Connecting Point television interview of Daniel Kikawa by Wayne Cordeiro, July 15, 2005

(Sandy Simpson notes in parenthesis)

 

This is connecting point with Pastor Wayne Cordeiro.

Wayne:  Aloha and welcome to Connecting Point.  I’m Wayne Cordeiro.

Kim: And I’m Kim Harper.

Wayne:  You know there are some people who want to go back to Hawaiian culture and religion.  But what was the religion of the original native Hawaiians? 

Kim: Was it the traditions of Pele and human sacrifices?

Wayne:  With us today is respected scholar Daniel Kikawa and Kawika Kawiapo, two of the founders of Aloha Ke Akua Ministries. 

Kim: They will tell us what they believe is evidence that the earliest Hawaiians worshipped the God of the Bible.

Wayne:  Stay with us for another powerful half hour right here on Connecting Point.

Wayne: Welcome to this very special edition of Connecting Point.  We’re here with Daniel Kikawa of uh, the author of “Perpetuated In Righteousness” and talking about the origins of Hawaii Nei.  Also we are here with Kawika Kapiapo, a great musician and also a Kahu/Pastor (Sandy Note: actually pastor in Hawaiian is Kahuna pule).  Welcome to Connecting Point Daniel & Kawika.  Good to have you here.  Now you’ve written in this book “Perpetuated In Righteousness”, now what is this book all about?

Daniel: It’s about the Godly origins of the Hawaiian people. You know the Bible says in Romans 1:20 that all people knew Him.  So there would be origins of the one benevolent Creator God in Hawaiian history and Hawaiian culture.  So we’ve just researched that and documented it.

Wayne: Now a lot of people want to go back to the roots, you know, of Hawaii and the old ways, etc. and what’s you’re asserting is that in the beginnings it was really a Christian state.

Daniel: Well I wouldn’t say a Christian state in the sense that we know what is called a general revelation of God where we have a general revelation from creation around us, as it says in Romans 1:20.  Again that we know Him by creation and the things around so that we are without excuse to know the Creator God is there and He loves us.  Now Jesus, He came later on, He had to be born as a man.  And so His knowledge had to be brought.  But there is a general revelation of the Creator God that every people has.  And so it’s there in Hawaiian culture and all we have to do is look for it.  A lot of people want to go back to find their roots and we understand that, and where everybody wants to know who they are and be proud of who they are but they have generally gone back to the last Hawaiian village which was there which was actually a foreign religion brought by the priests Pa’au around between 11 and 1300AD.  And this one of course had human sacrifice.  Thousands of people were sacrificed; a very harsh Kapu system where people, females, were killed for eating a banana, for instance and you know that system was a system that was brought in later.  Before that they worshipped the one Creator God.  Man was sacred to Him, not to be killed.  He was known as the God of love.  And I believe this is where “aloha” came from. 

Wayne: Well, Pa’au is from where?

Daniel: Pa’au was from Tahiti. 

Wayne: Now, in the beginning, Kawika, Hawaiians worshipped even before Pa’au, what was the name of this god that they worshipped?

Kawika: Well, what’s been made known through many chants and writings even oral history uh we could find it a lot in Auntie Melea Craver and other people who have shared the history and oral history of “‘Io”.  The knowledge of the Supreme Being and in collaborating with friends of ours down in Aotearoa, NZ there are even Maori chants in other parts of the Polynesian triangle that have ancient writings, histories, chants of what is known to them as a supreme being that sits in the middle of the heavens.  So it is those things that we sort of, kind of, food for thought at least brings us to the table to talk and to communicate with these people representing Polynesian cultures and remembering our roots and where we all come from and it’s been pretty amazing, the journey.

Wayne: So gods, the Pele and others actually came after Pa’au after the 11th, 12th, 1300s?

Daniel: Yes, the historian Fornander who actually was taken by some of the Ali’i down to speak to all the oldest people in the back country and so on he says that they didn’t even know Pele.  And this came later with the time of Pa’au he says she’s not a part of the creation chants or of these older chants to the Creator God and um …

Wayne: ‘Cause she doesn’t show up at all till later on.

Daniel: No in fact the chants of Pele talk about her traveling from Kahiki or Tahiti to Hawaii. 

Wayne: Um, Um.  So that’s where you get Tahitian god or Tahitian religion.  So when they say the Hawaiian religion of Pele and some of the other are actually Tahitian migration of a religion.

Daniel: Yah, that’s when all of these start to appear. 

Wayne: So this one God concept of ‘Io is really not a white man’s religion then and that was something here way before a white man had ever been arrived.

Daniel: Yes.

Wayne: Now when the missionaries arrived they brought in the knowledge of Jesus Christ as God’s Son.  Did that mess them up or were they open to that at that time when the missionaries came?

Daniel:  Well I think that God loving the Hawaiian people He had His name, they knew Him and they worshipped Him and then this invader came in and made a false religion there that wasn’t worshipping the Creator but He always left a remnant of the priests of ‘Io.  The historians say that Pa’au killed the priests of ‘Io but there were ones that passed down their knowledge in secret.  And I just talked with one of the descendants of the priests of ‘Io a couple of weeks ago and it was passed down to one child in each generation called the Pono one, that knowledge, and it had to be secret otherwise they would be killed if they spread it.  But there were also prophecies that came out where God was preparing the time for the missionaries to come to say “this is My return”.  And before the overthrow of the Kapu system there was a prophecy that came forth that there would be a communication from Keakua Meoli, the true God.  And this communication would be something different from anything that they had seen before and this communication would give them a new knowledge of Him and there was another prophecy at the time of Hewahewa (1) who was actually a descendant of Pa’au and he was the one that first overthrew the Kapu system and burned the heiau and Hewahewa also knew this prophecy where it said the islands would be unified, which Kamahameha did and then the Kapu would be broken and then that the common people would be raised up to heaven.  Another prophecy there was a prophecy that Lono, the Hawaiian god of peace, would come in a new form that they would not recognize and he would come in a small black box and speak a language they did not understand and they wouldn’t recognize him.  Now when the Kapu system was overthrown by the Alii before the missionaries arrived, Hewahewa was the first one to burn the heiau and he said “I always knew there is only one great god in heaven.  You know I followed these, the traditions of my ancestors just because that’s the way my traditions were but I always knew there was one great god in heaven” and we find that this family did know about the creator god too, by the way.  But anyway, he overthrew it and he gave another prophecy.  He told the king down there by the King Kamahameha Hotel, that’s why it is called the King Kamehameha hotel because the king lived there, and he pointed to a rock in the bay there that is still there under the pier next to the King Kamehameha hotel and he said “Here, oh king the new god will come.”  And they waited for the new god to come.  And when the missionaries came they landed right on that rock and the first missionary out carried a black Bible box, the Bibles had to be hand printed at that time and were very valuable and they had special boxes for them so he stepped out on that rock with the black Bible box and the Kahuna were the ones that opened the box, opened the book inside, couldn’t understand and words and proclaimed “This is it, the coming of the new god and the new communication in a way that we can’t understand.”  So God did confirm to them that this was His Son coming. 

