Christian character is the result of the Law of God being written upon the heart of man by the Spirit of God. However, the Word of God must be in the head before it can reach the heart. "Remember" is the key word in Deuteronomy, which was the restatement of the law to a generation that had not heard it. "Remember all the way that the Lord thy God led you" (Deut. 8:2) was a frequent exhortation to Israel. "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm" (Deut. 5:15).

To know where we are going, we must remember from where we have come. This book has been an attempt to "remember" Australia's history that we may understand God's purpose for that nation. Rev. S. W. Foljambe wrote: "The more thoroughly a nation deals with its history, the more decidedly will it recognize and own an overruling providence therein and the more religious a nation will become". The reverse is also true. The history of Israel is the repeated cycle of the backsliding and restoration of a nation. Many times Israel forgot God and turned to other gods (Judges; I and II Kings). God in His mercy reminded them of His mighty deeds and admonished them to remember His ways, repent and return unto Him.

Like Americans, many Australians do not know or have forgotten their nation's history. Like the church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:5), Australians need to remember or learn what God has done for them and repent--turn from their sins, both personally and corporately as a nation. Jesus commanded His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that Jesus had commanded them (Matt. 28:18-20). This has become known as the Great Commission. Education in biblical principles of government must go hand in hand with evangelism.

An understanding of the seven biblical principles of government will involve understanding the relationship between the internal and the external. Everything we see starts on the inside. Even as the world we live in started as an idea in the mind of God, so the heroes of the faith were motivated by a vision of the heavenlies. Abraham, while living in a corrupt heathen city, had a vision of the Almighty that caused him to leave all and follow the invisible God. Moses, who was willing to have his own name wiped out of the Book of Life that the people of Israel might be spared from the judgement of God, brought God's Law, which became the touchstone of liberty for all mankind. Jesus Christ, God's Son, who died to set men free from the tyranny of sin, "endured the Cross, despising the shame", because of the "joy that was set before Him". Paul, the apostle of liberty, started his missionary career when he was felled on the road to Damascus by a vision of the risen Christ. John Wycliffe, inspired by a dream of every ploughboy reading the Word of God in his own tongue, translated the Bible into English. Columbus took this Book of Liberty to America, Cook brought it to Australia. Richard Johnson preached the Gospel of Liberty to the convicts, built the first church, and opened the first Christian schools with the Bible as the principal text. Many of Australia's early pioneers were men of faith, motivated by a vision of "one nation under God". With Federation this dream became a reality. But it was unity for a purpose--to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, starting at home and neighbouring Asian countries--a theme expressed by many of Australia's early pioneers.

Political liberty is the fruit of spiritual liberty because the Truth of God's Word sets men free. The author has attempted to demonstrate the truth of this hypothesis by examining key individuals, events, institutions and documents in Australia's history in the light of the seven biblical principles of government. In the process of doing so, it was observed that Manning Clark acknowledged the hand of Providence, while recognising the "fatal flaw" in man that led him on to his own destruction. It is the Christian's recognition of man's sinful nature that marks the difference between the humanistic and biblical models of government. The English form of government adopted by Australia has built-in safeguards--representation, separation of powers, and a federal-state system that promotes union with diversity. However, a constitution can only work as long as it is backed by a people that exhibit the principles of Christian self-government and Christian character.

Although Clark recognised the Providential Hand of God in Australia's history, he failed to demonstrate the intimate connection between the source of these liberties (the Word of God) and God's purpose for Australia. While Clark saw the benefits of the Protestant religion and civilisation, he was preoccupied with the evils the British brought to Australia: the violence against the convicts, the Aborigines, and the land itself. An idealist but not committed to any ideology, Clark was a sceptic, and a satirical pessimism pervades his writings. His landmark six-volume work, A History of Australia, is one man's story of the coming of civilisation to Australia. Southland of the Holy Spirit: A Christian History of Australia is God's story (His story) of the coming of Christianity to Australia--not as a religious institution, but as highlighted in the seven biblical principles of government and education, and demonstrated in the lives of key individuals, events, documents and institutions.

