NCMI TRAINING MANUAL

DEVELOPMENT AND DYNAMICS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Part 2

By Ian McKellar, Adapted by Leschenne D. Honiball

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Development and Dynamics of Christian Theology in History (1500 - Modern Day)

HISTORY LESSON

―History repeats itself. Has to, no one listens.‖ - Steve Turner

―…my people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge‖ Hosea 4:6

INTRODUCTION

Church History is a most exciting subject. It teaches us so many things that would be difficult to learn in any other way. We must learn the patterns of history so that we do not keep on repeating the mistakes of the past and can begin to sow good seed so that we can reap the revivals of the future.

In the Church today there is a great lack of the foundations of the faith; there is a great lack of the foundations of the faith; there is a great lack of understanding of where we have come from. Therefore it is difficult to see where we are going. Francis Schaeffer said, ―There is a flow to history and culture.‖ Once we begin to see and understand this flow we can begin to rise up with new faith for what God is doing in our day and for what God has promised in the future.

In this course of Church History, there are four things we would like to highlight. Once you have finished the course, we trust that you have understood and gripped these four things:

1. A Flow to History

Galatians 6 speaks of sowing and reaping. Whatever we sow will produce a harvest, either for good or for evil. History is the most wonderful system to study, to understand the harvest that is produced from both good and bad doctrine being taught, from good and bad models, from good and bad leaders. We want to study history and Scripture so that we can reap a good harvest.

Observing a timeline of this period, one can see a good example of the flow of history: The Pendulum effect in History. Given the trends observed in history and plotting them on the timeline, it is reasonable to predict the pendulum swing from Pentecostalism to the over-reaction of much of the New Age movement, Gnosticism, etc.

2. God‘s Timing

God‘s timing is perfect. We need to understand from the flow of history that God gives divine opportunities at different times. As we study

2 history we see windows of opportunity opening up for God‘s people; if these opportunities are taken, a great thrust forward results; where these opportunities are missed, God‘s people seem to go through the wilderness for another season until the day of opportunity comes once again. We must learn to perceive God‘s opportunity so that we can go ahead when God opens the door.

3. Leadership

As we study history, we see that God always uses men and women to forcefully lead and to take His people out of darkness into light. We can be greatly inspired and encourage ourselves to become better leaders, so that God can use us to do greater things. We also learn that Church government and structure are vitally important in order for the Church to become all that God has destined.

4. Theology

It is good to understand that our present day theology is rooted in history. Theology is looking to see what God is doing, and God has been doing different things throughout the history of the Church. God remains the same, but His times and seasons change. God has been restoring truths back to the Church, so as we study Church history we get an understanding of theology and how it fits into the bigger picture of God‘s plan. We need to study in order to get to know God and draw close to Him; the study of Church History is like reading a modern day book of Acts where we see the acts of the Holy Spirit and the acts of God‘s people once again demonstrated throughout the history of the Church.

In this course we will study the following:

 Key players in the Reformation  The Great Awakening (England and America)  The Pentecostal Movement  The Charismatic and Restoration Movements

We have been destined for great things and the study of God‘s past working with His Church will encourage us to pray and believe for greater things in the future.

3 UNIT ONE

THE CHURCH IN REFORMATION 1517

Learning Outcomes:

(1) Identify the main forerunners to the Reformation. (2) Understand the importance of the Reformation to the history of the Church. (3) Identify the specific players within the Reformation movement. (4) Demonstrate and understand the key elements of the Reformation.

1.1 FORERUNNERS TO THE REFORMATION

The Reformation was a wide-ranging movement of religious renewal in Europe concentrated in the sixteenth century but anticipated by earlier reform initiatives – e.g., by Waldensians in the Alpine regions, Wycliffe and Lollardy in England, and Husites in Bohemia.

1.1.1 Peter Waldo

Peter Waldo was one of the most effective of the pre-Lutheran Reformers. He was a wealthy merchant of Lyons, France, who sold most of his holdings in 1176 and gave the proceeds to the poor. Within a year or so, he was joined by others, men and women, who called themselves the ―Poor in spirit,‖ and started a travelling ministry of preaching repentance and living from the handouts of listeners.

In 1184, Pope Lucius III excommunicated them for their disobedience to the Church. This act brought them many supporters, and the movement spread into southern France, Italy, Spain, the Rhine Valley, and Bohemia. It is difficult to know whether all the individuals known as Waldensians were part of the movement or whether contemporary Roman Catholic opponents simply used the descriptive term for those radical individuals opposing the official Church.

The true Waldensians took the New Testament as a rule of faith and life and appear to have used it in a rather legalistic sense.

 They went out two by two, wearing simple clothing, and preaching repentance.  They frequently engaged in fasting and lived on the gifts of others.  They rejected purgatory and masses and prayers for the dead, and held to the necessity of using vernacular translations of Scripture.

4  They insisted on the right of both laymen and laywomen to preach, but they did have an organisation with bishops, priests, and deacons.

Perhaps it should be noted that Waldo seems never to have become fully evangelical. But in pointing to the Scripture as the source of religious truth, he opened the door for his followers to become truly evangelical.

The Waldensians were severely persecuted for centuries. Part of the reason for their widespread distribution in Europe was that they were driven from their homeland. They are the only late medieval separatist group to survive to the present, though of course numerous changes in organisation and teaching have taken place among them.

1.1.2 John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1330–1384) was a Biblical reformer. He also worked in Bible translation, and it was largely through his influence that the first English version was produced. Though he personally translated or supervised translation of parts of the Bible, the entire version was not completed until after his death. Without doubt, its widespread use had an influence on the development of the English language.

After 1375 Wycliffe‘s reforming views developed rapidly. Pope Gregory XI condemned him in 1377 for his efforts, but he was protected by some of the nobles. Wycliffe‘s most influential characteristics were at least threefold:

 His intense patriotism.  His deep piety.  The belief of many that he had no scholarly equal in England.

Decrees of the Pope were not infallible except as based on Scripture. The clergy were not to rule, but to serve and help people. Eventually he To Wycliffe, reached the conclusion that Christ, and not the Scripture, which he Pope, was the head of the Church; in fact, the interpreted literally, Pope, if he were too eager for worldly power, was the sole authority might even be regarded as the Antichrist. for the believer. Ultimately he came to repudiate the entire papal system. Moreover, he condemned the dogma of purgatory and the use of relics, pilgrimages, and indulgences. He seems to have been deeply influenced by St. Augustine. It is not clear how evangelical Wycliffe was personally, but under the influence of Biblical teaching, his followers increasingly moved in that direction.

The followers of Wycliffe were suppressed by force in 1401. Thereafter those who held his views went underground and no doubt helped to prepare the way for the Lutheran and Calvinistic teachings that invaded Britain about a century later. Bohemians studying at Oxford in Wycliffe‘s day carried his ideas to their homeland, where they influenced the teachings of John Hus.

5 1.1.3 John Hus

John Hus (1372–1415) was a professor of philosophy at the University of Prague and a preacher at Bethlehem Chapel. Hus‘ approach was similar to that of Wycliffe, however, his influence on the Continent was greater. It should be remembered that Luther was greatly impressed with the reformer from Prague. Hus‘ great work was entitled On the Church. In it he stated that all the elect are members of Christ‘s Church, of which Christ is head, not the Pope. He argued against the buying and selling of spiritual or Church related things, indulgences, and abuses of the mass. He demanded a reform in the lives of clergy, and he declared the right of laity to take both the bread and wine in the Communion.

Hus became the leader of a reform movement that spread across Bohemia. Almost the whole nation supported him in his reform programme, in spite of the fact that the Pope excommunicated him. After Hus‘ death this reform protest did not stop, others arose to continue the effort.

When the Pope summoned Hus to the Council of Constance to stand examination on his views, the emperor Sigismund ordered him to go and promised safe conduct to and from the Council. But when the Council condemned Hus as a heretic and burned him at the stake, Sigismund did not interfere. Like Luther, Hus disagreed with the Pope over the issue of indulgences (among other things); but Europe was not so ready for the Reformation in 1415 as it would be a century later.

Stop and explore: Draw a political map of Europe at the time of the  Reformation. Then add arrows to plot the birth and movement of the Reformation.

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1.2 SETTING THE STAGE

Politics

The political map of Europe was a crazy quilt composed of hundreds of principalities, indicating extreme decentralization. But around the outer edges, in Portugal, Spain, France, and England, national states were rising, challenging the power of the papacy. In central Europe the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (now essentially a German entity) had been bothered by numerous states with little allegiance to him. Not only were these states a problem to the emperor, but Muslims were knocking at the doors of the empire too. After toppling Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Muslims (Ottoman Turks) advanced across Eastern Europe until they stood before the gates of Vienna in 1529. They again reached the vicinity of the city in 1532.

Meanwhile, Europe was expanding. A few years after Luther‘s birth, Columbus reached the New World (1492) and launched the Spanish Empire in the West; Magellan‘s expedition sailed around the world, and, at the same time, the Portuguese were establishing outposts of empire in Brazil, Africa, India, and the Far East.

Intellect

A new world of thought was discovered long before 1492. The full tide of the Renaissance had rolled in. Rediscovering the literature and thought patterns of the classical age contributed to a greater secularisation. HUMANISM AND INDIVIDUALISM Humanism was one of the main features of the Renaissance, involving a new emphasis on man and his culture and an effort to make the world a better place in which human beings might live. The pull of the future life was not as great for the true child of the Renaissance as it had been for his forebears during the Middle Ages.

Briefly describe the key tenets of Humanism and Individualism.

The humanists put new emphasis on the study of Greek (and some of them, Hebrew) in an effort to read the classics in the original languages. The greatest of all ancient documents was the Bible, and the renewed emphasis on ancient languages led many to the Scripture. The humanism of northern Europe seemed to put more stress on the form and analysis of classical

7 literature, while the humanism of southern Europe seemed to emphasise the philosophy embedded in that literature.

Also advancing the effectiveness of the Reformation was the Renaissance spirit of individualism, which paved the way for Luther‘s emphasis on the priesthood of the believer and its helpful ideas of the right of believers to go directly to God and to interpret the Scriptures for themselves.

The Spread of Printing and Growth of Universities

Another important facet of the intellectual development of Europe just before the Reformation was the invention of movable type printing. Without it the Reformers could not have had the same effect. In fact, the tremendous literary activity of the Reformers was largely responsible for building the printing trade in many areas.

Lastly, an important phenomenon of the period was the rapid growth of universities that provided education for a larger number of people. It provided a means whereby the leaders of the new generation could be reached with Reformation principles and wherein they could be trained to circulate them.

Religion

The religion of Europe was in a condition of decay. The evils of the Church were many - simony (buying and selling of spiritual or Church-related things), economic oppression, the purchase of salvation through indulgences, immorality of many of the clergy, and so on. The wave of secularism that overcame Europe during the fifteenth century affected all levels of Church life: the congregation, lower and higher clergy, monks, etc.

The corruption of the Church led to numerous calls from within for its reform. Because of this concern many movements began, such as the Observant Franciscans in England, the Oratory of Divine Love in Italy, and the Brethren of the Common Life in the Lowlands. Books of devotion found wide audience. Preaching was an emotional religion. A religious uproar emphasised the emotions and provided a basis for popular support of the Reformation.

Society and Economics

European society and economics were in flux. Feudalism was on the decline and was largely extinct, and was paralleled by the rise of towns and nation- states. In these new towns and states a new middle class emerged, as did a degree of social mobility not known for more than a millennium. Compared with the old nobility, these striving, successful people were social, political, and economic outsiders; naturally they wanted to become social, political, and economic insiders.

Members of the rising middle class, with their wealth in financial and commercial interests, felt they were the equals of the old aristocracy and sought social recognition and political power. Peasants were generally restless, looking for a way out of their economic and social oppression. Both

8 national governments and the middle class needed a ready supply of cash. Kings and nobles had to support armies and navies, finance public improvements, and promote the general welfare of their people. Businessmen needed to have capital reserve for new economic ventures. All this naturally hindered the flow of wealth to the Church, and efforts of the Church to drain money from individuals were met with something less than enthusiasm by both the king and middle class.

REFORMATION

- properly, “a making straight” ( “through,” “straight”), denotes a “reformation” or reforming; the word has the meaning either (a) of a right arrangement, right ordering, or, more usually, (b) of restoration, amendment, bringing right again; what is here indicated is a time when the imperfect, the inadequate, would be outdated by a better order of things.

1.3 FOUR MAJOR REFORMERS

1.3.1 Martin Luther

Martin Luther, possibly the most famous of reformers, was a voice speaking for a multitude that had been voiceless. In fact, as he began his reformation activities, many hoped he would become their spokesman in political, economic, social, as well as religious matters.

Luther was born in 1483 in Germany and lived in a day when men were able to better their fortunes. Hans Luther, his father, gradually amassed a fairly adequate estate and was able to provide his son Martin with an excellent education. After early studies at Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach, Martin matriculated at the University of Erfurt, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees. Thereafter, on his father‘s urging, he entered the law school of the university.

In July of that year, when thrown to the ground by a flash of lightning during a very bad storm, he vowed to enter a monastery if spared from death. But that was not the only reason for his decision. Luther hoped he would find the peace for his soul that he could not find in the world, at the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. He pursued the monastic life, but saw Christ as a stern judge. He spent days in fasts and bodily mortification, seeking release for his sinful soul.

During his struggle he came under the influence of Johann Von Staupitz, Vicar-General of his order, who urged him to think on God‘s love for the sinner as evidenced in Christ‘s death. Luther began diligently to study the Bible. Staupitz had become dean of the faculty of theology at the University of Wittenberg (in Saxony), and he arranged for Luther to join the faculty of the university in 1508. In 1512, he received his doctor of theology degree and

9 succeeded Staupitz as professor of theology. He held this position until his death in 1546.

During 1513–1518, Luther lectured on Psalms, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and Titus and sometime during that period he came to an acceptance of the doctrine of justification by faith. Luther‘s influence expanded as he was given charge over eleven monasteries in 1515. In the same year the town council of Wittenberg called him to the pulpit of the City Church, where he continued to minister the rest of his life. From that vantage point, he could carry his views directly to the laity.

The famous Ninety-five Theses (or topics for debate) were posted on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, in protest against the sale of indulgences. He wrote this after noting the effect of these sales on the moral and ethical standards of his parishioners. Printed copies quickly flooded Europe, and popular enthusiasm began everywhere.

A conservative, faithful son of the Church, Luther What began believed the authority of the Pope and the validity of the sacrament of penance was at as a stake in the way the indulgences had been sold. reformation Luther gradually turned his back on the authority became in effect a of the Pope and councils and planted himself squarely on the teachings of Scripture alone. revolution. The Excommunication of Luther

Finally, in 1521 Luther went to the Diet of Worms (a parliament of the empire) under an imperial safe conduct. There he uttered the famous words: ―I cannot and will not recant anything, for it is neither safe nor honest to act against one‘s conscience. God help me. Amen.‖ On the way back Frederick of Saxony‘s men kidnapped Luther to protect him, and put him in the Wartburg Castle where he translated the New Testament into idiomatic German in the unbelievably short time of eleven weeks. While there, he was informed of extremism and violence at Wittenberg; so he returned to suppress the disturbance.

Luther was excommunicated by the Roman Church and was living under an imperial ban that deprived him of physical protection. What had begun as a reformation became in effect a revolution. Luther launched a new religious movement. During these years the Pope was still trying to stop Luther.

At the Diet of Speyer (1529) it was resolved to forbid further spread of the Lutheran movement. A number of German princes and free cities entered a protest against this action. Subscribers came to be known as Protestants, and soon the name Protestant passed on to the whole movement.

The Roman Catholics became alarmed by the spread of Protestantism and banded together to form the Holy League. War broke out in 1546, the same year Luther died. After initial victories by the Roman Catholics, the Protestants

10 finally defeated the imperial forces. The Diet of Augsburg (1555) ended the struggle and provided for the recognition of Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism as legal religions in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther‘s Able Associate

Luther‘s right-hand man at Wittenberg was Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), who directed the organisational, educational, and publishing side of the Reformation. He is often called the ‗teacher of Germany‘. He aided in establishing primary and secondary schools and did all he could to train the clergy. Recognizing the need for organizing the Church that Luther had brought into being, he prepared a manual for that purpose. He also wrote a systematic theology, commentaries on New Testament books, and was largely responsible for preparing the various statements of faith that the Lutherans presented at some of the diets where they met papal foes.

Great Distinctives of the Lutheran Reformation  Justification by faith alone  Salvation by grace alone  The Bible alone as the authority for doctrine and practice  The priesthood of the believer  Promotion of congregational singing

Luther‘s Success And Distinctives

Luther was a popular and dynamic leader in an age that was looking for such leadership. He was an unrelenting critic of Roman Catholicism in an age that became increasingly critical of Roman Catholicism. He played on the national interests of the Germans in such pamphlets as his ―Address to the Christian Nobles of the German Nation‖ in an age when nationalism was gathering momentum rapidly. He offered a message of hope and faith to a people lost in the darkness of sin and looking for light. For all these reasons, Luther was successful.

But often he has been criticised because he did not go far enough in his reforms (he retained the crucifix, candles, and other elements of Roman Catholicism), because he placed the Church under the control of civil authority, and because he failed to cooperate with the Swiss Reformers and thus present a solid block of Protestants against Roman Catholic power in Europe.

In his preaching Luther set forth three great distinctives:     

11   

He also had much to say about the priesthood of the believer. Every believer was a priest and had the right to go to God directly; Christ was the only mediator between God and humanity. Moreover, all believers had the right to interpret the Scripture for themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God spoke directly to the believer-priest through His Word; believers could address God directly in prayer and especially in their songs. Luther gave the German people not only a Bible in their own tongue, but also a hymnbook. In his hands the hymn became a powerful spiritual weapon, and he became the father of evangelical hymnody.

Stop and evaluate: Consider the advantages and disadvantages of Luther‟s distinctives. State whether you agree or disagree with each and why. Distinctive: Advantage Disadvantage Your Position

Justification by faith alone

Salvation by grace alone

The Bible alone as the authority for doctrine and practice

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The priesthood of the believer

Promotion of congregational singing

1.3.2 Ulrich Zwingli

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) sparked the Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland. After studying at the universities of Bern, Vienna, and Basel, he was ordained and became a parish priest at Glarus. He studied the classics in the original languages, laying a foundation for his future Reformation work. During those years he also served as chaplain to Swiss mercenaries in Italy and began a campaign against Swiss mercenary service.

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In 1516 he moved to the monastery Church of Einsiedeln for a three-year ministry. There he studied the Greek New Testament published by Eramus. Because the monastery Church had a well-known image of the Virgin Mary it had therefore become a popular pilgrimage centre. To such pilgrims, Zwingli began to preach against the belief that religious pilgrimages were a means of obtaining pardon.

After becoming a priest in the cathedral of Zurich (1519) Zwingli gradually became more open about his views. He broke with the Pope and married, and preached openly against celibacy. Popular feeling was roused to such a point that the city council felt that it was necessary to appoint a public meeting for the discussion of religious leaders. When it assembled, Zwingli presented Sixty-seven Articles and was so persuasive that the council declared that thereafter, all religious teaching was to be based on the Bible alone and that the state would support this principle. The council also dissolved the Zurich monasteries and took control of the Great Minster (the Cathedral). Tremendous changes followed; many priests married and set aside the mass. Some thought the evangelical movement had gone too far, but the city council stood behind the Reformation and eventually abolished the mass and image worship altogether (1525).

As political tensions heightened, some Protestant areas formed a Christian Civic League; the Roman Catholic regions organised and allied themselves with Ferdinand of Austria. A desire to avoid war led to the First Peace of Kappel in 1529. But two years later the five Roman Catholic regions attacked Zurich, which was totally unprepared for war, and defeated her forces. Zwingli fought as a common soldier in the battle and died on the field on October 11. The Second Peach of Kappel (1531) prohibited further spread of the Reformation in Switzerland. Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli‘s son-in-law, now took over leadership of the Protestant cause in Zurich and enjoyed tremendous influence in many places across the continent. The military struggle had assured the virtual independence of the several regions and therefore made it possible for the western region of Geneva to go its separate way in following the lead of John Calvin a few years later.

Zwingli directed the Reformation in Switzerland along civic lines, with a view to establish a model Christian community. He persuaded the city council to legislate the various details of the Reformation and supervise the carrying out of its decisions. In other words, he aimed at political as well as spiritual regeneration.

He held that the Lord‘s Supper contributed Zwingli’s theology put nothing to the elect; it was merely a symbol or great emphasis on the remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ. He could sovereignty of God not agree with Luther, who held that the body and His election unto and blood of Christ were really present in the salvation. Communion. This was the rock on which the negotiations of the German and Swiss Reformers broke at Marburg in 1529. During his

13 last years Zwingli moved away from this earlier position toward a doctrine of the spiritual presence of Christ in the Supper. The Zwinglian movement merged into Calvinism later in the sixteenth century.

1.3.3 John Calvin

John Calvin (1509-1564) was the great second generation Reformer. Calvin could benefit from the work of such leaders as Luther and Zwingli. He began in the Roman Church and gained experience early in life because his father was in the service of the bishop of Noyon (France). His father wanted him to study law and he completed the degree in that discipline, but he also took university training in literature. His intellectual pursuits took him to the universities at Paris, Orleans, and Bourges. At the latter he came under the influence of Wolmar, with whom he studied Greek and Hebrew and the New Testament in the original language.

His conversion probably dated sometime during 1533. Calvin says it was sudden, through private study, and because he failed to find peace in absolutions, penances, and intercessions of the Roman Catholic Church. Early in 1534 he was imprisoned twice for his faith.

For three years Calvin wandered about as a refugee in France, Germany, and Switzerland. During this period in his life, he met Martin Bucer, the great Reformer of Strasbourg. In 1536, at the age of only twenty-six, Calvin published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion; the last edition (1559) was four times the size of the original.