Wayne: Not Daniel, uh David rather when some of the activists now talk they say that that’s not true that it Pele, that it’s Lono, some of the others that they talk about and Christianity is really a white man’s kind of God.  You being Hawaiian, how do you feel about that, which, what they’re saying does it hold any truth at all?

Kawika:  I think what motivates their point of view is the history that we have experienced in the name of the Church, in the name of Christianity, per se.  I don’t think it’s bad for our people to seek out their identity in what our culture really represents to us.  But what I simply share to them in our experience of sharing a lot of people in different parts of the world, different countries in some of the conferences that we operate the story of mankind or the world is there for anyone to uncover.  When we look at Genesis 11, because of man’s foolishness and I say their desire to create a one world government God says “I need to do something about it.”  So He confused the languages and dispersed the peoples and so but at that point God says they spoke one language.  But then He confused that language.  For me I believe next to giving Jesus Christ to the human race I believe giving us our diversity was probably the next most beautiful thing He could have done.  So we see that this dispersion of people in the earth Acts 17 tells us that God predestined and determined where these people would go, when they would rise, when they would fall and that if they seek after Him they would find Him.  So if we look like Daniel mentioned in Romans there is much evidence out there and I think it’s appropriate with this show being called “Connecting Point” I think that not only what the Hawaiians but the people of the world need to understand that there’s a lot of connecting points.  There’s a story about our origins and how He has left telltale signs or His DNA along the way to seek our way back to Him. So my message always to our fellow Hawaiians and the Hawaiian community here whether they be in a sovereignty movement or just in the Hawaiian community itself is if you desiring to seek to go back to the old ways then the question is really then you have to ask yourself “How far do you want to go back?”  At what period of time do you feel you would be comfortable in existing in that particular time of how they ruled themselves, how they cared for each other and so that’s a big question.  So I think the truth is, as we start to share this history that we’ve learn, that we’ve uncovered, that’s basically the story of cultures all over the world.  God left the signs there, it’s there for us to find, we seek Him and we will find Him.  And so I guess that’s the best thing I could answer that question.

Wayne: Kawika, where did the Hawaiians come from? Was it from the NZ area, the Maori, and then they brought, came up the chain of islands?

Kawika:  I think Daniel would understand more specifically the timeline in the way they were progressively inhabited and moved about.

Daniel: Yeah, well there is strong evidence of the Lapita people and they left potteries throughout Southeast Asia and they found this pottery all the way up into the Marquesas.  And so that they at least came from there and it’s just really an easy voyage to India and to the Middle East which the legends seem to take you back to.  But the first Hawaiians they, the best archeological evidence is they came through Samoa through the Marquesas and then to Hawaii.  And then you had later migrations coming from Tahiti and not all of them were bad migrations of Tahitians that came and integrated with the people until Pa’au came at that time. The New Zealanders will point to Hawaii and say they came from Hawaii.  And in fact south point on the Big Islands is the sacred place to them when they come here and visit.  (2)

Wayne: Because they think the migration went the other way?

Daniel:  Well the Mauri anyway came from Hawaii and through again Tahiti, Rorotonga and down into New Zealand and then you find the strongest evidence of ‘Io actually in Hawaii, Tahiti, Rorotonga and New Zealand.

Wayne: Now where are those found … in what kind of format? 

Daniel: Uh, mostly in chants, you mean the knowledge of ‘Io?

Wayne: Yes.

Daniel: In chants.

Wayne:  Mostly oral history.  You believe that the first heiaus were like observatories or they were places of worship not to Pele or to people who died but actually as something that would give homage to ‘Io. (3) 

Daniel: Yeah we know of at least one definitely.  It was a worship place to ‘Io.  And when Pa’au came over he took over this same heaiu.  Um, the archeologists know that a lot of these heaiu were built and were there before Pa’au came and so who were they worshiping before Pa’au?  And again the people who look past Pa’au all say they were worshipping a one Creator God, actually a one Creator God in three parts. (4)

Wayne: That’s intriguing interesting conversation.  We’re going to take a break and come back and I want to talk to you about how did we go from worshiping one God to many gods?  How did that transition take place and how do we get back to the roots of what Hawaii is all about? And then we’ll want to hear one of your songs (talking to Kawika) that would be kinda neat. Well stay with us we’ll be right back here on Connecting Point as we’re talking with Daniel Kikawa and Kawika Kapiapo, as we talk about the origins of faith in Hawaii.  Stay with us we’ll be right back. 

 Break …

 (Kawika song played in the background sung about ‘Io.)

 Wayne: Welcome back to connecting point as we talk about the origins of faith in Hawaii.  Daniel, you know, what are the reasons the people went from worshipping one god, ‘Io, to a plethora of gods? What took place?

Daniel: Well I think there are several factors in there.  One is ‘Io himself had 27 names just like Jehovah, you know Jehovah Jirah, Jehovah Rapha, El Shadai, and each of them were an aspect of who he was and so you find some people started separating this.  But I think the main thing that happened is when the priests Pa’au came and he brought all these different other gods in.  And from the worship of one god you know it spread out like you say to a lot of these genealogy gods, Pele and so on, is really an aumakua she is not one of the aukua, she’s a genealogy god.  So a lot of these gods began to be worshipped and so on.  Now the Bible tells us to respect out ancestors and all we have to do it turn it back to respect (5) instead of worship, you know we don’t have to throw away our ancestors. 

Wayne: Now you know a lot of the history books talk about the gods of ancient Hawaii and its Pele and Lono and some of these.  Now if what you’re saying is indeed fact why don’t we change the history books?

