The Missionaries Brought A Foreign God!
by Sandy Simpson, 7/7/13


There is a repeated charge by adherents of the Word Christian Gathering on Indigenous People movement and Emerging Church that Christian missionaries brought news of a foreign god to most of the world.

 

He was born in the center of civilization of that day. Y’know the nexus of Europe and Asia and Africa, the civilization of that day and what did Jesus say is tell everybody that I came, y’know. Not that you don't know God or that you don't have no relationship with him and he's a foreign God to you. But that, that the son of your creator came who made himself known to as Rom. 1:20 says and so this is what we bring to them and we find that if there are people who are really seeking God, there are people like Jobs everywhere who know. (Daniel Kikawa, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, Feb. 14/06, #7)

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 Lehmann, Ibid., Feb. 7/06, #2)

As Indigenous people, we need to embrace God as ours, and also know that God embraces us as His. . . just as we are.  Our goal is to provide indigenous people, missionaries and Christians with information, training and materials that show the true nature of Jesus; that his way is not to be a foreign religion that destroys people groups and their cultures, but one that brings people groups and their cultures to their highest fulfillment. (Aloha Ke Akua, home page as of 10/23/10, http://akaministries.tripod.com/aloha/)

"Christians should cease representing Jesus as the Son of the foreign God of a foreign people, especially if these foreigners had never shown concern for nor had any involvement in the lives or culture of the natives. God lovingly created them in the beginning never left them without a witness and, in his great love for them, even sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for them!" [Daniel Kikawa, Perpetuated in Righteousness, 4th edition, p. 27, cited in Idolatry In Their Hearts by Sandy Simpson and Mike Oppenheimer]

This accusation is being repeatedly made by adherents of WCGIP in order to make Christian missionaries look like they destroyed cultures around the world with the Gospel message about the God of Israel.

 

Exodus 3:6 Then he (YHWH) said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

 

A foreign god?  To that I say ... DUH!

Of course they brought a foreign God!  Those who make these charges have not read their Bibles.

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.

Any knowledge of the true God, including His name, was a mystery to all Gentiles.

 

Romans 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
1 Corinthians 2:7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
Ephesians 3:9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
Colossians 1:26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people

 

This is why evangelism is so important, because the mystery of the Gospel is hidden to all Gentiles.  Because of the Gentiles rejection of the true God, He gave them over to false worship and a depraved mind.

 

Ac 7:42  But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: "Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
Ro 1:24  Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Ro 1:26  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Ro 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.

 

These "Johnny-come-lately" WCGIP and Emerging Church advocates who try to elevate false religions and false gods to the level of any true knowledge of God need to have their heads examined.  No Gentile culture knew about God or was worshipping the true God, YHWH, in any way shape or form. All the way from Babel they brought with them false worship, that of the worship of a male and female couple who spawned other gods.  They did not "think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God." so they made their own religions with their own "supreme beings". This is why God had to scatter them because they had made a false religion based on the worship of Nimrod and Semiramis who were considered to be the sun and the moon, which is why they were building them a ziggurat in order to get them closer to the stars.

Virtually every ancient culture after Babel has a male and female at the apex of their false pantheon of gods.  Babylonian, Sumerian, Ancient Africa (Egypt), Mesopotamia, Canaan/Ugaritic, Hittite, Anunnaki, Anatolia, Pre-Islamic Arabia, Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic, African religions, Chinese folk religion, Shintoism (Kami), Hinduism, Pacific Islands and many more leading into the goddess movements of today which include the worship of Gaia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess, etc.)  This simply confirms what the Bible teaches about Gentiles.  God revealed Himself and His name exclusively to the Jews, especially to Moses to whom God gave His name - YHWH (I Am That I Am).  All the other gods of the nations were false gods and the Bible denounces a number of the supreme beings of the past as false gods.  Here are a few examples:

Jer. 46:25  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

Amon or Amen of Egypt was their supreme being.

 

1 Kings 20:28  The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD (Hadad) is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

 

Hadad what the Arameans' Supreme Being.

 

Daniel 3:16-18  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods (Marduk), nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

 

Marduk was the supreme being of Babylon.

The reason God told the Jews to inhabit Canaan which He had promised to them long ago was that all the cultures there were worshipping false gods and the sons of the Nephalim.  In the end only one relationship will matter:

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.