In Strasburg Calvin pastured a congregation of about five hundred French refugees at St. Nicholas Church, wrote his commentary on Romans, produced the text for a hymn book, met with reformers in Germany, lectured in the academy, and married a widow.

Calvinism. A system of soteriology developed from the teachings of John Calvin (A.D.1509–1564). This theology emphasises the sovereignty of God in predestination and electing some to salvation, based solely upon God‟s free and unmerited grace. Calvinism is often expressed by the acronym TULIP:

 Total depravity of man  Unconditional election  Limited atonement  Irresistible grace

 Perseverance of the saints

CALVIN‘S INFLUENCES

John Calvin was probably the most influential leader of the Reformation era. He put much stress on education. His catechetical system, a method of teaching the young by question and answer, has been carried all over the world. At the school in Geneva men were trained and spread Presbyterianism

14 all over Western Europe. It was Calvin‘s theology and form of Church government that triumphed in the Protestant Church of France, Church in Hungary, the Reformed Church in Holland, and in Puritanism in England and New England.

Calvin‘s Biblical and theological writings also have been very influential. He wrote commentaries on every book of the Bible except the Song of Solomon and Revelation. His Institutes of the Christian Religion became the dominant systematic theology of the Reformation in all except Lutheran lands. And he wrote numerous pamphlets on current issues.

Calvin is often called the father of the historical-grammatical method of Biblical study – a method that attempts to discover what the Scripture meant to those who wrote it, and what it means according to the common definition of its words and grammatical intent. Contemporary evangelical students have so taken this method for granted that they have little realisation of the part that Calvin had in its development and of the fact that it was virtually nonexistent in the Church before the Reformation.

Stop and research: Find out all you can about the Counter- Reformation movement. Then, identify and explain each of the following: a. The Inquisition b. Council of Trent c. The Thirty Years War

15 1.3.4 John Knox

The pioneer Reformer in Scotland was Patrick Hamilton, who had been influenced by Luther‘s views while a student in Paris and had returned to his homeland to preach. He was burned as a heretic in 1528. The second great leader of the Scottish Reformation was George Wishart, who had a Zwinglian and Calvinistic orientation. Wishart was martyred in 1546. Martyrs‘ blood stirred many a heart in Scotland – and many a temper, too. By the time Cardinal Beaton presided over the martyrdom of Wishart, he had made so many enemies that a band of nobles (only one of whom was Protestant) entered his castle at St. Andrews and killed him.

Wishart‘s most passionate follower was John Knox – a leader with all the enthusiasm and popular power of Luther and the steadfastness of Calvin. Knox had just completed his university training at St. Andrews about the time of Wishart‘s martyrdom, and in great personal danger, he fled for safety to the castle of St. Andrews. After some months, a French fleet, coming to the assistance of the Scottish queen, took the castle, captured its occupants, and sold Knox as a galley slave. After nineteen months, the English rescued him, and he ministered in England during the days of Edward VI.

Leaving England when Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) came to the throne, he ministered briefly among English exiles in Frankfurt and then became pastor of the group of English exiles in Geneva. His chapel was only a stone‘s throw from the cathedral where Calvin regularly preached. In 1555 he made a brief visit to England where he married, and subsequently preached in Scotland with great courage for nine months. Then he returned to Geneva for another three years.

The Reformation message spread throughout Scotland. It was so successful because of the fact that in 1543 Parliament legalised the reading of the Bible in English or Scots. Moreover, a great amount of Protestant doctrinal literature was coming into the country.

John Knox had returned to Scotland in 1559, and he set about organising a reformation that already had become a reality. The Roman Church had virtually ceased to function. Without waiting for the absent queen to express an opinion, Parliament approved the First Scottish Confession and established the Church of Scotland in August of 1560.

Protestantism was firmly established by Parliament and Queen Elizabeth I. Knox had done his work. His impact may still be seen on the Church of Scotland and the educational system of the land. When Knox died (1572), Andrew Melville took over the work and perfected the system Knox had established. Though Knox had tolerated the Episcopal form of Church government, Melville opposed it. After a lengthy conflict between the Episcopal and Presbyterian systems, Presbyterianism finally triumphed completely.

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Stop and answer: Give a short report on the following three ? ? personalities; in what ways have their lives been a challenge to you?

1. Jonathan Edwards ? 2. John Wesley 1. 3. D.L. Moody

Try the Self-test on the next page.

17 Self-test

1. was one of the most effective of the pre-

Lutheran Reformers.

2. Identify and give example of the true Waldensians.

3. John Wycliffe (1330-1384) was a

4. What were three of Wycliffe‘s influential characteristics?

5. was a professor of philosophy at the University of Prague and a preacher at Bethlehem Chapel.

6. With what articles concerning the Church did John Hus disagree?

7. Why was the invention of movable type printing important at the time of the Reformation?

8. Describe the spiritual condition of the Church in Europe just prior to the Reformation.

18 9. What were the five (5) distinctives of the Lutheran Reformation?

10. Which aspects of Luther‘s theology were often criticised?

11. (1484-1531) sparked the Reformation in

German-speaking Switzerland.

12. What was Zwingli‘s aim within the Reformation in Switzerland?

13. Explain how Calvin was the most influential leader of the Reformation era.

14. Calvin is often called the father of the method of Biblical study.

Now compare your answers with mine on the next page.

19 Self-test

1. Peter Waldo was one of the most effective of the pre-

Lutheran Reformers.

2. Identify and give example of the true Waldensians.

The true Waldensians took the new Testament as a rule of faith and life and appear to have used it in a rather legalistic sense.

3. John Wycliffe (1330-1384) was a Biblical Reformer

4. What were three of Wycliffe‘s influential characteristics?

The influential characteristics of Wycliffe were at least threefold:  His intense patriotism  His deep piety

 The belief of many that he had no scholarly equal in England

John Hus 5. was a professor of philosophy at the University of Prague and a preacher at Bethlehem Chapel.

6. What articles concerning the Church did John Hus disagree with?

He argued against the buying and selling of spiritual or Church

related things, indulgences, and abuses of the mass. He demanded a

reform in the lives of clergy, and he declared the right of laity to take

both the bread and wine in the Communion.

7. Why was the invention of movable type printing important at the time of the Reformation? The invention of movable type printing was important because Reformers were able to print their concepts and widely distribute

them.

8. Describe the spiritual condition of the Church in Europe just prior to the Reformation.

The religion of Europe was in a condition of decay. The evils of the Church

were many – simony (buying and selling of spiritual or Church-related things), economic oppression, the purchase of salvation through indulgences, immorality of many of the clergy, and so on. The wave of secularism that overcame Europe during the fifteenth century affected all levels of Church life: the congregation, lower and higher clergy, monks, etc. The corruption of the Church led to numerous calls from within for its reform.

20 9. What were the five (5) distinctives of the Lutheran Reformation?

Great Distinctives of the Lutheran Reformation

 Justification by faith alone

 Salvation by grace alone  The Bible alone as the authority for doctrine and practice  The priesthood of the believer  Promotion of congregational singing

10. Which aspects of Luther‘s theology were often criticised?

He was often criticised because:  He did not go far enough in his reforms (he retained the crucifix, candles, and other elements of Roman Catholicism).  He placed the Church under the control of civil authority.  He failed to cooperate with the Swiss Reformers and thus present a solid block of Protestants against Roman Catholic power in Europe.

Ulrich Zwingli 11. (1484-1531) sparked the Reformation in

German-speaking Switzerland.

12. What was Zwingli‘s aim within the Reformation in Switzerland?

Zwingli directed the Reformation in Switzerland along civic lines, with a view to establish a model Christian community. He persuaded the city council to legislate the various details of the Reformation and supervise the carrying out of its decisions. In other words, he aimed at political as well as spiritual regeneration.

13. Explain how Calvin was the most influential leader of the Reformation era.

John Calvin was probably the most influential leader of the Reformation era. He put much stress on education. His catechetical system, a method of teaching the young by question and answer, has been carried all over the world. And at the school in Geneva men were trained and spread Presbyterianism all over Western Europe. It was Calvin‟s theology and form of Church government that triumphed in the Protestant Church of France, Church in Hungary, the Reformed Church in Holland, and in Puritanism in England and New England. Calvin‟s Biblical and theological writings also have been very influential. He wrote commentaries on every book of the Bible except the Song of Solomon and Revelation. His Institutes of the Christian Religion became the dominant systematic theology of the Reformation in all except Lutheran lands. And he wrote numerous pamphlets on current issues.

14. Calvin is often called the father of the historical-grammatical method of Biblical study.

21

TEXT BOOK WORK

Read Part I (Pages 1-66) of your textbook, Revival.

Answer the questions below.

1. Which of the following words would best describe revival, according to the book. Explain why. a. Reawakening b. Renewal c. Rebirth

2. Who said, “Revival accomplishes what our best spiritual efforts cannot. Revival is necessary to counteract spiritual decline and to create spiritual momentum”? What is the significance of this statement?

3. Which two Reformers could not agree over the nature of the communion table elements and why?

4. What was the emphasis of Martin Luther‟s Ninety-five Theses? Why were they profound for the Church of that day?

5. What Scripture was Martin Luther reading and convicted of by the Holy Spirit concerning salvation through faith and not works.

22

UNIT TWO

THE CHURCH IN MODERN EUROPE 1619

Learning Outcomes:

(1) Learn the development and effect of the Reformation Church in Modern Europe. (2) Understand the effect of Mysticism, Revivalism, Rationalism and Science on the Church. (3) Identify the beginnings of the modern missionary movements.

2.1 AN AGE OF ORTHODOXY

The seventeenth century was a century of orthodoxy. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics were concerned with dogmatic development of their positions for the purpose of catechising their supporters. Although some of this orthodoxy stressed Christian experience, much of it emphasised right thinking. The drying up of the wellsprings of vitality in religion had started by the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the process gathered speed in certain areas of Europe that lay powerless as a result of the Thirty Years War.

Cold and callous orthodoxy will not long satisfy. It will produce at least three reactions or results: rationalism, Biblical revivalism, or extreme forms of mysticism. In other words, some will turn from ineffective supernatural Christianity, to a religion based on human reason or to no religion at all; others will return to a healthy combination of doctrine and experience; still others will substitute the authority of experience for the authority of creeds, catechisms, and sometimes Scripture itself.

ortho+dox adj. 1. conforming with established or accepted standards, as in religion, behaviour, or attitudes. 2. conforming to the Christian faith as established by the early Church.

2.1.1 Forms of Mysticism

THE QUAKERS

Prominent among the inner light or mystical groups of the seventeenth century were the Quakers. The originator of the movement was George Fox of Drayton, England. Following a religious experience in 1646, he began a forty-year ministry of preaching, including journeys to Ireland, the West Indies, and North America. The Quaker movement spread very rapidly across England and, after its organisation in 1660, to the Continent, Asia, Africa, the West Indies, and North America. There William Penn founded a refuge for

23 them in Pennsylvania in 1682, after it had become evident that New Jersey would not offer them adequate protection.

The Quakers were severely persecuted, not only because of their great difference from the confessional Churches on many points, but because of their open criticism of other faiths, their refusal to pay taxes for the support of the state Churches in some places, and their occasional disruption of services of the state Churches.

Quakers emphasised the work of the Holy Spirit: that the revelations of the Spirit, or the inner light, were equal to the Bible, but not contradictory to it; that since the Holy Spirit speaks to all, special training and ministers were unnecessary; that the Spirit could speak through women as well as men, and therefore they could teach and preach on an equal basis with men; and that formal worship was an abomination to God. They insisted on complete separation of Church and state and did not practise the sacraments, take oaths, or do military service.

Their frequent imprisonments acquainted them with conditions in English jails and led them into prison reform. Later they launched a campaign against slavery and entered other forms of social service. In more recent times many Quakers have abandoned the traditional service, in which people sat silently until ―moved by the Spirit‖ to share with those gathered, and have turned to a simple service led by a pastor. There are about 200,000 Quakers (or Friends) in the world today, of which approximately 80,000 live in the United States.

Stop and explore: Describes how the Quakers contributed towards  Christianity.

QUIETISM

Within Romanism there was also a reaction to the rationalisation of dogma, which expressed itself in an extreme mystical movement known as Quietism. It held to the teaching that God can act on believers to meet their spiritual need only as they surrender themselves utterly. When the soul is completely passive, the way is open to receive impartation of divine light from God. At

24 that point the individual rests in the presence of God in pure faith in a kind of mystic death or sinless state, and all that the person thinks or does is supposed to be the work of God. Some of the Quietists were pantheistic in approach, teaching that contemplation of the divine would lead to absorption into the divine.

2.1.2 Biblical Revivalism

THE GREAT AWAKENING

The Great Awakening of 1740-1743 was largely confined to New England although it later spread to other parts of the thirteen colonies.

This awakening was largely due to the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Both were committed Calvinists. Indeed, Jonathan Edwards consciously drew on Puritan theology and strongly emphasised God‘s sovereignty in his preaching. Both men discouraged emotionalism although they called for visible signs of the conversion experience. Gradually Calvinism was modified in significant ways by Arminian emphases. This meant that the initiative in redemption increasingly shifted from God alone to both God and man. This naturally led to great activism, in mission as well as in other spheres: if man‘s salvation was in the last analysis dependent emphases produced considerable disruption in the Puritan Churches and those that separated from the parent body in time became the core of the Baptist movement in America. It represented the shift of emphasis from the sovereignty of God to the Kingship of Christ, from predestination to grace, from the correctness of doctrine to the warmth of love.

? ? Stop and answer: Give your views concerning the „visible signs‟ relating to the conversion experience. What are these signs, if any, and ? support your answer from Scripture.

The personal experience of the truth taught by Scripture gained in importance. It should be noted that the evangelical movement that grew out of the Great Awakening and extended to England, Scotland and Wales under the influence of John Wesley and his associates gave little attention to political issues. Indeed, they prided themselves in the fact that politics were never mentioned

25 in Methodist pulpits. We are not suggesting that the preachers of this larger evangelical awakening throughout the English-speaking world were insensitive to social and political abuses. However, as they detected deficiencies in the body politic, they did not try to whip up their will by admonitions, threats and promises. They sought to cleanse the fountains of life. In penitence and longing they turned to worship, to self-examination in the presence of God and to the contemplation of the Cross of Christ.

People such as William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury, John Newton and many others whose names are associated with the abolition of slavery, the upliftment of the poor, and the war against vice, all hailed from the evangelical awakening.

PIETISM

A seventeenth-century evangelical corrective to the cold orthodoxy of the Lutheran Church was Pietism. Although its main centre was in Germany, it claimed many adherents in Switzerland and Holland as well. In Holland, the revolt was against the Dutch Reformed Church. Pietism emphasised the need for a regeneration experience on the part of all, promoted a living Christianity wherein the love of God would be expressed, and encouraged practical Church work and Bible study on the part of laypersons. It also sought better spiritual training for ministers and a great fervency in the preaching of sermons.

The great leaders of German Pietism were PJ Pietism emphasised the Spener and AH Francke; the latter was need for a regeneration experience on the part of especially important for his training schools and all, promoted a living institutions for the needy at Halle (e.g., an Christianity wherein the orphanage, a hospital, a widows‘ home). Spener love of God would be and Francke did not want to found a new Church expressed, and to leaven the larger community. However their encouraged practical lack of organisation made their work somewhat Church work and Bible ineffective in perpetuating their message and study on the part of ministry. The almost Pharisaic attitudes and laypersons. strict legalism of many of its adherents did not provide the pleasant attractiveness to a more elevated Christianity that Spener and Francke had desired.

ARMINIANISM

While Pietism reacted primarily against Lutheranism, Arminianism reacted against the Reformed Church of Holland which had grown much more harsh and severe than it was in Calvin‘s day; so the Arminians in 1610 (a year after the death of Jacobus Arminius, their leader) addressed a Remonstrance to the States-General of Holland. In it they emphasised that opportunity and responsibility of man in salvation:  One faces a choice of salvation or condemnation and is actually free to do so.

26  Predestination is conditioned on God‘s foreknowledge of one‘s faith and perseverance.  Although grace is indispensable it is not irresistible.  To stay saved one must desire God‘s help and be actively engaged in living the Christian life.

Perhaps it should be noted that in the ongoing debate between Arminianism and Calvinism both groups have grown more extreme that the views set forth by their founders. Much misunderstanding of both positions and much quibbling between groups holding these divergent positions today could be stopped if there were a wider reading and understanding of the words of Calvin and Arminius. At any rate, the Dutch Church did not welcome the Arminian Remonstrance, but at the Synod of Dort in 1618 set forth the five points of Calvinism in response to it:

 Total depravity of man after the Fall.  Unconditional election.  Limited atonement.  Irresistible grace (divine grace cannot be rejected by the elect).  Perseverance of the saints (they cannot fall from grace).

2.2 AN AGE OF RATIONALISM

2.2.1 The Rise of Rationalism

If the seventeenth century was an age of orthodoxy, the eighteenth was an age of rationalism. In part, rationalism was a reaction to or an outgrowth of cold orthodoxy. And in part it grew out of the great emphasis on faith and emotion during the seventeenth century. Many of the groups that stressed Spiritual experience did not strive hard enough to meet the intellectual needs of their public. In their emphasis on emotion, they neglected a doctrinal basis of their faith.

SECULAR PHILOSOPHY

The rise of rationalism also resulted from the place given to philosophy in the universities. During the Middle Ages philosophy and theology had been joined in the system called Scholasticism; but with the decline of Scholasticism and the Church the two were separated, with the result that philosophy became an enemy of theology. Western philosophy was now free to discover answers to the big questions of life by means of human reason alone. In such a frame of reference there were no absolutes, and thought processes disagreed with theological systems in which the answers to the big questions of life came by revelation and in which there were many divinely arranged absolutes.

THE NATURAL RELIGION OF DEISM

The new scientific developments concluded that the universe was a closed system of cause and effect, ruled by universal and dependable laws. God was considered to be a necessary first cause to start the system going; but once

27 He set the universe in motion, He no longer interfered with its natural processes. Miracle, providence, prayer, and revelation were ruled out. The natural religion of deism took over. God was still viewed as Creator, but He had little to do with the universe, which He, as a watchmaker, had wound up and let run according to natural laws.

Since He did not interfere in this universe, there was no such thing as revelation. Thus the Bible was a human book with some elevated ethical principles and spiritual lessons that had value for humanity. The greatest revelation of all, God‘s self-revelation in His Son, and the greatest miracle of all, the incarnation of the Son, were rejected out of hand. Thus, Jesus was only a human with an amazing God-consciousness and a superior ethic to be emulated. Deism made great inroads in England, France, Germany, and other countries of Europe, as well as in America.

JOHN LOCKE

Rationalism dominated continental European philosophy, but in Britain empiricism was the most significant philosophical movement. The term derives from Greek word for experience. Though they had many differences, the empiricists all stressed the part played by experience in knowledge. In this they were reacting to, and correcting, European rationalism. The three leading British figures were Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

John Locke (1632-1704) studied medicine at the University of Oxford in the heyday of the Puritans. When the Commonwealth collapsed and Charles II was brought back as king, Locke found it prudent to live in Holland. He wrote various works on politics and apologetics. But his main philosophical work was his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).

Locke pictured the human mind as a blank sheet. How does it get its ideas and knowledge? Locke replied that there is only one way – through the experience of our senses. Reason has its part to play in judging ideas, and in interpreting the data fed to it by the senses. But reason cannot operate independently. It is what we see, touch, taste, hear and smell that provides the basis of all knowledge.

If this is so, then Christian faith must likewise be based on experience. The world around us points to its origin in a wise, loving and all-powerful God. The gospel is vindicated by the way in which Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus and by the miracles that he performed.

Miracles are like the credentials of an ambassador. They are proof of his authority. Because we accept the miracles of Jesus we can trust the truth of his teaching about God. There are some things which accord with reason (for example, the existence of God). Other things are contrary to reason (for example, the existence of more than one God). But there are also things that are above reason (for example, the resurrection of Jesus). There are grounds for believing it, but human reason just cannot grasp it.

28 One of the most influential writers of the century was David Hume (1711– 1776), a Scottish philosopher and historian. He is especially remembered for his sceptical attacks on miracles, which appeared in his famous ―Essay on Miracles,‖ published in his Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1748). He is also important for his An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), in which he argued that moral judgments were the product of passions rather than of reason.

Stop and research: Consider David Hume‟s conclusion on moral judgment. Develop your own conclusion as to what is involved in making moral judgments.

2.2.2 The Methodist and Moravian Counterattack

Attack and counterattack are characteristic both of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The attack during the eighteenth century was launched by rationalism, and a counterattack by such groups as Moravians and Methodists.

THE MORAVIANS

The Moravian movement was an outgrowth of Pietism. Its leader, Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, had spent several years in one of the Pietistic schools at Halle. In 1722 he invited exiled Protestants from Bohemia and Moravia to settle on his estate in Saxony, where they organised as the ―renewed fraternity,‖ dedicated to a religion of the heart and an intimate fellowship with the Saviour. Zinzendorf himself developed a very keen interest in world evangelisation, but he was especially concerned with establishing an international fellowship of true believers belonging to various religious bodies. Therefore he did not want to start a new denomination. He kept his own colony within the Lutheran Church.

As Moravian missionaries became active in preaching the gospel and in organising groups of believers within the established Churches of Europe, they had great success in founding fellowships elsewhere in Germany and in Holland, Denmark, England, Switzerland, and North America. When Zinzendorf fell into the disfavour of the Lutheran Church he was exiled for

29 over ten years. During those years the Moravians organised themselves as a separate denomination known as the Unity of the Brethren (1742), and won recognition from the Saxon government. In England they became known as Moravians. Their doctrinal position was basically that of the Lutheran Augsburg Confession.