Daniel: It’s starting to happen and you are finding a lot because so many people have come out and talked about ‘Io now, now it’s out in the open that the history books now are starting to add and talk about ‘Io.  And again it’s something that was hidden and I believe again there is a spiritual battle going on for the minds of men and it’s hidden but if you went to the Bishop Museum for instance to their library and you typed in ‘Io on the computer you’d get pages of printouts.  It’s there.  You it’s just not well known.  Just like in Japan everybody worships Amatarasu, the sun goddess emperors were descended from when they have a name of a one Creator god Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi  (6) which is “the god in the glorious center of heaven. (7) The average Japanese person doesn’t know about it.  But all the priests know.  And so people who study Hawaiian religion, they know.  And so you find it more and more and there’s much written about it, you just have to go to the right places. 

Wayne: So why isn’t it written up?  Why is this kind of a new knowledge now?

Daniel: Well I think that, again, we are bringing it back and the knowledge of ‘Io at one time, if you spoke about it meant death because Pa’au would kill you.  And so it had to be secret and was passed on to one child in each generation. 

Wayne: So as a Kapu you don’t speak about it.

Daniel: Well in the sense that it meant death for you, you know.  And so that kinda continued on … (Kawika interjects: That’s Kapu, you die! Ha, ha, ha.)  But anyway I talked with someone who was from a family from the priests of ‘Io that she didn’t know it ‘cause she wasn’t the Pono child.  And she read Perpetuated and she went to her family and said, you know, do we know of ‘Io and they said “Yes” and she said then why didn’t you tell me and she found out she wasn’t the Pono one and she went to her sibling who was and he refused to tell her about it.  You know it comes into a kind of a pride thing sometimes too.  (8) But now’s the time that you know ‘Io himself is telling these different families of ‘Io that you know it’s time to let everybody know I’m the god of the Hawaiian people. 

Wayne: That’s good.  Talking about the Kapu system was that really a religious thing in nature or was it more political? 

Daniel: Well the … it was really both.  Now what the Mary Kawena Pukui says who wrote the Hawaiian Dictionary and so on is that Pa’au brought in the harsher aspects of the Kapu system.  Now there are good Kapu.  For instance the Hawaiians were the first conservationists in that sense where you couldn’t catch a certain kind of fish when it was spawning; you know things like that to make sure there’s fish there. (9) But now the harsher aspects came in like for instance again like a woman couldn’t eat a banana or she was killed.  She couldn’t eat coconut you know so there’s a lot of women want to go back to the, find their roots but if they go back to this system no more coconut crème pie you know no more kulolo for them, no pork they couldn’t eat, no laulau, no and you know (Kawika chimes in: And better for us! – ha, ha, ha. … they all laugh) But you know you were saying earlier about the as we were talking earlier about Kapiolani and when she was a young girl she ate a banana, this is talking about the political how it was, so she ate a banana but because she was a high Alii she wasn’t killed. They took her favorite servant boy, a boy named Mau, and this the kahuna strangled Mau on the altar of the heiau in her place.  And later on, many years later when she became a believer in Jesus and she asked this same kahuna “why did you do this?”  And he said himself “those were dark times but we priests knew better all along … we did it to keep control over the minds of the people.” So that’s where the politics come in … fear and the control, and again many people want to go back to that old system but if you go back to that system, human sacrifice, and these kapu that meant death were a very important pillar in that system.  You can’t go back to it without the human sacrifice coming back. 

Wayne: So Kawika on the sovereignty movement and going back to the old Hawaii, is that what they want to go back to … that system … the Kapu system … the penal system?

Kawika: I don’t think so.  I think most of them don’t fully understand what would actually happen and take and what they would be victims of.  If they chose to go back to that period of time I think there a lot of, I think I mentioned earlier about what motivates a typical Hawaiian man or woman to want to seek out their roots and live in the old ways.  I think there is more desire to be fulfilled or to reconcile the issue of the whole overthrown colonization issue that has happened.  And I think really what they are really saying in their hearts is “just let me have it the way it used to be, you know the way we used to live” and enjoying the Aina and living with the Aina, enjoying each other’s aloha, fellowship, the music, the chants, whatever it was.  I think that’s really what their saying is that to be able to have just maybe left alone or (Wayne: go back to simpler times) right, right or to justify the feelings of why the overthrow took place.  And so I think really what most Hawaiians are really saying in their heart is there’s a way of life that was perfectly fine for us that we felt rich in a way that didn’t necessarily mean any kind of economic attachment to it but just feeling rich with the culture and the Aina and the land.  And that’s what I really believe their saying is that I just want to go back to a simpler way of life that we understood. 

Wayne: And Kawika we all wish that and there are times I wish for simple times too, you know and that would be really nice but wouldn’t that require probably 90% of the population to leave so that they could have simpler times? 

Kawika: Right but what I think from what I understand at the time of the overthrow and the way the territory was set up then and as like any other country people could apply for citizenship.  So the truth is I believe that most leaders of the movement today understand the fact that if there’s any sort of reinitiation or nation within a nation or sovereignty movement actually established or recognized I think most of the leaders now understand the fact that it’s beyond just the koko, the blood but people who have called Hawaii home for generations. 

Wayne:  Great.  Now missionaries, did they come and overthrow the Kapu system?  Is that what they did or how did that get turned over? 

Daniel: Well again the Kapu system was overthrown in 1819 and the missionaries came in 1820. So they did not do that, it was initiated by the Li’i themselves, King Kamaheameha II and Kaopualani and Ka’ahumnu and they were the ones that initiated it.  I think that what got compressed is that the missionaries made a lot of mistakes, and one of the mistakes they made was reject the Hawaiian culture, which really flows from who they are. And it’s almost like God is rejecting you.  And they rejected the name of ‘Io.  I talked with several families of the priesthood of ‘Io who said that they, when they heard about who Jehovah was the uncreated creator who created the first man and woman, man was sacred to Him and not to be killed and all these things they said “we know of Him” and His name is ‘Io and they were basically, everything about your culture is basically evil  (10) or so to speak and so you know the Creator God.  And so they basically kept it silent and within their families but they said all through that time they were p raying and saying “’Io you are Jehovah”. 

Wayne: So this one god and this Christian concept of god, is not really a white man’s religion brought here then it is really something that was here from the very beginning.

