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.

South African-born journalist, Charles Gardner, brings a second report on the signs of revival currently in South Africa.

The South African revival to which I referred in an earlier dispatch is now in full bloom, as evidenced by an extraordinary prayer meeting attended by an estimated one million people.

The ‘Call to Prayer’ – named It’s Time – came from farmer-evangelist Angus Buchan in response to allegations of corruption in Government, an intolerable crime rate, violent student protests, and immorality at many levels.

Call to Prayer

Affectionately known Oom Angus¹, the preacher has made a huge impact on the nation since experiencing a dramatic encounter with Christ in 1979. In recent years, he has focused his attention on men, imploring them to live up to their responsibilities by leading their families in prayer and dedication to God.

For seven years he held annual weekend camps at his KwaZulu-Natal farm Shalom, initially hosting just family and a few friends, but eventually drawing some 400,000 men. Similar events, known as ‘Mighty Men Conferences’, have since spread to other parts of the country as well as to the UK.

But with the country now embroiled in chaos led by a Government apparently steeped in corruption, Angus believed it was time to call Christians to serious prayer – and the venue chosen was 2,500 acres of farmland near the central city of Bloemfontein.

With the country now embroiled in chaos led by a Government apparently steeped in corruption, believers are gathering in prayer.

Believers responded by travelling from all parts of the country to set up camp, pray over many issues such as abortion, crime, injustice, and poverty, and draw inspiration from the beloved evangelist with his uncompromising message focused on living according to the Bible’s precepts.

“You will sleep with no-one until you are married!” he urged young men, adding (echoing a phrase used by Britain’s legendary Pentecostal evangelist Smith Wigglesworth): “God said it; we believe it and that settles it.”

Healing for Israel

An Israeli flag could be clearly seen fluttering in the breeze as a video camera panned across a sea of people stretching some 1.4 kilometers from the main platform, and strong gusts of wind accompanied prayers in scenes akin to the initial Holy Spirit outpouring recorded in the New Testament, (Acts 2:2).

I mention the Israeli flag to further support the thesis of my previous article on the subject: blessing the Jewish people is a key to revival, something the UK church has yet to grasp!

In addition to YouTube videos, I have friends taking part who have kept me informed of progress, and it is difficult not to see this as further fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28). Such a time could quite conceivably coincide with the restoration of Israel along with the judgment of those nations opposing them (Joel 3:1f).

Blessing the Jewish people is a key to revival.

It’s Time is evidently inspired by the biblical promise of healing for Israel when God’s people humble themselves and pray.

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain (South Africa has been suffering a severe drought), or command locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chron 7:13-14)

I do not have an exact count of the attendance at this event, but my sources tell me that as many as 1.7 million people had registered beforehand. That is equivalent to the population of Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, and greater than Birmingham, Britain’s second city.Mighty turnout: Men gather in great numbers for the Karoo Mighty Men's Conference in the heart of South Africa's farming community.

Clearly, prayer leads to revival, along with blessing Israel as I have already emphasized. There is a distinct correlation between this move of the Spirit and a general understanding and support of Israel, to whom Christians are indelibly attached. If we cut ourselves off from our Judaic roots, the Church cannot truly exist (Rom 11:17f).

Churches in South Africa Today

Churches in all parts of South Africa – black and white as well as English and Afrikaans-speaking – are bursting with new life as they provide a counter-culture to secularists and humanists. They are especially a thorn in the flesh to the Government which is reportedly rife with corruption and virulently opposed to Israel - even to the extent of virtually cutting off diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. This is in spite of the fact that it was Jews who led the resistance to apartheid in the days of the whites-only Parliament.

Angus, who has led a similar gathering in Israel, has proved a huge inspiration as he urges men to run their homes, love their wives and exercise Godly discipline with their children, which leads to inevitable clashes with political correctness!

Moreover, the default position of many of South Africa’s churches today is an understanding of God’s everlasting love for Israel and of the church’s enormous debt to them – for the Bible, for their Saviour and much more. A friend of mine put it this way: “If you don’t believe in God’s plan for Israel, you’re a biblical atheist.”

The point is that these South African Christians have woken up, having come to love God’s chosen people. UK churches are in desperate need of gaining similar biblical truth.

For revival, you have to be in the right place with God so that, as far as is possible, his thoughts become our thoughts (see Isaiah 55). We don’t worship Israel, as they are human and sinful like us, but we do worship the God of Israel who has blessed us with his precious Word and with his Son, the Jewish Messiah, who is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Fear vs Faith

I have re-visited my home country a number of times in recent years to see family and friends, and I became aware that it is no longer divided along apartheid lines, but between those who live in fear – the secularists who erect huge steel barriers to protect their property from burglars – and those who live by faith and in freedom, who love their neighbours and believe in the country’s future under God.