“The existence of one The Moravians have been famous for their God is according to Church music. Zinzendorf is credited with the reason; the existence authorship of more than 2,000 lyrics. There are of more than one God about 510,000 Moravians in the world today, contrary to reason; 55,000 in the United States and 60% of the total the resurrection of in Tanzania and South Africa, reflecting the the dead, above missionary thrust of the denomination. reason.”

John Locke METHODISM

The Moravians had a direct influence on the establishment of the Methodist movement, which was founded by John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. Moravian missionaries exposed the Wesleys to the gospel message while the latter were on a futile missionary journey to the New World and had not yet been converted. Later, another Moravian, Peter Boehler, brought the Wesleys to Christ. Shortly thereafter, John Wesley visited Zinzendorf in Germany and then embarked on his lifework. Methodist was the name applied to the ―holy club‖ at Oxford to which the Wesleys and George Whitefield had belonged; they had founded the organisation because of their concern over the spiritual condition among the students. Because of the strict rules and precise spiritual methods of the group, they were nicknamed ―Methodists‖; subsequently the name passed on to the movement.

John Wesley (1703–1791) and George Whitefield (1714–1770) were great preachers; while Charles Wesley (1708–1788), also a preacher, was the hymn writer of the three. Having composed some 7,270 hymns, he is ranked by many as the greatest hymn writer of all ages.

Early Methodism was characterised by:  The preaching of present assurance of salvation.  The development of the inner spiritual life.  The belief in the attainability of Christian perfection in this life.  The dignified ritual.

The Wesleys were Arminian in their theology, but Whitefield was Calvinistic. Originally, John Wesley did not wish to organise the Methodist Church as a separate denomination; he set up societies within the Anglican Church. But the success of the American Revolution demanded a separation there, and the Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1784. In England, Methodism separated from the Anglican Church about the same time.

As well as having a wide spiritual impact, Methodism proved to be a very real answer to the social ills of the day. Spiritually, Methodism was the answer to deism in England, especially among the lower and middle classes. And it met

30 the needs of the new labouring classes in the cities, for whom the Anglican Church did not assume much responsibility. Socially, in large measure it slowed down the forces in France that were heading toward revolution: it provided medical dispensaries, orphanages, and relief for the poor; it stood at the front of the movement for prison reform, the abolition of slavery, and the regulation of industry.

2.3 AN AGE OF SCIENCE

Although the beginnings of the scientific revolution can be traced to the sixteenth century, science did not make its full impact on society until the nineteenth century. It was the harnessing of technology and science that drastically changed the way people lived.

As unions and governmental agencies took over functions and provided social outlets previously furnished by the Church, society became increasingly secularised. Materialism overspread all things. Sunday was the workers‘ day off, and they used it as a day of recreation. In many cities, had they wanted to go to Church there would not have been enough Churches for them to attend, because denominations often failed to keep up with the need. It may be said that the real enemy of religion was the science of the shop rather than the science of the laboratory.

Stop and research: Discuss the impact of Darwin‟s theory of Evolution on the modern world?

31 2.3.1 Romanticism

Romanticism was characterised by a new emphasis on feeling, faith, individualism, and communion with nature divine and untamed. There was a new emphasis on feeling in all phases of life – music, poetry, drama, and certainly religion. Faith – not necessarily orthodox faith – was considered to be good. Individualism manifested itself in a new impatience with society‘s laws and rules of conduct and sought expression in personal religion and individualised education.

One facet of the Romantic reaction was the revival of religion of all types. Some took the artistic approach and found a delight in vesture and symbol and stained glass and stately organ music. Others turned from rationalistic apologies for Christianity to emotional experience of a more or less orthodox faith.

An evangelical revival moved through the Church of England during the first third of the century under the leadership of such well-known saints as John Newton and William Wilberforce. Meanwhile Methodist, Baptist, and other dissenter groups grew quickly in number. The Sunday school movement spread across England like a fire, and several Bible societies were founded in Europe and America, including the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Berlin Bible Society, and the American Bible Society. At the same time, the foreign missions movement continued to expand. In fact the nineteenth century has been called the ―Great Century of Protestant Missions.‖

THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT

The modern missionary movement is usually considered to have begun with William Carey (1761–1834), whose efforts led to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society at Kettering, England, in 1792. The following year Carey set out for India. As reports of his work reached home, members of other denominations banded together to form the London Missionary Society (1795). Other societies followed in rapid succession. Carey taught himself several languages of India and became a leader in Bible translation. The Anglican Henry Martyn and the Church of Scotland‘s Alexander Duff followed him there. Samuel Marsden pioneered for over forty years in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

Early British Missionaries:

 William Carey, Henry Martyn, Alexander Duff—India

 Samuel Marsden—South Pacific

 Robert Morrison, Hudson Taylor—China

 Robert and Mary Moffat, —Africa

32 The London Missionary Society sent Robert Morrison to open up the work in China, and Robert and Mary Moffat and their son-in-law, David Livingstone, to Africa. Moffat translated the Bible into important tribal languages of South Africa. Livingstone opened up central Africa. In 1865 J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission (now known as Overseas Missionary Fellowship), one of the great interdenominational faith missions. His writings and extensive travels led to the establishment of several other faith missions.

England and Scotland were not the only European countries sending out missionaries during the nineteenth century. In 1821 the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society and the Danish Missionary Society were founded. Three years later, in 1824, the Berlin Missionary Society and the Paris Missionary Society came into being.

The First English Missions

A revolution took place in English preaching during the later years of the seventeenth century. It was largely brought about by John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury 1691-1694. It changed from theological interpretation and magnificent eloquence to moral argument and practical simplicity. One effect was that ‗groups of serious men‘ formed voluntary societies for religious and social purposes, influenced by some of the great preachers in London. Most of these societies were small and short-lived. But two became of great importance and have survived to the present time. These are the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). Both of these owe their foundation to the initiative of a small group of clergymen and laymen under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Bray (1656- 1730).

Bray was the rector, first of a parish in Warwickshire, then of a parish in London. He was seriously concerned by ‗the gross ignorance of the Christian religion‘, which was so prevalent. In 1696 he drew up a plan for ‗a Protestant Congregation or Society‘, which was to work in a similar way to the Propaganda of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1698, with four laymen, Bray set up the The official seal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. On the left, SPCK. Its objects were ‗to promote and people are calling for help, which is encourage the erection of charity schools arriving in the shape of an English in all parts of England and Wales; to warship carrying a clergyman. disperse, both at home and abroad, Bibles and tracts of religion; and in general to advance the honour of God and the good of mankind by promoting Christian knowledge both at home and in the other parts of the world by the best methods that should offer‘.

33 The SPCK gave much of its attention to education during the first half of the eighteenth century. It helped found charity schools, where poor children were given an elementary education and religious instruction. The SPCK also published books and tracts, encouraged the forming of libraries for the clergy, corresponded with Protestant Churches on the continent of Europe, assisted Protestant refugees and provided religious books for settlers in the American colonies.

When the SPCK had become active in so many fields, Bray decided to found a separate society to engage in overseas mission. This was the SPG, founded in 1701. Its object was to provide an Anglican ministry for British people overseas, and to evangelise the non-Christian subjects of the British monarch. It had a more official position within the Anglican Church than the SPCK. It was authorised by the English clergy in Convocation and incorporated by royal charter. It was a body corporate, and had the power (which the SPCK lacked) to receive, invest and administer funds.

In 1699 Bray had made a brief visit to Maryland as the bishop of London‘s representative (Commissary). He had become aware of the weakness of the Church of England in the American colonies. For this reason the society at first concentrated upon raising money to provide ‗a sufficient maintenance for an orthodox clergy‘ to care for the spiritual needs of the colonists. But in 1710 the SPG agreed to concern itself also with the ‗conversion of heathens and infidels‘. During the eighteenth century SPG missionaries worked in the North American colonies, Canada and the West Indies. The SPG was the first missionary society of the Church of England.

Now try the Self-test on the next day.

34 Self-test

1. What is orthodox?

2. Why were the Quakers severely persecuted?

3. The Great Awakening was largely due to the preaching of

and

4. What was emphasised in Pietism?

5. What four points does Arminianism emphasise concerning the opportunity and responsibility of man in salvation?

6. taught that just as the universe was governed by natural law, so men (as part of nature) were guaranteed certain natural rights.

35

7. was a Scottish philosopher and historian.

8. The Moravian Movement was an

9. Who founded the Methodist movement?

10. How was early Methodism characterised?

Compare yours answers with mine on the next page.

36 Self-test

1. What is orthodox?

Orthodox is: 1. Conforming with established or accepted standards, as in religion, behaviour, or attitudes. 2. Conforming to the Christian faith as established by the early Church.

2. Why were the Quakers severely persecuted?

They were persecuted for their differences from the confessional Churches as well as their open criticism of other faiths, their refusal to pay taxes for the support of the state Churches and their occasional disruption of services of the state Churches.

3. The Great Awakening was largely due to the preaching of

Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield

4. What did Pietism emphasise?

Pietism emphasised the need for a regeneration experience on the part of all, promoted a living Christianity wherein the love of God would be expressed, and encouraged practical Church work and Bible study on the part of laypersons.

5. What four points does Arminianism emphasise concerning the opportunity and responsibility of man in salvation?

 One faces a choice of salvation or condemnation and is actually free to do so.  Predestination is conditioned on God‟s foreknowledge of one‟s faith and perseverance.  Although grace is indispensable it is not irresistible.  To stay saved one must desire God‟s help and be actively engaged in living the Christian life.

John Locke 6. taught that just as the universe was governed by natural law, so men (as part of nature) were guaranteed certain natural rights.

37

7. David Hume was a Scottish philosopher and historian.

8. The Moravian Movement was an outgrowth of Pietism

9. Who founded the Methodist movement?

John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield founded Methodism

10. How was early Methodism characterised?

Early Methodism was characterised by:  The preaching of present assurance of salvation.  The development of the inner spiritual life.  The belief in the attainability of Christian perfection in this life.  The dignified ritual.

38 TEXT BOOK WORK

Read Part II (pages 69 – 118) of your textbook, Revival.

Answer the following questions:

1. Describe the state of Europe at the time of the first Great Awakening.

2. Which Church group had a deep affect on John Wesley‟s conversion and lifestyle? How?

3. Why was the Church of England not ready for a man like Whitefield? Explain.

4. How did Jonathan Edwards characterise a revival?

39 UNIT THREE

REVIVAL, SOCIAL CONCERNS, AND LIBERALISM 1789-1914

Learning Outcomes: (1) Understand the developments of the second evangelical awakening. (2) Learn the importance of the movement of Revivalism that took place in North America. (3) Develop an understanding of social problems and how they affected the Christian community during the nineteenth century. (4) Understand the growth and need for the development of evangelical mission organisations.

3.1 RELIGIOUS DECLINE

The Revolutionary War was hard on religious life in America. Because the Churches so generally supported the Revolution, the British took out their spite on houses of worship. Moreover, many Churches were destroyed when they were used for barracks, hospitals, and storage of military equipment. This was true in part because the constant heating of Churches, often with defective or inadequate chimneys, resulted in disastrous fires. Pastors and their people were absorbed in the cause of the Revolution rather than in building up the Churches, and French deism and atheism were fashionable because of the alliance with France. In fact, rationalism took control in the colleges and other intellectual centres of the land. In some colleges, there was hardly a student who would admit to being a Christian.

Bishop Samuel Provoost of the Episcopal Conditions were so Diocese of New York believed the situation so bad when the new hopeless that he simply stopped his ministry. A nation was being committee of Congress reported on the launched that desperate state of lawlessness on the frontier. politicians and Of a population of five million, the United States ministers alike had 300,000 drunkards and buried about fifteen virtually gave up thousand of them annually. In 1796 George hope. Washington agreed with a friend that national affairs were leading to a crisis, and he could not predict what might happen.

Dark indeed were the closing years of the eighteenth century. There is little good that can be said of those times except that God was not through with the United States.

40 3.2 REVIVAL MOVEMENTS

Major Nineteenth Century Revivals

Second Evangelical Awakening Finney Revivals Revival of 1858 Evangelistic Work of Dwight L. Moody

3.2.1 The Second Evangelical Awakening

Help was on the way. A few local revivals broke out in the early 1790s, but nothing extensive came until after the Concert of Prayer was launched. Denomination after denomination took up the challenge to engage in the Concert of Prayer beginning on the first Tuesday in January 1795, and continuing once a quarter thereafter. Revivals began to break out everywhere around the turn of the century. The Second Evangelical Awakening was in progress (not only in America, but in Britain, on the Continent, and elsewhere).

In New England the revival was quiet, not accompanied by emotional manifestations as during the Great Awakening. The situation on the frontier was different, however. There the Presbyterians set up a camp meeting, to which thousands came from far and near. Emotional outbreaks were common in these meetings, but they have been greatly misrepresented or overplayed; and they did not seem to hinder the effect of the revival. Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all worked side by side in these great gatherings, and all three benefited tremendously from the effort.

The effects of the Second Evangelical Awakening were tremendous:

1. The colleges of the land were largely disciplined through the defeat of unfaithfulness. 2. There was a spiritual quickening in nearly all denominations, with tens of thousands being added to Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches. 3. Lines were more clearly drawn between rationalism and evangelicalism, and there was a split between the Unitarians and evangelicals in the Congregational Church. 4. The midweek prayer meeting and Sunday schools became common features of Church life. 5. Close to a score of new colleges and seminaries were founded. 6. Missionary endeavour was spurred. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions came into being in 1810; one of its first missionaries was Adoniram Judson. The American Bible Society was founded in 1816, the American Tract Society in 1825.

41

? ? Stop and consider: Re-read the effects of the second Evangelical Awakening. What effects do you see in today‟s society? Is some of ? this still taking place? Why or why not?

3.2.2 The Finney Revivals

As the Second Evangelical Awakening began to lose some of its force, Charles G. Finney came on the scene with his revival efforts. Beginning in New York State in 1824, he conducted very effective meetings in several Eastern cities. The greatest took place in Rochester, New York, in the fall and winter of 1830–31, when he reported one thousand conversions in a city of 10,000. The revival affected adjacent towns as well, with over 1,500 making professions of faith and joining the Churches in them (Hardman, 209). At the same time there were about one hundred thousand conversions in other parts of the country from New England to the Southwest. In 1835 Finney became president of Oberlin College in Ohio, where he continued to be an influential revivalist through personal campaigns and the wide distribution of his Lectures on Revival.

The teachings of Finney and his associates Asa Mahan and Thomas Upham included entire consecration, sinless perfection in this life, and freedom of the will. Finney is given credit for introducing the anxious bench (the place to which inquirers went forward for conversion) and the cottage prayer meeting (at which non-Christians were prayed for by name in meetings in private homes). Out of the Oberlin School came the Holiness and Pentecostal Churches. Not only did Finney‘s work make a great impact on America, but he also made two trips to Europe, where he experienced extensive success.

re+viv+al n. 1. the act or an instance of reviving or the state of being revived. 2. an instance of returning to life or consciousness; restoration of vigour or vitality. 3. a renewed use, acceptance of, or interest in (past customs, styles, etc.).

re+viv+al+ism n. 1. a movement, esp. an evangelical Christian one, that seeks to reawaken faith. 2. the tendency or desire to revive former customs, styles, etc.

42 3.2.3 The Revival of 1858

Another great revival spread across the country in 1858–59. It was quite different from other revivals in that it did not have a series of great names attached to it, but those most responsible for its success were laymen. Moreover, it was enthusiastically supported by almost all Protestant denominations and was reported favourably by the press—which helped to make it the success it was.

The revival began in Canada in September 1857, and the first outbreaks in the United States occurred in Virginia and the Carolinas among slaves, who did not have any money at all. Ultimately over one hundred thousand blacks were converted in the 1858 revival.

The movement gained momentum through the efforts of Jeremiah Lanphier, a city missionary in New York, who distributed handbills calling for weekly noon prayer meetings at the North Dutch Church beginning on September 23, 1857. People were invited to come for five or ten minutes or to stay the whole hour if they could. Soon it became necessary to schedule daily meetings at other Churches, halls, and theatres; and the movement spread to Philadelphia, Albany, Boston, Chicago, and other cities North and South. It is estimated that there were at least one million conversions in the United States during 1858 and 1859.

In 1859 the influence of the revival spread to the British Isles, where it is said that another million made professions of faith. The awakening also touched many European countries, South Africa, India, the East and West Indies, and Canada. During the war, in 1861, a revival broke out among Confederate forces around Richmond and became a general moving of the Spirit by 1863. Though estimates vary, probably fifty thousand or more were converted in this awakening among the troops.

Stop and research: Consider the „outlook‟ of the people. Why do you think a Revival was necessary at this time?

If you were one of the Revivalists, what would you include in your sermon at an evangelical service during the Revival? Write a brief outline.

43 3.2.4 D.L. Moody‟s Evangelistic Outreaches

One of the greatest modern revivalists was D. L. Moody, whose preaching was of the old evangelical type: a middle-of-the-road Calvinism rather than the Arminian approach of Finney and the Holiness preaching of the century. He urged predominantly the love of God as the great reason for repentance. Starting out in the YMCA and army camps during the Civil War, he conducted mass evangelism campaigns with the assistance of Ira D. Sankey in the large cities during the last three decades of the century.

Not only did he have remarkable success in the US, but also made several trips to England. One of the most notable of these was the 1873–1875 campaign, during which he preached to more than 2.5 million people in London alone. Before the London crusade, he had conducted successful evangelistic efforts in other major cities of England and Scotland.

Another indication of the new approach was Moody‘s pitching a tent at the Chicago World‘s Moody’s ministry Fair in 1893. One of Moody‘s better-known with the YMCA accomplishments was the founding of the Moody and his mass evangelism Bible Institute (1886), which pioneered the symbolised concept of Bible institutes and led to the a new thrust of the founding of hundreds of similar schools, Church especially in the United States and Canada. R. to reach the A. Torrey (first president of Moody Bible un-Churched in great Institute), J. Wilbur Chapman, and other urban centres evangelists followed in his train. And revivalism has been a continuing characteristic of American Christianity.

Not the least of the later revivals in the United States was the awakening of 1905. Part of a worldwide movement and apparently especially inspired by British revivals, it touched all parts of the country and made its impact in Canada as well. Northern Methodists reported an increase of over 200,000 in 1905–1906; Lutherans, 167,000; Baptists, 165,000; and Presbyterians, 67,000. Revivals hit college campuses in several parts of the country. Missionary effort was greatly stimulated.

3.3 SOCIAL CONCERNS

The perfectionist, or sanctification, preaching of Charles Finney, Asa Mahan, Walter and Phoebe Palmer, William and Catherine Booth, and many others, especially in the Methodist and Holiness camps, promoted concern for eradication not only of personal sin, but also of the sins of society. They believed that only the power of the Spirit of God ultimately could solve the ills of society and that personal holiness led believers to be servants of their fellow men and women.

The social concerns of many evangelicals coincided with those of such liberal leaders as Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, who wanted to

44 deal with a host of problems plaguing society during the nineteenth century. But in this movement the prevalence of numbers and wealth lay on the side of the evangelicals.

One of the first social problems to receive attention was alcoholism. In 1836 two nationwide organisations merged to form the American Temperance Union, designed to urge moderation. The aim of the movement was not to control private behaviour, but to reform society; drunkenness was viewed as the prime cause of poverty

Stop and explore: Give consideration to the problem of alcoholism. Do you think the government is doing all that is possible to fight

 alcoholism? Do you believe it is the government or Church‟s responsibility to fight this disease?

What would you do, in your Church or ministry, to combat alcoholism in your community?

Various evangelical agencies developed a new concern for those whom the industrial system had relegated to the city slums. Organisations such as the American Sunday School Union and the Home Missionary and Tract societies moved from simple evangelism to the establishment of Sunday schools and mission Churches, job placement, distribution of food and clothing to the poor, and resettlement of destitute youth.

During and after the Civil War the Churches became more alert to their social obligations. City rescue missions, orphanages, hospitals, homes for the aged, and other agencies were established to meet the needs of various groups. The YMCA and YWCA movements spread rapidly across the country to provide for city youths lodging, social activity, and Bible study.

At the end of the war, in 1866, the several Church-sponsored freedmen‘s relief associations united as the American Freedman‘s Union Commission to aid freed slaves. There are other organisations and individuals, but these examples will suffice. Some of the most effective and best-known efforts took

45 place in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, but the Churches rallied to aid the needs in many centres of the land.

3.4 RISE OF LIBERALISM

As noted above, by no means all those engaged in social action were evangelicals. And even some of the evangelicals in time neglected their Biblical underpinnings, continuing to feed the hungry but forgetting to do it in the name of Christ.

WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH

The name most commonly associated with the rise of the Social Gospel is Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918). Pastor of a Baptist Church in New York (beginning in 1886), where he came to know human need firsthand, he later joined the faculty of Colgate-Rochester Theological Seminary, where he wrote influential books: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Christianising the Social Order (1912), and A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917).

Though he started out early in life with a belief in original sin and personal salvation, by the time he got to his last book he viewed sin as social and impersonal and taught that social reform would come with the demise of capitalism, the advance of socialism, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. Rauschenbusch‘s views found ready acceptance by such spokesmen as Shailer Matthews and Shirley Jackson Case, both at the University of Chicago.

CHANNING, PARKER, AND BUSHNELL

The impact of Rauschenbusch must be added to other threads in the development of liberalism during the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the century Unitarianism made deep inroads under the leadership of such outstanding spokesmen as William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) and Theodore Parker (1810–1860). Channing‘s sermon ―Unitarian Christianity‖ (1819) receives credit for launching the Unitarian controversy.

