood River, too, was graced with 64 bronze, life-size wagons, forming an eternal laager to mark the site of this significant battle, and God’s grace.

Aftermath 

The defeat of the Zulus at Blood River and the murder of Dingaan had broken the back of Zulu power for the moment. Significantly, the Boers never sought to rule the Zulus, but in 1840 helped Mpanda establish his own independent kingdom just one year after the Boers established their own independent Boer Republic of Natalia.

However, the defeat of the Zulus, caused the British to cast even more covetous eyes over Natal, and by 1843, British encroachment from the Eastern Cape led to a war between the Boers and the British, with the Boers besieging Congella. The British broke the siege and in 1845, just as the Boers were reaping the rewards of their hard work, the British formally annexed the Republic of Natalia, claiming that the Boers were still British subjects and as such any land they claimed belonged to the Crown. Once again, the Boers became disheartened, having sacrificed so much, only to find themselves once again under British rule.

However, it was the Boer women who vowed that their beloved dead husbands, fathers and sons, and all those at Bloukrans, should not have died in vain. Even if they had to cross the Drakensberg range barefoot, they would do so, but they would never remain under British rule. Heartened by the courage and the willingness of their women to endure further sacrifice, the Boers trekked once again over the Drakensberg Mountains into the fledgling republics in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. There they were to achieve independence until the discovery of gold in the Transvaal brought an unholy alliance of bankers and gold mine owners to threaten their sovereignty—yet again.

Endnotes:

1 Animism is a category of religion that does not accept the separation of body and soul. It is based upon the belief that souls are found in animals, plants, stones and other objects. Many animists teach that there is one supreme god (who may be relatively uninvolved in everyday life) and many lesser gods. Animals are worshiped as earthly representatives of the gods.

2 During the 17th century, a migration took place that led thousands of Negro people from southern Zaire in various directions to cover much of sub-Saharan Africa. One of the tribes who took part in this migration was the Xhosa, descended from a clan of the Nguni (Zulu). Some Xhosas, however, are descended from the Khoisan people, and the Xhosa language differs from Zulu in that it has click sounds derived from the Khoisans. The Xhosa tend to dominate politics in South Africa. Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki are Xhosan.

Article Source: BarnesReview.org

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More on the Battle of Blood River:

The Day of the Vow

“The Day of the Vow was a public holiday held in South Africa before 1994. The day was observed as a religious holiday by Afrikaners in memory of the victory of the Voortrekkers over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838. Before the battle, the Voortrekkers took a vow to observe a day of thanksgiving should they be granted victory. This video footage consists of life-size bronze replicas of the wagons involved in the historic battle of Blood River.”

The Battle of Blood River Monument

 THE VOW

My brethren and fellow countrymen, at this moment we stand before the holy God of heaven and earth, to make a promise, if He will be with us and protect us and deliver the enemy into our hands so that we may triumph over him, that we shall observe the day and the date as an anniversary in each year and a day of thanksgiving like the Sabbath, in His honour; and that we shall enjoin our children that they must take part with us in this, for a remembrance even for our posterity; and if anyone sees a difficulty in this, let him return from this place. For the honour of His name shall be joyfully exalted, and to Him the fame and the honour of the victory must be given.

Church of The Vow, Pietermaritzburg

Take a 360 virtual tour of the Voortrekker Monument (click the photo below)

A Spiritual House

Here is a Spiritual revelation from the Word of God of what the Body of Christ, the ekklesia (church) should be.

Think for a moment of the chief stone that is laid in any foundation when a house or building is built. What is the answer? It is the cornerstone. The cornerstone will determine whether the structure is built aright and if the cornerstone is laid askew the whole building will also be askew. It is imperative that the cornerstone is 100% set aright; square and perfect in all respects or else the building would be unstable and fail structural requirements.

Now let us look at the ekklesia of God to see how He reveals His Body – the spiritual house to be built. In 1 Peter 2:4-9 our Father reveals the foundation of His ekklesia:

4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: ~ 1 Peter 2:4-9

Christ is the perfect cornerstone – the chief cornerstone – set in His Body, the ekklesia. We, disciples of Christ, are revealed as the “lively (living) stones” that are built up a spiritual house. If we are living stones then how are we to be built? Now ask the Holy Spirit to let you see the structure taking form before you. Christ is the chief cornerstone set perfectly in all respects and all the living stones are connected to the foundational cornerstone forming a spiritual house. It is disciples of the LORD cleaving unto Christ – abiding in Christ Jesus that increases the living Body as more and more disciples are added to the chief cornerstone Jesus and the existing and increasing Bride of Christ. This is the living Body, which is the living ekklesia (the church) that is in oneness with the LORD who has all in accord with God’s will and purpose.