Daniel: Yeah.  And I don’t even think we can say it’s a Christian concept of God.  It’s really just God’s general revelation because He loves all His children. (11) He wouldn’t leave them without a witness.  It says in Acts 17 that he placed everybody where they should be so that they may reach out for Him and perhaps find Him and He is not far from anyone of us. (12) You know, in fact we live, we move, we breathe within Him. (13)  You know in Hawaii especially you look at creation, if we know Him by creation, um we should have had so much communication with His people. 

Wayne:  So Christians came in and increased that, affirmed that, ratified that but God’s knowledge was already here. (14)

Kawika: Uh, huh.  What was interesting it that his blueprint perfectly planned mission, I guess, that led from Henry Obookiah living on the East Coast his influence on the missionaries there, his education, and the fact that he motivated those people who at one time told him “those native savages can’t be educated so how can they possibly be converted.”  (15) But because of this one man just months prior to Hewahewa receiving and giving the prophecy having the dreams desecrating the heiaus what was it, six months later? The first ships arrived so God had a master plan preparing the very ones who benefited from the Kapu system Kamehameha and Hewahewa were the very ones that said we need to be open to this new thing that Akua or ‘Io is revealing to us. (See Footnote 1)  Six months later the first missionary ships. 

Wayne:  God is great and so is your timing here at Connecting Point, sharing with us the origins of our faith in Hawaii and that God really was here revealing Himself to the Hawaiians.  Thank you so much for your research, thank you very much Kawika for being here, and the music that you share and the heart of God for Hawaii.  We wish you God’s very best as we continue to educate people of the true origins of faith in Hawaii. (16)

Outro …

Footnotes

Get our book on the subject of the WCGIP and Kikawa here: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/idolatrybook.html.  The fact the Kikawa was involved with YWAM and their University of the Nations prior to the writing of his first book and that YWAM is promoting the ideas of Aloha Ke Akua and the WCGIP proves that YWAM is also at the root of this stuff.  See the transcript and my comments from the "Word to the World” radio program hosted by Danny Lehmann of YWAM and his interview with Leon Siu of Aloha Ke Akua, Richard Twiss of Wiconi International and Terry LeBlanc of World Vision Canada.  These programs were aired on KLHT 1040 Radio in Honolulu, HI in late 2001

 

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/lehmann2.html

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/lehmann.html

 

(1) Here is the real story on Hewahewa as opposed to the mythology that Kikawa makes up.  Hewahewa was a priest of a false religion and a false prophet even though Kikawa holds him up as a true prophet.  Kikawa erroneously claims “all the peoples of the world, at one time, knew the Creator God”.  He stated this in his book “Perpetuated in Righteousness” and in another interview with Danny Lehman of YWAM on his show “Word To The World” on KLHT in 2001.  Read our book called “Idolatry in their hearts” by Sandy Simpson and Mike Oppenheimer for the full review of Kikawa and his false claims.  The following is a section from our book:

The Bible says they knew of His existence by general revelation only, but virtually all people and ALL people groups from the Ancient Times to the present day DO NOT KNOW GOD (Gal. 4:8). So this statement by Daniel Kikawa and Leon Siu is a false statement. It is clear from the eyewitness accounts of Scripture, breathed by the Holy Spirit, that FEW men have EVER really known God. Remember also that God “called” men to Himself (Rom. 8:28), and a few obeyed. It is also clear from history that Hawaiians did not know God either. Even this “secret” ‘Io cult did not allegedly, according to Kikawa, share their knowledge with Hawaiians who continued and continue today to worship false gods. So even by Kikawa’s false argument he disproves his own theory. All you have to do is go look at the latest 2006 International Cultural Summit here in Hawaii sponsored by practically every Hawaiian government and Hawaiian society to see that (1) ‘Io is not even on the radar screen and (2) they still worship other false gods and goddesses like Pele. The cult of ‘Io in New Zealand among the Maori was also a cult syncretized by two men, one of whom wanted to mix Christianity with his pagan religion so as to not lose their influence in their culture and religion. Even the last priest in Hawaii, Hewahewa “the Kahuna nui under the reign of Kamehameha I” found out from sailors that there were people coming to Hawaii to tell tales of a man named Jesus doing great miracles. He pretended to prophesy the missionaries were coming yet “Hewahewa may well have invented this story as a means of ingratiating himself with the missionaries”. He wanted to help them so that he could find out how to do the “Jesus magic stuff” he had heard about. When he realized later on that Christians were simply preaching the Gospel and he was losing his hold over the Hawaiian people, he reverted back to the pagan Hawaiian religion. (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/kona/history5a.htm; http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ku/ku03.htm; http://www.gonorthshore.org/history.htm; http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_8_114/ai_n15696923/pg_3)

A few web sites out there have obviously bought the myth of Hewahewa recounted by Daniel Kikawa (Leon Siu's pastor) in Chapter 9 of Perpetuated In Righteousness, about him being a “prophet” of God.

“Hewahewa, being the high priest, knew the Prince of Peace was on his way. ... Hewahewa knew the prophecy given by Kalaikuahulu a generation before. This prophecy said that a communication would be made from heaven (the residence of Ke Akua Mooli, the God of the Hawaiians) by the real God. ... Hewahewa also knew the prophecy of the prophet Kapihe, who announced near the end of Kamehameha's conquests, "The islands will be united, the Kapu of the gods will be brought low, and those of the earth (the common people) will be raised up." ... Therefore, it was quite prophetic that, when he saw the missionaries' ship off in the distance, he announced "The new God is coming." One must wonder how Hewahewa knew that this was the ship. ... At Kailua, Hewahewa gave an even more astounding prophecy, he pointed to a rock on the shore and said to the new king, "O king, here the true God will come. ... Hewahewa later retired to Waimea, O'ahu and became one of the first members of the church established there. This church is now located in Haleiwa and is called the Lili'uokalani Protestant Church." (Daniel Kikawa, Perpetuated In Righteousness, The Makahiki Symbol, http://www.wovoca.com/prophecy-hawaii.htm)

There are also non sugar-coated versions of the end of Hewahewa. When you read another account below you will realize that Hewahewa's motivation was not unlike Simon the Sorcerer’s in the Bible, and that he was apparently never really saved.

