Can a nation be redeemed by God ?

Lighthouse in Swakopmund /Namibia


Yes God can!

The Scriptures and history testify to the fact that God rules over the nations ( Ps 22:28; 47:8), watching over them ( Ps 66:7) . The sovereign Lord brings nations down ( Ps 9:15-17; 59:5 ; 110:6; 135:10 ) but He also establishes them ( Ps 33:12 ; 147:20).

From the history of various nations we have many examples of how God has graciously answered the prayer of his praying people . I have many books on my bookshelves that speak about revivals in which God had been pleased to restore life and vitality to the church and through the church to the nation . I have presented a number of papers over the years on such happenings .

One of my favourite books in this regard is the biography of "George Whitfield" by Arnold Dallimore ( published by Banner of Truth in 2 volumes) . The first chapter in Volume 1 , entitled "Spiritual and moral conditions in England before the Revival " is worth the price of the book ! A friend of mine would say : " sell your shirt and buy this book !"

The reason why that chapter speaks to me so very poignantly is because I see so many parallels between our Namibian situation and 18th Century England .

England at that time was in the grip of Deism - a form of religious rationalism , in which God was seen to be merely the first cause , - essentially uninvolved in the affairs of the world , in the same way in which a watchmaker would make a clock , winding it up , and then leaving it to itself to run out .

Don't get me wrong ! Namibia has not been in the hands of deists , but I want to argue that Namibia has been profoundly influenced by theological undercurrents and thought patterns that have led to a steady , general spiritual decline in our nation , just as the first cause of England's moral decline has been attributed by Dallimore to a certain spiritual undertone in the nation , called ' deism '.

Namibia's religious thought patterns have been influenced by the forces of liberalism . I will not trace the development of liberalism in Namibia in this essay . Another forum will have to do that .

At the heart of liberal theology is a deep dislike for the authority and sufficiency of the Bible . "The proof of the pudding is in the eating " , an English Proverb says . What do we taste when we eat the "Namibian pudding " ? I am afraid , it is ' lean fare' . Many churches in our nation do not 'preach the Word ' ( 2 Tim 4:2) . By this I do not mean that preachers do not have Bibles in the pulpit . They do , but one gets the impression that once they have read from the scriptures they will not proceed to expound that word which is meant to impart spiritual life to our hearers . Our preaching lacks lively, ( lengthy and passionate !!) forceful , Christ centered exhortation and application .

Our nation is fed on "pop psychology" , "health, wealth and prosperity teaching " , " social gospel" and "moralistic preaching " . The church in Namibia is very centered around people . We have countless apostles and prophets and other 'anointed and appointed' men and women , dividing the country into the " Paul, Apollos and Cephas" syndrome - each with and according to their various dreams , visions and revelations.

In addition to this , the Namibian church , for lack of sound doctrinal preaching tends to spend much time and focus on choirs and music in the worship service . It is not uncommon for services to have well over an hour of singing before a short homily follows , by which time the attention time span of the average listener has shrunk to almost zero !

Practically speaking that means that "Mr Average" in the Namibian society , though he may be religious and go to church frequently , will not be exposed to deep doctrinal and applicatory and Christ centered preaching that will help him to examine himself and cause him to cry out to the Lord for help . And because he is not helped and fed from his pulpit , he will subsequently not build his life upon a Christian worldview , but will follow the opinions of politicians , TV personalities and the like .

Consequently the Namibian church does not have a strong influence upon the destructive thinking patterns of the Namibian nation .

As a result we note that the nation is not well led , for it is not led by the sustaining Word of the Lord. And because it is not well led , people do not live well .

Back to George Whitfield's 18th century England :

As a result of this theological vacuum the English people were like sheep without a shepherd . Dallimore writes : " Nowhere was the nation's weakness more evident than in the Gin craze... every 6th house in London had become a gin shop and the nation was in an uncontrollable orgy of gin drinking.... Bishop Benson wrote :" Gin ( alcohol ) has made the English people what they were never before- cruel and inhuman " (p.25) .