For revival, you have to be in the right place with God.

I appreciate that Jesus warned of deception in the last days, but I feel that sometimes we are in danger of straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel on this point. Author/preacher RT Kendall, writing of how Israel as a whole failed to recognize their Messiah, says: “We are all so sure that we would recognize the authentic Christ. You could not have told a Sadducee or a Pharisee that the Messiah would come to Israel without them knowing and acknowledging him. But he came and they rejected him.”²

There are many signs that this revival is authentic. And if we wish the same for our nation, we need to humble ourselves and pray, repenting of our wicked ways, especially over our treatment of God’s chosen people.

References

¹ Oom is Afrikaans for 'Uncle'.

² Why Jesus Died (Monarch Books), p40.

‘Mighty Men’ revival linked with support for Israel.

Although hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – have been affected by it, few in the Northern Hemisphere seem to have heard of the South African revival.

I’m not referring to the 1860 awakening led by my ancestor (by adoption) Andrew Murray,¹ but to a current movement that is drawing huge crowds – especially men – to Christ. And it is my belief that there is a distinct correlation between this move of the Spirit and a general understanding and support of Israel, to whom Christians are indelibly attached – if we cut ourselves off from our Judaic roots, the Church cannot truly exist (Rom 11:17f).

Churches in all parts of South Africa – incorporating black and white as well as English and Afrikaans-speaking – are bursting with new life as they prove a counter-cultural provocation to secularists, humanists and others (who are trying it on there too) and especially to a Government rife with corruption and virulently opposed to Israel, even to the extent of virtually cutting off diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. This is in spite of the fact that it was Jews who led the resistance to apartheid in the days of the old whites-only Parliament.

Angus Buchan and Shalom

One man perhaps stands out among the many leaders of this movement for the influence he has had – and that is Angus Buchan, a humble farmer who doubled as an evangelist soon after a dramatic encounter with Christ in 1979.

His campaigns reaped rewards, but then God called him to focus his attention on men – and he has been faithful to this task ever since, drawing both young and old men to weekend camps initially held at Shalom, his KwaZulu-Natal farm, for seven consecutive years.

I believe there is a distinct correlation between the present move of the Spirit in South Africa and a general support of Israel.

It began with just family and a few friends but, six years later, was accommodating a staggering 400,000 men who had gathered from all corners of the land to hear the uncompromising word of God challenging them to take responsibility as heads of their families by serving Christ with all their hearts.

The magnificent Drakensberg mountains, not far from the farm where an Israeli family heard how Jesus is the fulfilment of Yom Kippur.The so-called Mighty Men Conferences have since spread elsewhere, including the UK, as faith in God has swept across the countryside like a prairie fire. Friends of mine from the Karoo area of the Cape, who in the early days travelled 500 miles to join the camps in far-off KwaZulu-Natal, are now involved in helping to host events in their own farming district.

Default Position: Love for Israel

Angus has proved a huge inspiration as he urges men to run their homes, love their wives and discipline their children in the fear of God, leading to inevitable clashes with political correctness. But as the corridors of political power darken, the light of Christ shines brighter.

Author of the best-selling Faith Like Potatoes which has been made into a powerful movie, Angus has also led meetings in Israel, where Pentecostal-type manifestations such as a mighty, rushing wind (see Acts 2:2) have been evident.

Moreover, the default position of many of South Africa’s churches today is an understanding of God’s everlasting love for Israel and of the church’s enormous debt to them – for the Bible, for their Saviour and much more. This is certainly reflected in the publishing realm, led by Joy magazine (also published in Afrikaans as Juig), the biggest circulation Christian periodical outside the United States. The same can be said for the popular South African news portal, Gateway News.

The default position of many of South Africa’s churches today is an understanding of God’s everlasting love for Israel and of the church’s enormous debt to them.

A recent event involving CMJ (the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people), for whom I volunteer, bore this out in no uncertain terms. One of our workers travelled a thousand miles from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal to speak at a Christian gathering about the significance of Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – and how Jesus is the fulfilment of this Jewish holiday, their holiest day of the year.

A statue of Andrew Murray, a much-revered figure in South African history.About 70 people turned up to hear her at a farm in the shadow of the Drakensberg mountains, where I grew up. It so happened that a secular Israeli family touring South Africa rang to inquire about overnight guest accommodation. The owners, Hendrik and Ina Goosen, warned them that a Christian meeting would be taking place. But they said they didn’t mind, and the family – mum, dad and three children – turned up for the entire talk which was followed by refreshments. They were overwhelmed by the experience, and by the love people had for Israel.

