The Lord wants His church on earth to be One, as He is One, âin order that the
world may knowâ (John 17:23) â for the sake of the credibility and the
effectiveness of the preaching of the Gospel and its testimony. This unity is first
and foremost a spiritual unity of faith, but then also a visible unity in the
institutionalising of His church. Churches relate to one another due to a common
confession of faith and the main features of church institution and church
government.
In the first chapter it was indicated clearly that, in the resolutions of the Dutch
Reformed Church family, there is a recognition of the Godly gift of and
commission to visible church unity. Every member desires visible church unity,
keeping in mind that there are obstacles that have to be removed first. Research
has also been done about the understanding of the image of a church and the
church doctrines of the members of the Dutch Reformed Church family, which
showed resemblance to a great extent with the Dutch Reformed Church
according to the reformed principles of the presbyterial-synodal church governing
system. However, numerous influences from other governing systems could also
be indicated.
In chapter two the common, above-historical and universally accepted creeds,
which linked believers together over time and space, was pointed out. True
creeds stem from a certain situation, but formulates those truths of the Gospel
which are of a core, timeless nature. Denominations are therefore the relation
between congregations sharing the same confessions and the main principles of
church institution, and is formed to strengthen their church-being, to enrich them
spiritually and to save them from one-sidedness. The conclusion was also made
that Belhar does not answer to the requirements of a reformed creed.
In chapter three an analysis was made of the content and implications of the
constitution, supreme court verdicts and legal opinions to point out several legal indications for the church reunion process in the Dutch Reformed Church family,
from which it was obvious that the law in South-Africa sees the church as a
âuniversitasâ which must be judged according to the law of contrasts.
In chapter four, it was attempted to indicate the direction on the way forward with
church reunion, and it was indicated that the Dutch Reformed Church family in
South-Africa must urgently tend to the following matters:
1. To clarify a common foundation for a creed for the united church.
2. To clarify the structure and the form of governing of the united church.
3. To clarify the process through which church unity can be accomplished.
4. Clarification of the material matters of the churches at church unity.
5. Clarification of the RCAâs insisting on keeping its own identity.
6. Clarification of matters such as theological training, the mutual recognition
of the legitimacy of clergymen, the name, the language and the liturgical
matters in the new denomination.
7. Lastly that recognition in mutual relationships is of vital importance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08142009-155312 |
| Date | 14 August 2009 |
| Creators | Kleynhans, Hermanus Johannes |
| Contributors | Prof PJ Strauss |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08142009-155312/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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