As Christ submitted to the Father in all and total obedience whilst here on earth, so we the spiritual house built together by us living stones must also in obedience with Christ as the Head of His living Body be in all and total obedience to God the Father. Hence, we are many members, but one body and if one part mourns we will all mourn and if one part rejoices we will all rejoice.

Denominations and traditions of man have corrupted the Christian walk and there is a stern warning against the church of man (the institution) and also confirmation where God indwells His Body of Christ – the living ekklesia. We see this in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, as we learn:

14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

The disciples (true believers) are the temple of the living God and God will dwell in them and walk in them and only those who He indwells and walks in will have Him as their God and they shall be His people. Please re-read the portion of Scripture again. Disciples of Jesus Christ, those who truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ and are obedient to all His teachings – not those who only profess Him – don’t go to church, but are the church (the ekklesia). You cannot go to something that you are! God does not live in brick ’n mortar and glass buildings which have denomination rules:

24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ~ Acts 17:24,25

Here is a quote, which will challenge if you are led of the Spirit:

Jesus is the Head of the Body

Jesus is the head of the church, for it is His body and He has purchased it with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Ephesians 1:20-23, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. The church represents Christ on the earth. The power that drives the church is the Holy Ghost and is manifested as love (Rom 5:5). Jesus must be the sole focus of all activities within the church (His body). Colossians 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (also Eph 5:23). The religious institutes of man have actually set themselves in the place of Christ. Men are looking to these organizations to save them, rather than Jesus Christ. There is a distinction here that most are blinded to and do not see. Christ scolded the church at Ephesus because: Revelation 2:4, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Jesus must be the love of our life and our sole motivation must be to please and bring Him glory in all things. The Jews had trusted in the law to save them rather than God. They had a heartless observance and this was not God’s desire. Some have a heartless “religious observance” because their heart is on the world. Woe to you because God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb 4:12). We are not to serve buildings, personalities, or institutions. We are to serve Jesus Christ with a whole heart of devotion.

Many will say, I am of the Baptist; or I am of the Methodist; or perhaps I am of the Pentecostals (institutions – of man). Perhaps they will say, I am of Billy Graham, Charles Stanley or Benny Hinn (personalities – men); or I am of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (entities – of man). These will associate themselves with man or the institutions of man. 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” The Baptist, Methodist or whatever did not die for you, neither are they the head of the body (these are institutions of man, the Spirit brings unity, man divides). Salvation will not be found in a man (other than Christ) or a television network. We are to look to Jesus alone for our salvation. Not to doctrines, traditions, personalities, institutions, etc. Jesus Christ must be our first love and our heart must be for Him alone (Rev 2:4). Secondly we need to start putting denominational loyalties aside and look for individuals that have spiritual life and fellowship with them as members of Christ’s body. Spiritual life is found in one who has yielded totally to God and seeks His will through the Holy Spirit. This one will be living a life of demonstrated faith. If we are being led of the Spirit, then we will come to understand Christ’s gospel (not man’s doctrines). Those who are following men such as John Calvin, Jacobus Arminius, John Wesley, Martin Luther, or whoever need to repent. You are being led by doctrines and not by the Holy Spirit. Many of the religious institutions of today are based upon what men (such as the above) believed, taught and wrote about rather than Christ – and they will argue endlessly about it (strife between denominations). God’s truth is revealed through His Spirit and His Word. You may have truth, but if you do not have the Spirit, your in error. Open God’s Word and seek the Spirit’s guidance. All these competing doctrines and confusion could be cleared up if you will put your eyes upon Jesus and submit to His Holy Spirit.

All these groups who have named themselves and set up distinctions (of man) only prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are being led of man and not the Holy Spirit. Where is the unity in Christ’s body that these religious denominations/factions presume to be (Eph 4:3)? Where is the one-mindedness (Rom 15:6, 2 Cor 13:11, Php 1:27, 2:2)? Where is the love? Man separates; the Spirit brings us to unity of purpose and understanding when we will humble ourselves and be led (obedience). This cannot and will not be accomplished through the flesh. This will only happen through obedience to the Spirit. Thus man cannot convert, direct nor control. Man can humble himself and obey and this is what God requires. In other words, God will do the leading and man will do the following (in love through faith). It is through Christ that we have access by one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:18, 3:12) and not through man’s religiosity. Man presumes much!

(Quote: Jesus said Come, Follow Me! By David Neal, Chapter 5)