Another influential figure of the century was Horace Bushnell (1802–1876). Bushnell published his Christian Nurture in 1847 and argued that a child should grow up in a Christian home as a child of the covenant, never knowing he was anything but a Christian. His idea of growth into grace made a profound impact on generations of Christian educators and muted the requirement of a conversion experience in the preaching and teaching of numerous Church groups.

lib+er+al+ism

n. 1. liberal opinions, practices, or politics. 2. a movement in modern Protestantism that rejects Biblical authority.

46 3.5 THE CONSERVATIVE REACTION

The Churches did not take lightly the liberal attacks on conservative theology.

PROTESTANT REACTION

Charles A. Briggs, professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, was put on trial before the Presbytery of New York and suspended from the ministry in 1893. The Presbyterian Church likewise defrocked Henry P. Smith of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati in 1893. In the same year A. C. McGiffert was dismissed from Lane for his liberal views. Other denominations also had heresy trials and dismissed or disciplined offending persons. Probably the most famous conflict of the twentieth century concerned Harry Emerson Fosdick, who in 1925 was forced out of the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church of New York City and became an influential spokesman for liberalism from the pulpit of the Riverside Church of New York until his retirement in 1946.

ROMAN CATHOLIC REACTION

Roman Catholicism likewise suffered the inroads of liberalism and reacted strongly against it. Alfred Loisy, founder of Roman Catholic modernism in France, was dismissed in 1893 from his professorship at the Institute Catholique in Paris and excommunicated in 1908. The English Jesuit George Tyrrell was demoted in 1899 and died out of fellowship with the Church. Liberalism also invaded American Roman Catholicism. To silence the threat worldwide, Pope Pius X issued the decree Lamentabili in 1907, and in 1910 he imposed an anti-modernist oath on the clergy.

EVANGELICAL EFFORTS

In contesting with rising liberalism, evangelicalism had a number of able scholars during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth. Charles Hodge defended a supernaturally inspired Bible during his long tenure as professor of Biblical literature and later of theology at Princeton Seminary (1820–1878). A. A. Hodge ably succeeded his father at Princeton (1877–1886). In 1887 B. B. Warfield followed Hodge as professor of theology at Princeton. At home in Hebrew, Greek, modern languages, theology, and Biblical criticism, he staunchly defended an inerrant Scripture and cardinal evangelical doctrines in a score of books and numerous pamphlets. In 1900 the scholarly Robert Dick Wilson joined the Princeton faculty, and J. Gresham Machen came to the faculty in 1906. In 1929, when a liberal realignment occurred at Princeton, Machen and Wilson joined Oswald T. Allis, Cornelius Van Til, and others in founding Westminster Theological Seminary. Of course other scholars could be mentioned, but these were some of the most vocal and the most prestigious.

While some evangelical scholars were standing for the faith in academic circles, a large number of faith missions came into existence to propagate the gospel on foreign fields. A few of them include: , 1895;

47 Central American Mission, 1890; Scandinavian Alliance Mission (now The Evangelical Alliance Mission), 1890; The Regions Beyond Missionary Union, 1878; Sudan Interior Mission (now SIM International), 1893.

Stop and research: Choose an evangelical mission organisation that began in the nineteenth century. You may choose one from the above list or another from your own research. Give a detailed explanation of the birth and mission of that organisation. Then identify its effectiveness to date.

NEW GROUPS AND CONCLUSION

Meanwhile, other groups that differed to a greater or lesser degree from mainline positions appeared on the American religious scene. The Mormon movement came into being in 1830, the Seventh-Day Adventists the following year, Spiritualism in 1848, Russellism (or Jehovah‘s Witnesses) in 1872, and Christian Science in 1876.

American Christianity has been characterised by full religious freedom, the separation of Church and state, the voluntary principle of Church membership, a democratic approach both in government and in lay participation, a high degree of informality in worship services, and a tendency toward the multiplication of denominations and sects.

Now do the Self-test on the next page.

48 Self-test

1. What were classified as the four Major Nineteenth Century Revivals?

2. What were the six effects of the Second Evangelical Awakening, given in this unit?

3. What did Finney and his associates Asa Mahan and Thomas Upham include in their teachings?

4. One of Moody‘s better-known accomplishments was the founding of the

5. One of the first social problems to receive attention in 1836 was

49 6. What is the definition of liberalism?

7. Name some of the other groups that grew out of the liberalism movement.

Now compare your answers with mine on the next page.

50 Self-test

1. What were classified as the four Major Nineteenth Century Revivals?

Second Evangelical Awakening

Finney Revivals

Revival of 1858

Evangelistic Work of Dwight L. Moody

2. What were the six effects of the Second Evangelical Awakening, given in this unit?

1. The colleges of the land were largely disciplined through the defeat of unfaithfulness. 2. There was a spiritual quickening in nearly all denominations, with tens of thousands being added to Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches. 3. Lines were more clearly drawn between rationalism and evangelicalism, and there was a split between the Unitarians and evangelicals in the Congregational Church. 4. The midweek prayer meeting and Sunday schools became common features of Church life. 5. Close to a score of new colleges and seminaries were founded. 6. Missionary endeavour was spurred. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions came into being in 1810; one of its first missionaries was Adoniram Judson. The American Bible

Society was founded in 1816, the American Tract Society in 1825.

3. What did Finney and his associates Asa Mahan and Thomas Upham include in their teachings?

The teachings of Finney and his associates Asa Mahan and Thomas Upham included entire consecration, sinless perfection in this life, and freedom of the will.

4. One of Moody‘s better-known accomplishment was the founding of the

Moody Bible Institute

5. One of the first social problems to receive attention in 1836 was

Alcoholism

51 6. What is the definition of liberalism?

n. 1. liberal opinions, practices, or politics. 2. a movement in modern Protestantism that rejects Biblical authority.

7. Name some of the other groups that grew out of the liberalism movement.

Other groups that differed to a greater or lesser degree from mainline positions appeared on the American religious scene due to the liberalism occurring with the Church and society. The Mormon movement came into being in 1830, the Seventh-Day Adventists the following year, Spiritualism in 1848, Russellism (or Jehovah‟s Witnesses) in 1872, and Christian Science in 1876.

52

TEXT BOOK WORK

Read Part III-V (pages 119 – 202) of your textbook, Revival.

Answer the following questions:

1. Give a brief overview of Charles Finney‟s life. Highlight the important events that took place and the progression of his ministry.

2. Give a brief overview of D. L. Moody‟s life. Highlight the important events that took place and the progression of his ministry.

3. In your opinion, what was the greatest of the revivals held during the nineteenth century? Why?

53

ASSIGNMENT ONE

PART ONE

Read the article entitled ―Church Perspectives on the Future of South Africa‖ (taken from The Road to Rustenburg) on the Features & Failures of Calvinism in South Africa by (past professor of missiology at UNISA) and also The Original Calvin by WA de Klerk (taken from The Puritans in Africa).

1.1 Comment on Bosch‘s second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth points under these 5 headings: [200 words for each heading]  Contribution to the welfare of the city.  Voices for justice, reconciliation and truth.  Prophetic voice to the nation.  No justice without peace.  Morals and integrity are needed in order to hold society together.

1.2 Drawing from your present study of Church history, do you believe that what he is saying is true of South Africa (or the nation where you live)? [200 words]

1.3 If, as Bosch says, ―Calvinism will cease to play a dominant role in the South Africa of the future,‖ what then will play a dominant role? I.e. what are the possible alternatives? [200 words]

[1400 TOTAL WORDS]

54 UNIT FOUR

THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT 1901

Learning Outcomes:

(1) Understand the genesis and development of the Pentecostal movement in the United States and abroad. (2) Grasp the importance of the Azusa Street ministry as it relates to the foundation of the Pentecostal movement. (3) Identify the shift of the Pentecostal Movement from North America to South Africa and beyond.

4.1 A SUMMARY OF THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT

The Pentecostal movement is by far the largest and most important religious movement to originate in the United States. According to Vinson Synan of ORU the Pentecostal movement began in 1901 with only a handful of students in a Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. He said that the number of Pentecostals increased steadily throughout the world during the twentieth Century until by 1993 they had become the largest family of Protestants in the world, with over 200,000,000 members designated as Nominational Pentecostals.

There were well over 420,000,000 Pentecostal and charismatic followers in 1993. This explosive growth has forced the Christian world to pay increasing attention to the entire movement and to attempt to discover the root causes of this growth.

4.1.1 The Nineteenth Century Holiness Movement

For the first decade, practically all Pentecostals, both in America and around the world, had been active in holiness Churches or camp meetings. Most of them were either Methodists, former Methodists, or people from kindred movements that had adopted the Methodist view of the second blessing. They were overwhelmingly Arminian in their basic theology and were strongly perfectionists in their spirituality and lifestyle.

In the years immediately preceding 1900, American Methodism experienced a major holiness revival in a crusade that originated in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania following the Civil War. Begun in Vineland, NJ, in 1867 as the ―National Holiness Camp Meeting Association,‖ the Holiness Movement drew large crowds to its camp meetings, with some services attracting over 20,000 people.

55 The first Pentecostal Churches in the world were produced by the Holiness Movement prior to 1901 and, after becoming Pentecostal, retained most of their perfect-like teachings. These included the predominantly African- American Church of God in Christ (1897), the Pentecostal Holiness Church (1898), the Church of God with headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee (1906), and other smaller groups. These Churches, which had been formed as ―second blessing‖ holiness denominations simply added the baptism in the Holy Spirit with glossolalia as ―initial evidence‖ of a ―third blessing.‖

Pentecostal pioneers who had been Methodists included Charles Fox Parham, the formulator of the ―initial evidence‖ theology; William J. Seymour, the pastor of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, who spread the movement in 1907-08; and Thomas Ball Barratt, the father of European Pentecostalism. All of these men retained most of the Wesleyan teaching on entire sanctification as a part of their theological systems.

Other early Pentecostal pioneers from non-Methodist backgrounds: These included C.H. Mason (Baptist), of the Church of God in Christ, A.J. Tomlinson (Quaker), of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), B.H. Irwin (Baptist) of the Fire-Baptised Holiness Church, and N.J. Holmes (Presbyterian) of the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church. In the light of the foregoing information, it would not be an overstatement to say that Pentecostalism, at least in America, was born in a holiness cradle.

Stop and research: Consider the list of pioneers above. Choose one of the pioneers research and identify his contributions to the Pentecostal Movement.

4.1.2 The Origins of Pentecostalism

The first ―Pentecostals‖ in the modern sense appeared on the scene in 1901 in the city of Topeka, Kansas in a Bible school conducted by Charles Fox

56 Parham, a holiness teacher and former Methodist pastor. In spite of controversy over the origins and timing of Parham‘s emphasis on glossolalia, all historians agree that the movement began during the first days of 1901 just as the world entered the Twentieth Century. The first person to be baptised in the Holy Spirit, accompanied by speaking in tongues, was Agnes Ozman, one of the Parham‘s Bible School students, who spoke in tongues on the very first day of the new century, January 1, 1901.

As a result of this Topeka Pentecost, Parham formulated the doctrine that tongues was the ―Bible evidence‖ of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He also taught that tongues were a supernatural impartation of human languages (xenoglossolalia) [xeno = foreign – glossolalia = gift of tongues] for the purpose of world evangelisation.

Armed with this new theology, Parham founded a Church movement, which he called the ―Apostolic Faith‖ and began a whirlwind revival tour of the American Mid-West to promote his exciting new experience.

Stop and explore: What is the main evidence or evidences of being

baptised in the Holy Spirit? Give scriptural backing for your answer. 

What are other evidences that show the Holy Spirit indwells a believer?

1906 Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention through the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles led by the African-American preacher William Joseph Seymour. He learned about the tongues attested baptism of the Holy Spirit in a Bible School that Parham conducted in Houston, Texas, in 1905. Invited to pastor a black Holiness Church in Los Angeles in 1906. Seymour opened the historic meeting in April 1906, in a former African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church building at 312 Azusa Street, in downtown Los Angeles.

For over three years, the Azusa Street ―Apostolic Faith Mission‖ conducted three services a day, seven days a week, where thousands of seekers received the ―tongues baptism‖. Word of the revival was spread abroad through The Apostolic Faith, a paper that Seymour sent free of charge to some 50,000 subscribers. From Azusa Street, Pentecostalism spread rapidly

57 around the world and began its advance toward becoming a major force in Christendom.

The Azusa Street movement seems to have been a merger of white American Holiness religion with worship styles derived from the African-American Christian tradition which had developed since the days of chattel slavery in the South. The expressive worship and praise at Azusa Street, which included shouting and dancing, had been common among Appalachian whites as well as Southern blacks.

Frank Bartleman, a White Azusa participant, captured the ethos of the meeting when he said of Azusa Street, ―The colour line was washed away by the blood.‖

The place of William Seymour as an important religious leader now seems to be assured. As early as 1972 Sidney Ahlstrom, the noted Church historian from Yale University, said that Seymour was ―the most influential black leader in American religious history.‖ Seymour, along with Charles Parham, could well be called the ―co-founders‖ of world Pentecostalism.

Stop and read: Take a moment and read this article from The Apostolic Faith magazine. WJ Seymour and FL Crawford published the magazine. 5000 copies of the first issue were distributed. Only 13 issues were published from Los Angeles before Crawford moved. The last issue was dated May 1908.

Los Angeles Being Visited by a Revival of Bible Salvation And Pentecost as Recorded in the Book of Acts

The power of God now has this city agitated as never before. Pentecost has surely come and with it the Bible evidences are following, many being converted and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. The scenes that are daily enacted in the building on Azusa Street and at missions and Churches in other parts of the city are beyond description, and the real revival is only started, as God has been working with his children mostly, getting them through to Pentecost and laying the foundation for a mighty wave of salvation among the unconverted.

The meetings are held in an old Methodist Church that had been converted in part into a tenement house, leaving a large, non-plastered barn-like room on the ground floor. Here about a dozen congregate each day, holding meetings on Bonnie Brae in the evening. The writer attended a few of these meetings and being so different from anything he had seen and, not hearing any speaking in tongues, he branded the teaching as third-blessing heresy and thought that settled it. It is needless to say that writer was compelled to do a great deal of apologising and humbling himself to get right with God.

In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and far into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns.

Proud, well-dressed preachers came in to “investigate”. Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction comes, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children.

It would be impossible to state how many have been converted, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. They have been and are daily going out to all points of the compass to spread this wonderful gospel.

58 Continued…

The Old Time Pentecost

This work began about five years ago last January, when a company of people under the leadership of Charles Parham, who were studying God‟s Word, tarried for Pentecost in Topeka, Kansas. After searching through the country everywhere, they had been unable to find any Christians that had the true Pentecostal power. So they laid aside all commentaries and notes and waited on the Lord, studying His word, and what they did not understand they got down before the bench and asked God to have wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They had a prayer tower from which prayers were ascending night and day to God. After three months, a sister who had been teaching sanctification was baptised with the baptism with the Holy Ghost came in great power and she commenced speaking in an unknown tongue. This made all the Bible school hungry, and three nights afterward, twelve students received the Holy Ghost and prophesied, and cloven tongues could be seen upon their heads. They then had an experience that measured up with the second chapter of Acts and could understand the first chapter of Ephesians.

Now after five years close to 13,000 people have received this gospel. It is spreading everywhere, until Churches who do not believe backslide and lose the experience they have. Those who are older in this movement are stronger, and greater signs and wonders are following them.

The meetings in Los Angeles started at a cottage meeting, and the Pentecost fell there for three nights. The people had nothing to do but wait on the Lord and praise Him. They commenced speaking in tongues, as they did at Pentecost, and the Spirit sang songs through them.

The meeting was then transferred to Azusa Street, and since then multitudes have been coming. The meetings begin about ten o‟clock in the morning and can hardly stop before ten or twelve at night. Sometimes the meeting ends at two or three in the morning, because so many are seeking, and some are slain under the power of God. People are seeking three times a day at the altar and row after row of seats have to be emptied and filled with seekers. We cannot tell how many people have been saved, and sanctified, and baptised with the Holy Ghost, and healed of all manner of sicknesses. Many are speaking in new tongues, and some are on their way to the foreign fields, with the gift of the language. We are going on to get more of the power of God.

1. From the experiences within this article, what can be identified as the moving of the Power of the Holy Spirit – as He moves in and works in Scripture?

2. From the experiences within this article, what cannot be identified as the moving of the Power of the Holy Spirit – as He moves in and works in Scripture?

59 4.1.3 American Pentecostal Pioneers

Although tongues caused a split in the Church in 1907, the Church of God in Christ experienced such explosive growth that by 1993, it was by far the largest Pentecostal denomination in North America claiming some 5,500,000 members in 15,300 local Churches. His ―finished work‖ theology of gradual progressive sanctification, which he announced in 1910, led to the formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914.

In time the Assemblies of God Church was destined to become the largest Pentecostal denominational Church in the world, claiming by 1993 over 2,000,000 members in the US and some 25,000,000 adherents in 150 nations of the world.

4.2 MISSIONARY ENDEAVOUR GO FORWARD

4.2.1 Missionaries of the „One-Way‟ Ticket Club

From Chicago, through the influence of William Durham, the movement spread quickly to Italy and South America. Two Italian immigrants to Chicago, Luigi Francescon and Glacomo Lombardy, founded thriving Italian Pentecostal movements after 1908 in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. Also in South Bend, Indiana, (near Chicago), two Swedish Baptist immigrants, Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, received the Pentecostal experience and felt a prophetic call to Brazil. Their missionary trip in 1910 resulted in the formation of the Brazilian Assemblies of God, which developed into the largest national Pentecostal movement in the world, claiming some 15,000,000 members by 1993. Also hailing from Chicago was Willis C. Hoover, the Methodist missionary to Chile, who in 1909 led a Pentecostal revival in the Chilean Methodist Episcopal Church. After being excommunicated from the Methodist Episcopal Church, Hoover and 37 of his followers organised the ―Pentecostal Methodist Church‖ which by 1993 grew to number some 1,500,000 adherents in Chile.

African Pentecostalism owed its origins to the work of John Graham Lake (1870-1935) who began his ministry as a Methodist preacher but who later prospered in the business world as an insurance executive.

Lake became an Elder in the ―Zion Catholic Apostolic Church‖. At one point, Lake testified to an instant experience of entire sanctification, in the home of Fred Bosworth, an early leader in the Assemblies of God. In 1907, he received the Pentecostal experience and spoke in tongues under the ministry of Charles Parham.

After his Pentecostal experience, Lake abandoned the insurance business in order to answer a longstanding call to minister in South Africa. In April 1908, he led a large missionary party to Johannesburg where he began to spread the Pentecostal message throughout the nation.

60

Stop and research: Conduct some investigative research into the

Zionist Christian Church in South Africa. What are the major

doctrines of the Church? How many members does the Church

currently boast?

Should this Church be classified as Christian or Cult? Support your answer with Scripture.

Lake nevertheless succeeded in founding two large and influential Pentecostal Churches in Southern Africa. The white branch took the name ―Apostolic Faith Mission‖ (AFM) in 1910, borrowed from the name of the famous mission on Azusa Street. This is the Church that eventually gave David du Plessis to the world as ―Mr. Pentecost.‖ The black branch eventually developed into the ―Zion Christian Church‖ (ZCC), which by 1993 claimed no less than 6,000,000 members. At Easter time, this Church gathers upwards of 2,000,000 worshippers, the largest annual gathering of Christians on earth.

In retrospect, the work of Lake was the most influential and enduring of all the South African Pentecostal mission endeavours. According to Cecil Rhodes, the South African ―Empire Builder,‖ ―His (Lake‘s) message has swept Africa. He has done more toward South Africa‘s future peace than any other man.‖

4.2.2 Neo-Pentecostals and Charismatic

The first wave of Pentecostal pioneer missionaries produced what has become known as the ―Classical Pentecostal Movement‖ with over 11,000 Pentecostal denominations throughout the world.

The final phase was the penetration of Pentecostalism into the mainline Protestant and Catholic Churches as ―charismatic renewal‖ movements with the aim of renewing and reviving the historic Churches.

The Protestant ―Neo-Pentecostal‖ movement began in 1960 in Van Nuys, California under the ministry of Dennis Bennett, Rector of St. Marks Episcopal (Anglican) Church. Within a decade, this movement had spread to all the 150 major Protestant families of the world reaching a total of 55,000,000 people by 1990. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement had its beginnings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1967 among students and faculty of Du Quesne University. In the 35 years since its inception, the Catholic Charismatic

61 movement has touched the lives of over 70,000,000 in over 120 nations of the world.

4.2.3 Third Wave Move (John Wimber)

Added to these is the newest category, the ―Third Wave‖ of the Spirit, which originated at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1981 under the classroom ministry of John Wimber. These consisted of mainline Evangelicals who moved in signs and wonders, but who disdained labels such as ―Pentecostal‖ or ―charismatic‖. By 1990 this group numbered some 33,000,000 members in the world.

In summary, all these movements, both Pentecostal and charismatic, have come to constitute a major force in Christendom throughout the world with explosive growth rates not seen before in modern times. By 1990, the Pentecostals and their charismatic brothers and sisters in the mainline Protestant and Catholic Churches were turning their attention toward world evangelisation. Only time will reveal the ultimate results of this movement that has greatly impacted the world during the twentieth century.

Try the Self-test on the next page.

62 Self-test

1. What year did the Pentecostal Movement begin, according to Vinson Synan

of ORU?