My observation exactly ! Every 6th house in Windhoek is just about a "shebeen " - an alcohol outlet ! By the way, this phenomenon is found at all levels of our society : Old , young , rich and poor , and in every cultural group . Ask me - I am a pastor . I see these things all the time!

The cruelty and inhumanity that follows substance abuse shows itself in child abuse , women abuse , absent fathers , murder , rape, stealing ... the list goes on ... and as I said in my last blog - our newspapers daily bear eloquent commentary to these facts !

ENTER THE GOSPEL !

I quote selectively from the closing words of Arnold Dallimore's first chapter , and here's the Word of hope for us :

"But how was this torrent of impiety to be stopped ? ... The successive failures of the several attempts to better conditions simply proved that the nation's trouble lay basically with the individual human heart, and that the ' torrent of impiety ' would flow until some power was found that could stanch it at its source ...

England was startled by the sound of a voice . It was the voice of a preacher , George Whitfield , a clergyman but twenty -two years old , who was declaring the gospel in the pulpits of London with such fervour and power, that no church could hold the multitudes that flocked to hear . His voice continued to be heard, and then was joined by the voices of John and Charles Wesley and of many others, in a tremndous chorus of praise and preaching that rang throughout the land and was sustained in strength for more than half a century. The effect has been described in these words :

A religious revival burst forth... which changed in a few years the whole temper of English society . The church was restored to life and activity . Religion carried to the hearts of the people a fresh spirit of moral zeal , while it purified our literature and our manners. A new philanthropy reformed our prisons , infused clemency and wisdom into our penal laws , abolished the slave trade , and gave the first impulse to popular education."

God had mercy on 18th century England ! Did you read that ? ... " in a few years the whole temper of English society was changed ..."

The effects of the revival upon the English nation were marvellous indeed !

Will Namibia be judged by God ?

Namibia desperately needs perspective from the Word of God.

The family , the church and the state - the three major institutions created by God on earth for the benefit of man are in a state of steady decline in Namibia. Our local newspapers regularly bear eloquent testimony to this fact.

There is of course nothing peculiar about that observation. This is the normal state of affairs in the history of a fallen world.

Consider for instance the lament of the prophet Habakkuk in the wake of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC , as he makes a complaint to God concerning his apostate nation:

"Oh Lord... the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous ; so justice goes forth perverted " ( Hab 1:1-4 ESV )

This sounds so familiar, so up to date - doesn't it ? The law is paralysed ...

In Namibia it often takes years for justice to take its course. For instance,

• The Caprivi dissenters of the attempted 1999 coup, which  aimed to separate the Caprivi from Namibia are still being tried in our courts, and are still not sentenced 10 years later! By way of comparison, the trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which tried 22 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany only took from November 21, 1945 to October 1, 1946 - slightly less than one year!

• A widow in my congregation has waited for 7 years to have the affairs of her late husband's estate finalized in court!
• A member of our church who had been working for the Namibian Social Security Commission as a Financial Manager was (we believe) unjustly dismissed from his position during the AVID scandal at the beginning of 2005, in which 30 million Namibian Dollars had mysteriously disappeared. We believe that he had been used as a scape goat. He is consistently and tactically prevented to advance in the exercise of his appeal . Delay tactics by certain lawyers are paralyzing the just course of the law.

Now, it is true that Habakkuk was also complaining to God concerning the matter of delayed justice: "Oh Lord , how long shall I cry for help , and you will not hear ? Or cry to you violence !" and you will not save?" (Hab 1:2)

Whatever the reason for the LORD's delay in justice, it surely cannot be attributed to slackness or inefficiency on God's part. The Almighty is not overworked in the courts of heaven!