In October of 1820, when missionaries from New England arrived at the same spot on the same beach from Hewahewa’s vision, the big Kahuna was there to meet them. He welcomed the new Christian priests and their “gods from far high places.” However, it soon became evident that these “white Kahunas” possessed little, if any, real magic. “The blind and sick and halt had been brought before them and had been taken away, still blind, still sick and still halt,” Long wrote. “Something was amiss. The Kahunas had been able to do much better than that, idols or no idols.” Hewahewa still hoped to see the powerful magic of these new arrivals. When the missionaries said they needed a temple, he and his crew helped to build one of cut stone, thinking that the creation of sacred space would enable them to perform their miracles. “But, when it was at last done and dedicated, the missionaries still could not heal, to say nothing of raising the dead as they had been supposed to do.” Evidently, this was the last straw. Soon afterwards, when Hewahewa was urged to convert to Christianity, he refused and returned to his native spirituality. At the same time, he ordered his fellow Kahunas back to their native healing practices.. (http://www.alternativeapproaches.com/altapr/aahuna1.html)

Like so many people today, pagan priests were looking for signs and wonders when they ought to have first learned to place their faith in Jesus Christ who is the only one who really does Divine miracles. The “signs and wonders” the kahuna were doing were not Divine miracles, they were “lying signs and wonders” (Mark 13:22, 2 Thes. 2:9) designed to trap (2 Tim. 2:26) people deeper into false religion.

(2) In point of fact Kikawa is wrong about the migration to New Zealand coming from Hawaii.  Polynesians in the South Pacific discovered the landmass of New Zealand. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand) Hawaii is in the North Pacific.  According to Maori, the first explorer to reach New Zealand was Kupe. Using the stars and ocean currents as his navigational guides, he ventured across the Pacific on his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from his ancestral Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki. It is thought that Kupe made landfall at the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, around 1000 years ago. Where is Hawaiki? You will not find Hawaiki on a map, but it is believed Maori came from an island or group of islands in Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. There are distinct similarities between the Maori language and culture and others of Polynesia including the Cook Islands, Hawaii, and Tahiti. ( http://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/early-settlement/) Again the earliest settlers were likely from a South Pacific island, even though the island of Hawaiki sounds like Hawaii, Hawaii is located in the North Pacific.

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(http://pattyinglishms.hubpages.com/hub/Aborigines-New-Zealand) This migration map shows the migration to New Zealand happened in 1000AD from the area of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.  It also shows the migration to Hawaii coming from the Marquesas around 300AD.  Of course the Melanesian migration dates are since the earth is not 50,000 years old but even if the dates are not correct, the direction of migration is pretty well established in archeology, language, etc. It is highly unlikely that the exact date when Polynesian people first set foot on these previously uninhabited islands will ever be known, nor much details about events occurring between that date and the first contact with Europeans ….Cook himself knew that the original Polynesian discoverers had come from the South Pacific hundreds of years before his time.  First, from the Marquesas, came a settlement as early as 600 or 700 AD, and then from the Society Islands, another migration about 1100 AD.  (http://www.hawaiian-roots.com/hawaiihistory.htm)  Again we have confirmation that the earliest settlers came from the Marquesas, even though the dates are not certain, and not the other way around with the Maori settling New Zealand from Hawaii.  The reason Kikawa wants to claim this is because he co-opted the god of the Maori, ‘Io, as being the same in Hawaii.  But  ‘Io was unknown in Hawaii, except for the fact that there is a hawk called ‘Io which was likely worshipped as all Pacific islanders were worshippers of animals, plants, fish, rocks, mountains (Pele) from the earliest times.  This is called animism and is consistent with this type of worship of the created things all over the world.

(3) The claim that heiaus were for the worship of ‘Io by Kikawa and Kawika is historically false. 

Many types of heiau existed, including heiau to treat the sick (heiau hōʻola), offer first fruits, offer first catch, start rain, stop rain, increase the population, ensure health of the nation, achieve success in distant voyaging, reach peace, and achieve success in war (luakini). Only the luakini was dedicated through human sacrifice.[1] There are two types of luakini. They were called the ʻohiʻa ko and hakuʻohiʻa.[2] … The heiau most commonly preserved are war temples of the later period of history (e.g. Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site). They are composed of large stone platforms with various structures built upon them. The structures were used to house priests, sacred ceremonial drums, sacred items, and cult images representing the gods associated with that particular temple. There were also altars (Ahu) on which to offer sacrifices (plant, animal and human). The heiau were sacred places; only the kahuna (priests) and certain sacred ali'i (high chiefs) were allowed to enter. The largest heiau currently known to exist, Hale O Pi'ilani Heiau, is a massive, three-acre platform with fifty foot retaining walls located in Hāna on Maui. Built for Pi'ilani, it dates back to the 13th century.[8] Agricultural heiau, called generally Hale-o-Lono for the god of fertility, can be found today on Oʻahu at Makaha (Kaneaki heiau - fully restored) and in Hawaii Kai (Pahua heiau - partially restored). The Kaneaki heiau was built in the 17th century, containing grass and thatched huts that were chambers used for prayer and meditation.[9] The ruins of a healing heiau, Keaiwa ("the mysterious") are located at the entrance to Keaiwa State Park in ʻAiea.[10]

Notice that no mention of ‘Io is made. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiau)

The heiau structure ranged from single houses surrounded by a wooden fence to stonewalled enclosures containing more than one house to the massive open-air temples with terraces, large stone platforms, and numerous carved idols in which ruling chiefs paid homage to the major Hawaiian gods. (http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/heiau/)

No mention on the aforementioned site of ‘Io either, only the “major Hawaiian gods”.  The following site is a site that has bought into the Kikawa paradigm, mentioning ‘Io, but the historic Hawaiian gods are generally agreed upon in most literature which are Kanaloa, Kapo, Ku, Kane, Hina, Lono, Laka, Papa, Honua and Pele.

