Greetings,
During the teleconference this week we discussed Feast plans. Marshall Stiver has seen three possibilities on the I25 corridor in Western Colorado. However we decided to investigate the possibility of two sites – towards the East and more toward the West – before making any final decisions. Making one site suite all is very difficult. We also put in place an editing process for articles to be posted on the website. Cliff Veal volunteered to coordinate that project. The big news this week is a new video streaming to replace the Zoom we have currently been using. This Sabbath will be a test for the new system and it will be simpler to use as we will no longer have to enter a code – details are below.
A stark statement regarding the fulfillment of prophecy was published in the March 20th Wall Street Journal. We have long understood the significance of God’s promises to Abraham being fulfilled in a “company of nations” – the British Commonwealth. South Africa was a part of that company of nations.
The Dutch East India Company landed the first European settlers on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, launching a colony that by the end of the 18th century numbered only about 15,000. Known as Boers or Afrikaners, and speaking a Dutch dialect known as Afrikaans, the settlers as early as 1795 tried to establish an independent republic.
After occupying the Cape Colony in that year, Britain took permanent possession in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, bringing in 5,000 settlers. Anglicization of government and the freeing of slaves in 1833 drove about 12,000 Afrikaners to make the “great trek” north and east into African tribal territory, where they established the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold nine years later brought an influx of “outlanders” into the republics and spurred Cape Colony prime minister Cecil Rhodes to plot annexation. Rhodes’s scheme of sparking an “outlander” rebellion, to which an armed party under Leander Starr Jameson would ride to the rescue, misfired in 1895, forcing Rhodes to resign. What British expansionists called the “inevitable” war with the Boers broke out on Oct. 11, 1899. The defeat of the Boers in 1902 led in 1910 to the Union of South Africa, composed of four provinces, the two former republics, and the old Cape and Natal colonies.
The wealth and strategic geographic position of South Africa made it an important part of the African continent and British Empire and certainly fitted the prophetic description of the remnant of Jacob given in Micah 5:7-9. “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest …” A description of dominance among nations. However, the prophecy continues describing the decline of that power and prestige – the removal of blessings resulting from rebellion toward God and His law.
God says He will, “…cut off your horses from your midst and destroy your chariots. I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down your strongholds …” verses 10-15. God breaks the pride of their power, cuts off their implements of war and destroys their cities.
Match this with the WSJ article, South Africa’s Squandered Promise. “South Africa suffers from shockingly underwhelming leadership, worsening governance, rampant official corruption, corrosive levels of crime, weak educational attainments and a deadening loss of hope among young and old. South Africa has lost its moral authority … if nothing changes, the future of all sub-Saharan Africa may be dim.” These comments are taken from a study published by the American Academy of Political and Social Science. A graphic reminder of what Mr. Armstrong wrote in US & BC in Prophecy. “God warns us through prophecy that our (national) sins are fast increasing. And now the day of reckoning is here!”
