Reformed Churches in South Africa

For other Reformed Churches in South Africa, see Reformed Church in South Africa (disambiguation). For the former Dutch denomination, see Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.

The Reformed Churches in South Africa (Afrikaans: Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika) is a Christian denomination in South Africa that was formed in 1859 in Rustenburg. Members of the church are sometimes referred to as Doppers.^[5]

Reformed Churches in South Africa
Abbreviation	GKSA RCSA
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Continental Reformed
Scripture	Protestant Bible
Theology	Reformed[1]
Polity	Presbyterian
Associations	International Conference of Reformed Churches, World Reformed Fellowship
Region	South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India
Origin	1859 Rustenburg
Separated from	Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NHK)
Congregations	378[2]
Members	150,000+[3]
Ministers	236[4]
Official website	gksa.org.za

History of the Gereformeerde Kerke in South Africa

Syringa Tree Monument, Church Street, Rustenburg, (SAHRA9/2/263/0016)

The official name of the church body today is Die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika (GKSA), translated into English as the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA). It was founded in 1859 as a response to increasingly doctrinal and liturgical domination within the Reformed Sister churches of South Africa, particularly the Nederduitse Hervormde Kerk (NHK).^[6]

At the heart of the split was a major dispute over interchurch overreach and domination, which primarely centered around which hymns were doctrinally acceptable. Originally, South African Reformed worship strictly followed the Synod of Dort in 1618/1619 which allowed only the singing of the Psalms and other Scripture based songs.^[7] However, in 1814, the NHK began introducing Evangelical hymns into worship services without confessional testing or church-wide consensus.^[8]

These hymns were heavily influenced by rationalism, enlightenment thinking, and Methodism, and were described as promoting "blunt Pelagian humanism", universal grace, and emotionalistic theology, contrary to the doctrines of total depravity and sovereign grace upheld in the Three Forms of Unity.^[9] Concerned members (later called Doppers) rejected these hymns because they contradicted the Belgic Confession and Heidelberg Catechism, particularly regarding man's inability and God's sovereign election.^[8] When they refused to sing the hymns, they were threatened with excommunication. They held the view: In Gods huis Gods lied (In God's house God's hymns).^[10]

In 1859, after the NHK synod refused to allow exeptions to the hymn policy, 15 men, including future president Paul Kruger, formally separated and founded the RCSA under leadership of Minister Dirk Postma, sent from the Christelike Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands.^[11] These 15 members held a meeting on 10 February 1859 under a seringboom at Rustenburg. At this meeting, 300 members enrolled as members of Gereformeerde Kerke.^[12] The RCSA from it's founding was committed to:

• The infallibility of Scripture.
• The Three Forms of Unity.
• The Church Orders of Dort.
• The exclusive singing of the Psalms and Scriptural hymns.

The founding of the RCSA was not viewed as a mere separation but as a Reformation, a return to the purity of doctrine, worship, and church polity as practiced by the early Dutch Reformed settlers of 1652.^[6]

As one member, H.J.J. Kruger, later testified:^[8]

"After a long struggle, of which the tracks could be followed back to the 1830’s; after years of resistance against false doctrine which had been tolerated in the churches; after years of sighing ‘because the church wants to force the people’s consciences to accept human ordinances and teachings contrary to the Word,’ relief has finally come."

The Theology School

Since its founding in 1869, the Theology School of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (TSP) has been used as a unique instituition founded by the RCSA as a dedicated seminary. The school was used to train ministers of the Word in accordance to the Dutch Reformed tradition. The early Dopper churches, under the leadership of Minister Dirk Postma, established the school in Burgersdorp and later moved to Potchefstroom in 1905, where it developed alongside what would become the Potchefstroom University College for Higher Christian Education (PUK), now the North-West University.^[13]

Although the NWU eventually gained independence, an agreement was struck between the RCSA's TSP and the NWU. This agreement included mutual representation, shared facilities, and academic cooperation while still maintaining confessional integrity in the training of RCSA ministers.