Supreme Being(s)

Kanaloa: Son of Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Tapo. Kanaloa is the ruler of the oceans, and consequently the ruler of the Mana. Kanaloa channels or funnels the Mana that comes from ‘Io to Kane to Kanaloa. Since Kanaloa is the ruler of Mana, he is also invoked in some cases to alleviate or disperse disease (see the chant Pule Hee). Kanaloa is Lord of the South. When the Christian Missionaries arrived, they decided that Kanaloa was the devil, cast out of heaven. We do not believe that this was originally the case, since the Christian church has had a history of branding local deities as the devil, as for example, the god Pan in western Europe. Kapo, Tapo: A daughter of Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Kanaloa. As such, she becomes the feminine aspect of Kanaloa. Kapo is also one of Pele's seven sisters, and one of the goddesses of the Hula. Ku: Created by Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Hina. Ku and his manifestations, such as Ku-ka-ilimoku (Ku, the eater of islands -- the personal god of King Kamehameha,I) were brought to Hawaii by Pa'ao and when that happened, the original order was overthrown. When Ku became as the primary god of Hawaii (somewhere between 750, and 1250 A.D.), the balanced system where men and women were honored equally was overthrown. Today, Ku is the prevailing deity in the Heiau of Hawaii, and so women are not allowed on the platforms of the Heiau and are not allowed to make offerings. While we do not agree with the Kapu against women in today's current system, we respect the beliefs of the current Kapu system. The days of dishonor to women are over, however, and it is time to end that prohibition. Ku is Lord of the North.   Hina: Hina is a daughter of Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Ku. She is the feminine aspect of Ku. In many situations today, in Hawaii, Hina is invoked in facilitation of the process of physiological healing, since Ku is the presiding deity of many Heiau. Lono: Lono is the son of Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Laka. Lono is the god of learning, and intellect, and as Lono-i- ka-makahiki, is the god of the freedom of the end of the year. Lono has a number of aspects, such as Lono-makua who starts fire with a staff called pahoa. (In ancient times, the women did not start fires, men did, so the men cooked.) Lono is lord of the east. Laka: Laka is a daughter of Na' wahine and Kane, and married to Lono. Married to Lono, she embodies the feminine aspect of Lono. As one of Pele's most prominent sisters, Laka is one of the major deities of the Hula. She is also one of the seven sisters of Pele. Wakea: Wakea is the father of the earth, and the prevailing deity of the gods and goddesses of nature. Papa: Papa is the earth mother, and is also known as Haumea. She was also called Ka-luahine. Papa and Wakea are the mother and father of Honua, the being that is the earth. Honua: Honua is the being that is the earth -- the spirit that is the planet. Honua's daughter is the goddess of the volcano -- Pele. Pele: Is the goddess of the volcano. Pele has a staff -- a staff used to find out if ground is dry. Many books on the subject say that Pele is a myth, but many families of Hawaii today believe that Pele was an actual person from Kahiki (somewhere other than here), or Kahinina (the East). It was believed that she lived in the land Kuwaihealani. (http://www.mythome.org/hawaiig.html)

(4) Kikawa tried to construct a “trinity” saying the Hawaiians always had a Trinity but the fact is that they had at least 10 major gods and other minor ones. “At one time The Hawaiians believed and worshipped one God comprised of three equal beings in nature. These three gods were called Kane, Ku, Lono” (p.27 Perpetuated in Righteousness 2nd ed.)

(5) When the Bible tells followers of God to respect their ancestors, it is not saying to worship them or their false gods.  Only if they were worshipping the true God do they deserve respect.  The early ancestors of the Hawaiians were not worshipping the true God, even if they were worshipping ‘Io as a supreme being, which he was not in Hawaii.  The Bible is clear from beginning to end that we are to worship God in His name.  His name is YHWH (I Am That I Am) and also referred to as Elohim, Adonai, etc.  God is never referred to in the Bible as Baal, Marduk, Aman or any of the other false gods of the nations.

Deuteronomy 6:13  Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Zechariah 10:12  I will strengthen them in the Lord and in his name they will live securely,” declares the Lord.

Matthew 12:21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”

Luke 24:47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

There is a reason why the Bible repeats many times, above which are only a few examples, that those who follow YHWH and Jesus Christ, His Son must do so “in His name”.  The reason is that His name distinguishes Him from any other wannabe “god” like Kikawa’s ‘Io.  No other god of the nations is the self-existent One, YHWH, from eternity past to eternity future.  No other Gentile nation knew God by name and unless they were introduced to Him in the Old Testament by a Jew or the New Testament by a Christian, they “do not know God.”  They may know there is a Creator if they look at nature, but they cannot have a personal relationship to the Father, Son or Holy Spirit. 

(6) Kikawa has also been producing materials to try to convince Japanese Christians, in particular, to worship the god he claims is their true god, Amenomenakanshi.  Kikawa even went so far as to apologize to the Japanese for the missionaries who came and told them about a “foreign god” when they already were worshipping the true god.  See my new article on the issue of WCGIP adherents blaming missionaries for bring a foreign god to the Gentile nations here.  The problem is that this god is one of a pantheon of “kami” and spawned by other gods going back to the original two gods, male and female, Izanagi, sky-father creator deity. Izanami, earth-mother creator deity. (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/blasphemizingthebible.html)  Why Kikawa failed to present this fact in his DVD series called “Fingerprints of God in Japan” is beyond me.  A “god” spawned by a male and female “deity” couple does not make for a very good candidate to replace YHWH who is self-existent.  The reason he did not choose Izanagi is because he would have been saddled with the oldest of false religion, that of one male and one female deity spawning other lesser gods.  By the way, this type of religion is EXACTLY why those who went out from Babel did not carry the knowledge of the true God with them but rather the worship of Nimrod and Semiramis as the “sun and moon” which is why they built a ziggurat so that couple could be closer to the sky they were allegedly a part of.  This false religion, halted by God at Babel by confusing their tongues, they took with them and virtually every ancient religion in the world is based on a male and female deity. 

Japan had the same profile and thus “did not know God”. Read Mike Oppenheimer’s excellent articles on “Fingerprints of God in Japan” here: http://www.letusreason.org/ecumen8.htm or get our book “Idolatry in Their Hearts” here: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/idolatrybook.html

(7) Daniel Kikawa, on his “Fingerprints of God In Japan” states that “Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi ... means the God in the glorious center of heaven”.  The Kojiki actually states that this false god’s title is “Divine Lord of the Middle Heavens and god of the Pole Star”.14 He is not even the high god of Japan. That would be Izanagi and Izanami, male and female deities, who spawned the rest of the Japanese false gods. (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/babel.html)