While Clark saw Protestantism and later Roman Catholicism as divisive elements in a divided society, these faiths could represent diversity with unity. We are one nation under God. The growing trend towards secularisation, multiculturalism and globalism is a challenge to the church of Jesus Christ. Protestants and Roman Catholics, Aborigines and whites need to join together to rebuild the foundations of the land that our forefathers have given us.

When the Australian church becomes an example of self-governing families and communities obedient to His Laws, the unbeliever will be attracted to Christ. He will see the miracles God has done for us; then "all the people of the earth [will] know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that you might fear the Lord your God for ever" (Josh. 4:24). The church is to be a city set on a hill--a light to all men, whatever their faith, that come to our shores (Matt. 5:14-16). The American Pilgrim Fathers desired to be such a city. When they took the Gospel seed of liberty to America, that seed contained all that was necessary for life and godliness.

The same English form of government, based on the same biblical principles found in the English common law, including the Magna Carta 1215, was later taken to Australia. Australia's unique geographic position in the Pacific is highly significant. The East Asian countries of the Pacific Rim have become increasingly important since the 1980s. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State John Hay said prophetically: "Western history began with a Mediterranean era, passed through an Atlantic era, and is now moving into a Pacific era".

Now Asia's time has come. With Australia's heritage of the English common law based on biblical principles, Australia (with her British connection through the Monarchy) occupies a key offensive position in the spread of Christianity as it moves into the Pacific. This is especially pertinent now that Hong Kong will revert back to Chinese control in 1997. For centuries God protected Australia against both Asian and European invaders. Australia was geographically prepared by God and providentially preserved by God for the planting of the pure seed of the Gospel containing the biblical form of government. Strategically placed in the Pacific close to two-thirds of the world's population, Australia was seen as a lighthouse for the Gospel by many of the early explorers, pioneers and missionaries. Could the next step in the move of Christianity be the Asian-Pacific Wave of the Holy Spirit?

In 1606, the Spanish explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, gave Australia its name: Australia del Espiritu Santo--a land dedicated to the Holy Spirit. He sensed Australia had a Divine purpose; the Rev. Joseph King also wrote:

King's summary statement of the first 100 years of missionary activity in Australia by the London Missionary Society, is still applicable 100 years later. The plan of making Australia a base for evangelism for the whole of Asia and the southern seas (and the author believes that includes the Antarctic) was the common factor that motivated the early missionaries, anxious to obey Christ's command to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).

Johnson brought the vision to Australia. Marsden reached out to New Zealand. The Duff missionaries carried the Gospel banner to the remote corners of the colony. Macquarie built a solid foundation for the propagation of the Gospel. Christian education followed evangelism and as the colonists grew in Christian self-government, they moved towards constitutional government to protect the liberties, which, as Englishmen, they had brought with them.

The source of these liberties is the precious Word of God, but in recent years, Australians have turned from the true God to the god of mammon--the dream of "uncommonly large profit" that motivated many of the early explorers of the southern seas. By 1993, Australia's gross national foreign debt exceeded 200 billion dollars, putting Australia at the whim of foreign lenders. Australians need to heed the wise words of Solomon, who said that the borrower is a servant to the lender (Prov. 22:7). The church, for the most part, remains ignorant of a better way, and without a vision the people perish. They will lose their liberty because they do not know that the source of their liberties is the Bible. It is this knowledge that must be restored to the church if it is to be free to carry out the Great Commission.

How is this knowledge to be restored to the church? Education beginning in the home today is the key to the government of tomorrow. The principles are the same for both. As long as the civil government, rather than the God-ordained parent, controls education, Australia will continue to lose its children to a humanistic pagan worldview. Parents, teachers and children must be educated in biblical principles of liberty; they must be taught their British heritage with its Christian roots. Home study groups, similar to the Committees of Correspondence of America's colonial days, can be formed for citizens to study the seven biblical principles of liberty. Like the Christians at Berea (Acts 17:10-11) the individual should search the Scriptures for himself because it is the Truth that sets man free. External political liberty is the fruit of internal spiritual liberty.