What is more, God's omniscient eye sees everything in true and just perspective! The evil that was done in Israel did not escape the eyes of the Lord. In the book of Judges frequent mention is made of the evil that was done by Israel in the sight of the Lord (e.g. Judges 2:11; 3:7, 12 etc). The eyes of the Lord are also continuously on the righteous, and His ears towards their cry (Ps 34:15 cf 1 Peter 3:12)

Furthermore , God's omnipotence spans the earth! 1 Chronicles 16:14  and  Psalm 105:7 say that "His judgments are in all the earth". From His heavenly throne and His heavenly courtroom  the Judge of all the earth exercises and shall exercise His righteous judgment. When Christ shall come again as Judge, the whole earth will be subjected to Him .

Moreover, God's justice is always on time. In Habakkuk's case he was informed that the LORD was raising up the Chaldeans (or Babylonians) as His instruments of judgment to punish Israel (Hab 1:5- 11)  despite the fact that Habakkuk (temporarily) thought that the Almighty might have been seriously mistaken in His choice of  'executive judge'!

This  theological fact remains: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just ? (Gen 18:25)

Namibia is found among the nations of the earth, and the God of all the earth is also the God who judges her.  Our national wickedness shall  not escape His all seeing eye.

As we survey the wickedness of our nation in terms of lack of justice, so many corrupt business practices and so many corrupt politicians and officials, and as we survey the decline of moral values and the corresponding increase of HIV/AIDS ( this is what the newspapers say!) , and  as we consider  the present  powerlessness of the church in the midst of this decay, I am wondering whether God's hand is not perhaps presently heavy on us?

Two questions

• Can a nation weighed down with sin be redeemed by God? Answer: "Yes He can!"

• Has the church a role to play in arresting the nation’s backsliding? Answer (with apology to President Obama): "Yes we can!"
  

I would like to attempt an answer to these two questions in my next blog posting

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY ON THE "WWW"

I remember that day so very well !

It was Thursday the 27th January 2005. I had just dropped off our eldest son, at his High School, when a friend stopped me and said: "I see that you're on the front page of "Die Republikein"  an Afrikaans daily newspaper (see article below)

I was stunned! How could I possibly make the front page of a news paper?

I bought the paper, and the heading said, "Broer teen broer in kerkstryd" - "Brother against brother in church battle". Now I was even more mystified. As I read on  I saw that the journalist had obviously been surfing the "www" (world wide web) and came across this article (published in my last post) which had been published by the Evangelical Times on their website.

But here's the weird thing.

At the time of writing of this article the government controlled "Namibian Broadcasting Corporation" had placed a moratorium on Religious broadcasts because some pentecostal/ charismatic churches had apparently abused the code of conduct on the airwaves.

This was reported upon in the newspapers. Fair enough!

My article had appeared in  the Evangelical Times  in October 2004, 4 months before this incident with the NBC, and  it was unscrupulously  dragged into this debate in the newspapers at the end of January 2005. It was  used to fuel the fire of 'anti-charismatic / anti-pentecostal sentiments! 
Quite frankly, that  smacked of lack of journalistic integrity and abuse of intellectual property, for the journalist in question never consulted me, nor did he call to ask me  whether he could quote me or what my opinions on the ban of Religious Broadcasting issue were.

I had  phone calls from not a few charismatic pastors that day .... and I had a chance to put my concerns to them in, I trust, a loving and concerned way. The amazing thing is that they heard my heart, although they did not necessarily agree with me.

Oh well, be aware of the fact that your words published on the www may be used for good and ..."for whatever people want to make of it " .

Here' s the story as written by the journalist .

