Abstract

This essay offers a close comparative reading of the Belhar confession and the DRC witness document, Church and Society. It is argued (in the first statement) that although on the surface there are many similarities in content between the two documents, they are in fact theologically quite distinct (statements two to five). It is hoped that the DRC’s decision in 2011 to start a process of adopting the Belhar confession represents a return to its Reformed roots in the confessing church tradition.

Highlights

  • The year 2011 was a significant one for the family of Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa

  • Kerk en Samelewing3 (KS/CS) is a witness document accepted as policy guideline for the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at the General Synod, in October 1986, and incidentally in Cape Town

  • On the face of it, there is a strong convergence in content between the Confession of Belhar (1982/6) and the DRC witness document Kerk en Samelewing (1986)

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Summary

FIRST STATEMENT

On the face of it, there is a strong convergence in content between the Confession of Belhar (1982/6) and the DRC witness document Kerk en Samelewing (1986). As a direct echo of Belhar’s second article, CS states: The church is from its inception one in the Triune God, but must seek, serve and make this unity visible in the midst of the diversity in God’s creation and amongst God’s people in this torn-apart reality (section 82, my translation). Belhar’s fourth article confesses that God is a God of justice and peace who is in a special way the God of the sufferer, the poor and oppressed, and that the church is called to stand with God to ensure that justice and peace is established. CS ends – like Belhar - on a doxological note from Philippians 1:9 -11, referring to our salvation through faith in Christ, and the eschatological hope that believers will be unblemished when Christ returns, to the honour and glory of God (section 383)

SECOND STATEMENT
THIRD STATEMENT
Socio-economic status
Political ideology
Natural theology
FOURTH STATEMENT
FIFTH STATEMENT
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