As parents understand biblical principles, they can take an active role in the education of their children. Christian education is not humanistic content with Bible verses added. Every subject in the curriculum, from history and literature to art and arithmetic, must be based on biblical principles. An understanding of the seven biblical principles of government and education, as identified by Slater, and illustrated in Australia's Christian history, is vital to an understanding of God's purpose for that nation. A generation that knows God and His purpose for man and for civil government will be able to assume leadership in all areas of life.

While education is key, involvement in local church and civil government should be the outcome. With the new realisation that politics is not "dirty", because God ordained civil government, Christians should take an active role in the political process, beginning at the grassroots level in their local communities. The principle of "no taxation without representation" is crucial to political liberty. However, political liberty is only the outcome of the liberty that only Christ brings to the human heart. The dilemma of our time is fundamentally not a political but a moral one. It takes Christian character to maintain a Christian constitution. It takes Christian commitment to obey Christ's commands. Character is built first in the home through the commitment of parents to God's Laws; Christian self-government will be the outcome.

As in the early days of Australia and America, the clergy can play a crucial role in the cultivation of biblical principles of civil government. Yes, Australia needs a revival, but in the wake of every genuine religious awakening in history, there has always followed a renewed invigoration of the church's commitment to education, to the care of the poor and the sick, and to the release of the prisoners of slavery and sin. Evangelism without biblically-centred Christian education is like trying to sail a ship without a rudder. Australians need to know where they are going. To know where they are going, they must understand where they have come from--through a study of the origin and development of liberty in Australia's history. Once they understand how liberty developed, they will know how to preserve it, how to reproduce it in the lives of their children. When Australians understand their destiny, they will be ready to obey the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. They will no longer be searching for their "identity". They will know who they are in Christ and that they have a job to do. Every national revival has resulted in a transformation of society, including the arts and the media, and birthed missionary movements beyond its borders. The Second Great Awakening (including the Wesleyan revival) played a crucial part in the settlement of Australia and its development as a Christian nation. According to Theodore Plucknett, former Professor of Legal History at the University of London, the English common law has its roots in Christianity. The Crown is the central feature of the Australian constitutional system which emphasises the Christian doctrine of the sanctity of the individual and his property rights. The outcome of the present constitutional struggle will be crucial to the spread of the Gospel, since the preservation of the liberties of the individual is the purpose of constitutional government. Christians need to know what is at stake in the Monarchy versus a republic debate. The Monarchy is not a meaningless figurehead.

In the Coronation service, the Queen promised to obey and to maintain the Laws of God and to faithfully serve her people. The Crown brings to the nation what no republic can offer--a national unity and social stability that comes from a sense of continuity and history. A Monarchy is not an infallible safeguard against tyranny, as history verifies, nor is the establishment of a republic. Many countries have modelled their constitutions on the American Constitution, only to find them fail in the day of trouble. The only safeguard against tyranny, be it monarch or state, is to be found in the Christian character of a self-governing people. Without the spirit of the constitution (the supreme law of the land) in the hearts of the people, the letter of the law is meaningless. The Monarchy, which recognises the Lordship of Christ, is an integral part of Australia's Christian heritage. Both the constitutions of America and the Commonwealth of Australia embody the English Christian form of government, with representation, separation of powers, and a dual (federal-state) system. The proposed Australian republic would be centred on the ideals of secular humanism--an ideology which has brought moral decline and a result of forgetting (or ignorance of) God's Laws. The only way a republic would work is if it embodied Christian principles, as outlined in this book. The ARM shows no signs of doing so. Do Australians need a republic? No. Should Australians stick with their present Constitution? Yes.

A major concern of Australians, highlighted by the introduction of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief into Australian law, is the fact that though the majority of Australians do not want more powers being given to the Commonwealth government, legislators, with High Court approval, are seizing them anyway, and by devious and illegal means, using the Constitution to further their centralist ends, contrary to the intentions of the framers and the wishes of the majority of the people. In other words, Australians no longer have a government that represents them, but rather one that is trying to lord it over them and take away their liberties. Christians should remember that it is God, not the state, who is the giver of liberty; they should study biblical principles of government, and then use biblical means to restore their God-given rights which are part of Australia's Christian common law heritage.

