Transformation in Mission: Part 1
For background information, see Networking P.E.A.C.E.
Quietly and stealthily over the past several decades mainstream evangelical mission groups have been altering fundamental Christian doctrines to fit a new worldview -- an inclusive one that embraces, incorporates, co-mingles and and merges with other world religions. The next three days Herescope will focus on a special report by Mike Oppenheimer of Let Us Reason, which details the rise of the heresies of "contextualization."
Inclusive Evangelism
When the book Perpetuated in Righteousness came out in the early 90’s we plainly saw a problem with the author Daniel Kikawa claiming that the Hawaiians could have come from Israel - as Israel, as they were traveling into the Promised Land another exodus was taking place as a group was called to Hawaii. He even claimed they had numerous teachings that God had given Israel by looking at the gospel in the stars. Prior to any missionary coming to Hawaii with the Bible, they had the teaching of the Trinity. He made bold claims like this without any references:“Many accounts in Polynesia of the creation of man. Some of them state that the supreme triune God made the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day” (p.70 4th ed.) [See www.letusreason.org/Current67.htm - www.letusreason.org/Current68.htm
Using Hawaiian and ancient Maori legends he made connections and a case for true worship of the one God by the ancient Polynesians. That the supreme God was known by various names in the different cultures, so Hawaiian’s validly pray to the God Io because he is in fact the same God spoken of in the Bible.
When we went to the primary resources to look into his quotes his theory quickly fell apart as we saw how he misrepresented these authors who interpreted the languages and religions of the Polynesians, Maori and Hawaiians.
Daniel Kikawa has not stopped here with Christianizing the gods in Hawaii.
He has expanded his religious theory to include nearly all people’s cultures; and of late, the Japanese. He has recently released a video that lays the groundwork for a new type of evangelism that is becoming more popular - Culture Based Evangelism.
In the Video, "God’s Fingerprints in Japan," the narrator says,“This is a story of a journey; a journey to search for the beauty of a people and their relationship with God. Is there historical evidence of the creator God in Japanese culture? Did God leave his fingerprint within the culture and history of Japan?”
“This journey is a fulfillment of many years of research and is a search to uncover evidence of the creator God in Japanese history and to look deeper to find how God has revealed himself in Japanese culture” (Video ‘God’s FingerPrints in Japan’ by Aloha Ke Akua Ministries).Has God revealed himself in their culture, through the religion of Shintoism? His journey shows a religious pursuit to syncretize elements of Shintoism with Christianity. It does not promote a relationship with Christ in a biblical manner but morphs it into something foreign to both religions.
He claims that these people knew the true God. If this were so then they would come to Jesus Christ immediately recognizing Whose Son He is by the plain Gospel being preached to them. Instead Kikawa says our evangelism is hindered because “Many of those who claim to be Christians feel they have accepted a foreign God and are torn between being Japanese and being a Christian. They see the God of the Bible as a foreign God who prefers Western people and their culture to Japanese people and their culture. In our experience, this is the largest roadblock to the acceptance of the Gospel among Japanese. This video suggests to the Japanese people that the Creator God is not a foreign God but a Japanese God, and that being a believer in Jesus and being Japanese are not contradictory.” (www.alohakeakua.org)
While there are portions of truth in his observation his solution is completely flawed. On a radio broadcast he tells us why people in China and Japan do not accept the gospel:“one of the main reasons because this is not their God, now he’s a foreign God come here and uh not using that native name, and this is one of the main things that we have found too, with Hawaiian people.” (“Word to the World” interview with Daniel Kikawa Feb. 16, 2006 #9)
Kikawa believes the names of these gods in other cultures are of the true one and we should not discard them but use them, “that we can purify again instead of turning it over to Satan Saying you dirty name of god we’ll throw it away. Y’know it’s a precious legacy for them that says God loves you.” (“Word to the World” interview with Daniel Kikawa Feb.15, 2006, #8)
He believes these names, like Hananim, Shang Ti, Amenominakanushi, etc. are precious to the people of these cultures. Of course this is true, because these are the gods they worshipped before the gospel came to them. But God says have no other Gods before me - and not to even mention their names.Exodus 23:13: “Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.”
The Truth:
"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. (Exodus 33:19)
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
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