Our Cornerstone

Seeking His way forward

And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors (‘Um’chol lanu et chovotenu ka’asher machalnu gam nnachnu l’chayavenu’)

A plea for gospel-based reconciliation

Seeking to understand the complexities in the Royal saga

Tears flow as black and white Christians seek forgiveness for each other’s sins.

A momentous prayer meeting took place in the South African Parliament last Friday that is likely to have significance for generations to come.

The focus was on reconciliation, with white people asking forgiveness from blacks, and blacks confessing their sins against the white community in recent years.

Many were reportedly brought to tears during an extended time of prayer and confession, after which farmer-evangelist Angus Buchan addressed MPs and other dignitaries about the need for faith in South Africa.

One MP, Steve Swart, even confessed the government’s anti-Semitism during World War II when Jews who had fled the Holocaust were not allowed to disembark in Cape Town.

Confessing and Repenting

Inside South Africa's Parliament. See Photo Credits.The meeting was held in the Parliament’s former main chamber where many discriminatory laws were passed, and was by invitation only due to the venue’s maximum 250 capacity.

Anneke Rabe, praying on behalf of South Africa’s whites, sought forgiveness for the way they had treated the nation’s black, Coloured (mixed race) and Indian population along with other minorities – for oppressive laws, land dispossession and the way the churches condoned apartheid:

I repent for the way that we shamed, humiliated and oppressed you…for those who died under the evil system of apartheid in Sharpeville, Soweto and many other places; for the inferior education you received under that system; for the pain, anguish, fear and shock you had to endure; for the detentions, imprisonments, tortures and violence.

Cape Town intercessor Ashley Cloete, a descendant of slaves and the Khoi people,¹ was reduced to tears “when one speaker after another recalled laws that had affected my life down the years such as the Group Areas Act and the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act.

“As a result of the former law, and the related practice of so-called ‘slum clearance’, almost all the buildings and places of my childhood memories had been eradicated. And the latter law was the reason for my exile of just over 18 years,” he told Gateway News.

The meeting was held in the Parliament’s former main chamber where many discriminatory laws were passed.

Representing the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, Rev Moss Nthla prayed “with a deep sense of awareness of the grace you showed us through what many have described as the miracle of 1994 [the relatively peaceful transfer of power].”

But he went on: “I stand to confess our failure, as a people, to be good stewards of that miracle. We have neither sought nor walked in your ways. As a result, we have harmed ourselves and each other as South Africans. I ask for forgiveness that sadly, a growing number of white South Africans have been made to feel unwelcome in this country and that they have no future for themselves or their children [a possible reference, in part, to the policy of positive discrimination favouring blacks over whites for jobs]. I further ask for forgiveness for the thousands of farmers who have been murdered in our country by black people.”²

Commenting later on the reference to anti-Semitism, Ashley Cloete said: “The attitude of our present government towards Israel is of course something that we are not at all proud of as followers of the Jewish Jesus, our Lord and Saviour” (there are moves afoot to downgrade diplomatic ties with Israel). And he also referred to regular worship on Signal Hill (adjacent to Table Mountain) “in our Isaac-Ishmael prayer battle for Jews and Muslims”.

Drawing People Back to God

South Africa’s Christians have taken the bull by the horns and stepped straight into the very heart of government. Didn’t Jesus say the gates of Hell would not prevail against his Church? They are not shy about their faith, or happy to keep it to themselves. They know it’s the only hope for the nation’s future.

Clearly, God has anointed Angus Buchan and others for such auspicious moments, but we have to ask if there is someone in Britain with comparable courage and conviction, who is prepared to raise his voice among our politicians?

Angus knows where his strength comes from – the mighty power of the Holy Spirit that was first poured out in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

South Africa’s Christians are not shy about their faith or happy to keep it themselves - they know it is the only hope for the nation’s future.

In 1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan also addressed the Cape Town Parliament warning of “winds of change” blowing through Africa among nations seeking their independence from colonial powers. But our farmer friend knows that the only wind of change God requires from leaders in these dark days is the acknowledgement of rule from heaven above, and the restoration of our Judeo-Christian heritage.

As with Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and Ezra drawing the people back to God by reading the Law, so South Africa is experiencing a restoration – both in spirit and in truth.

Same Need in Britain

Our need in Britain is the same; chiefly for reconciliation with God, though working together in unity with our Christian brethren is a vital first step, without which our secular nation will not fully grasp that we love one another.