2. Describe the Pentecostal theology during the first decade of the nineteenth century, as described in the unit.

3. What did the Pentecostals add to their doctrine in regard to the ―third blessing‖?

4. What is glossolalia?

5. Who could well be called the ―co-founders‖ of world Pentecostalism?

6. African Pentecostalism owed its origins to the work of

63 Self-test

1. What year did the Pentecostal Movement begin, according to Vinson Synan

of ORU? 1901

2. Describe the Pentecostal theology during the first decade of the nineteenth century, as described in the unit.

For the first decade, practically all Pentecostals, both in America and around the world, had been active in holiness Churches or camp meetings. Most of them were either Methodists, former Methodists, or people from kindred movements that had adopted the Methodist view of the second blessing. They were overwhelmingly Arminian in their basic theology and were strongly perfectionist in their spirituality and lifestyle.

3. What did the Pentecostals add to their doctrine in regard to the ―third blessing‖?

The Churches, which had been formed as “second blessing” holiness denominations, simply added the baptism in the Holy Spirit with glossolalia as “initial evidence” of a “third blessing”.

4. What is glossolalia?

As a result of this Topeka Pentecost, Parham formulated the doctrine that tongues was the “Bible evidence” of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He also taught that tongues were a supernatural impartation of human languages (xenoglossolalia) [xeno = foreign – glossolalia = gift of tongues] for the purpose of world evangelisation.

5. Who could well be called the ―co-founders‖ of world Pentecostalism?

William Seymour and Charles Parham

6. African Pentecostalism owed its origins to the work of

John Graham Lake

64

TEXT BOOK WORK

Read Part VI-VIII (pages 203-284) of your textbook, Revival.

1. Who was once a plumber and worked as a volunteer in Salvation Army mission? Briefly discuss the founding of the Salvation Army and indicate how this movement contributed towards building Christianity.

2. Who founded the Four Square Gospel denomination? Why was the founding of this Church important?

3. Who founded the Campus Crusade for Christ? Why was this an important ministry for all ages?

4. Give a brief description of the Last Days Ministry.

65

UNIT FIVE

THE CHURCH IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD An Overview

Learning Outcomes:

(1) Understand the position of Christianity in the world. (2) Learn the different forms of opposition toward Christianity. (3) Identify the powers behind the struggles concerning Church and state in South Africa. (4) Learn the new formation of the African independent Churches in Africa.

5.1 EXTERNAL OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY

How do we stand some two thousand years after Christ delivered the Great Commission? Christianity is still a minority faith. Various sources put the Christian population of the world in 1991 at about 1.76–1.79 billion, or about 33.3 percent of the total world population. Thus it currently stands at slightly less than its peak of about 34.4 percent in 1900. Although Christianity has been making tremendous advances in Africa, Latin America, The Lausanne and elsewhere, these are somewhat offset by Statistics Task Force the effects of materialism in Europe and estimated America, the obstacle of atheistic Communism that in 1993 there were behind the Bamboo Curtain, and the high birth about 540 million rate in the Muslim world and in India. Bible-believing Christians, Not only is Christianity still a minority faith, it is about 10% of the also still under assault. Such a situation is to world’s population. be expected, because Jesus never promised that His followers would win the world with the preaching of the gospel or establish a utopia. Only the return of Christ within a person will achieve that. Moreover, He never promised that His Church would be immune from attack: ―the world… hated Me; therefore the world hates you‖ (John 15:18–19). Though opposition to Christianity will certainly come in all periods of history, it assumes new forms in each age. External forces contending with the Church have been at least fourfold in recent decades: Communism, nationalism and national or pagan religions, cults, and social assault.

External Opposition to Christianity Communism Nationalism Cults and Eastern religions Social assault

66 5.1.1 Marxism

Karl Marx formulated his economic, political, and religious philosophy about the middle of the last century as a solution to widespread capitalism. He appealed to the oppressed workers in industrial nations to throw off the bondage with which they were yoked and to introduce a new classless society. But in industrial nations the lot of the worker slowly improved through the efforts of labour unions and reformers and through governmental intervention. So, it was in the great agrarian nation of Russia, unresponsive to change and the needs of the masses, that Communism, as reconstructed or reinterpreted by Lenin, first caught fire. Communism engulfed over 1.6 billion people at its height in the 1980s; and though it has lost its grip in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, it still controls over one billion two hundred and fifty million people in China, North Korea, Southeast Asia, and Cuba.

Marx+ism n. the economic and political theory and practice originated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles that holds that actions and human institutions are economically determined, that the class struggle is the basic agency of historical change, and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.

Wherever it has gone, this atheistic system has sought utterly to uproot Christianity—either by direct onslaught or by subversion. Although Communism was not able to wipe out Christianity in the countries where it won control, it surely proved to be a formidable enemy. In the former U.S.S.R. and China and some other countries, official Churches of sorts were permitted, both to provide some impression to the world of freedom of religion and to control more effectively religious expression. The true Church largely went underground in all Communist countries.

Opposition to or persecution of Christianity in most Marxist-dominated states has been secret. Christians have been prohibited from attendance at university and from advancement into prestigious positions. Sometimes they were even fired from menial employment. Efforts were made to choke off a supply of trained leadership of Churches by severely restricting the numbers permitted to matriculate in theological seminaries. In order to prevent adequate places for meeting, building permits were often denied to Churches or tied up in bureaucratic red tape for long periods of time. Pastors might be intimidated, as was true in the autumn of 1982 in Roumania, when four leading Baptist pastors were accused of embezzling Church funds for affirming separation of Church and state and for opposition to state interference in Church affairs. It was also common in the former Soviet Union for Christians to be accused of having mental illness and to be assigned to mental hospitals for ―treatment.‖

67 Stop and consider: Take into account this form of persecution against Christians. How does Christ prepare us for this? Use Scripture to support your answer.

Of course not all the opposition is secret or indirect. As a case in point, in Marxist Ethiopia late in 1982 authorities in Wollega Province closed 284 of the 350 Churches of the Lutheran Ethiopian Evangelical Church there. And as is well known, the Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1969) openly made war on Christianity and tried by every means to destroy it.

It is hard to discover how many believers may be in prison for their faith at any one time in a given country, but the research centre at Keston College in England reported that there were 307 known Christian prisoners in the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1981. According to another report, there were 63 Christians being held in Chinese prisons or under house arrest for religious reasons early in 1991. Then in the latter part of 1991 reports reached Hong Kong of ―large-scale arrests‖ of believers in the provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. As the bastions of Communism collapse elsewhere, the Chinese seem determined to maintain their own defences. Strong evidence indicates that Christians and other dissidents provided some of the slave labour that built the gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe.

5.1.2 Nationalism

Nationalism and national religions also contend with Christianity for mastery. Where nationalistic movements have resulted in the creation of new independent states, the religious body with the largest number of adherents has tended to assume leadership and establish a state religion. For example, Muslims predominate in Pakistan, Indonesia and Sudan, Hindus in India, and Buddhists in Burma (now Mayanmar). Therefore Christian work does not enjoy the freedom that formerly existed under friendly British or Dutch governments.

Moreover, in many countries Christianity has Nationalistic been linked in the minds of the people with peoples do not care Western imperialism. Now that those countries to be evangelised have cut the cord that binds them to a foreign from abroad; power, they find it more difficult to accept the such activity puts religion of that power. them on an inferior level.

68 The impact of nationalism or new national conditions on Christianity is evident from such examples as the following. In 1973 the Somali Republic nationalised all mission programmes and facilities; Singapore nationalised all private schools; the Pakistani government took over the Protestant and Roman Catholic colleges of the country; and President Amin of Uganda expelled fifty-eight European missionaries and ordered Africanisation of the country‘s Churches.

In 1975 the government of Mozambique proclaimed religion to be a divisive force and confiscated all missionary funds and property; President Tombalbaye of Chad severely persecuted Christians in a continuing effort to return the country to its traditional animism (but his assassination stopped the persecution); President Ngeuma of Equatorial Guinea campaigned against all believers in God and turned many Churches into warehouses; and President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaïre continued his moves against Christianity by forbidding religious instruction in the country‘s school system, 90% of which was operated by religious organisations.

In 1980, evangelical radio programmes were totally banned in Mexico. On December 3, 1990, Iranian authorities hanged Rev. Hossein Soodmand, the only ordained evangelical Protestant minister from Islamic background who chose to remain in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In 1991 the Shariah Act was adopted in Pakistan; it calls for law enforcement based on the traditional Islamic law. This act will probably take Christians out of the mainstream of society and force the Church to go underground. During 1992 several Christian organisations reported that Turkish secret police and postal authorities were preventing delivery of Bible correspondence courses.

Stop and explore: Consider the following different cults and religions. Research and give a brief explanation of each. Specify what god(s) they believe in and its main doctrines. Consult an up-  to-date Operation World to find current worldwide statistics on each religion.

Jehovah’s Witness –

Mormonism –

Islam –

New Age –

69 5.1.3 Cults and Eastern Philosophies

A third threat to true Christianity is the cults and Eastern philosophies and religions. However, it may be said that the cults tend to breed where Christianity has failed; untaught or disenchanted adherents of Christianity rather than the completely un-Churched constitute the most fertile ground in which cultists may plant their seed.

EASTERN RELIGIONS It is not quite so easy to quantify the impact of Eastern religions in the West in general, or in the United States in particular. Transcendental meditation, with its roots in India, makes its influence felt broadly in American society. The Tao Te Ching, the sacred book of Taoism, often may be purchased at the corner bookstore and The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff, seek to bring the principles of Taoism to even the youth of America.

Writings of the Hare Krishna movement, which comes from the context of Hinduism, often may be picked up at an airport, especially in Los Angeles, New York, or London. The some 110,000 members of the Baha’i faith support their magnificent temple in Wilmette, Illinois, which dwarfs the temple at the international headquarters of the religion in Haifa.

THE INFLUX TO THE WEST Of especially great importance for the redrawing of the American religious landscape was the immigration legislation of 1965. In that year Congress rescinded the Asian Exclusion Act and redistributed immigration quotas, permitting Asian, Eastern European and Middle Eastern countries to send larger numbers than ever before. As a result, Eastern religions have greatly increased their presence in America. Young adult Americans have converted by the thousands to Buddhism and guru-led Hindu religions. Over 100 different Hindu denominations and 75 forms of Buddhism have come into existence since 1965 and each now claims three to five million adherents. The year 1987 saw the naming of the first Buddhist chaplain in the American armed forces and the formation of the American Buddhist Congress. Hindus are represented in the Hindu Vishwa Parishad.

THE RISE OF ISLAM The new immigration legislation permitted immigration from Islamic countries for the first time, in significant numbers. In the United States Muslims now number some four million, mostly as a result of immigration, though converts continue to increase in number. The Islamic Centre in Washington, D.C., has been the leading Islamic centre of the United States for a number of years, but the $17 million centre on 96th Street in Manhattan opened in the spring of 1992. There are about 400,000 Muslims in New York City. The Islamic Centre of Greater Toledo (Ohio) and the centre in Detroit are among the most prestigious in other large cities of the nation. There are now more than 650 mosques in the United States.

The Black Muslim movement has had varying fortunes since its inception in 1931 in Detroit. Now most Black Muslims have renounced their controversial

70 views on race and religion. Some one million have moved into the mainstream of Muslim orthodoxy. But a few, like the approximately 30,000 members of Louis Farrakhan‘s Nation of Islam, still cling to black supremacist views. The Islamic community in the United States has now surpassed the Jewish community in size and has become a powerful political force, balancing the Jewish-allied support for Israel in public debates on the Middle East.

The impact of Muslims in Western Europe has been even greater than that in America. Some ten million of them came to the continent for employment during the 1960s and 1970s from North Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Because these aliens cannot gain citizenship there as they can in the United States, they stand apart and constitute an increasing storm centre. All over the continent there is a worry that the cohesive nature of national cultures is at risk, as are the jobs of citizens. In a largely secularised France the 1.7 million Muslims there form an especially potent religious force. They are a battleground in Germany too, where about 2 million have settled. About 800,000 have immigrated to Britain, over 400,000 to the Netherlands, and about 300,000 to Italy. Currently 50 European cities have an Arab Muslim population of 10,000 or more; 32 are French. Arab World Ministries and at least 14 other missions are beginning to launch outreaches to Muslims in London, some French cities, and New York City. The main hindrance to expansion of this work is lack of trained personnel.

5.2 THE POWERS BEHIND

5.2.1 The Teaching of the Reformers on Church and State

The Reformers regarded Constantine as a great hero. Although they wanted to reform the Church, they wanted to do this on the basis of the union of Church and state. They used the magistrates to enforce reform policies. The underground movement of Christians at first thought that men like Luther and Zwingli were going to champion their cause and gathered around them for a few years. But as they realised that the Reformers were not going to change on this issue, they withdrew and developed into the Anabaptist movement.

Reformed and Roman Catholic beliefs now competed for state support. The result was widespread civil war, especially in Germany. Eventually an accommodation was made on the basis of ‗cuius regis, eius religio‘, ‗whose kingdom, is the religion‘. Each prince decided which religion his kingdom would support. Switzerland, for instance, was divided up into Protestant and Roman cantons.

Zwingli led the defence of his canton and died in

Often reformed the process. The Reformation was brought into Christian leaders disrepute. The weapons of state were confused used state power to fight with weapons of the Church. Heretics were for their position, executed as enemies of the state. Zwingli had i.e. they used force to Anabaptists who had been converted under his defend the ministry drowned in Lake Geneva. Calvin had ‘gospel’. the heretic Servetus executed by fire by the

71 authorities in Geneva. Melanchthon, Luther‘s co-worker, wrote to congratulate Calvin.

As the empire broke up, the Church became politicised. To belong to one state or canton meant that you were a Protestant. To belong to another meant that you were a Catholic. This led to nominal Christianity. Belonging to one‘s nation became synonymous with being a Christian of some kind. Unbelief also became politicised. If being a member of German state or a Swiss canton or the English nation etc., meant that you were a Christian, it followed that others in ‗non-Christian nations‘ were, by definition, ‗heathen‘. Non-European nations were conceived of as ‗heathen‘. While the confrontations were limited to Europe and people of a broadly similar racial type, it was bad enough. As soon as other races were encountered, this attitude inevitably led to racism.

5.2.2 The Beginning of Separation with Oliver Cromwell

In Britain the Reformation did not end in the system of ‗cuius regio, eius religio‘. Instead, successive English kings supported either reformed or Roman systems of Church government. As in Europe, supporters of a reformed or Biblical Christianity included those who thought in terms of a state Church and those who supported the separation of Church and state. In Britain the latter were mostly Congregationalists, although Baptists also emerged. Unlike in Europe, however, these believers emerged as a visible political movement.

Stop and research: Consider the Puritans. Research and explain their origins and belief system.

72 The Puritans, those dedicated to a pure, Biblical Church cleansed of ‗popish‘ elements, gained more and more momentum until, strengthened by the invasion of the Scots in 1630, they captured Charles I in 1646. The defeat of Charles I was largely due to the military skill of Oliver Cromwell, a ‗separatist‘ Puritan who led a well-disciplined army of godly men called the ironsides.

Cromwell at first worked with the Presbyterians who created a Presbyterian state Church in England and then expelled them from parliament in 1648. From 1648 to 1660 England was run on a basically separatist system where toleration of different religious beliefs was permitted. After Cromwell‘s death England reverted to a Roman state Church under Charles II and 2,000 Puritan ministers were driven from their Churches. John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, spent years in prison during this time. However, in 1689 the Glorious Revolution led to the toleration of nonconformists, but this time a state Church continued to exist alongside other Churches that rejected the union of Church and state.

The British system has continued to be a mixture of the union of Church and state and the separation of Church and state. Officially Britain has a state Church (Presbyterian in Scotland, Anglican in England). The Queen is officially an Anglican head of state and the Archbishop of Canterbury crowns British sovereigns. Anglican bishops sit in the House of Lords and changes to the Anglican prayer book have to be passed in parliament. Simultaneously, however, freedom of religion is permitted and nonconformist or separatist Churches are allowed.

5.2.3 The Separation of Church and State in the First Amendment

A group of English Puritans immigrated to America in 1620 on the Mayflower. Despite the fact that they were wanted to remove themselves from the dominance of the Church of England (Anglican state Church), they again formed a state Church in America, this time Congregational. It was not until Roger Williams settled in America in 1630 that a clear statement of the separation of Church and state emerged. Eventually this view gained ground and was legalised in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The US is therefore the birthplace of a permanent separation of Church and state.

5.2.4 The Damage of the Confusion of the Church and State in South African History and Society

Although Church and state are officially and constitutionally separate in South Africa, in practice our system is closer to the English and even to the medieval situation. There are various reasons for this.

The dominance of British colonialism and colonial government in South African history has resulted in the dominance of a British rather than an American type of English Christianity. The major English historical Churches, except the Baptists and Congregationalists, tend to think in terms of the union

73 of Church and state. As a result ministers of these Churches sometimes manifest an almost compulsive need to become involved in the political arena.

Stop and answer: What are your thoughts and arguments concerning ? ? the question of Church and state? Should the Church and state be

linked? Why and why not? In what ways? What does the Bible say? ?

The early Dutch, French and German settlers brought with them a Calvinist or Lutheran understanding of Church and state. It was therefore not surprising that they saw themselves as ‗Christians‘, the indigenous population as ‗heathen‘ and the land before them as a ‗heathen‘ territory ready for annexation by a ‗Christian‘ people. One notices how they tended to give Biblical names to settlements as though they were the children of Israel.

The Great Trek simply added to this identification with Israel. Anna Steenkamp, one To be white of the Voortrekkers, explained that they could no was to be Christian; longer live in a state where blacks (heathen) to be black were given citizenship (by the British), because was to be heathen. this was against ‗the laws of God‘. The confusion of Church and state The battle of Blood River took the process one created a step further. Here the ‗Christian‘ people entered racist attitude. into a covenant with God against the ‗heathen‘. Since the ‗heathen‘ were black, the idea was born that God was on the side of the white ‗Christian‘ nation. It was forgotten, of course, that many black servants prayed and fought with the trekkers in the laager at Blood River and that missionaries had already made converts to Christ on this ‗heathen‘ continent. In this way the Great Trek added to the idea of a ‗Christian nation‘ the belief that the Voortrekkers were God‘s chosen people, called by Him to civilise the pagan nations on the subcontinent.

Wrong doctrine had already led to wrong perspectives and much pain was to follow. Worst of all, the idea was planted in the minds of the black people who came into contact with white colonialism that this God of the Christians was also the God of the white colonial powers. The gospel was dragged into the conflict from the beginning.

74 5.3 AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CHURCHES

For some centuries Christianity as a world religion has been divided into three main traditions, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox. To these should now perhaps be added a substantial African development of Christianity. This African strand has been given a variety of titles: indigenous, separatist, prophetic, messianic, millennial, Zionist. These terms were really either too wide or too narrow to describe the movements which, while remaining recognisably Christian in intention, have abandoned any connection with the mission-founded Churches. Here we will call them ‗African Independent Churches‘.

These African Independent Churches are a recognisable new form of the Christian tradition. But they are also part of a wider series of new religious movements in tribal societies in Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, which result from Christian and other Western influences interacting with tribal culture to produce something new to both. The African Independent Churches must not be too sharply distinguished from other forms of African Christianity. Some of the factors, which made them popular, are common African features that can often be traced within mission-founded African Churches.

Independent Churches occur widely in West, East, Central and Southern Africa. There are, however, great differences in the extent of their influence, both between nations, and between peoples and areas within the same nation. They rarely occur where Christians are few, or where Christianity has only recently arrived.

One classification divides between ‗Ethiopian‘ Churches (which assert African and reject European leadership, but keep the ‗shape‘ of the Church much as before) and ‗Zionist‘ Churches (which are charismatic, and seek the fulfilling of a Zion of The independent their own). Perhaps the description ‗prophet- Churches healing‘ would be better for these Churches. It is differ widely in style, impossible to guess sensibly at total organisation and membership (though it must be many millions). attitudes. Many people belong to both a ‗mainline‘ Church, out of loyalty or respectability, and to an independent Church, for their deepest needs.

5.3.1 Why Independent Churches?

In trying to understand the origins of the independent Churches we must distinguish between immediate causes (events which lead to a break with older Churches or missions) and underlying causes (which produce conditions where a break becomes likely). Five underlying causes can be isolated:

 The desire to be free of foreign domination in the Church. Some of the oldest ‗Ethiopian‘ Churches arose from such a desire. West African Christians felt in the 1880s and 1890s that the missionary societies were going back on their principles of self-governing, self-

75 supporting, self-propagating Churches. As a result they produced the African Church, the Native Baptist Church and others. Elsewhere, the feeling that missionary leaders did not understand important local institutions such as ancestor veneration or marriage, has encouraged this desire for freedom.

 Conditions produced by white dominance. No country has been more marked by the movements than South Africa. There the feeling among Africans of dispossession, the lack of other outlets for leadership, the effects of the migrant labour system in separating men from their families, and the strict controls on black residence and movement, have produced the commonwealths of Isaiah Shembe and Ignatius Legkanyane, and other attempts to build ‗Zion which is our home‘.

 The effects of mass movement. Between 1910 and 1930 African evangelists with little or no official Church status, led mass movements towards Christianity. Many who obeyed the call of Prophet William Wade Harris, to abandon this fetish, joined the ‗mainline‘ Churches. But ‗Harriste’ Churches of the rest are still important in Ivory Coast. Sampson Oppong (an illiterate jailbird) in Ghana and Walter Matitta in Lesotho were also men whom the missions had to recognise as very influential but who did not meet the missions‘ formal requirements for ‗native ministers‘. None of these movements were themselves independent Churches, but they produced the conditions for them.

 Religious revival. Simon Kimbangu, a young Baptist catechist, led a revival movement that in 1921 began to alarm the Belgian Congo government. He was sent to jail for life but the Church bearing his name now claims three million members in Zaïre. Another Church of similarly extensive membership is the Church of the Lord (Aladura) found throughout West Africa. Immigrant communities in Europe and North America have brought their Church with them. In 1928, Joseph Babalola, a steamroller driver, received a call to preach and gave a new impetus to revival in western Nigeria. The Apostolic and Christ Apostolic Churches are the result. The preaching of the catechist Garrick Braide brought thousands into the Anglican Church in the Niger delta. His dismissal took thousands out into the Christ Army and other Churches.