Western Australian Premier Sir Charles Court asked the question: "What would happen if we suddenly lost our British inheritance?" Dame Leonie Kramer, Chancellor of the University of Sydney, phrased it another way: "What would happen if we had no memory?" Suppose you had amnesia: you could not remember where you put your car keys, where you lived, or who you were. You would have no experience to draw on, no sense of direction, no identity.

God has commanded His people to remember the Providential events of their nation's history (Psalm 78), so they don't forget, and like "the children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turn back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law; and forgot His works, and His wonders that He had showed them" (9-11). When they forget God's works, they disobey His Laws. That is why the most important job of parents, with the encouragement of the church, is to teach the next generation the wonderful works of God, from Creation to the present--His Story of the Providential Hand of God moving throughout history in the establishment of Australia as a Christian nation.

This book is about some landmarks in Australia's history. The purpose of teaching and learning Australia's Christian history is so that His Story might be clear to the next generation. This book has been a walk about some of those landmarks. Maybe Australians should go on more walkabouts. The writer of Proverbs said: "Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28). Australia has just celebrated one of them--the Bicentenary of the opening of the first church and Christian school.

With the approach of the Centenary of Australia's nationhood in 2001, Australians need to walk again the old paths that led to Federation that they might understand God's purpose for Australia. This is more pertinent than ever before as the next century, if Jesus tarries, could well be the Asian Age in which Australia could play a crucial role. Let not Australians forget the mighty works of God in this land, and let them not neglect to pass the knowledge of Australia's Christian history on to the next generation through their spheres of influence in the home, church and school.

Australians have a story to tell to the nations--a story that brings peace and joy. Half the world's population is at her doorstep. Australia's abandonment of the "White Australia Policy" has opened the door to thousands of Asian nationals. Many come to trade; some come to study and return to their own countries; others come to stay. The opportunities for the Gospel and for training nationals in the biblical principles of government and education are enormous. When biblical principles are applied to every area of society--education, civil government, law, medicine, science, business, economics, the arts and the media, beginning with Christian self-government in the home--the renewal of Australian society can begin.

It starts with Australians themselves. God is looking for a people who are willing to lose all in exchange for Him. He uses the world's rejects, the castaways, and the scum of the earth, to show His glory (1 Cor. 1:24-31)--like the convicts of the First Fleet, like the Granny Smith apples thrown away at the end of Maria Anne Smith's property in Sydney, and like Israel who was chosen because she was the least of all the nations. God said He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and by the power and direction of His Spirit (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 1:8; 13:1-4; 16:6-10) we can be that "city set on a hill" for all the world to see. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros' dream of Australia del Espiritu Santo--Australia: Southland of the Holy Spirit--from which Jesus Christ, "The Light of the World" (Matt. 5:14) shines to the surrounding nations, can become a reality. It is up to all Australians to effect this reality.

Yes! I have called you Australia. I call you by name. I call you Australia, My beloved Southland of the Holy Spirit. You are no longer rejected like a woman cast aside, a throw-away apple; or a pawn of the British Colonial Office. You are a chosen nation, a royal people, a holy priesthood, a country chosen before I made the world. You are My people called before Cook sailed the southern seas. You are no longer a cursed people, but a blessed people. You are no longer a convict people but a warrior people. You are no longer a rocky desert, but a land of springs and waters flowing from the ancient rock, bringing life to all around. So, remember all the way that I have led you. I, the Lord your God, founded you, Australia; My Spirit brooded over you. I chose you and ordained you to be a warrior missionary people. You are a strategic arsenal command centre in My Kingdom. Prepare then for the battle. Put on the whole armour of God. Take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always. Tear down the enemy's strongholds in your land, rebuild your cities and go forward in My Name. Disciple all nations in the power of the Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Go then; don't be afraid of their faces for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Go!