Issachar

One place for a new generation

The men of Issachar understood their times and knew what Israel should do (1 Chronicles 12:32, paraphrased). That is where this page gets its name.

We want one place where young South Africans are trained, inspired and sent out to help heal this country. A place to learn to think clearly, to test what we are told, and to use tools like AI to find the truth rather than be handed someone else’s. Issachar is where that starts. The Vision page shows where it leads.

People say our generation is lazy: that we can’t think for ourselves, and can’t focus without a second video playing on the screen. Issachar is something different.

Our first study: the song we sing

Draft. Not yet audited.

A short video going round says part of our national anthem was removed: the isiZulu refrain that calls on the Holy Spirit to come, which sources call “Woza Moya”. We checked it against the record. These are our verdicts.

“The refrain was removed.” Confirmed, but context is missing.

In 1995 a committee set up by Mandela’s Cabinet shortened the two anthems and joined them into one, and the new anthem was proclaimed on 10 October 1997. The main reason was length: the combined anthem ran 5 minutes 4 seconds, and the committee aimed for 1 minute 47 seconds, the average of the 27 national anthems it measured. Other parts were cut too, so that the anthem would include everyone. Two committee members’ accounts say the refrain was questioned on religious grounds: one records a formal objection that it referred to the Christian Trinity, and the other says it was left out because it did not include the country’s other faiths. The process was open, with public submissions, a named committee, a Cabinet decision and a gazetted proclamation. And the anthem is still a prayer: it still asks God to bless Africa and to protect the nation. What was cut was a specifically Christian reference, not God himself.

“It used to be in the anthem.” Confirmed, with one caveat.

From 1994 to 1997 both songs were national anthems, and the refrain was part of the version people commonly sang. The caveat: Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika never had one fixed official text in those years, so “it was in the anthem” means the version people sang.

“South Africa is a Christian nation.” Partly true. It is true of the people but not of the state.

The Constitution names no official religion, and section 15 protects freedom of religion. Its preamble ends with a prayer asking God to protect and bless the people. Most South Africans identify as Christian; we have not yet added a census figure for that.

The refrain is no longer in the official anthem. We can still pray it.

Born after apartheid

South Africa held its first democratic election, open to all races, on 27 April 1994, the day now marked as Freedom Day. Anyone born after that day is no older than 32 this year.

Our generation did not build the old system. This is not about colour or race, and it is not about blame. It is a fact about timing, and it hands us a job: to build what comes next, together, with everyone in this country who wants to build it.

The older generation has already gained the experience we are still looking for. We want to put that experience in young people’s hands, and bring the two generations together, so that we can restore our country together.

Hard questions, with the evidence

We did not design the systems we live under, and we do not have to accept them without looking. So we will ask hard questions about the systems we inherited: how they work, who they serve, and where what they say does not match what they do.

We will show the evidence for every answer, and say plainly where it runs out. No claim goes up without its source. People who can see clearly can act.

We will train young people to use AI the same way: to test a claim against its source, not to swallow it. We are also planning a map that climbs from a single cell to how a nation is governed, with Deuteronomy’s pattern for leaders, judges and kings as its backbone. It is planned, and not started yet.

Evidence for faith, graded like everything else

We believe Jesus physically died and rose again, and that he carried the punishment for humankind so that we can live (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; 1 Peter 2:24). That is our conviction, and we say it openly.

We want Bible Weapon’s translations, notes and evidence to be thorough enough that anyone, believer or not, can see the whole case for Jesus and weigh it. So that evidence goes through the same three levels as everything else on this site: Submitted, then Checked, then Established. Nothing skips a level because we would like it to be true.

One study we will do in the open is the Shroud of Turin. Many believe it is the burial cloth of Jesus, and that it shows the face of our King. In 1988 three laboratories radiocarbon-dated a sample of it to AD 1260–1390. Later studies have questioned that sample and its statistics, and one 2022 X-ray study argues for a far older cloth. The question is still open, and the Catholic Church has never ruled on it, calling it “not a matter of faith” (John Paul II, 1998). We will set out the evidence on both sides, including the strongest case against it, and let you weigh it.