Though written fifty years ago, this fascinating history of the Afrikaner is a timely read, with global news headlines about Trump targeting South Africa with sanctions and providing asylum for Afrikaners. I’d had my eye upon this book a long time, with its intriguing title: The Puritans in Africa: A Story of Afrikanerdom, by W.A. de Klerk.[1]
The author was a brave, dissenting voice from within, pleading with his fellow Afrikaners in the heyday of apartheid in the 1970s (reportedly, this book was banned from the country). For any lovers of South Africa, of her people, her history, and her potential, here’s a gem for you. And for any who are embroiled in the current debates about Christian Nationalism, take note: It’s been tried before.
Before reading The Puritans in Africa, I knew the major figures of apartheid. I knew of D.F. Malan as the founder of apartheid, Verwoerd the architect, and Vorster the enforcer. But here I learned the pivotal roles of apartheid’s leading orator (P.J. Meyer), philosopher (N. Diederichs), and theologian who adeptly twisted Scripture (G. Cronje). Ideas have consequences, so the more we understand a bad root, the better we can explain the bitter fruits and learn hard lessons for the future.
The false Calvinism taught by these men (an abuse of Calvin’s teaching on church and state) has probably done more damage in South Africa than any other nation in the world. Their twisting of 16th-century political theology bore deadly fruit for an entire populace. The same danger exists today.
What biblical lessons can we learn from the nearly 400-year Afrikaner story on our African continent? How can South Africa serve as a cautionary tale for other nations? Here are four brief biblical warnings gleaned from De Klerk’s book to guard the church from the dangers of Christian Nationalism.
Divine Rights?
De Klerk warns that if we reject the longstanding belief in the divine right of kings, we should also reject the “divine right of nations” (p. 168). He repeatedly shows how government overreach, unchecked power, oppression, and racism, are the outcome of one ethnic group claiming divine sanction for their conquest of other nations. If anyone becomes convinced that their particular people possess ‘VIP’ status in God’s eyes, watch out.
What De Klerk omits, however, is how covenant theology can (unintentionally) fuel the myth of ethnic superiority and feed Gentile pride by claiming that the Church has replaced Israel (in contrast to what Rom. 9-11 teaches). Too often in church history, infant baptism and amillennialism have led people away from the need to repent and believe to be converted, and has led them instead toward a deadly assumption of salvation (presumptive regeneration) and a state church, often associated with a certain ethnicity – a salvation by race, instead of grace.
Whose Kingdom?
De Klerk warns about apartheid leaders equating man’s earthly kingdom with God’s kingdom, about confusing the eternal City of God with any temporal City of Man. We must beware of obsessing over utopian dreams (whether of a more Marxist, left-wing flavour, or a more right-wing flavour), and creating a false gospel, with our own political messiahs and earthly saviours to whom we hail our ‘hosannas’. The author cautions:
The socio-political ideal allied to power… shot forth out of Puritan soil as a vigorous but hazardous mutation of Calvinism. Its fruits looked deceptively fine, promising, in fact, eternal life. The effect of eating, however, brought about a sudden deadly consciousness of nakedness (p. 188).
De Klerk goes on to ask, “In what measure has the ideal of Christian nationalism become the ideal of Nationalist Christianity? Where this has indeed happened, either because of ignorance or deliberately justifying immoral politicizing – in either case it’s a sin of blaspheming the name of Christ” (p. 342).
Separate Development?
One of the many self-destructive ironies of apartheid was that one of their favourite proof-texts for “separate development” (of racial groups) was how God divided the nations at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Yet in the end, the apartheid edifice of utopian racial purity has come crashing down with a terrible sound, as God has humbled their selfish ambition (pp. 310-13).
De Klerk sharply contrasts this to the original Calvin who was renowned for his Christlike meekness and submission to the Lord and His Word. As Calvin wrote in his Institutes:
As the orator when asked, ‘What is the first precept in eloquence?’, answered, ‘Delivery’. ‘What is the second?’ ‘Delivery’. ‘What is the third?’ ‘Delivery’. So if you ask me in regard to the precepts of the Christian religion, I will answer, ‘First, second and third, is humility.’
O that all of us who name the name of Christ – in our lives, homes, churches and nations, would keep learning how to “walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).
Hijacking Calvin?
De Klerk plainly shows where Calvin’s own teachings “consistently stressed the value of the individual” (p. 204). The whole meaning of the Reformation, as restated in Geneva, was a “revolt against the collective” and against tyranny of all kinds. Next to the Bible and Calvin, the most abused theologian by the Afrikaner government was Abraham Kuyper (Dutch Prime Minister and phenomenal Christian leader; died 1920). Yet De Klerk shows how emphatically Kuyper would’ve opposed apartheid in his famous, Lectures on Calvinism at Princeton (in 1908):
Calvinism was bound to… proclaim the liberty of nations, and not to rest until both politically and socially every man, simply because he is a man, should be recognized, respected and dealt with as a creature created after the Divine likeness (p. 205).
The Remedy: True Calvinism
De Klerk’s work is not without its shortcomings. De Klerk makes no mention of the role of true Calvinist missionaries in South African history, like Moffat and Livingstone and many others, plus the reformers like Andrew Murray from within Afrikanerdom. The author also misses the true genius of Calvin as an expositor of Scripture, not just a wise leader. And I found the book too sympathetic toward secular philosophies, such as Hegel, Kant, and Marx. Yet still a very worthwhile read.
As De Klerk wrote in the dark depths of 1970s apartheid, he ended his book by asking, “How then could renewal come?” What was the only way forward for the Afrikaner government amidst such a divided, troubled nation? His answer:
…there is, in fact, only one alternative – to rediscover their own most genuine tradition. This would mean returning to the original Calvin… Man relying on his own final abilities commits the sin of idolatry. Let no man flatter himself. Left to his own designs, he is a devil. The happiness he needs is entirely from God. Power as the short cut to survival, identity, fulfilment and happiness is therefore also against the truest tradition of the Afrikaners: the original Calvin (pp. 338-39).
De Klerk proves that the need is for true ‘radicals’ who go back to real “roots” (the radix) – the biblical, Reformation roots are the best hope for healing such a broken land. The only reason to build on true Calvinism is because Calvin built on the “one foundation” of Christ, the Cornerstone; we follow Him only insofar as He follows Christ and His Word (Acts 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 3:11; 11:1; Heb. 13:7).
May the risen Lord by His Spirit shine the light of His Word across this beloved country of South Africa for the glory of His name, the saving of many souls, and the good of our land.
[1] The author, W.A. De Klerk, is not to be confused with the later Prime Minister, F.W. De Klerk, who won the Nobel Peace prize with Mandela for ending apartheid.