(For the benefit of my English readers , I will translate below)

27.01.2005

Broer teen broer in kerkstryd

DIE charismatiese kerklike beweging in Namibië, wat dikwels onder heftige regeringskritiek deurloop en skynbaar ook dieteiken van die onlangse NBC-verbod op godsdienstige uitsendings was, het weer in die spervuur beland. Hierdie keer uit die geledere van die Christelike kerk self, die Hervormde Baptiste.
Volgens die Baptiste is Namibië nou reeds té lank onder die invloed van "liberale en charismatiese leerstellinge" en daarom is die land op die oomblik op die afdraande pad. Selfs die Namibiese regering staan volgens die Baptiste onder die invloed van "liberales" veral ten opsigte van die stryd teen MIV/vigs wat die land verswelg.
Selfs die grootste kerklike groep in Namibië, die Lutherse geloof, het onder die Baptiste se kritiek deurgeloop met 'n aantyging dat dié kerk vandag 'n "liberale beweging en net 'n kerk in naam (nominaal)" is.
Hierdie heftige aanslae is vervat in 'n verslag oor die Hervormde Baptiste se tweede Konferensie van Genade wat pas deur die kerklike nuusdiens, die Evangelical Times, in Darlington, Engeland, gepubliseer is.
In die verslag oor die konferensie deur pastoor Joachim Rieck van die Eastside Baptiste Kerk in Windhoek, word daarop gewys dat die tema van die konferensie die verkondiging van Christus was en dat baie aandag deur sprekers gegee is aan die sogenaamde "post-moderne era" en die negatiewe invloede daarvan op die samelewing.
"Namibië is al vir té lank onder die invloed van liberale en charismatiese leerstellinge. Die land ervaar gevolglik die afbrekende, post-moderne invloede wat op die oomblik die wêreld oorvloed.
"Liberaliste en charismate ignoreer albei die Woord van God as die enigste voldoende antwoord op die groot probleme van ons land.
"'n Derde van ons volk is besmet met vigs. Die Regering, onder die invloed van liberale, is oortuig dat hierdie probleem aangespreek kan word deur die gebruik van kondome.
"Die huise van ons volk is in wanorde. Baie min kinders het 'n funksionele gesin, owerspel is aan die orde van die dag, dwelm- en drankmisbruik is algemeen.
Hierdie volk het werklik hervorming nodig," het past. Rieck in sy verslag geskryf.
Hy spreek ook die hoop uit dat God die Kerk in Namibië sal laat herleef deur God-gesentreerde verklarende evangeliebediening gegrond op die Bybel. "Die getuienis van die Skrif en van die geskiedenis is met ons," het hy gesê.
Die hoofsprekers by die konferensie was 'n ouderling van die Leeds Hervormde Baptiste Kerk in Brittanje en redakteur van die wêreld kerkblad, Reformation Today, past. Erroll Hulse, past. Conrad Mbewe van die Kabwata Baptiste Kerk in Zambië en pastore Colin Gibb en Joachim Rieck van die Baptiste in Namibië.
Kerkleiers van die Hervormde Baptiste, die Kerk van Engeland in Suid-Afrika, die Assemblies of God en die Nederduits Hervormde Kerk het die konferensie bygewoon.

Christo Retief

TRANSLATION :

"BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER IN CHURCH BATTLE "

The Charismatic Church movement in Namibia, frequently criticised by the Namibian government, and which had recently contributed to the fact that religious programs were prohibited from being aired on the Namibian Broadcasting Services , has once again landed in the cross fire.

This time it was from the ranks of the Christian church - The Reformed Baptists!

According to the Reformed Baptists, Namibia has been far too long under the influence of liberal and charismatic teachings, and therefore the country is currently on a downward spiral.

Even the Namibian government is under the influence of liberal theology, particularly with reference to the way in which the Government handles the current HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Even the biggest denomination in the country, the Lutherans , where subjected to the criticism of the Baptists who said that this church is under the influence of liberal influences and must therefore be considered as a 'nominal church'.

This scathing attack was made in the context of a report written after the Namibian Grace Ministers Conference, and which was recently published by the Evangelical Times in England.

