Hennie van Niekerk
Hennie van Niekerk lives in South Africa where he is a pastor of a
church. Known as "Dream Daddy" in the local tongue, Hennie van Niekerk is the author of four books on Christian Dream
Interpretation (or grammatically should that be: the interpretation of Christians
dreams?). The aim of his books is to provide a frame work for finding the
meaning of dreams and waking visions with a biblical perspective on these dreams and
visions. What that means is that he has an advantage over other
searchers of meaning in that he surely feels he has a reliable foundation on
which to build.
As previously mentioned he is the pastor of a church in South Africa where he is very much in demand as a speaker on the subject of
prophetic ministries. It was because of this hunger for what he has to
say that he came to write a book. That book led to demands for more.
Now we have at least four volumes.
Saying that he is "a speaker on the subject of
prophetic ministries" is another way of saying he talks about the
spiritual meanings of mentally generated / received images in much the same way
that a mystic would. If that were all, he would remain forever on the
funny fringe of the Christian world.
Surprisingly this man is highly intelligent able to give sound reasoning
without compromising his faith or his intellectual integrity; by this I mean
that his conclusions are well reasoned based upon sound thinking and not just
flights of fancy. I doubt his books will ever cause waves with the intelligentsia
but then in one introduction he claims that this is not his aim. These
books are clearly for those who believe and want more and are in no way an
attempt to convert the mindset of anyone.
The only places on the entire internet to make mention of this man are a few
church websites (read glorified notice boards) and a cheesy kid's geocities site
that quotes an incomplete, yet large amount, of one of his introductions and tries
to serve it up a page on the "site". Which is a shame, I feel, given the work that was put into writing the books.
His introductions are soundly written and intellectually engaging.
His book titles include:
"Interpreting Dreams & Visions"
"Interpreting Dreams & Visions Volume 2"
"Interpreting Dreams & Visions Volume 3"
"Interpreting Dreams & Visions Volume 4" (assumed)
Volume 1
The introduction to this book he talks about why he wrote his book. It
was as a guide, he says, to aid understanding in the church. He points out
that the image of a man on a white horse being a symbol of a man's sexual prowess
is rather incompatible with the biblical image of Jesus riding a white horse.
He observes that the "art" of spiritual dream interpretation has
been lost somehow and modern examples of attempts at interpretation fail to
distinguish between spiritual and non-spiritual (human thoughts)
dreams.
He also makes a vital point as to how the rest of the book should be used not
as a dictionary of meanings but as an introductory guide. He observes that
every dream and vision will have different meanings even if the images are similar
or the same.
He also introduces the what I call in my mind the "Burning
Question" principle. This is where a question is asked (of God)
either consciously or unconsciously and the dream that night is the
answer. He gives biblical examples as evidence.
Volume 2
In the foreword it says: "The main goal of the book is to equip
and enable us to find the answers and the meaning in our own dreams. It is
not a work to convince the sceptics, but rather intended to feed and equip the
hungry". Which, I felt, justified it not as a definitive work but as
a guide for "those that believe".
Volume 2 was also in it's introduction quite scientific in it's approach.
(Logical). He talks about REM cycles and the connection to dream
sleep. He also recounts the history of dream interpretation examining
Freud and Jung's theories and concludes that they "...may provide
some insight into human psychological behaviour. However, that is not what
interests us in this book."
In style this book differs not at all from the first other that rather than
trying to lay down principles for interpreting meanings he expands on the
subject with an increase of instances of his own experience. Like in the
first book he quotes heavily from both old and new testaments of the bible for
each meaning showing that he is not contradicting the bible with the meanings
given. This (as he points out) is because God would never contradict
himself so the images He uses would never be contradictory either.
Volume 3
Here he gives a full historic background to dream interpreting.
Starting with Artemidorus of Daldus who lived in AD 138 - 180 he discusses the
impact these people had and the implications of their studies. He notes
that in AD 331 - 395 Gregory of Nyassa a Christian theologian and his very
modern sounding ideas. Again he returns to Freud and Jung and
examines the point at which they separated and started to differ. He also
offers a very satisfying interpretation of a dream over which Freud and Jung
part company.
His foot-notes make mention of a number of Jung's own books that Hennie van
Niekerk has clearly read.
I have not got a copy of volume four but would love a chance to read it.
Read about the fall of Hennie van Niekerk in Fall of the mighty