Like Angus and his fellow leaders, we also need courage – the sort that caused those who witnessed the boldness of Peter and John to recall that they “had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

We too need to repent – over the shameful laws we have passed that contradict the commandments handed down to us on Mt Sinai; and over our treatment of Israel, who gave us God’s Law in the first place.

Thankfully, an anti-Semitic campaign calling on the British Government to apologise for the Balfour Declaration (promising to do all we could to restore Jews to their ancient land) has come to nothing. If anything, we should apologise for trying to prevent its eventual implementation, largely through appeasement of Arabs opposing it.

Worse still, we prevented Jews trying to escape the Holocaust from entering the Promised Land through our policy of limited immigration during the (internationally-approved) Mandate we held over the region.

Passion for the Nations

Buchan's 'Mighty Men' conference. See Photo Credits.

And since we’re discussing South Africa, perhaps we also need to repent over our disgraceful dealings with the Afrikaners, 26,000 of whom perished in the British concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

I am still proud to be South African, despite my problems with immigration when initially refused re-entry to the UK on my recent return from Israel. My loyalty to the country of my birth is chiefly due to the God-fearing Afrikaners who rescued my orphaned great-grandfather and his siblings from possible death in the veldt following the roadside murder of their widowed father.

My great-grandfather, also Charles, was subsequently brought up in the parsonage of the Rev Andrew Murray, a much-loved revivalist who, together with his famous son of the same name, became a father-figure for Dutch Reformed evangelicals throughout the country.

God has anointed Angus Buchan in South Africa, but is there someone in Britain with comparable courage and conviction, who is prepared to raise his voice among our politicians?

The passion for Jesus exhibited by so many Afrikaners today is in no small way connected, in my opinion, to the legacy left by the Murray clan – I happen also to share Scottish ancestry with both Angus Buchan and the Murrays.

But it’s about the heart more than our genes. May passion for God’s rule over our nations drive us to our knees, as we are witnessing so powerfully in South Africa, where 1.7 million Christians converged on a farmer’s field to pray for the nation back in April. Amen.

Notes

1 Original inhabitants of the Cape who are now almost extinct.

2 Gerber, J. There will be no drought in Western Cape by March - Angus Buchan. news24, 24 November 2017. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that accompanied the transition to multi-racial democracy in the 1990s did much to heal wounds at the time, but there has been a clear failure to build on what was such a hopeful start to the new ‘Rainbow Nation’.

In the face of so much instability in our nation, here’s a lesson in what brings peace.

South Africa was saved at the cross of Jesus – where enemies are reconciled to one another¹ – when threatened by civil war at the time of the transfer of power to majority rule in the early 1990s.

This is the claim of a former South African Navy officer who was chaplain to Nelson Mandela and his fellow prisoners on the infamous Robben Island.

He said that if civil war had broken out in his adopted country in the immediate aftermath of apartheid, it would have been “every bit as bloody” as the current strife in Syria.

“FW de Klerk [South Africa’s last white president] became a committed Christian. And he and Mandela found each other as Christians,^”2 Rev Colin Chambers told a Doncaster audience, attending an event now known nationally as Life Stories at Lunch.

He went on to explain how the Christian education Mandela had received from Methodist missionaries had taught him the value of forgiveness, which became more precious during his time serving a life sentence for plotting acts of violence against the state. The young Mandela was head-boy of his school, where he led a Bible class and prayed daily during assemblies.

Former chaplain to Nelson Mandela has claimed that South Africa was saved from civil war in 1994 by the cross of Jesus.

Opportunity to Bring Hope

A pastor for an Assemblies of God church at the time, Chambers, now 73, befriended Mandela and his fellow ANC (African National Congress) inmates during regular visits to the island, just a few miles from Cape Town.

On one occasion he found himself speaking about the Jewish patriarch Joseph; how he was imprisoned in Egypt and then released to serve as Prime Minister under Pharaoh, saving two nations in the process (through relief from famine).

He then realised he might have overstepped the mark and apologised to Nelson, begging his forgiveness for insensitivity. But the ANC leader insisted: “Not at all; you give me hope!”

When the job offer was first put to him, Chambers didn’t think – as a white officer of the South African Defence Force – that he had much chance of being accepted by the prisoners, who had been fighting against the apartheid regime. But he was amazed when first introduced to their iconic leader, who said: “The name’s Mandela. You’re very welcome. How was the sea? [It can be a rough passage] And how’s your father?”