In his report of the conference, Pastor Joachim Rieck of the Eastside Baptist Church in Windhoek made mention of the fact that the theme of the conference related to "the proclamation of Christ" , and that much attention was given by the conference speakers to the phenomenon of " post modernistic thought " and its destructive influence upon our community.

He said that "liberals and charismatics both ignore the sufficiency of Scripture as the substantial answer to the problems of Namibia".

"A third of our population is infected by AIDS and the government continues to be convinced that the answer to solving this problem is the use of condoms" .

"The homes of our nation are in a state of chaos. Few children grow up in functional homes". "Corruption is the order of the day; drugs and alcohol abuse are common..."

"This nation truly needs reformation" , Pastor Rieck wrote in this article.

He expressed the hope that God would grant revival in the church through God-centered, evangelistic proclamation based on the Scriptures alone.

He said that " the testimony of the Scriptures and history are with us."

The main speakers at the Conference were Erroll Hulse from Leeds (UK), editor of the periodical "Reformation Today", Pastor Conrad Mbewe of the Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia, Colin Gibb and Joachim Rieck from the Eastside Baptist Church in Windhoek ...

THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH IN NAMIBIA

The city of Windhoek 

Below is an article  which  I wrote for the Evangelical Times (UK) in 2005. Although the information is somewhat dated by now, you may find my analysis concerning the "downgrade of the Namibian church" informative.

In my next post I will share with you how one Namibian daily newspaper responded to this article.

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Missionary Spotlight

This article can also be found at : http://www.evangelical-times.org

The gospel in Namibia

Namibia was a German colony between 1883 and 1915. Subsequently it was ruled by South Africa until 1990.

The first missionaries to arrive in Namibia were Abraham and Christian Albrecht of the London Missionary Society (LMS). They crossed the Orange River and established a mission station in the deep south of Namibia in 1806. This happened some 35 years before David Livingstone set foot on African soil in March 1841.

In 1814 Johann Heinrich Schmelen established an LMS mission station at Ui-Gantes (Bethanie) — a strategic base from which other mission stations were planted.

Other early missionary endeavours stemmed from the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and the Rhenish and Finish missions. Patrick Johnstone says: ‘Namibia for long had the highest percentage of Christians for any country in Africa.

‘The early labours of German and Finnish Lutheran and then Anglican missionaries gave birth to large denominations.

‘The influence of liberal and then black theology eroded that spiritual heritage, and true discipleship and holy living are now in short supply and nominalism widespread.

‘There is a noticeable turning away from Christianity and a lack of openness to the gospel.’

Namibia today

Twentieth-century mission in Namibia has taken place against the background of four developments.

First, mainline Protestant churches have succumbed to theological liberalism and ‘black theology’, the latter associated with the ‘liberation’ struggle. True Evangelicals in these churches are few.

Secondly, Roman Catholicism has grown to be the second largest denomination in Namibia. It has made significant contributions to hospitals, schools and social action, but not to gospel preaching, personal evangelism or true conversions.

Thirdly, the Dutch Reformed Church pursued separate development (apartheid) in its churches until the 1990s. The Church’s credibility has been severely undermined as a result.

Fourthly, the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has produced many unruly and undisciplined splinter groups. Dreams, visions and spurious prophecies dominate their proclamation.

Evangelicalism

Commitment to biblical preaching and the authority of Scripture has for long been absent from Namibia. The Evangelical and Reformed faith is not well understood. In fact, ‘Reformed’ may be a ‘dirty word’ here, since the Dutch Reformed ethos has left a bitter aftertaste.

Solidly Evangelical denominations are rare. The Southern Baptists commenced a work in 1968, as did the Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF) around 1970.

AIM missionaries now work under the banner of AEF, and SIM has, of late, taken over the leadership of both. The AEF has planted ‘Evangelical Bible churches’, which are similar to Baptist Churches.

Beginnings

At the beginning of 1990, three months before Namibia became an independent nation, I was called as Pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Windhoek — now a modern city of about 250,000 inhabitants.

Having just graduated from a Baptist seminary in South Africa, I found myself in a challenging situation.

At seminary I had become acquainted with the Reformed faith through books by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon, and others. I began to compare the work in Namibia, which was carried on by Southern Baptist missionaries in classic Arminian style, with what I now understood to be a biblical view of missions, evangelism and church planting.

Typically, evangelistic work in Namibia had been conducted along the line of Donald McGavran and Peter C. Wagner’s ‘church growth’ methods (it is not difficult to gather people together in the rural areas).

It was evident that the planted Namibian churches lacked the marks of true biblical churches.

Convictions

I realised the deep problems we had — a lack of understanding of biblical pastoral leadership, the need for godly leadership, a sound doctrine of the church, and so on.

With my new-found convictions I began to walk where angels fear to tread. Fortunately youth and ignorance were on my side. I had no idea what was awaiting me!

Providentially, the Lord was pleased to raise up at this time a young Oshivambo man named Laban Mwashekele. He was a shepherd, converted through the evangelistic labours of a German farmer, and displayed an unusual eagerness for the Scriptures.

He was accepted as a student at a South African seminary. Here he too discovered the Reformed and Evangelical heritage through reading Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon and other Baptist fathers.

Leaders

When Laban graduated and came back to Namibia in 1993, our hearts were knit together. Since then God has been pleased to use him mightily in evangelistic labours.

In the meantime, we were joined in 1997 by a young Dutch Reformed minister, Jacobus de Koning, son of a well-known Dorothea Missionary, Johan de Koning. He is a gifted theologian and pastor and was encouraged by Eastside Baptist Church to begin an Afrikaans-speaking Reformed Baptist work.

Two years ago, a young man from the Rehoboth Baster people, J. T. Beukes, came to Reformed and Evangelical convictions and joined our growing Reformed Baptist team in Windhoek

He is now the pastor of the Faith Reformed Baptist Church, a small but growing work.

Growth

Undoubtedly the greatest encouragement in terms of church growth is found among the Oshivambo people. God has been pleased to use Laban Mwashekele’s radio ministry in the Oshivambo language.

He is eagerly listened to, and when he visits the towns, people flock to hear him. Many have been converted to Christ.

The current HIV/AIDS situation in Namibia is serious. This has become a silent and largely ignored calamity, with between 20-25% of adults and young people infected. There are already 67,000 AIDS orphans.

The Ovambo people are the largest population group and the most severely affected by AIDS. There is no doubt that God is using this calamity to draw people to himself.

A typical service held by Pastor Mwashekele is unlike most ‘crusades’ we see here. He has no posters to advertise his meetings; there is no music group or choir to draw the young people; advertising is by word of mouth.

In evangelism he will characteristically expound the Scriptures systematically, night after night. He makes no altar call in the accepted sense, but invites people to come to see him the next day, where he makes himself available for counselling and discerning the Spirit’s work in the life of the enquirer.

We give thanks to God for his mercy to us. We long for this same work to be done among the other population groups of our country.

Tensions

Reformation inevitably demands change and upheaval. The Oshivambo word for ‘Reformation’, ovitungululo, is an interesting one. It translates literally as ‘breaking down — building up’.

We have seen plenty of that! For us in particular, it has brought conflict with Southern Baptist Missionaries, whose policies and views are at odds with the Reformed faith.

Sadly this has led to a breakdown in relationships. However, at national level, the Reformed Baptist movement has done its best to maintain excellent relationships with the brethren.

Perhaps it needs to be also said that the ‘Reformed movement’ is very young. Many have yet to reach maturity. Our outworking of the Reformed faith is not always what it should be.

In worship style, Reformed Baptist churches here might be miles apart from those in the UK or North America. However, the Namibian churches earnestly pursue the Reformation essentials — Sola Scriptura, Sola Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fides, Soli Deo Gloria!