There are actually three creators gods in Japanese mythology: Amanominakanushi no Kami, Takamimusuhi no Kami & Kamimusuhi no Kami ( http://ilmainensanakirja.fi/sanakirja_englanti-englanti/the+three+creator+gods+%28Amanominakanushi+no+Kami,+Takamimusuhi+no+Kami+%26+Kamimusuhi+no+Kami%29) This is not a “trinity” but three separate gods.  Therefore Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi cannot be the true God of the Bible by Biblical definition.  He was acknowledged as one of the zōka sanshin ("three kami of creation") and one of the five kotoamatsukami ("separate heavenly deities"). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenominakanushi) Not only one of three gods which Kikawa mentions, but also as one of five gods.  Again, not the God of the Bible.  For the Japanese creation myth, that bears no real resemblance to the Biblical account go here.  Here are a couple of highlights from that article that prove this myth has nothing to do with the Biblical God: (1) The heavens are said to have come into existence before Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi, who Kikawa claims is the same as YHWH (2) Two other deities were then formed and helped Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi create the universe.  YHWH is One God eternally existing in three Persons, not three gods. (3) It is said the earth took millions and millions of years to form as opposed to the six literal days of Creation in the Bible. (4) Many gods then sprung up while the earth was forming. (4) Izanagi and Izanami gave birth to all the various “kami”. (5) Izanami then died. (6) Izanagi tried to save her from Hades and she got mad at him for seeing her rotting corpse and sent a female demonic horde after him in retaliation. Oh yes, this is all very Biblical indeed (sarcasm!).

(8) Auntie Melea Craver is one of the only living “authorities” where Kikawa got his ideas of ‘Io.  But it is clear that she knew nothing about ‘Io till she read Kikawa’s book so she would not be a legitimate contributor to the book of any historical fact.  I believe Melea made up a number of things after the fact because of Kikawa’s account that the “pono” member of her family would not tell her anything about ‘Io.  We see virtually no evidence of a god named ‘Io in Hawaii prior to Kikawa’s book and it looks like he made it up from whole cloth.  He takes some anthropologist’s writings out of context that talk about an ‘Io, a god of the Maori. That “god” was made up after exposure to Christianity in order to try to keep the Maori from abandoning their old religion.  Kikawa even made up quotes that were not in books by people he cited in “Perpetuated” and we know because we looked for them and could not find them.  So he got some of his information from modern Hawaiians who are telling tales to their liking and for the benefit of making their culture seem “godly”. 

Craver is quoted on a page dealing with Hawaiian burial sites:

The iwi is the bones of our deceased loved ones, and they are meaningful to each one of us. They're not here to defend themselves, we are. We are here to malama (care for) them, respect, honor, take care of them; not because they're deceased and not here we're just going to let it go. We are responsible to malama them.  ~Auntie Malia Craver~

It sounds like Craver believes that the bones of ancestral Hawaiians are sacred as other Hawaiians do.  If she knew the true YHWH by way of the name ‘Io, which she admitted to Kikawa she did not, she would not venerate bones.  On this same page called “The Bones Of Our Ancestors” it says this:

Native Hawaiians believe that the mana or spiritual essence and power of a person resided in their bones, their iwi. For native Hawaiians, it was important for the bones of a deceased person to complete their journey and return to the ground to impart their mana. From island to island, community to community and family to family, there were many different ways to prepare bodies for burial. Each method was appropriate for the individual and his or her status. (http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/hpd/naiwikupuna.htm)

 

This is not what the true God would say about bones.  There is no spiritual essence in dust.

 

Genesis 3:19  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

 

Craver is still very much involved in Hawaiian religion, namely dances to Pele.  There is a hula competition in her name every year called the Malia Craver Hula Kahiko Competition.

 

(9) Ocean conservation was not originated by Hawaiians.  It is something we see in many island groups, some of which were settled earlier than Hawaii.  Bans on catching certain fish or certain sizes due to leaving them to grow as well as conservation of certain areas where people were not allowed to fish are in many places in the North and South Pacific.

 

(10) The Congregationalist missionaries did not reject everything about the Hawaiian culture or call everything about their culture “evil”.  They rejected their false religion and cultural activities tied to it.  Not only that, but the first generation of converts also rejected their former religion and cultural practices associated with it, including hula which was a dance dedicated to Pele.  Also the story Kikawa tells of talking to families of alleged “priests of ‘Io” could not be true because of what Kikawa said earlier about Auntie Melea Craver saying she could not even get information from her “pono” relative, the last surviving “priest” about ‘Io.  So anyone else he talked to was making up stories out of whole cloth.

 

(11) A concept of God without being a follower of Christ (Christian) or a Jew in the Old Testament would have no value because there was no specific revelation that would be salvific.  It would simply be the idea that there must be a Creator, but without the name of God, without the Son of God, and without the Spirit of God who reveals all truth about God (John 16:13) from the written Word (Eph. 6:17).  There is no way to know anything more that that there was a Creator at some point without the indwelling Holy Spirit Who can only be given when a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and is born again.

(12) Acts 17:22-34 contains Paul’s address to the Areopagus.  This is one of the Scriptures that WCGIP advocates use and take out of context constantly, along with Romans 1:20.  Please refer to our book or this article for more information on this:

An Endrun Around Rom. 1 And Acts 17 - A Gameplan of YWAM by Sandy Simpson, 3/4/06

Acts 12:22-34 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

 

Here is what I wrote in the above article concerning this passage:

ACTS 17:26-28

This passage, pulled from context, is what is used over and over again by the leadership of the IPM, which includes YWAM leaders, Daniel Kikawa, Richard Twiss, Terry LeBlanc and many other First Nations “Christian” leaders.  This is how it was quoted on Kikawa's Fingerprints DVD:

 

Acts 17:26-28  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

The writer of Acts, Luke, was quoting from the Old Testament.  We can understand the context of Acts 17:26 by reading Deut. 32:7-11.

Deut. 32:7-11  "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.”

 

God was setting the boundaries for the nations according to the children of Israel so that the Gentile nations would end up in proximity to Israel and thus possibly come to know the God of Israel. It was not that God was creating nations and giving them “promised lands”. He was going to spread Israel out among the nations as a witness from the establishment of Israel till the incarnation of Jesus Christ. After Jesus Christ the message of the Gospel would be spread through Jews and Gentiles who had come to understand and believe in the mystery of the Gospel.

