By Rev. Simon Jooste As South Africa’s second-largest metropolis (after Johannesburg), Cape Town not only has a rich history but is also a melting pot of scenic views, cuisines and skin colours. She boasts incredible beauty but also thrombotic veins of prejudice and inequality, which are still fed by theContinue Reading
THE Reformed faith includes reference to total inability, unconditional election, the limited efficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints not as the sum total of the church’s confession, but as elements that can be understood only in the context of a larger body of teachingContinue Reading
Reformed Church Southern Suburbs in Cape Town will host a conference with the theme “Apartheid of church and state: global perspectives” on 11 and 12 August 2023. The conference features a line-up of respected Reformed theologians and pastors, including RCSS’s Simon Jooste. More information about the conference will be releasedContinue Reading
Simon Jooste I am the pastor of a multi-cultural English-speaking Reformed church on the southern tip of Africa in a city called Cape Town. Since 1652, when the first Dutch settlers landed in the Cape, the church has struggled to fulfil the Great Commission amid common cultural enterprise with itsContinue Reading
The tensions and inconsistencies that I have attempted to illustrate in this book review beg another question: What kind of reformation is The Gift of Life after? The answer Professor Vorster appears to provide is one of “flourishing personhood” that roots out of church and society the dehumanizing idols of racism, sexism,Continue Reading
At this point it is worth asking: what informs Professor Vorster’s overarching moral vision? Throughout The Gift of Life, the contention is that definitions of human dignity found in the liberal democratic and human rights traditions can be translated into Christian value (84, 97). In other words, humanist conceptions of equalityContinue Reading
North-West University Professor J. M. Vorster’s The Gift of Life: Towards an ethic of human personhood (2021) represents a crowning of his career as a Reformed pastor, theologian, and ethicist in the South African context. I review this volume as a fellow office-bearer within the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) withContinue Reading
By Simon Jooste, pastor of RCSS Embodiment is central to salvation, so is suffering in the body. Without the incarnation, passion, and ongoing enfleshed intercession of Christ, there is no redemption. This was the heartbeat of the apostle Paul’s preaching in ancient Corinth, a city pulsing with ideas and illicitContinue Reading
Rev. Simon Jooste, the pastor of RCSS, preached at the morning devotion at Westminster Seminary in California on 4 October 2022. Simon received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary in 2009. The theme of his message was “Imaging God in Justice” (Gen. 1:26-27; Gen. 9:6; 2 Cor. 3:18). ClickContinue Reading
On 21 September 2022, RCSS pastor Rev. Dr. Simon Jooste gave a presentation at Westminster Seminary in California on the proposal for his book, Pilgrim politics: recovering the cruciform in our creed. The book proposal is below. I. Book topic and rationale for its writing The Apostle Paul once wroteContinue Reading
Electronic media tend to dis-incarnate and distance people from their embodied lives. While excellent at disseminating information, electronic media tend to isolate us from face-to-face interaction. Social media, in particular, cannot replace, and often even undermine, the fabric of personal relationships which strengthen fellowship with God and each other. ChurchContinue Reading
This is a classic case of begging the question, i.e., assuming what has to be proved. People regularly say that amillennialism is “pessimistic” but postmillennialism is “optimistic”. Who is pessimistic about what? Define pessimism. Who says? By what standard? I say that amillennialism is truly optimistic in the way the New Testament is optimistic.Continue Reading