However, after 150 years, this agreement came to an end in 2023. The RCSA General Synod of 2023 voted to terminate its cooperation with the NWU, after the NWU proposed a new agreement that would give it complete control over the theological curriculum, appointments, and faculty time allocation. According to the Synod, such terms violated the RCSA's Scriptural approach to theological training as well as violating the conditions for Professors to be appointed according to the Church Orders of Dort.^[14][15]

In response, the RCSA announced the establishment of the new, independent accredited institution, the Reformed Theological Academy, to continue the mission of the TSP in training ministers faithful to Reformed doctrine. The change does not merely mark an administrative change, but a return to the church-governed model of 1869, when theological formation was intentionally insulated from secular or liberal influence.^[14] The TSP has 12 professors and 3 administrative officers who have been integrated into the Faculty of Theology of the NWU.^[16]

The Reformed Theological Academy

The Reformed Theological Academy (RTA), founded in 2021, is the successor to the TSP after over 150 years of theological training within the RCSA. Its establishment marks both a renewal of the RCSA's original ecclesiastical vision and a response to contemporary chellenges in theological education.

After the split with the NWU in 2023, the RCSA General Synod made the decision to launch the RTA as an independent, accredited institution, once again wholly goverened by the RCSA, and entrusted with official ministerial training of future Reformed ministers.^[15]

Building on the historic legacy of the PUK, the RTA continues the theological tradition established in 1869: rigorous, biblically grounded, confessionally faithful, and academically excellent. While it serves the RCSA's ministerial needs, it also welcomes students, scholars, and ministers from across the wider Reformed world, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.^[17]

The RCSA today

The RCSA has 378 congregations ministering in 15 languages with congregations in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.^[16][18]

The General Synod meets every third year in Potchefstroom with the last synod meeting in 2023.^[19]

It has ecumenical ties with churches on all continents except Antarctica.^[20]

Songbook of the RCSA

The RCSA only uses hymns from Scripture, primarily the Psalms and Skrifberymings, which are versified hymns based on other passages from the Bible.

In addition to the Psalms and Skrifberymings, the official worship book of the RCSA also includes important ecclesiastical texts such as:

• The Three Forms of Unity: the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort^[21]
• Liturgical forms for various occasions, including baptism (of children and adults), public profession of faith, Holy Communion, ordination of office-bearers, and marriage.
• The Church Order of the Reformed Churches in South Africa.^[22]
• A number of prayers.

Theology

Heidelberg Reformed Church in Heidelberg, South Africa

Creeds

• Apostles Creed
• Athanasian Creed
• Nicene Creed

Confessions

• Canons of Dort
• Belgic Confession
• Heidelberg Catechism^[23][24]

Church government

The Reformed Churches have a Presbyterian – Synodal system of church government.^[25] The church consists of the Eastern Regional Synod, the Bushveld Synod, the Northwest Synod, the Regional Synod of Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, the Southern Regional Synod, and the Randvaal Regional Synod.^[26]

Missions

The Reformed Churches in South Africa has a number of growing local congregations. The denomination has local outreaches in Botswana and Mozambique. There are churches that support missionaries in Burundi. The Reformed Church in Rustenburg, South Africa has agreement with Koshin Presbyterian Church in Korea to support evangelism, and establishing new multicultural churches in Rustenburg area. The church cooperates with the Presbyterian Church of Brazil in missions in Angola and Mozambique. It is also involved in a Reformed church plant in Hanoi, Vietnam. Through membership in the World Reformed Fellowship, Gereformeerde Gemeenten collabotates WRF's works, also for example in the International Institute of Islamic Studies.^[27]

Relations with other Reformed churches

The RCSA is a member of the World Reformed Fellowship^[28] and the International Conference of Reformed Churches,^[29] and thereby sister church relationship with the:

• Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
• Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated)
• Netherlands Reformed Churches
• Reformed Churches in Botswana
• United Reformed Church in Congo
• Christian Reformed Church in North America
• Orthodox Presbyterian Church
• Christian Reformed Churches of Australia
• Free Church of Scotland
• Reformed Churches of New Zealand
• Reformed Church in Japan
• Presbyterian Church in Korea (Koshin).^[30][31]
• General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippines
• National Capital Region Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippines