Resumo

STRAUSS, Piet J.. The Heidelberg Catechism as a confession of faith and the Voortrekker Covenant of 1838: The speech of Paul Kruger on 16 December 1886. Koers (Online) [online]. 2026, vol.91, n.1, pp.1-13. ISSN 2304-8557.  https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.91.1.2630.

Various sources believe that the correct commemoration today of the Covenant of 16 December 1838 in Natal by the Voortrekkers should be a Christian and religious event: a religious event as part of life in its entirety, aimed at the honour of God. President Paul Kruger - the last president of the Boer Republic in the old Transvaal (1883-1900), namely the South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR)) was a supporter of this conviction about the covenant's consequences. He started his speech on 16 December 1886 at Paardekraal, Krugersdorp, with a reference to question 1 in the Heidelberg Catechism. He urged his audience, as Christian believers or Christian Afrikaners who normally commemorate the Vow, to dedicate their lives as a whole as an answer in obedience to their redemption in Christ. Kruger saw the reformed confessions of the church of which he was a member as beliefs that influenced life in its totality. In his 1886 speech, he also addressed problems in his republic. However, he appealed to his people to behave as Christian citizens of this republic. This view of Kruger is supported to this day by many Christian Afrikaners and Afrikaner institutions.

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