 Quest for a wider salvation. In traditional African society healing is closely linked with religion. Africans asked whether faith in Christ was not equally effective. The 1918 influenza epidemic, in particular, posed this question acutely for African Christians. Kimbangu, Babalola and Braide were all healers attended by vast crowds. Healing is a feature of many independent Churches today.

Try the Self-test on the next page.

76 Self-test

1. What are the four external forces contending with the Church, given in the unit?

2. What is Marxism?

3. In what ways has Nationalism affected the Church?

4. In what ways has the rise in immigration to the US affected the country‘s religious development?

77 5. What does ‘cuius regis, eius religio’ mean?

6. In what ways have the independent Churches in Africa migrated from the mission Churches?

7. What are the five underlying causes that relate to the origins of the independent Churches?

Compare your answers with mine on the next page.

78 Self-test

1. What are the four external forces contending with the Church, given in the unit?

Communism

Nationalism

National Religions

Cults

2. What is Marxism?

Marx+ism

n. the economic and political theory and practice originated by Karl

Marx and Friedrich Engles that holds that actions and human

institutions are economically determined, that the class struggle is

the basic agency of historical change, and that capitalism will

ultimately be superseded by communism.

3. In what ways has Nationalism affected the Church? Singapore nationalised all private schools; the Pakistani government took over the Protestant and Roman Catholic colleges of the country; and President Amin of Uganda expelled fifty-eight European missionaries and ordered Africanisation of the country‟s Churches.

In 1975 the government of Mozambique proclaimed religion to be a divisive force and confiscated all missionary funds and property; President Tombalbaye of Chad severely persecuted Christians in a continuing effort to return the country to its traditional animism (but his assassination stopped the persecution); President Ngeuma of Equatorial Guinea campaigned against all believers in God and turned many Churches into warehouses; and President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaïre continued his moves against Christianity by forbidding religious instruction in the country‟s school system, 90% of which was operated by religious organisations.

4. In what ways has the rise in immigration to the US affected the country‘s religious development? The new immigration legislation permitted immigration from Islamic countries for the first time, in significant numbers. In the United States Muslims now number some four million, mostly as a result of immigration, though converts continue to increase in number. The Islamic Centre in Washington, D.C., has been the leading Islamic centre of the United States for a number of years, but the $17 million centre on 96th Street in Manhattan opened in the spring of 1992. There are about 400,000 Muslims in New York City. The Islamic Centre of Greater Toledo (Ohio) and the centre in Detroit are among the most prestigious in other large cities of the nation. There are now more than 650 mosques in the United States.

79 5. What does ‘cuius regis, eius religio’ mean?

„whose kingdom, is the religion‟

6. In what ways have the independent Churches in Africa migrated from the mission Churches?

The independent Churches differ widely in style, organisation and attitudes.

7. What are the five underlying causes that relate to the origins of the independent Churches?

1. The desire to be free of foreign domination in the Church. 2. Conditions produced by white dominance.

3. The effects of mass movement.

4. Religious revival.

5. Quest for a wider salvation.

80

TEXT BOOK WORK

Read Part IX (pages 285-337) of your textbook, Revival.

1. Explain in detail the ‘Steel Punch’?

2. What is the purpose of Revival, as given in your text book?

3. Describe in detail the Features and Impacts of Revival. Give a Scriptural reference to verify your answers.

4. What are the social impacts on society during and after a Revival?

5. Briefly describe the origins of the Salvation Army and what impact they have had on the Christian community.

81 UNIT SIX

THE FOUR MAJOR RESTORATION MOVEMENTS In Summary

Learning Outcomes:

(1) Understand the four major Restoration Movements in modern history. (2) Develop an understanding of the previous historical movements and how they have set the foundations for modern evangelical movements. (3) Identify and distinguish between modern evangelical movements. (4) Understand the fivefold ministry and its development within the local Church.

6.1 THE HISTORIC PROTESTANT MOVEMENT

Three national Church denominations were established in the Protestant Movement:

 Lutheran Church in Germany  Presbyterian Church in Scotland  Anglican Church in England

6.1.1 History

The Protestant Churches came into existence because Martin Luther, John Knox, Thomas Cranmer and numerous other ministers broke away from the Catholic Church, fighting for and establishing the right to be Churches separate from Catholicism.

6.1.2 Spiritual Implications

The movement came into existence because a man of God, Martin Luther, received a revelation of truth that made it impossible for him to continue in the same religious system, which he believed, was contrary to the Word of God. Luther would have had to deny his knowledge of the Word of God, his conscience and his newly received spiritual experience in order to remain a priest who promoted the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church.

6.1.3 Restoration

Protestantism came into existence because the Holy Spirit initiated the period of the restoration of the Church. The Protestant Churches brought back into the Church the revelation, proper application and re-establishment of the first doctrine of Christ – repentance from dead works.

82 The movement‘s purpose was to reactivate the period of the great restoration of the Church. Europe was the place of its birth and growth. The priests and people that came out of the Catholic Church propagated the movement. The newly invented product that publicised its restoration truths was the The message was printing press. repentance from dead works – The key man God used was Martin Luther. The the teaching that we are ministry was the preaching of the Word. The justified by the mercy method was by faith in God and by the use of every and grace of means available. The result was the corporate Body Jesus Christ through of Christ, His Church, awakened from her lethargy faith, and nothing else. and apostasy, taking the first of seven steps to ultimate perfection.

6.2 THE HOLINESS/EVANGELICAL MOVEMENT

This movement‘s purpose was to restore the eternal Church of Christ – faith toward God. It was conceived in Europe, but America became the place of its birth and growth to maturity. The men God used were numerous; John Wesley is perhaps the man most noted for promoting holiness. The people who participated and the ministers who propagated the truth came from protestant movement Churches.

The message was threefold:  Believer‘s baptism by immersion.  Believer‘s sanctification.  Believer‘s divine healing.

The ministry was the preaching of the Word accompanied by special singers, great conviction, blessing and emotional manifestations and physical healings. The new products that carried the message to the ends of the earth were the steamship and railroad.

The result was that the eternal Church crossed its Red Sea of water baptism, became sanctified and separated from the world, and then journeyed on to receive Christ‘s redemptive work of divine healing. Thus, the Church in the restoration walk had taken the second great giant step to its ―Canaan‖ of full maturity in Christ Jesus.

Stop and answer: Consider the Church in the Holiness movement. ? ? What are some key similarities and differences between your current

Church and that of the Holiness movement. ? Similarities Differences

83 6.3 THE CLASSICAL PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT

The movement‘s purpose was to restore the Holy Spirit to His powerful performance in the Church by gifting the individual believer with ―other tongues‖ in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. By releasing the gifts of the Spirit to the Church, Jesus restored the third doctrine of Christ to the Church – the doctrine of baptism. The place of its birth was the United States, after which it spread to the world with its greatest percentage of growth among Christians in Latin America.

The message was the baptism of the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in ―other tongues.‖ The ministry was the preaching of the Word accompanied by healings, miracles, speaking in other tongues and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All types of musical instruments and singing were used to promote the gospel and to worship God. The term ―dancing in the spirit‖ became an accepted form of Spirit-directed, and an uncontrolled expression of praise. The new products used to spread this restoration truth to the ends of the earth were the automobile and the radio.

Thus, the Church advanced in its restoration journey through the wilderness to its ―water from the Rock‖ experience. The result was more powerful performance in ministry, greater evangelism and the ―rivers of living water‖ flowing out of the saints‘ innermost being in other tongues. The Pentecostal Movement was another progressive step in the walk of the eternal Church to Her promised Canaan Land.

Stop and explore: Calculate five key differences between the Pentecostal Movement and the Holiness Movement. In your  opinion has the Church progressed in its development or regressed?

6.3.1 THE LATTER RAIN/CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT

God‘s purpose for the Latter Rain Movement was to restore the experiential reality of the Biblical practice of laying on of hands, thereby restoring to the

84 Church the fourth doctrine of Christ. The place of its birth was Canada. It then spread throughout the United States and around the world.

 Latter Rain Leaders The Latter Rain Movement has never recognised any man or group as head of the movement, but certain men were notable in making known and maintaining the doctrine of laying on of hands: o The laying on of hands for healing, Oral Roberts. o The laying on of hands with personal prophecy by the presbytery (called a ―prophetic presbytery‖), Reginald Layzell. o The laying on of hands with prophesying for healings and miracles, William Branham.  Charismatic Leaders Key men who were originally instrumental in activating and spreading the Charismatic renewal were Dennis Bennett, David du Plessis and Demos Shakarian. Making the historic Charismatic conscious of the reality of the spirit world of demon activity was Derek Prince. Kenneth Hagin became known as the father of the faith message for prosperity and healing.

Stop and research: Consider the doctrine of the laying on of hands. What does Scripture have to say about it? Research each instance in Scripture and its context. Then develop a Statement of

Faith (doctrine of what you believe).

The majority of the people who participated and the ministers who propagated deliverance evangelism and Latter Rain truths came from the Pentecostal movement Churches. Those who originally were called Charismatic were ministers and members of historic Protestant denominations, but then came those from the Catholic and Orthodox, Holiness, Evangelical and Fundamentalist Churches. Finally, many Pentecostal and Latter Rain leaders reluctantly accepted the word ―Charismatic‖ to identify those who were Holy Spirit-filled, tongues-talking, God-praising, present-truth Christians.

6.3.2 The Message of the Charismatic Movement

The message of the Charismatic renewal was threefold:  The laying on of hands for healing, along with the Holy Spirit baptism, deliverance, membership into the Body of Christ ministry and the activation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

85  The proclamation of all the Pentecostal and Latter Rain Movement truths to denominational Christians. This was mainly done by denominational ministers who were newly baptised in the Holy Spirit.  The proclamation by present-truth and faith ministers of the maturing of the body of Christians living victoriously – spiritually, physically and financially.

The ministry was the preaching of the Word accompanied by healings, prophecy and revelation gifts. This caused many souls to be saved, extensive spiritual growth in individual Christians, the numerical growth of Churches and the prosperity of the saints.

6.4 FIVEFOLD MINISTRIES RESTORED

Bill Hamon explains that in each of the last five decades of the twentieth- century Church, one of the fivefold ministries (Ephesians 4:11) has been re- emphasised or restored, and the Holy Spirit made active certain Biblical truths and different ways of worship into the Church.

DECADE FIVEFOLD MINISTRY MOVEMENT/REVIVAL

1950‟s Evangelist Deliverance Evangelism 1960‟s Pastor Charismatic Renewal

1970‟s Teacher Faith Teaching Movement 1980‟s Prophet Prophetic Movement

1990‟s Apostle Apostolic Movement

6.4.1 The Need to Restore the Fivefold Ministry

Paul wrote to the Ephesians about apostles and prophets in Ephesians 2:20,21. Paul explained to the Christian Gentiles that they are no longer alienated from God, but now enjoy the same intimate relationship with Him and the same spiritual blessings, as do Christian Jews. Three figures express this unity and equality existing between believing Jews and Gentiles:

(1) A city: being fellow citizens and enjoying the same privileges. (2) A family: Since Gentiles have been reconciled to God (v.16) and to His people (v15), they are now members of the household of God, that is, children of the divine family. (3) A building: Believing Jews and Gentiles are part of the same divine structure, the Church.

The Church‘s foundation is composed of the apostles and prophets, its chief cornerstone is Christ, and its superstructure is composed of Christians.

Paraphrased verse 21 would read, ―By whom the whole building, being carefully and harmoniously joined together, rises into a holy temple for the

86 Lord.‖ This implies the harmonious blending of the Jewish and Gentile believers in the Church.

Some theologians interpret this Scripture to say that the Church was built upon the ministry of the apostles and prophets, but that the ministry of the apostles and prophets was finished after the establishment of the first Church. Therefore, those ministries became dispensational and depleted.

It was not until the restoration of the Latter Rain movement in 1948 that revelation and teaching was given concerning apostles and prophets. And even though those involved taught that there are prophets and apostles today, they were never willing to give public acknowledgement to those who had the gifted ministry of apostle or prophet.

Stop and consider: In your opinion, has the ministry of the apostles and prophets ceased? Why or why not? Support your answer with Biblical references.

6.5 DESCRIPTION OF THE LAST FOUR DECADES

It is important to re-emphasise those three offices which have been accepted and somewhat understood (evangelist, pastor, teacher) and then to fully clarify, amplify and explain those two which have not been understood, accepted or recognised.

6.4.2 The Evangelist

The word evangelist is used only three times in Scripture. Therefore, relatively little can be concluded about this person‘s role. Philip, who planted Churches, is called an evangelist (Acts 21:8), and Timothy was instructed to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). Some have the gift of evangelism and are given to the Church (v.11). The root meaning of evangelist is ―to bring good tidings‖ or ―to bring the gospel message.‖ In the New Testament, the evangelist appears to have gone to unbelieving people, attempting to win them to Christ. Some people view the evangelist as a particularly effective soul-winner. Soul winning is the responsibility of all Christians regardless of their spiritual gifts, offices, or ministries (Acts 21:8; Ephesians 4:11; cf. Ephesians 2:20.)

In the 1950‘s, it is argued, the gifted ministry of the hour was that of the evangelist. Evangelists such as Oral Roberts were holding great tent

87 meetings. A dual ministry of evangelism and deliverance from disease and demons provided the focus for the evangelist. Laying on of hands for healing and mass evangelism was the most prominent ministry.

During this decade the ministry of the evangelist seemed to be re-emphasised and exaggerated. However, within a decade hundreds of evangelists and their large tent meetings subsided. The great wave of restoration and amplification of the evangelist, with gifts of healing and miracles, reached the shoreline of realisation in the 50‘s and withdrew into the ocean of the ―Last Days‖ Church ministry.

? ? Stop and answer: Consider the role of an Evangelist? Do you consider yourself an evangelist? Why or why not?

?

Who is responsible to evangelise? Is it a specific gift for specific people? Explain your answer by using Scripture.

6.4.3 The Pastor

The Pastor is the feeder, protector, and guide, or shepherd, of a flock of God‘s people in New Testament times. In speaking of spiritual gifts, the apostle Paul wrote that Christ ―gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers‖ (Ephesians 4:11). The term ―pastor‖ by this time in Church history had not yet become an official title. The term implied the nourishing of and caring for God‘s people.

The Greek word translated ―pastors‖ in Ephesians 4:11 is used elsewhere in the New Testament of sheepherders, literally or symbolically (Matthew 25:32); of Jesus, the Good Shepherd (John 10); and of ―shepherds,‖ or leaders, of the Church (Ephesians 4:11). The NKJV uses the word ―pastor‖ only in this verse. Also compare Jeremiah 23:1–2 (KJV).

The 1960‘s may have been the decade for the ministry of the pastor to be re- emphasised and brought into proper perspective. Two restoration moves of the Holy Spirit contributed toward bringing this into reality. The first came in 1948 with the restoration teaching that emphasised proper divine order for the local Church. Understanding came that the local Church is to be self- governing and indigenous, with Christ being the sovereign head and the local pastor serving under the direct headship of Christ.

88 This movement emphasised that the calling and gifting to be a pastor was from God and therefore pastors should not be elected either by a board of elders, or deacons or a congregation. The pastor was seen to stand in Christ‘s stead, and his position not determined by the vote of those to whom he ministers. The pastor had the freedom and authority to fulfil the vision God had given for building that particular local Church.

The second wave that contributed to the intensification of the pastoral ministry was the Charismatic renewal that shook the whole denominational part of Christendom. Millions of denominational members were baptised with the Holy Spirit. In the 1960‘s and 70‘s, Churches were started by Charismatic, restoration and faith ministries. Within three or four years the Church grew to a congregations of thousands. Thus pastors became the prominent ministry of the 1960‘s.

6.4.4 The Teacher

Teacher is used more often than any other verb to describe what Jesus did throughout his ministry – more often than even the word for ―heal.‖

As Jesus lived and worked among men, He chose the role of teacher (didaskalos). The four Gospels agree in so portraying Him. People spoke of Him as such, and they addressed Him as ―Teacher.‖ Unfortunately the King James Bible tends to hide this fact from the English reader. It represents the Gospels as applying the word ―teacher‖ to Jesus only once. But that is only because it used the English word ―master‖ as a translation for the Greek word for ―teacher‖ in 41 other cases where this word is applied to Jesus.

The 70‘s may have been the decade of proper recognition, acceptance and strengthening of Christ‘s gift ministry of the teacher. The Catholic and Historic Protestant charismatic ministers were not strong evangelistic expounders in preaching like the Holiness and Pentecostal pastors. They did more teaching than preaching. So the leading ministers in the Charismatic and Faith movements presented their truths more by teaching than by preaching.

Thousands would drive hundreds of miles to come and sit by the hour listening to one teacher after the other. Cassette tapes were made and distributed in endless numbers. The office of the teacher was restored to its rightful place of respect and authority, and was properly positioned as a Christ-given ministry to the Body of Christ.

6.4.5 The Prophet The promise was that many Prophets receive their call or appointment mature prophetic directly from God. Some prophets, like Jeremiah ministries or John the Baptist, were called before birth would spearhead (Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:13–16), but their privilege a new day of was not a birthright. Their authority came from restoration God alone whose message they bore (Exodus and revival. 7:1).

89 The main role of the prophet was to bear God‘s word for the purpose of teaching, reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Whether warning of impending danger or disclosing God‘s will to the people, they were similar in function to the modern preacher in the church. Prophets were referred to as messengers of the Lord (Isaiah 44:26; Haggai 1:13), servants of God (Amos 3:7), shepherds (Zechariah 11:4, 7; Jeremiah 17:16), and watchmen (Isaiah 62:6).

Prophet Glenn Foster has noted that a powerful prophetic minister went through his Church in the 1950‘s and prophesied that the day would come when the prophets would arise and prophetic ministry would come into prominence. The prophecy also said that the prophetic movement was still thirty years away.

Many people who had been in prophetic ministry for many years heard a similar prophecy, and looked forward to the 80‘s as the decade of the prophet. It is argued that in the 80‘s the Holy Spirit began to restore Christ‘s ascension gift ministry of the prophet to its proper recognition, acceptance and authority in the Church.

6.4.6 The Apostle

The Apostle is one sent forth, a special messenger of Jesus Christ; a person to whom Jesus delegated authority for certain tasks. The word ―apostle‖ is used of those twelve disciples whom Jesus sent out, two by two, during His ministry in Galilee to expand His own ministry of preaching and healing. It was on that occasion, evidently, that they were first called ―apostles‖ (Mark 3:14; 6:30). Later, Paul was also identified as an apostle.

Their office: (1) The original qualification of an apostle, as stated by St. Peter on the occasion of electing a successor to the traitor Judas, was that he should have been personally acquainted with the whole ministerial course of our Lord, from His baptism by John till the day when He was taken up into heaven. (2) Christ himself chose the apostles. (3) They had the power of working miracles. (4) They were inspired, John 16:13. (5) Their work seems to have been pre-eminently that of founding the churches and upholding them by supernatural power specially bestowed for that purpose. (6) Some theologians believe that the office ceased, as a matter of course, with Paul and the disciples, because no one else would have been able to satisfy the above criteria. However, there are others who believe that the office still exists. (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:1)

The apostles were generally from the lower ranks of life, simple and uneducated; some of them were related to Jesus according to the flesh; some had previously been disciples of John the Baptist. Our Lord chose them early in His public career. They seem to have been all on equality, both during and

90 after the ministry of Christ on earth. Early in our Lord‘s ministry He sent them out two by two to preach repentance and to perform miracles in His name. Matthew 10; Luke 9. They accompanied Him in His journeys, saw His wonderful works, heard His discourses addressed to the people, and made inquiries of Him on religious matters. They recognised Him as the Christ of God, Matthew 16:16; Luke 9:20, and ascribed to Him supernatural power, Luke 9:54; but in the recognition of the spiritual teaching and mission of Christ they made very slow progress, held back as they were by weakness of apprehension and by national prejudices. Even at the removal of our Lord from the earth they were yet weak in their knowledge, Luke 24:21; John 16:12, though He had for so long been carefully preparing and instructing them. On the feast of Pentecost, ten days after our Lord‘s ascension, the Holy Spirit came down on the assembled Church, Acts 2; and from that time the apostles became altogether different men, giving witness with power of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, as He had declared they should (Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8, 22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 13:31).

First of all the mother-church at Jerusalem grew up under their hands (Acts 3- 7), and their superior dignity and power were universally acknowledged by the rulers and the people. Their first mission out of Jerusalem was to Samaria, Acts 8:5-25, where the Lord himself had, during His ministry, sown the seed of the gospel. Here ends the first period of the apostles‘ agency, during which its centre is Jerusalem and the prominent figure is that of St. Peter. The centre of the second period of the apostolic agency is Antioch, where a church soon was built up, consisting of Jews and Gentiles; and the central figure of this and of the subsequent period is St. Paul. The third apostolic period is marked by the almost complete disappearance of the twelve from the sacred narrative, and the exclusive agency of St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles. Of the missionary work of the rest of the twelve we know absolutely nothing from the sacred narrative.

The 1990‘s seem to have been the decade for the apostle. The full restoration of the apostle in the 90‘s brought restoration of the full apostolic authority and the signs and wonders of the gift of faith and the working of miracles. The Christ-ordained office and ministry of the apostle was recognised, accepted and magnified mightily throughout the Christian world.

The discipleship/shepherding movement saw a glimpse of this truth in the 70‘s and tried to restore it. But many abuses occurred due to lack of balance and maturity. The reverential fear of God and His righteousness will be re- established in the Church as judgment begins on the house of God. Human- made religious kingdoms and the Babylonian system as recorded in the Bible will be shaken as God‘s judgments are executed by the last-day prophetic and apostolic ministries (1 Peter 4:7; Acts 5:1-13; Revelation 11:3-10).