Puzzled, he thought he might have known his dad, who was the same age, but later discovered that in the Xhosa culture in which Mandela had been nurtured it was an expression that meant you were accepted.

Learning About Forgiveness

“The general narrative among my acquaintances was that he was a terrorist getting what he deserved. He was, after all, arrested with bomb-making equipment and given a ‘free and fair trial’ by the standards of Amnesty International. “But when I told my congregation at Muizenberg (near Cape Town) that ‘Mr Mandela sends his greetings’, they were initially offended. Some people called me a traitor; even a ‘Pinkie’ [meaning Communist]. But I used to say: ‘If he’s ever released, you’ll see who he is.’”

Chambers once found himself speaking about Joseph imprisoned in Egypt and then released to serve as Prime Minister under Pharaoh, which Mandela received as a message of hope.

“We chatted about forgiveness (around 1980/1) and how Joseph, when he met his brothers who had thrown him down a well and then sold him into slavery, had said: “You meant it for evil, but God intended it for good…” (Gen 50:20).

See Photo Credits.Mandela is on record as saying that refusing to forgive is like “drinking poison and hoping it poisons your enemies”. He also said: “I knew that if I didn’t leave all my resentment behind, and forgive, that I would be walking out of one prison and entering another.”

Reconciliation Made Possible

South Africa is once more at the crossroads, with allegations of corruption at government level dividing the country, but Colin is encouraged by the response to a call for prayer that saw nearly two million people³ meet on a farmer’s field on 22 April this year to intercede for the nation before God.

It had happened before, in 1994 – at the cross, where Jesus’ death brought reconciliation between the nation’s black and white leaders – and it could happen again, he said.

Asked what he believed was Mandela’s legacy to the world, he replied in just three words: “Forgiveness brings reconciliation.” He added: “Forgiveness and reconciliation is the only way real peace can come.”

Chambers is “absolutely convinced he (Mandela) made a commitment (to Christ)”, adding that Jesus’ own test, “by their fruit you will know them”, certainly applied in his case. “We all have the right to change. I saw a change, and I would challenge anybody to say that Nelson remained a terrorist.”

Mandela is on record as saying that refusing to forgive is like “drinking poison and hoping it poisons your enemies”.

God’s Word Does Not Return Empty

One of Mandela’s great friends, apart from former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was Assemblies of God leader Nicholas Bhengu, once dubbed the ‘black Billy Graham’.

During his time as chaplain on Robben Island, Mr Chambers got some of his ‘flock’ – Nelson and other ANC leaders including future provincial premiers – to write their names in his Bible. And he showed me the evidence.

The British-born pastor, who grew up in East London, South Africa, and now lives in Portsmouth (Britain’s naval base), said it was after he became a born-again Christian that he felt it right to stay in the Navy. “I wanted to pilot the ship, fire the guns and preach the gospel, but the Lord in his wisdom allowed me to be a prison chaplain.”

His first assignment was at Polsmoor, where Mandela was to spend the final years of his sentence, and it was due to a security breach at Robben Island that he was offered a post there.

With Mandela’s Christian education in mind, Chambers encouraged his audience to trust the assurance of Isaiah that God’s word will always achieve the purpose for which it was sent (Isa 55:11).

Notes

1 Ephesians 2:14-16 explains how men are reconciled to each other, and to God, through the crucifixion of Jesus.

2 They both won the Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts towards reconciliation.

3 Actual estimate 1.7 million.

As UK Christians remember the Holocaust this week (27 January marking the day in 1945 when Auschwitz was liberated), they have been reminded that it was spawned by godlessness and the rejection of faith.

Amalek Cruelty

Steven Jaffe,¹ a member of the UK's Jewish Board of Deputies, was addressing a largely Christian audience at a church in Sheffield, Yorkshire. He said the exodus from Egypt was immediately followed by the battle with Amalek, who had no reason to attack Israel. There was no territorial dispute or history of conflict, for example. And they attacked the sick and the elderly – those who were most vulnerable (Deut 25:17-18).

"The conflict with Amalek is not over", he said. Amalek denied God and his power in the same way the Nazis did, and the latter mirrored their lack of mercy. Jaffe recalled that Britain's former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sachs, was once asked where God was during the Holocaust, to which he is said to have replied: "Where was man?"

Growing Godlessness

My worry is that the growing influence of rank atheism in Britain and Europe will have a bearing on the future of anti-Semitism. The poisonous view that God does not exist naturally leads to godless behaviour and thought, even among those previously tutored in godly ways. The result is that even some who claim to have faith, and who perhaps stand in pulpits, start believing the lie that is proclaimed so often through almost every strand of media.

My worry is that the growing influence of rank atheism in Britain and Europe will have a bearing on the future of anti-Semitism.

It is indeed frustrating that, as fast as we spread word about the horrors of the Holocaust, vowing that it should never be repeated, the vile infestation of anti-Semitism creeps into every crack and crevice of our broken society, as the walls of our Judeo-Christian civilisation come crashing down around us.

Loathing of Israel

In polite Britain, hatred of Jews is generally not expressed openly, but often takes the form of a loathing of Israel, so that the very mention of the Jewish state is enough to raise the hackles not only of the politically-aware man in the street, but of the semi-biblically aware man in the pew.

As Jaffe told the Bush Fire Church, such loathing cannot be explained in rational terms. But he was spot on, I believe, in linking the phenomenon with a society that has thrown God out of the window. Pledges of never letting it happen again are not enough, in my opinion; without a recovery of faith in the God of Israel, there can be no guarantee that another holocaust won't take place.

In recent months, Iran has been boasting of how its nuclear deal last year "has provided an historic opportunity to...face threats posed by the Zionist entity"². It is well to recall that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, collaborated with Hitler, setting the stage for today's jihad against Israel.³ And yet, bizarrely, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas have both publicly denied that the Holocaust ever took place.⁴

In polite Britain, hatred of Jews is generally not expressed openly, but often takes the form of a loathing of Israel.

Holocaust memorial, Berlin. See Photo Credits.

Light in the Darkness

Against such a dark background, however, there is plenty of encouragement. The Sheffield gathering heard much about the heroic acts of so-called 'righteous Gentiles' like Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in 1938. Generations of people – almost 7,000 of some of the world's greatest doctors, lawyers, teachers and inventors – owe their lives to the act of one man's efforts to help Jewish children escape the Nazis.

Last year in Leeds the Shalom Declaration was launched, with hundreds signing a commitment to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, fight anti-Semitism and promote solidarity with Israel. Steven Jaffe himself said that this is sending out a clear message of Christian support for Britain's Jewish community. "There isn't a corner of the British Isles that the Shalom Declaration has not been signed", he said.

On the faith front, we were told that "there are more Jews learning the Torah today in Israel that at any time in our history", preparing them well for the great event we are perhaps soon to witness when Jesus reveals himself on a grand scale to his brothers in the flesh.

Forgiveness Vital

Though many Jews quite understandably have a problem with this, especially with the Holocaust in mind, we are reminded that the key is forgiveness. When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he had already long since forgiven them for acting treacherously against him.

Pledges of never letting it happen again are not enough: without a recovery of faith in the God of Israel, there can be no guarantee that another holocaust won't take place.

British television viewers were recently treated to a remarkable Channel 4 documentary, The Girl Who Forgave the Nazis,⁵ recounting the story of how Hungarian Jew Eva Kor, now 81, a former inmate of Auschwitz, has publicly forgiven 94-year-old Oskar Groenig, the death camp's former accountant, who was recently sentenced to four years in jail for his part in the Nazi's evil scheme.

Eva and her twin sister Miriam were experimented on by the infamous Dr Josef Mengele, but survived the camp. Eva said: "It's time to forgive, but not forget...I believe that forgiveness is such a powerful thing...and I want everybody to help me sow these seeds of peace throughout the world."

This takes amazing courage. But it is worth remembering that Jesus, our Messiah, made the first move when he prayed as he died in agony on a cross in Jerusalem: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases..." (Ps 103:2-3)

"Seek the Lord while he may be found...for he will freely pardon." (Isa 55:6-7)

Charles Gardner is author of Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com.

References

1 Jaffe works with the British Board of Deputies as a Communal Engagement with Israel Consultant. See Board of Deputies website. Jaffe has previously reported elsewhere on Christian support for Israel.

2 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Beirut, 12 August 2015. See Times of Israel coverage here, written by Newman/AFP.

3 Soakell, D. Christian Friends of Israel's Watching Over Zion newsletter, 21 January.

4 Ibid.

5 Originally broadcast on Channel 4, Saturday 23 January, 8pm. Still available on 4oD.