Wonderful Spiritual Legacy

I have re-visited my home country a number of times in recent years to see family and friends, and I became aware that it was no longer divided along apartheid lines, but between those who live in fear – the secularists who erect huge steel barriers to protect their property from burglars – and those who live by faith and in freedom, who love their neighbours and believe in the country’s future under God.

South Africa has a wonderful spiritual legacy. I have already mentioned the legendary devotional writer and revivalist Rev. Andrew Murray who, after learning Dutch in Holland, came out from Scotland to pastor Afrikaners who had fled the British-ruled Cape in search of more favourable pastures. The country was also greatly influenced by the Pentecostal pioneers of the early 20^th Century – particularly John G Lake and David du Plessis – and it was around this time that the young Nelson Mandela was strongly influenced by Methodist missionaries, who also paid for his education.

My thesis of the link between Holy Spirit revival and love for the Jews is backed up by another famous Scot, Robert Murray McCheyne, along with his fellow countryman Andrew Bonar, who together encouraged the evangelisation of the Jews back in the 1830s. Both led missions to Palestine (as it was then known) and Jewish communities in Europe. And when revival broke out in his local parish of Kilsyth, McCheyne took this as a sign of God’s promise to Abraham and his heirs that “I will bless those who bless you” (Gen 12:3). God’s favour was on them because they honoured the Jews, the apple of God’s eye.²

South Africa is no longer divided along apartheid lines, but between those who live in fear and those who live by faith and in freedom.

On the other side of the same coin is the horrendous legacy of the so-called Berlin Declaration of 1909, in which 56 evangelical leaders concluded that the Pentecostal outpourings at Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906 and in Sunderland, England, in 1907, were of the devil. Werner Oder, a UK-based pastor and son of a Nazi, believes this amounted to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and sowed the seeds of the Holocaust.³

It is interesting that, despite early success in Europe, the Pentecostal movement made comparatively little impact on this part of the world whereas it has been a very different story in Asia, Africa and South America.

I appreciate that Jesus warned of deception in the last days, but I feel that sometimes we are in danger of straining at a gnat but swallowing a camel on this point. My favourite author/preacher RT Kendall, writing of how Israel as a whole failed to recognise their Messiah when he came, says: “We are all so sure that we would recognize the authentic when it arrives. You could not have told a Sadducee or a Pharisee that the Messiah would come to Israel without them knowing and acknowledging him. But he came and they rejected him.”⁴

Requirements for Revival

Some years ago I received a dramatic vision of revival in Doncaster, my home town, during a celebration service involving a number of churches, and immediately shared it with those present. It was of a beautiful new square complete with fountains, trees and smart buildings, and I told them that, although I believed God was saying this would indeed become a material reality in the town, it was also a picture of revival to come.

Two weeks later the local paper published an artist’s impression precisely reflecting that vision – and this lovely square, complete with 16 fountains, now adorns the Waterdale area of the town centre and is flanked by the new municipal offices and a modern theatre called Cast, where the town’s pastors recently met for the first time for mutual encouragement. A similar feature, also with fountains, has now been announced for the area adjacent to Doncaster’s railway station.

I keep telling friends and pastors here that, if they wish to see this vision (of revival) fulfilled, they must start blessing Israel – by praying for them, helping their poor, defending them from unwarranted attack and anti-Semitism and, most of all, by reaching out to them with the very Gospel which has so blessed us (Rom 1:16, 10:14).

If we want to see revival, we must start blessing Israel.

In South Africa, meanwhile, up to a million people are expected to descend on the central city of Bloemfontein (which, incidentally, translates ‘flower fountain’) in a fortnight’s time (22 April) to pray for their nation, following a call from the man they have all come to know as Oom (Uncle) Angus!

Don’t forget that Jesus is returning – not to London, New York, Paris or Cape Town, but to Jerusalem, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5)!

If you really love Jesus, you will love the Jews!

Notes

1 My orphaned great-grandfather, also Charles, was brought up in the Murray parsonage in Graaff-Reinet, 500 miles from Cape Town. Our family is forever indebted to Rev Andrew Murray Snr and his wife Maria, who had 16 children of their own!

2 Peace in Jerusalem by Charles Gardner (olivepresspublisher.com), p164.

3 Ibid, p162-3.

4 Why Jesus Died (Monarch Books), p40.

Last week, global 'Israeli Apartheid Week' was celebrated in cities across the UK. Charles Gardner helps dismantle the hype surrounding this increasingly common vilification of Israel.