The above erroneous interpretation of Acts 17 is reinforced by Danny Lehmann's statements on his program:

Now yesterday Daniel, we closed our broadcast by talking about the issue of Japan and how people have a hard time having the gospel being communicated to them because it sounds foreign… that's the big problem- whether its India or Thailand, Africa or Latin America. If God appears to be a foreign God it would be equivalent to us in America which is a normally Christian based society accepting Buddhism, because it sounds foreign to us. And in the Bible when Paul was preaching in Acts 17 it tells us that when he was talking about Jesus and the resurrection, they said "well he's talking about a foreign God" and he went on to bridge the gap there in a magnificent way there at Mars hill. (Danny Lehman, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, Feb. 14/06, #2)

 

As I covered in a previous article, Paul did preach the Gospel in terms that the Greeks could understand. He used the illustration of the “unknown god” which they were worshipping, with some sarcasm as scholars note, to point out that they did NOT know the true God at all, not to bridge a “gap” between them and their worship of an “unknown god”.

Acts 17:23  For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Barnes New Testament Notes states that an altar had been erected in Athens during a time of pestilence some 600 years before Christ because all the other "known" and named gods could not deliver them.  Paul came and used this altar to illustrate that they did NOT know God at all, saying “Him I declare to you” in other words,

“I make known to you his name, attributes, etc. ... In other circumstances it might seem to be presumptuous for an unknown Jew to attempt to instruct the sages of Athens. But here they had confessed and proclaimed their ignorance. By rearing this altar they acknowledged their need of instruction. The way was, therefore, fairly open for Paul to address even these philosophers, and to discourse to them on a point on which they acknowledged their ignorance”.  (Barnes New Testament Notes, ALBERT BARNES. PHILADELPHIA, August 25th, 1832.)

An “unknown god” means they were worshipping something unknown, not known.  John Gill Expositor states:

“God is an unknown God to those who have only the light of nature to guide them; for though it may be known by it that there is a God, and that there is but one, and somewhat of him may be discerned thereby; yet the nature of his essence, and the perfections of his nature, and the unity of his being, are very little, and not truly and commonly understood, and the persons in the Godhead not at all, and still less God in Christ, whom to know is life eternal: hence the Gentiles are described as such who know not God;” (John Gill Expositor , LONDON: PRINTED FOR MATHEWS AND LEIGH, 18 STRAND, by W. Clowes, Northumberland-Court, 1809, Edited and revised and updated by Larry Pierce, 1994-1995.)

Another problem with Lehmann's analysis of this passage, out of context, is that most of the Greeks rejected the true God Paul was preaching because they did not believe in a resurrection.

Acts 17:32-18:1 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

These WCGIP promoters keep claiming that the supreme beings of all cultures are YHWH.  So if Paul was bridging a gap between YHWH and the supreme being of the Greeks, Zeus, he was doing a very poor job! As far as we know Paul was never invited back to the Areopagus to speak, so this invitation was really an empty one, designed to get him to shut up and leave. Only a few believed in Jesus Christ. Paul was not there to bridge a “gap” between an unknown foreign “supreme being” like Zeus, or an unknown god and YHWH.  He was there to tell them that they had been acknowledging an unknown god among many other false gods and to use that as an illustration to show them they were in error and to preach the Gospel about Jesus Christ. This example of Paul, the only one in Scripture, does not justify telling people around the world that they have already been worshipping the true God and just have to add Jesus Christ into the mix, and usually by the name of some foreign god. Paul was clear about the Gospel he preached:

 

1 Corinthians 2:2  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

 

Apparently, according to people like Kikawa, we now need to be experts in foreign gods to present the Gospel effectively, bridging the gap between false gods and the One True God.  Paul resolved to be an expert in the Gospel!  Lehmann goes on to say:

 

"and isn't it interesting that he used the Greek word for God "theos" and he says I'm going to declare to you about that God.” (Danny Lehmann, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, Feb. 7/06, #2)

 

“Theos” is a general word for “god” as is the word “god” in our language.  This in no way shows that Paul was talking to them about YHWH when he said “unknown god”.  Paul simply talked about an unknown “god” (theos) then proceeded to tell them who YHWH is—the Triune God they knew nothing about and were not prepared to believe in.  The end results of teachings of the IPM are leading people to unrepentance for their cultures, for their demonic worship, and for their very lives.  Yet the context of Act 17 is very clear:

 

Acts 17:30-31  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

 

This verse goes to the heart of the error of the IPM. Those who lead others to be unrepentant about their traditions of men, their lifestyles, and even their worship of other “supreme beings” are in DIRECT opposition to the clear command of God for “all people everywhere to repent”.

 

(13) The reference in Acts 17 about ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’ is talking about the fact that we have life because of the Creator, not that we have a relationship to Him as Sons.  Kikawa is claiming much more than what this verse is addressing.

 

(14) Wayne Cordeiro affirms everything Aloha Ke Akua is teaching about these issues including the statement that God was already being worshipped and was known in Hawaii before the missionaries even came … when, in fact, Wayne has forgotten to read his Bible.

 

Gal. 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
1 Cor. 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Rom. 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
1 Thess. 4:5 ...not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God...
Ephesians 2:12-13 ...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
2 Thess. 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

 

(15) There is nothing in the book written about Henry Obookiah that says the missionaries stated about the Hawaiians that “those native savages can’t be educated so how can they possibly be converted.”  This is another in a long line of put downs of missionaries that has no basis in fact by WCGIP adherents.  The fact is that the Congregationalists listened to Obookiah tell of just how much darkness there was in Hawaii and in the Hawaiian religious system, since Obookiah was previously studying to be a priest, and they were convicted that the Gospel needed to be carried to Hawaii.  There is also no mention of any god by the name of ‘Io in Obookiah’s book either.  I have an article I wrote on Obookiah proving WCGIP people like Kikawa are way off in their mythology of both Hawaii and the missionaries.

The Testimony of Heneri Opukaha'ia regarding the state of religion and society in Hawaii before the Gospel—a rebuttal to Daniel Kikawa's book “Perpetuated In Righteousness”  by Sandy Simpson, Apologetics Coordination Team,  May 2005 (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/obookiah.html)

(16) Cordeiro states that Kikawa is a “respected scholar” and at the end wishes them the very best as “we continue to educate people of the true origins of faith in Hawaii.” Frankly some of the worst scholarship I have ever run into, apart from the Transformations films by George Otis, Jr., are the books and materials put out by Kikawa.  Cordeiro is stating that they will work together to educate people of the true origins of faith in Hawaii when Kikawa’s claims are, by in large, fraudulent.  This kind of information, along with a whole host of other false teachings, are being passed along in Cordeiro’s churches and schools as well as in the World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People conferences.