Australia Day January 26th: ‘Understanding Our Australian Christian Heritage’ presentation available online

Graham McLennan
Special to Assist News

A 98 downloadable slide presentation, “Understanding Our Christian Heritage” is now available online from the Christian History website (www.chr.org.au).

It details many of Australia’s European founders as well as institutions, documents and events in early Australian History

You can view the presentation in just one hour or one week, depending on time available to see the many hyperlinks with extensive information.

We need to reflect on our foundations and recognize the hand of God in the commencement of a Christian nation in the Pacific within reach of the great Asian nations.

While many Australians look to a convict past with its fear of authority and feeling of inferiority, rejection, isolation and loneliness, there is history being discovered, that of our Christian forefathers and their faith and their contribution to the kingdom of God -- a positive affirmation of a nation with a providential destiny.

In Search of the Great South Land

It was Portuguese Catholic, Magellan who opened up the South Seas to the Europeans. Magellan's main purpose was to convert the barbarous nations to Christ. It was his faith that sustained him through terrible deprivations until a strait was found into the Pacific.

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, another Portuguese Catholic, was also seeking to convert the Inhabitants of the South Seas to Christianity and believed he finally had discovered “Australia Del Espiritu Santo” -- a land he dedicated to the Holy Spirit -- which he described as being the region of the south as far as the pole. Since he in fact discovered the New Hebrides the region he described includes all of Australasia, which encompasses New Zealand as well.

Abel Tasman was the first European to sight New Zealand and Tasmania and on his return he wrote in his journal, “God be praised and thanked for this happy voyage.” Tasman's instructions included this extract referring to Columbus's discovery of America and Vasco De Gama's discovery of Africa and East India.

Early Christian Influences

The first Christian minister came with the First Fleet. He was recommended by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. John Newton and William Wilberforce, two members of the Eclectic Society persuaded England's Prime Minister, William Pitt to accept Richard Johnson's nomination (photo left).

Johnson an Evangelical churchman, took with him many Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, Psalters and numerous booklets against common sins, and on Sunday February 3, 1788 he conducted the first Christian Service on Australian soil using as his text Psalm 116:12: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me.”

The Evangelical Awakening in England also had its effect in Australia and the South Pacific. People such as William Carey were awakened to the need for evangelism of heathen lands through reading “Captain Cook's Voyages.”

Many Englishmen became aware for the first time of lands in the Pacific and Asian regions. Commencing In 1784, as part of the Evangelical Awakening, first Baptists, then other nonconformists throughout the Midlands began meeting for one hour on the first Monday in each month to pray for revival which would spread the gospel to the most distant parts of the globe.

This marked the beginning of the greatest period of expansion of the Christian faith since apostolic times. Many missionary organizations were formed, one being the London Missionary Society. By 1826 Carey was responsible for the translation of the Bible into 30 languages in the Pacific and Asian region.

A missionary ship called the “Duff” sailed from England In 1796 to Tahiti with Rowland Hassall and his family. In 1798 the Hassall family arrived in Australia after endangering their lives in Tahiti. Within a short time Rowland Hassall had preached the gospel in all the districts of the colony.

Our Common Law has been based on the Christian faith, exemplified by the statue of Jesus occupying the central place above the Royal Courts of Justice in London, and by many statements by scholars such as one Chief Justice who declared: “Christianity is parcel of the Common Law of England and therefore to be protected by it. So whatever strikes at the very root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.”

Australia's oldest parliament, N.S.W. opens with this prayer: “Almighty God we humbly beseech thee to vouchsafe thy blessing upon this parliament, direct and prosper our deliberations to the advancement of thy glory and the true welfare of the people, our State and Australia. Amen.” A similar prayer is said in our Federal Parliament.

Our Australian Constitution was prayed over continually by the man mainly responsible for its passage through the House of Commons. Alfred Deakin, who was later to become Prime Minister, regarded the Federal Constitution as providential and that it only came into being through a series of miracles.

The Constitution Preamble states: “Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland; and Tasmania humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established...”

This preamble was in response to numerous signed petitions from people from every colony represented in the Federal Convention. This acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God was approved unanimously.

Our Constitutional Christian Monarchy likewise expresses the Lordship of Christ when the Queen is presented with the Bible: “...to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the rule for the whole of life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing this world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the royal law; these are the lively oracles of God.”

When the Orb is delivered to the Queen, the coronation service states: “Receive this Orb set under the cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer.”

Our Australian flag has four Christian crosses. In the Southern Hemisphere God has placed the Southern Cross which is specially incorporated into our national flag, along with the crosses of St Andrew, St Patrick and St George.

In recent times in Australia we find committed Christians involved in every major area of life. Christians have also been at the very forefront of community awareness campaigns, and public movements active in preserving Australia's Constitutional heritage and democratic freedoms.

We can see that Australia's discovery, settlement and growth can easily be explained in terms of God's intentions for our island continent. He has used His men and women to lead in so many areas of development that even the most humanist historian would have difficulty explaining away the mass of evidence at which this presentation only hints. If the past is misinterpreted then so is the significance of the future. It is important that we don't continue to be deceived by the secularization process which denies the sovereignty of God in history, and be like Esau who sold his birthright for a meal when Psalm 61:56 says: “You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.”

Christians can rejoice in the contribution of Australia's Christian forebears and confidently step out in faith aware of God's great intentions for the nations.

The Christian History Research website has many online books of Christian history in Australia and South Pacific. By clicking on any of the book covers, articles or links you will find a wealth of information. There are also several indexes and a search engine to help find material. Website: www.chr.org.au.

Dr. Graham McLennan is a Dental Surgeon in the Central West of New South Wales (NSW), Australia and is chairman of the National Alliance of Christian Leaders since 1986. He has also been the chairman of a local Christian radio station since 1993. Graham began the Christian History Research Centre in 1986 two years before the 200 year celebrations of European settlement, publishing several books which now appear on the Christian History website.

He can be contacted by e-mail at: nacl@netwit.net.au