91

MEN ALIVE IN 1990 REPRESENTING FORTY YEARS OF REVIVAL

Oral Roberts Laying on of hands for healing; seed faith Billy Graham Evangelism and the born-again experience Paul Cain Demonstration of prophets in the Church Dick Iverson Prophetic presbytery and the local Church T.L. Osborne Mass evangelism with miracles David Wilkerson Gang and street ministry; the Jesus Movement Demos Shakarian Charismatic renewal among businessmen Pat Robertson Christian television networks; his own CBN Paul Crouch TBN Church ministries and television evangelism Dennis Bennett Charismatic renewal; gift of the Holy Spirit Charles Simpson Discipleship, accountability and relationship Kenneth Hagin Faith, financial prosperity and deliverance Yongghi Cho Mega-Churches, cell groups, intercessory prayer Earl Paulk Kingdom of God message, witness and ministry Larry Lea Daily early morning and warfare prayer Bill Hamon Prophets, prophetic ministry, and warfare praise

Try the LAST Self-test on the next day.

92 Self-test

1. The Protestant Churches brought back into the Church the revelation, proper application and re-establishment of the first doctrine of Christ, namely…

2. What was the purpose of the Holiness/Evangelical Movement?

3. What was the purpose of the Classical Pentecostal Movement?

4. What was Oral Roberts‘ contribution to the Latter Rain Movement?

5. Kenneth Hagin became known as the father of the faith message for …

6. What is the threefold message of the charismatic renewal?

93 7. What are the ―fivefold‖ ministries?

8. Give a description of the office of the Teacher within the fivefold ministry.

9. What will be re-established in the Church as judgment begins on the house of God?

Now compare your answers with mine on the next page.

94 Self-test

1. The Protestant Churches brought back into the Church the revelation, proper application and re-establishment of the first doctrine of Christ, namely…

repentance from dead works

2. What was the purpose of the Holiness/Evangelical Movement?

This movement‟s purpose was to restore the eternal Church of Christ – faith toward God.

3. What was the purpose of the Classical Pentecostal Movement?

The movement‟s purpose was to restore the Holy Spirit to His powerful performance in the Church by gifting the individual believer with “other tongues” in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

4. What was Oral Roberts‘ contribution to the Latter Rain Movement?

Oral Roberts contributed the doctrine of the laying on of hands for healing.

5. Kenneth Hagin became known as the father of the faith message for …

prosperity and healing

6. What is the threefold message of the charismatic renewal?

 The laying on of hands for healing, along with the Holy Spirit baptism, deliverance, membership into the Body of Christ ministry and the activation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The proclamation of all the Pentecostal and Latter Rain Movement truths to denominational Christians. Denominational ministers who were newly baptised in the Holy Spirit mainly did this.  The proclamation by present-truth and faith ministers of the maturing of the body of Christians living victoriously – spiritually, physically and financially.

95 7. What are the ―fivefold‖ ministries?

Evangelist Pastor Teacher Prophet Apostle

8. Give a description of the office of the Teacher within the fivefold ministry.

The 1970‟s were the decade for the proper recognition, acceptance and magnifying of Christ‟s gift ministry of the teacher. The Catholic and Historic Protestant charismatic ministers who moved into present truth were not strong evangelistic expounders in preaching like the Holiness and Pentecostal brethren. They did more teaching than preaching. So the leading ministers in the Charismatic and Faith movements presented their truths more by teaching than by preaching.

Thousands would drive hundreds of miles to come and sit by the hour listening to one teacher after the other. Cassette tapes were made and distributed in endless numbers. The office of the teacher was restored to its rightful place of respect and authority, and was properly positioned as a Christ-given ministry to the Body of Christ.

9. What will be re-established in the Church as judgment begins on the house of God?

The reverential fear of God and His righteousness will be re- established in the Church as judgment begins on the house of God.

96

ASSIGNMENT TWO

PART ONE

John Gillies in his 1795 classic, ―Accounts of Revivals‖, noted nine characteristics that he perceived to be the marks of a revivalist (Pratney, Revival, p.204). Bill Hamon says that when God gets ready to do something new He ―raises up a man with a message and a ministry‖.

Using these nine characteristics to guide you in answering the following:

1.1 What type of revivalist leader is God looking for today according to the Accounts of Revival? Refer to your textbook as well as God‘s Word (e.g. 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; 1 Peter 5) and support your answer with Biblical reference.

1.2 In which areas do you feel challenged to be a revivalist? What measures would you take to make changes within your own life?

[1200 TOTAL WORDS]

97 APPENDIX ONE

Church Perspectives on the Future of South Africa Taken from "The Road to Rustenburg" David Bosch Edited by Dr Louw Alberts & Dr Frank Chikane

According to my brief, I am supposed to help you see how the Reformed tradition has historically treated social and political issues, and also to indicate how this tradition may help shape the future of our country.

I am not going to limit myself to the views and contributions of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches. Calvinism, in fact, forms the substratum of Anglicanism as well, as it does of other traditions, such as Methodism. It is therefore this wide and far-flung movement I wish to speak about. Unfortunately, because this is such a wide and complex subject, it will be impossible to bring out all the nuances. I will be forced to portray Calvinism in a rather oversimplified, even stereotyped fashion. I can only express the hope that fellow-Calvinists will recognise themselves in what I have to say, and that non-Calvinists will at least be intrigued by this much-maligned tradition.

I will also be obliged, at some point, to draw comparisons between Calvinism and other traditions, particularly Catholicism and Lutheranism. I will do so, not by means of conducting a beauty contest in which my candidate is the most attractive, but simply to help you perceive the profile of the Calvinist view of life and the world. So please do not take my observations regarding other traditions as disparaging. You will note, more over, that I am in many respects critical of my own tradition. And, in any case, in recent decades there has been a remarkable convergence of ecclesiastical traditions, which means that Calvinists, Catholics and Lutherans are no longer as far apart as they used to be.

I wish to speak, consecutively, about the features, the failures, and the future of Calvinism in South Africa.

The Features of Calvinism

If Liberation Theology concentrates on the incarnation of Christ, Catholics on the significance of Christ's vicarious death on the Cross, the Eastern Orthodox on the glory of Christ's resurrection, Pentecostals on the coming of the Holy Spirit, and Adventists on the expected return of Christ, it could be said that Christ's ascension is of particular significance to Calvinists. The Ascension was, for John Calvin, the symbol of the enthronement of Christ, of His lordship over all life and reality. Small wonder, then, that in the Calvinist tradition it is the reign of God that is emphasised, God's dominion, now already, over all reality. Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God's reign has already been inaugurated. And the believers are called to make that reign more visible, more real, in the here and now.

98 For Calvinists, this signifies a fundamental break with the medieval worldview, with Catholicism, but also with Lutheranism. The medieval vision of human life was essentially other-worldly. This physical world is not our home. We are aliens here, just travelling through. The real world is eternal, the immutable, the incorruptible, the imperishable. This earthly life is merely the anteroom of our ultimate destiny (Wolterstorff 1983:4f).

For Calvinists, by contrast, it is this world in which we are to exercise our calling. It is here that we are called to give expression to the reality of God's reign. Richard Marius, an American Lutheran, compares Calvinism and Lutheranism at this point:

Luther never tried to make much of this present world and a worldly age cannot make much of him. The Calvinists expected the world to endure, and they believed themselves instruments of God to convert it ... Calvinism has taught us that we are to make something of this world ... Calvinism has implanted in both the British and the American traditions a perpetual dissatisfaction with our successes and a restlessness with the ways things are. (Marius 1976:34)

H Richard Niebuhr comes to essentially the same conclusion and characterises the classical Lutheran position as one of 'mere endurance in the expectation of a trans-historical salvation', while Calvin sees Christ as 'the converter of man in his culture and society, not apart from these ...' (Niebuhr 1956:43; 217f).

For Calvin, then, the involvement of believers in the world was not an addition to theology. Social ethics did not belong to a different category, divorced from theology. This is only one of several respects in which Calvinism and Liberation Theology converge. Both express concern for the victims of society in essentially the same manner: not by applying bandages, but by identifying the causes of the wounds inflicted on people and by seeking to effect change in respect of the structures of injustice (Wolterstorff 1983:65). Not that Calvin or the Reformation tradition reduces theology to politics. Rather, theology has to do with the knowledge of God and His glory. But precisely because Calvinists regard politics as one fundamental sphere within which God reveals His glory and should be worshipped, they lift politics into the realm of theology (Wolterstorff 1983:10f; De Gruchy 1986:20f). The distinction between religious and non-religious components of life comes naturally to Lutherans (Troeltsch 1931:602; Wolterstorff 1983:10). Calvinists, by comparison, argue that, precisely because Christ is the Head of the Church, he is also the Lord of the world.

More than other Christians, Calvinists believe that we live in a fallen world. The classical Calvinist notion in this respect is that of total depravity. It is important to note, however and this constitutes the second point of intersection between Calvinism and Liberation Theology that it is not only individual human beings who are considered to be fallen; rather, the very structures in which we find ourselves are fallen; the entire social order is corrupt (Walzer 1966:65, 319; Wolterstorff 1983:3, 9, 16f). And precisely as fallen structure, society is in need of reform, permanent reform. The corollary of the adage ecclesia semper

99 reformanda (the church is always in need of reformation) is societas semper reformanda (society is always in need of reformation).

At the centre of Calvinist social piety there are three foundational elements, gratitude, obedience and vocation. Our profound gratitude to God for what He has done by saving us, motivates us to obedience to His will, which is expressed in vocation (Wolterstorff 1983:15). Thus, believers are privileged, as well as obliged, to participate in the renewal of the face of the earth. 'The saints,' says Michael Walzer, 'were responsible for their world as medieval men were not and responsible above all for its continuous reformation' (Walzer 1966:12).

For medieval people, God was in His heaven, the bishop in his chair, and the lord in his castle. This was part of the very nature of things the entire hierarchical array was God-ordained (Wolterstorff 1983:7). Every person should remain in the social and occupational position into which he or she was born. All of this was simply a given (Wolterstorff 1983:16f). 'Patriarchy, personal loyalty, patronage and corporation are the key forms of human relations,' says Michael Walzer (1966: 311), and he adds that 'passivity is the normal political posture of common men'. Each person had his or her appointed destiny, received from the hands of God (Troeltsch 1931:610).

For the Calvinists, however, no societal structure was regarded as God-given or inviolable. They became 'active enemies of the old order' (Walzer 1966:312) and Calvinism, 'a political movement aiming at social reconstruction' (Walzer 1966:319). This is achieved inter alia by substituting vocation for occupation. In Catholicism, to this day, one uses the word 'vocations' only in respect of the ordained ministry. In the Calvinist paradigm, however, not only the ordained minister is called, but everyone who, in gratitude and obedience, serves in the world. Tailors, merchants, and farmers respond to and live out a calling, a vocation, just as the ordained minister does. In the political arena, this meant that subjects had become citizens (Walzer 1966:9). The Calvinist worldview was, in this respect, an important building-block in the development of democracy. There is something distinctly modern about the Calvinist view of life.

Since all of society has been ravaged by sin, there is no area into which the rays of the reign of God should not be cast. And the believers are called to participate in this ministry with total commitment. They are responsible for the structure of the social world in which they find themselves. 'Everywhere,' says Ernst Troeltsch, Calvinism was led to 'a systematic endeavour to mould the life of Society as a whole, to a kind of "Christian Socialism"' (1931:202). Addressing the English House of Commons in 1641, the Puritan minister, Thomas Case, said:

Reformation must be universal ... reform all places, all persons and callings; reform the benches of judgment, the ... magistrates. ... Reform the universities, reform the cities, reform the countries, reform ... schools of learning, reform the Sabbath, reform the ordinances, the worship of God. (Quoted in Walzer 1966:10f)

100 Case does not distinguish between so-called 'religious' and 'secular' duties. The enthusiastic and purposive activity of the Calvinists was part of their religious life, not something distinct and separate: 'They acted out their saintliness in debates, elections, administration, and warfare' (Walzer 1966:12); indeed, 'the band of the chosen confronts the existing world as if in war' (Walzer 1966:317). And since they have a total view of the new world, their project is a total one (Walzer 1966:319).

I have quoted Walzer as saying that 'the band of the chosen confronts the existing world as if in war'. As a matter of fact, the concept of 'war' has not always been used only in a metaphorical sense in Calvinism, as the history of the (white) Reformed Churches in South Africa attests (Borchardt 1975). This, then, is yet another area in which the difference between Calvinism and Liberation Theology is not as absolute as some would have it. It has become customary, in some circles, to construe, on the basis of Calvinism, an absolute antithesis between reform and revolution. From the records, however, it seems the matter was never quite that simple. Scottish and English Calvinists, for instance, have argued that it is not only permitted, but on occasion even obligatory, to actively resist a tyrannical government (Wolterstorff 1983:143f).

The Failures of Calvinism

Ever since the 1840s, when David Livingstone suggested that it was the Afrikaners' Calvinism that was the ideological source of the injustices perpetrated by them against the blacks, Calvinism has had a bad press in South Africa and at least in some circles elsewhere. This interpretation was, at least in part, unjustified. Still, it contained an element of truth. Like every other system, religious or otherwise, Calvinism also had its weaknesses. This appears particularly to have been the case in South Africa. Let us look at some of its failures in our situation.

First, Calvinism's penchant for advocating a total strategy of reform has often degenerated into a form of totalitarianism. Calvinists frequently attempt to remake the world into their own image and often fail to think about how they might live together with those with whom they disagree (Wolterstorff 1983:22). I would like to suggest that the introduction and imposition of the policy of apartheid in South Africa is an example of such totalitarianism. With extraordinary self-assurance and daring, and in the name of Calvinist 'principles', the architects of apartheid set out, methodically and systematically, and at the same time self-righteously, to do what they perceived to be God's will for South Africa. And since, as I have already argued, politics and religion are not to be divorced from each other in the Calvinist paradigm, those who differed from the 'official' view particularly if they were themselves members of one of the Reformed Churches were considered to be not only politically unorthodox but also theologically heretical.

Second, in spite of Calvinism's intrinsic world-transforming quality, it often, and perhaps incongruously, manifested itself as conservative rather than transformative in particular contexts. Instead of orientating itself forward, to the future ultimate triumph of God and the full eruption of God's reign, it orientated

101 itself backward, to the beginning, to the 'creation ordinances', which now, all of a sudden, became sacrosanct and the divine yardstick for the shaping of society (Wolterstorff 1983:59). Its emphasis on obedience and order, its interpretation of ethnic diversity as a creation ordinance and its marriage with nationalism, made it easier for Calvinism in South Africa to excuse government violence than the violence of resistance. Instead of attacking and transforming society, it legitimated and defended the status quo. Reformers changed into die-hard conservatives.

Third, and related to the point just made: In the Calvinism of the last century or so, Calvinists, particularly where they belonged to the privileged sections of the population have sometimes adopted a strategy which enabled them to sound progressive and relevant, while salvaging something, but only something, of the semblance of social justice. They did this by positing 'principles' of justice which now only had to be 'applied' to specific situations, and they saw their task as being limited to formulating these principles, not to work them out in society. In a sense, this was an escape mechanism, a form of self-justification, an approach that enabled them to speak about justice in theory without getting involved, to make only general statements about justice, without taking upon themselves the risk of identifying particular policies and actions as evil and others as commendable.

The Future of Calvinism

After this highly stereotypical, if not idiosyncratic portrayal of Calvinism, let me finally turn to the future and reflect, very briefly, on the future of Calvinism in our country and the contribution it may be able to make.

First, I believe that Calvinism will cease to play a dominant role in the South Africa of the future. Many Calvinists will not find this easy. Historically, Calvinists were at their best where they were in a position of authority. They have often experienced difficulty with a minority status. And yet, Calvinists may be privileged to play a significant role in the South Africa of the future. It can, for instance, be demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the modern ecumenical movement, particularly its emphasis on the believer's calling in respect of the structures of society, is profoundly indebted to the Calvinist tradition. Also, the future South African society will reap the benefits of this tradition. Concretely, this means that we can move beyond merely attacking apartheid and lamenting the past and, precisely because Christ wishes to reign over all of reality, reflect on what we might do in respect of specific issues, such as the desperate situation regarding, among others, education, the homeless, and AIDS.

Second, and related to the above, when Calvinists are indeed a minority, without much say or direct influence, one option is excluded if they wish to remain Calvinists: they cannot withdraw from public life into the privacy of the soul and of `religion'. If they wish to remain true to their roots, they will continue to contribute to the welfare of the city. They cannot now, when they lose their position of privilege, suddenly amputate political ethics from theology. Because of the Calvinist doctrine of common grace and the belief that God uses not only

102 Christians to execute his will, but all of humanity, Calvinists will continue to adopt a basically positive but sober attitude toward the civil realm. They will neither view any particular manifestation of the sociopolitical order as God's kingdom on earth, nor regard what they consider to be falling short of the ideal as a manifestation of the Beast. History is the arena of God's activities; therefore, to opt out of civil society or to set up little Christian islands, is to subscribe to a truncated and disjunctive understanding of God's work.

Third, Christians will only be able to contribute to society if they cease to be prescriptive and dogmatic. We may indeed, with confidence, point to God's revelation in Jesus Christ and faith in Him as the sure way to salvation. But we cannot, with the same confidence, impose blueprints on society (Nicol 1990:4f). This does not mean that we should limit ourselves to the formulation of principles. Rather, we should risk saying what we believe to be right and what we believe to be wrong. We should not do it in an apodictic way. Practical politics leads us into the area of the contingent and the relative, where Christians will differ about the answers, but will nevertheless have to make choices and share with those who do not consider themselves Christians in open debate on socio-ethical issues. Where people are experiencing and working for justice, freedom, reconciliation, unity, and truth, in a spirit of selflessness, we may dare to see God at work, and say so. Wherever people are being enslaved, enmity between humans is fanned, and mutual accountability denied in a spirit of individual or group self-centrism, we may identify the counter-forces of God's reign at work, and say so. We have to be as specific as the Old Testament prophets, who did not limit themselves to enunciating principles.

Fourth, Calvinists should guard against the temptation of trying to regain a kind of quasi-established position by allowing itself, once again, to be co-opted by the State, a political party, or an ideology. Even while giving credit where credit is due, it should never legitimate the policies of the Government or any political party. `It best serves the Kingdom of God and the people, and therefore the wellbeing of the State, by being prophetic and critical' (De Gruchy 1986:27).

Fifth, Calvinists will have to channel Calvinism's latent penchant toward revolution in the direction of working for peace. For far too long we have participated in war-talk. God also speaks to us through the contingent events of history, and I believe that what God is saying to us at this juncture of our history is that violence, both the violence of the system and of the oppressed, has been so destructive, so catastrophic, that we are compelled to look for alternatives. One of the major social sins that has to be opposed now is militarism from above and from below. Many of us have, for years, used the slogan `No peace without justice'. While continuing to subscribe to this motto, we should supplement it with its corollary: `No justice without peace'.

Last, and perhaps most important: the future South Africa will be far more pluralistic and secular than anything we have known. This South Africa can, however, only survive it if can rely on the assumed virtue of its citizens. It can only succeed if certain controls and morals have been implanted into its citizens. In a sense, then, a pluralist and secular South Africa will remain dependent

103 upon the existence of believers, that is, of persons whose integrity and good conduct can be relied upon. It is only a shared moral vision that can hold society together (Walzer 1966:302f; De Gruchy 1986:27). If Calvinists can continue to contribute to this vision, their ministry will be a blessing to all citizens of our country. Since they know of the reality of sin in individual and corporate life, they will remain anti-utopian, sober, and watchful, not fooling themselves into believing that we shall build the ideal society here on earth, nor losing hope when there are setbacks, when the social and political fabric remains fragile and under pressure. They will remain determined to do their utmost for the peace of the city. In this way, Calvinism can call people to true conversion, a conversion that includes social responsibility and a moral vision for society.

References

Borchardt, CFA. `Die Afrikaanse Kerke en die Rebellie 1914-15', in Teologie en Vernuwing, edited by IH Eybers, A König and CFA Borchardt (University of South Africa: Pretoria, 1975) pp. 85-116. Bosch, DJ. `Dissension among Christians: How do we handle contentious issues?' in Healing in the Name of God, edited by PGR de Villiers (University of South Africa: Pretoria, 1986) pp 1-8. De Gruchy, John W. `Christ and/or Caesar? The Challenge to the Christian in South Africa from a Reformed Perspective', published in Orientation No 41, 1986. pp 14-36. Marius, Richard. `The Reformation and Nationhood', published in Dialog, Vol 15, 1976. pp. 29-34. Nicol, Willem. `The Role of the Church in the Context of Transition: Theological Perspectives', published in GrapeVine, No 29, September 1990. pp. 3-9. Niebuhr, H Richard. Christ and Culture. (Harper & Brothers: New York, 1956). Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. (Macmillan: New York, 1931). Walzer, Michael. The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics. (Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London, 1966). Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Until Justice and Peace Embrace. (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1983).

104 APPENDIX TWO

THE ORIGINAL CALVIN Taken from "THE PURITANS IN AFRICA" W A de Klerk

To say that the key to the Afrikaners is Calvinism is not enough. As is the case with all apostles there are as many Calvins as there have been restatements or 'revisions' of the original philosophy. Relevant to the Afrikaners of Southern Africa are: the Synod of Dort early in the seventeenth century; the rise of Puritanism; and the neo-Calvinism of Kuyper, Dooyeweerd and others, in the Netherlands of roughly our own time.

We shall examine each of these in turn, but a fuller perspective can only develop if we look, primarily but briefly, at the original or primitive Calvin in the milieu in which he wrote, spoke and directed.

Calvin was outstanding in a number of ways. There were several elements of overriding importance in his enormous influence, which reverberated from Geneva in the latter half of the sixteenth century through all subsequent history. Among them were his separation of the functions of the church and state and his acceptance of the profound contemporary changes in society's social and economic conditions. The nature of his religious belief was also highly significant. He took particular delight in the words of St Augustine that the first, second and third precepts of the Christian religion were humility.1 He also believed that man left to his own designs was a devil, and that God alone was sovereign and good. Man's utter dependence on Grace, Divine election and Christian liberty were at the heart of human existence, according to him. This was a mystery, calling to mind what Samuel Johnson was once reported to have remarked on the matter of predestination: that all logic accepted it, and all experience rejected it.

The social humanism of Calvin arose out of such fundamentals. This is the more remarkable when viewed from the vantage point of an age, with so much burning concern for the 'wretched of the earth', in a great variety of revolutionary forms. On this subject André Biéler has written a monumental study.2

The view of R.H. Tawney that Calvin's Geneva was a theocracy which made of 'Geneva a city of glass, in which every household lived its life under the supervision of spiritual police'3 is reduced to only a partial truth in the light of Biéler's work. For although Calvin's voice in the affairs of the city-state was a clear, persistent and authoritative one, it was never that of a visionary who had worked out a total blueprint for the reconstruction of society, primarily seeking man's redemption by the 'human engineering' of a socio-political system. It was rather that of a spiritually most gifted leader who constantly sought to examine the temporal society of civil government in the light of humility as a Christian precept. In this way, he dealt 'piecemeal' with the renewal of his particular community, as K.R. Popper has discussed in another context.4 Church and state were nevertheless autonomous institutions, each operating in its own circumscribed field. This remained fundamental to the Reformed faith. Calvin

105 himself, Biéler says, sometimes departed from his own basic tenets as far most definitively shows, was concerned with an order which moved within strict limits, which could never lay claim to its own absolute values and which, in fact, was guilty of trespass when it pretended to prescribe its own man-made ultimate ideals for its citizens. 'We are subject to men who rule over us,' Calvin said, 'but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against Him let us not pay the least regard to it nor be moved by the dignity which they possess as magistrates...'6 Unto Caesar should be rendered whatever was his as long as he did not exceed his authority and present himself as God. This would be so precisely where Caesar sought to usurp the work of Providence, and when the 'royal office' behaved as if it were the 'apostolic ministry'.7 Magistrates are the ordained guardians of the civil order of whom 'it should be their only study to provide for the common peace and safety'. The function of the Church, on the other hand, was not that of the everyday business of running the polity, but 'great Kings should not think it a disgrace to them to prostrate themselves suppliantly before Christ...nor ought to be displeased at being judged by the Church.'8 The enormous impact of Calvin on the Genevan society, one which has lasted until the present day, should primarily be seen in this light.

The social and economic life of Western man had, at the time of Calvin, long been in a state of metamorphosis. Great leadership has always been distinguished by the ability to recognize - rationally and intuitively - the changing tenor of the times and to act creatively in accordance with it. In essence, this means the ability to move a society towards the acceptance of a new synthesis of seemingly opposite forces. Calvin was an outstanding example of this.

The Middle Ages had been a time of feudal lords, pious and learned clergy, largely confined to their monastic seclusion, and also of toiling peasants in serfdom. Consummate craftsmen erected soaring monuments in stone, while an emergent society of burghers uneasily explored the new fields of commerce, criss-crossed with trade-routes from the Far and Middle East, the lands around the Mediterranean and deeper Africa. By the twelfth century a new class of professional traders, frowned upon by the Church and despised by the nobles as bourgeois rich, were coming together in guilds, preparing the ground for new political and economic institutions. This would in time come to be know as representative government and bourgeois capitalism. What Johan Huizinga has described as the Autumn of the Middle Ages had a relatively sudden onset. The beginning of the fourteenth century saw the Papacy in exile at Avignon. Plague, famine, war and peasant revolt raged incessantly over most of Western Europe. The autumn with its fading light soon became a winter of inexpressible gloom. The last quarter of the century brought the Great Schism in the Church, when for nearly three generations a double succession of Popes ruled in Rome and Avignon. In all, the age was a tired one. Even its violence was torpid.

All creation was crying out for renewal: socially, politically, economically, spiritually. In the century-and-a-half that followed, it came about in a variety of ways.

106 In Italy the rebirth of humanism appropriately expressed itself in a new passion for classical learning, literature and art. Out of the rubble of antiquity the Renaissance had flowered.

Martin Luther, on a pilgrimage to Rome at the time, had no eyes, however, for the glories of neo-classical art, arising everywhere. His offence at the shallow ostentation of Pope Alexander VI and those around him was too great. Alexander was not only Pontiff, he was also War Lord and Emperor.

The Holy City itself was a blasphemy. The Church was obviously very sick indeed. Ironically, while the Church still ranted on about the sin of usury, the Papacy, as Tawney says, had become the greatest financial institution of the Middle Ages.

New worlds were meanwhile being discovered. In 1492 Christopher Columbus had crossed the Atlantic. Six years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape on his way to India. Within less than a generation, Magellan was preparing an expedition to sail around the world. In the same year (1518) Hernando Cortez landed with the first of the Conquistadores on the coast of Mexico. At Wittenberg, in Germany, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther had hammered his ninety-five theses as subjects for debate on the door of the church attached to the castle of Frederick of Saxony. The beating of his hammer was at the same time the announcement that Western man had arrived at a divide in history.

As indicated, it was John Calvin, not Martin Luther, who in time gave the Reformation its most penetrating shape. This was because of his deep awareness of the currents of the age. It was not merely a question of the sick body of the Church, its abuse of powers and betrayal of its calling. It was also a question of its obdurate refusal to recognize that the socio-political and economic institutions of the Middle Ages were no longer valid. For some centuries they had been showing signs of dissolution. In the fifteenth century they had been moribund. Here in the sixteenth they had finally collapsed. All that now remained was the magnificent pretence.

Calvin's Institutes, the first edition of which appeared in 1536, was as much a restatement of St Augustine as an acceptance of a profound change in what Marx, at a later stage in history, would call the 'means of production'. In the last resort, this means a development in the cultural practices of the wider community. It requires a contemporary spirit to recognize and accept this. A traditional way of life must be adapted to meet the fresh requirements of an age. New wine needs new bottles. It is the inner discipline of faith.

Geneva as a city, however, saw the new development in mainly secular terms. Like Venice, Genoa, Antwerp and the cities of the Hanseatic League, it had become by now a wealthy centre of trade and manufacture. Its burghers had successfully rejected the overlordship of the Duke of Savoy. Geneva was now an independent state. Its people had taken eagerly to the new liberty. Optimism went like wine to the head. And in the process many were exploited.

107 Into the shining, prosperous landscape around Lac Léman a scandalized William Farel at last brought the lean ascetic figure of Calvin. He had heard the call and he never hesitated.

The Génévoises did not take kindly to Calvin during his first sojourn in the city. Incurring the anger of the patrician Council and others for his forthright criticism of conditions, he was soon forced to leave for Strasbourg. There he lived in exile for three years, working assiduously on the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In 1541, however, he was invited to return to Geneva. They city could not do without him. His wise counsel, his ascetic but quite irresistible dynamic, were needed not only for the Reformed church, but also for the community as a whole.

Calvin's return changed things for the city for all time. Except for the period in Strasbourg, he spent the rest of his life in Geneva. Nothing was either beyond his notice or his censure. It is important to emphasize again there was no question of a socio-political 'unfolding', step by logical step, towards an utopian end. It remained a constant but ad hoc examination of behaviour in the life of the city, both public and private. In the Sermons, in the Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, in his vast correspondence and other writings, in the Institutes itself, the behaviour of the human creature was examined in its entirety.

But it was not so much the thorough and conscientious detail of Calvin's vision which marks it as one of the decisive influences in Western history. Rather it was his unerring sense of the needs of the age, the changed fibre of society. It was also his ability to formulate it for all concerned in terms of basic Christian precepts. Tawney misjudges the position when he says that Calvin, except for the matter of interest, 'made few innovations to the details of social policy'.9

What distinguished his approach from that of the Middle Ages was not merely the question of usury, or the amount of new religious zeal he was able to inspire. The shape and spirit of the age itself had changed, and he recognized it like none of his contemporaries did; immensely more than Luther, for instance, who thought mainly of a return to a former state of innocence or holiness: and far more than Melanchthon, who had already pointed out some of the real aspects of the new economy.

The economy of the civilized world had become a money-economy for reasons which had nothing intrinsically to do with the greed of man. It was rather a matter of sound practicality induced by the growth in populations and the discovery of the new world. As such, it had to be accepted in humility and honesty as a new field in which God could be served. The same could be said of the change in the relationship between state and church. The old medieval unity between the two entities was no longer true. It had become a great unworkable pretence and was now a nexus of abuse. To bring about the restoration of both the religious and civil order, the falsities which had developed had to be finally exposed, then rejected.

108 For Calvin, the restoration of society had to take place on the firm foundations of the Christian faith. This meant a renewed clarity about man's true calling in the world. It also meant an unambiguous recognition of the many practical measures by which this could be demonstrated.

Calvin's insistence that church and state both have their clearly defined fields of activity, constituting autonomous behaviour, does not mean that they are to be sealed off from each other. What it does mean is that each entity has its own particular function in the wider concept of the Christian religion.

The state is the secular power which is merely a provisional order. As such it is like the law, which is the state in a particular mode. The special mission of the state is that of ensuring a minimum of good conduct of governing with charity, equity and reason, but without trying to include the Kingdom of Christ within the elements of this world. (Cf.p.127 and note 8).

'There is a twofold government in man,' Calvin says in the closing chapter of the Institutes. This double régime, as Biéler refers to it, is precisely there because man will abuse his freedom.10 A minimum code of behaviour (morale minimum), like the rules of the road, will need to be enforced. Civil Government is not the apostolic ministry. (Cf.p.127, note 7).

The civil order is preferably democratic without being essentially so. Above all, the state has strictly defined limits. Although even an unjust régime should be obeyed because all authority is from God, in exceptional cases even revolt is justified. Insurgents may well be the messianic saviours when God himself has raised up inside or outside the nation. This may happen when the disorder or injustice of the government in power is greater than that of the rebels. God condemns revolt, but serves himself at times by using insurgents as a judge over those who have exploited them.11

While the state has no spiritual authority over the Church, the Church has a particular political mission. It prays for those in power, even when they persecute the Church. But it censures authority when it exceeds its bounds, remembering always that the Church should defend the poor and helpless against the rich and powerful. Should the Church find it necessary to range itself against the injustice of the state, it must be prepared to become politically suspect, even to the point of persecution. By such resistance the Church then contributes towards the restoration of an authentic social order. Spiritual liberty requires social and political liberty.12 The Church is therefore intimately concerned with the renewal of society. This is a regeneration in Jesus Christ, and it is particularly expressed in the social relations of labour.13 All Christians are necessary reformers of a disordered society.14 This operates in the fields of worship, doctrine and morals. The Church alone is the arbiter of morals.

Material goods are a sign of God's grace, and in Christendom material things also have a spiritual value. Temporary benefits may well be pledges of the coming kingdom. They should therefore not impoverish our spiritual life, but should help to restore it.15 Even though material goods are a sign of God's grace, we should never be tied to them. God's grace may be bestowed on us in

109 this way, but we can do without it. Prosperity in itself is no proof of merit, neither is poverty proof of demerit. To be materially deprived, on the contrary, may well be the occasion for spiritual enrichment.16

There is no need for the kind of asceticism practised in the Middle Ages. The attitude of the Gospels is rather one of simple contentment with what God puts at our disposal and offers for our use from day to day. Trust in Providence, however, should never justify indolence or want of foresight, or on the other hand febrile, inordinate activity. The worship of goods, investing them with a sanctity of their own which may serve our selfish ends, is the idolatry of Mammon.17 To this the only antidote is faith in Christ.

There is a certain mystery about poverty which should be taken into account. The poor are the victims of sin, and they are in a sense the agents of God, testing man's obedience. A society is ultimately judged by its attitude towards its poor. Christ himself was le pauvre par excellence. The poor can be seen as visitors of God. Poverty as such, however, is not sanctity. More important is the spirit of poverty.18

Of equal importance is the acceptance of the new economic order. Monopolists who lay claim to material things for their own selfish ends are in a sense murderers of their fellow men.19 To deny your neighbour what is his due in the form of goods and services, is to rob him.20 Speculation, too, is an untenable practice. In fact, money readily becomes the means of oppression and as such it is evil.21 There is, however, another extreme: the spiritualized life which ignores acting in any material way.22 But the material world is an integral part of the Christian life. What must be remembered, however, is that there is only one proprietor: God himself. In his relation to material things, man should be neither a communist nor an individualist.23 By the same token there is no justification for a monastic existence.

The material things of life are not, as such, the bearers of evil. On the contrary, money, too, is the fruit of man's labour. It is the pursuit of profit for the sake of profit that detracts from the order of God. There is no point in referring to specific usages among the Jews. The requirements of the ancient Jews and those of modern man are two different things. Aristotle is of no real assistance here. The true directory in assessing the worth of action is that of love.24

Man's free labour completes the work of God. For this reason, too, slavery is objectionable.25 Exploration should be for the sake of evangelization, not for the sake of colonialism, which is exploitation.26 In Christ all barriers of race have been abolished.27

Labour is a vocation of God, and in free labour man fulfils himself.28 The alienation of labour comes about when it is directed towards the wrong ends.29 This does not mean that work is always pleasant. On the contrary, it may be either pleasant or unpleasant; but Christ is always the liberator of the pain which work might cause.30

110 Labour is no merchandise to be traded at will.31 Those who labour should be paid a proper wage, and neither the market price nor the legal minimum is an indication that it is just. Towards the proper remuneration of those who labour, contracts and arbitration may serve usefully.

The abiding theme in all Calvin's writing is that God has given man will and intelligence by which the powers of analysis, knowledge and creativity have also been conferred on him. Whether these gifts are employed in manual or intellectual labour makes no difference. They are always to be used in the service of God and of society.

In the fields of both science and art, man's activities can be directed towards the wrong ends. There is the ever-present danger of idolatry. The same applies to the commercial life of man. In all man does, there is this critical ambiguity. He may serve God (and so society), or serve himself (and the devil) and so become alienated from his proper calling. This is the price of our freedom.

It was not merely Calvin's thought, but also his personality which impressed itself lastingly on the Genevan community. Intellectually scintillating, severe in his demands not only towards others but also himself, just, truthful, steadfast, loyal, often brusque, yet at times also cheerful and even light-hearted, those around him seemed to be similarly affected. It was a personal style which, like the thought which it carried, would often be repeated in times to come in all those circumstances where a faithful vision was employed to meet intolerable circumstances. These would vary from the arrogant, self-sufficient dominion of the high and mighty, the powerful and moneyed, to the grey conformity, the spiritless mediocrity, the self-comforting smugness of bourgeois man.

Geneva had been in a state of disorder while Calvin was in banishment, working steadfastly on his Institutes in Strasbourg. He had been called back to Geneva and had returned in triumph. He himself had lived through a time of deep personal stress. He had married the widow Idelette de Bure, and their only child, a son, had died within the first year of their marriage.

The Institutes, Tawney says, had become a Protestant Summa, and the reformed programme of renewal had become 'thoroughly medieval'.32 Indeed, the Institutes, like the Summa, is a systematic theology, characterized by a sense for the practicalities of life and a fundamental respect for the incarnate world. But Calvin went much further than Thomas when it came to daily matters of statecraft and government. The sermons and commentaries dealt especially with this aspect. Tawny himself says that Calvin 'drafted the heads of a comprehensive scheme of municipal government, covering the whole range of civic administration, from the regulations to be made for markets and crafts, buildings and fairs, to the control of prices, interests and rents.'33 This is hardly medieval.

Calvin was by no means a mere throwback to the Middle Ages. There was admittedly a return to medieval fundamentals, but coloured by innovations. His presence not only marks the beginning of a new money-economy, which before him had never been fully accepted by Christians, but also the beginning of the

111 state in its modern sense. And, of decisive importance, he marked the beginnings of social humanism.

Calvin insisted that man's frailty was an essential theological truth. He came to this conclusion after looking around him and noting that humanity's normal condition was not peace and goodwill, but indiscriminate violence to the persons and properties of others.

The doctrine of the elect, based on the firm foundation of God's sovereign will, could also be seen as the corollary of this.

What about Calvin's enormous effort to reform his own society? The Puritans of a later generation were to rationalize their own positive, radical efforts to rebuild society, not as a justification for election, but as the consequence of it. Calvin's piecemeal reform of his own society over the best part of a generation had the ring of St Augustine about it. Human freedom only became relevant when man's complete dependence had already been acknowledged.

Following St Augustine, Calvin, too, insisted on the free intelligence of the human creature. The Institutes abound with admonishments, not to abuse God's gifts, to be obedient, to requite God's goodness, to accept the authority of the moral law, to divest ourselves of ourselves, and so on. The consciences of believers may rise above the law, and may forget its righteousness. The conscience, free from the law's yoke, may cheerfully obey the will of God.34

Calvin's tireless debate with his theological adversaries in the Institutes was a reaction to the depravity of the age, where the enormous edifice of the Church seemed to have become a monument to man himself. His uncompromising emphasis on Divine election was, in fact, a counter to the total, sinful experience of the Church where redemption could be obtained for a sufficient consideration. Humility as the first, second and third precept of the Christian religion, however, required the rejection of all the human certitudes. So strong is the emphasis on Grace-alone in the Institutes, that the chapters devoted either directly or obliquely to human liberty would either be ignored or not sufficiently noticed by Calvin's immediate Puritan heirs. What in Calvin is still essentially a mystery, the dichotomy between grace and freedom, would be disregarded by the Puritans in favour of the certainty of the elect. While, as Max Weber points out, for Calvin there could be no final human knowledge, in this life, of one's election,35 for the Puritan heirs, revising their Calvinism, it would become a case of believing as if everything depended on God alone, and acting as if it all depended on man alone. Not only did de Béze, Calvin's immediate successor in Geneva, regard the recognizability of election as of absolute importance, but the Westminster Confession of 1647 also assured its Puritan subscribers of the certitudo salutis, the certainty of Divine favour.

Such assurances which had always been the prerogative of kings and monarchs, and in time to come would still be claimed by them, now also became the belief of the new middle-class man. It would increasingly appear in a variety of forms; and interchangeable terms for 'Divine' would be 'Supreme Being', 'History' and 'Destiny'.

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Seizing on the element of Grace-alone in Calvin, ignoring its greater context and also its ultimate mystery, this claim to certainty by his heirs was to become the kernel both of a new bourgeois capitalism and an unending sequence of radical political systems promising redemption.

The former theme was exhaustively examined inter alia by Max Weber and R.H. Tawney, and there is little that can be added to it. What is not fully realized, however, is that the radical politics of which Michael Walzer writes in his study of the 'revolutions of the saints'36 either precedes or runs concurrently with the 'spirit of capitalism', individual or collective. Bourgeois capitalism and revolutionary or radical politics both have their roots in the same protestant ethic.

Man pursues his vision of happiness and seeks final security in the total framework, the all-providing political system. This is politics bursting its bounds and presenting itself as a secular 'apostolic ministry'. Calvin would have regarded this manifestation as wrong-headed and spurious.

Alongside of this, however, and serving as its true alternative, is the fixed certainty of money, no longer in the form of merchant-prince, patrician or royal monopoly of riches, but in the far more comprehensive form of a new bourgeois capitalism.

All this would become in time part of the story of the Puritans in Africa, as we shall see: part of the story of the modern Afrikaners seeking to establish their own design for living, identity, survival and happiness.

To this end, we need to recall not only the salient facts about those times and societies which are generally regarded as having been the antecedents of the Afrikaners. Far more significantly, we need to know the salient facts about the model of all political radicalism: the Anglo-Saxon revolution.

Footnotes:

1. Cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2:2:11. 2. Biéler, op. cit. 3. Tawney, op. cit., pp. 126, 301. 4. Cf. K.R. Popper, The Poverty of Historicism, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, chapter 21: 'Piecemeal versus Utopian Engineering'. 5. Biéler, op. cit., p. 131-2. 6. Calvin, op. cit., 4:20:32. 7. ibid., 4:20:7. 8. ibid., 4:12:7. On standards of Agreement: 4:20:1, 15, 16. 9. Tawney, op. cit., p. 127. 10. Calvin, op. cit., 4:20:1. Cf. also Biéler, op. cit., on the double régime in human affairs, p. 208 et seq. 11. Biéler, op. cit., p. 423. 12. ibid., pp. 302-4.

113 13. ibid., pp. 251-5. 14. ibid., p. 80. 15. ibid., pp. 307-10. 16. ibid., p. 311. 17. ibid., p. 316-18. 18. ibid., pp. 327-8. 19. ibid., p. 340. 20. ibid., p. 358. 21. ibid., p. 342. 22. ibid., p. 346. 23. ibid., pp. 351, 353. 24. ibid., pp. 453-73. 25. ibid., p. 170. 26. ibid. 27. ibid., p. 178. 28. ibid., p. 397. 29. ibid., p. 400. 30. ibid., p. 401. 31. ibid., p. 420. 32. Tawney, op. cit., p. 127. 33. ibid., p. 135. 34. Cf. no. 54 of the 100 Aphorisms in the Henry Beveridge translation of the Institutes. Also Calvin, op. cit., 3:19:4. 35. Cf. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Allen & Unwin, 1967, part A, chapter IV; also notes 39, 41 and 65 to chapter IV. 36. Michael Walzer, The Revolutions of the Saints - A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963.

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