As British cities took part in 'Israeli Apartheid Week', which rallies people to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and which has been gathering momentum year on year, hundreds of London Underground trains were plastered with ads depicting Israel as a vile apartheid state. They turned out to be illegal fly-posters and were duly removed - but not without the intervention of authorities alerted by the Israeli Embassy.¹

Because the issues surrounding Israel are highly complicated and controversial, some are frightened off taking any view at all, while others fall for the temptation of over-simplifying things, which is why those determined to vilify Israel latch on to the emotive 'A' word.

Israel Not Perfect

Of course Israel is far from perfect, and there are areas of discrimination - like restrictions on land access for Palestinian citizens. But as Benjamin Pogrund wrote in The Guardian last year, the situation in Israel cannot and should not be compared to apartheid South Africa – and he should know, since he was a correspondent there for 26 years, and has been living in Israel for 17 years.

"The Arabs of Israel are full citizens", he wrote. "Crucially, they have the vote and Israeli Arab MPs sit in parliament. An Arab judge sits on the country's highest court; an Arab is chief surgeon at a leading hospital; an Arab commands a brigade of the Israeli army...Under apartheid, every detail of life was subject to discrimination by law...Israel is not remotely like that."²

Because the issues surrounding Israel are complicated and controversial, people often over-simplify things, with those determined to vilify Israel latching on to the emotive 'A' word.

Elsewhere, South African Olga Meshoe, daughter of African Christian Democratic Party president Rev Kenneth Meshoe, has called designations of Israel as an 'apartheid' state "an absolute lie" which "trivialises" what happened in South Africa.³ She is now campaigning worldwide for Israel to be treated more fairly and intelligently.

Discrimination – or Self-Preservation?

Much of what is perceived as discrimination in Israel is driven by the need for security. For example, the disputed West Bank (still known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria and claimed as their biblical heartland) is not part of modern-day Israel; so when people cross over into Israel, they are effectively crossing an international border, where you would normally expect checkpoints.

But in the case of Israel, such controls are doubly necessary due to the constant threat of terrorism. I was stopped at a checkpoint myself while travelling with friends up the Jordan Valley to Galilee. And when armed Israeli soldiers asked for my passport, I was unable to oblige, having left it behind at a Jerusalem guesthouse. But after some anxious moments, my driving licence was deemed sufficient and we were waived through.

The security fence was erected after nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians were killed by suicide bombers in the five-year period to 2005. And it has worked. Even Palestinian terrorists have admitted it is a deterrent.⁴

Arab Palestinians visit Israel for work every day from the PA-controlled West Bank and are searched, as you would naturally expect on passing through customs. However, there are some Palestinian areas from which Jews are altogether banned!

Distorted Narrative

While acknowledging that Israel isn't perfect, Pogrund concludes that her critics "exaggerate and distort and present an ugly caricature far distant from reality". Many want more than an end to the occupation; they want an end to Israel itself, he says, asking: "Why is Israel the only country in the world whose very right to existence is challenged in this way?"⁵

Much of what is perceived as discrimination is driven by the need for security. The security fence was erected after nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians were killed by suicide bombers between 2000 and 2005.

It's worth pointing out that apartheid in South Africa finally collapsed when the structure upon which it was built – a false understanding of the scriptures – fell apart. This happened when leading Afrikaner clerics confessed that they had been wrong.⁶ In fact, the Church as a whole played a leading role in ensuring a relatively peaceful transition from white minority to black majority rule. In matters of politics in other parts of the world, we still need the Church to lead with this kind of repentance and wisdom, which can only come from God.

I'll let America's legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King have the last word. In a letter to a friend who claimed to be 'merely anti-Zionist', not a Jew-hater, he thundered:

Let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews...Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind...And what is anti-Zionism? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa...⁷

This article is an extension of our current 'Israel Q&A' series.

Notes

1 Anti-Israel Ads Plaster London's Underground. Bridges for Peace, 26 February 2016.

2 Pogrund, B. Israel has many injustices. But it is not an apartheid state. The Guardian, 22 May 2015.

3 BDS claims make mockery of SA struggle, says Olga Meshoe. Gateway News, 3 March 2016.

4 David Soakell, Watching Over Zion newsletter. Christian Friends of Israel, 18 February 2016.

5 See note 2.

6 A key influence in this was evangelist Michael Cassidy, whose biography you can read here.

7 This I believe: selections from the writings of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, New York, 1971, pp234-235. Thanks also to Saltshakers, the website of author Steve Maltz.