Why this theory cannot be true pt.2

On p. 27 of Perpetuated in Righteousness, Kikawa writes:

“Instead of destroying and ridiculing the native names of the Creator God, we should help preserve them as a legacy for these peoples. It is their legacy of God's enduring interest, involvement and care for their culture and people!” “God is the creator of all nations, tongues and peoples and is spoken of in each language.”

This is where he departs from the Bible completely. If God did create the “other” cultures/ nations then they would be just like the Hebrews, but according to the Bible and history they are not.

If these nations worshipped the true God as Aloha Ke Akua teaches, as YWAM, as Don Richardson teaches

then every nation’s false god can potentially be the true god without having any of the revelation of Moses, the prophets or any connection to Jesus. This becomes extremely problematic not just for the last 2,000 years but thousands of years before Jesus.

The Law was given to Israel, not as a means of salvation but to show their sinfulness (Rom. 3:20, 28; Gal. 2:16; 3:11, 21). It revealed to them the holiness of God in a standard of righteousness that God demanded for a proper relationship with Him (Lev. 11:44; 19:1-2, 37; I Pet. 1:15-16). No other nation was given this law. It kept Israel separate, distinct from all the nations.

As the law made them conscious of their sin, they needed to sacrifice to cover their sin. The consistent teaching of both the Old and New Testaments is: “without the shedding of blood there cannot be any forgiveness of sin.” The Law had a temporary provision of shedding animal blood until the Messiah’s final blood sacrifice for sin took place. So God developed a tabernacle (and later a Temple) and a priesthood to conduct the sacrifices. Without it, NO ONE could be right before God, not an individual or nation. How can one sacrifice for sin if he did not know this? For one needed faith in the true God. Noah sacrificed, Job sacrificed, this is why they were called righteous.

It is not whether someone had knowledge of God but what God thought of him and if he had a relationship WITH him. Gen. 7:1: Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.” Gen. 6:8-9: Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD... Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

Job 1:1: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” V:5 “and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus, Job did regularly. V.8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" None like him, in other words he was unique.

Eph. 2:12 tells us no one had hope. The nations had remnants of the past history as breadcrumbs on the ground. They may remember that God created the earth and call him a God who dwells in the sky, the supreme god, and they may acknowledge that there was the flood. They might understand that God created man and had names for the first two humans. However, none of this means they knew God. Why do they not describe the days of creation in succession, the things that were created accurately. They don't speak of the offspring[s] of Adam and Eve, and who killed who and why accurately.

Why do these cultures’ SUPREME god[s], who apparently created heaven and earth (whom Kikawa and Richardson claim are the same as the Bible’s God, the Hebrews God) give no direct revelation? Where are their books likened to the Bible, the Scripture? Certainly, the same God would give them a number of things that would be accurate to the Bible. You may find some points of history mentioned; so what! That does not mean they knew the true God, only that whatever portion they had was passed down inaccurately. This is like making space shuttle out of a few nuts and bolts. If their god is the true God, why did God not tell them anything that is in the Bible?

Where is prophecy? Why did God not correct them and tell them they were worshiping Him wrong? Because their supreme god could not speak! They were not in the line where the true tradition and history was passed down, or they rejected it. Even Islam that refers to the Bible and the names of those in the Bible did not get the stories straight, and it was created over 500 years after the New Testament was complete. They had the New Testament to read and still mixed up names and places. Yet we are to accept that some oral tradition of a gentile heathen or pagan culture is equal to the Bible?

The Bible says God revealed Himself to Moses and to the prophets of Israel, not to the teachers or prophets of other religions. To point to these other religions for truth or for Christ or prophecy is at best misleading or purposely deceptive.

Perpetuated in Righteousness P.42: “'lo has made from one blood, all nations of people to inhabit the face of the earth. All cultures are His offspring.” (Certainly referring to Acts 17:26, the nations of mankind).

Kikawa confuses humanity with culture[s], which are the values and knowledge shared by a society and are transmitted as a tradition to the next generation. This would include the arts, manners, dress, expressions in music, and social pursuits, and the religion; all are part of the values of a society that make them distinct from others.

P.28: “We should humbly and eagerly look for the beautiful witness God has left in the cultures of His beloved native children. ... How arrogant we are to think that God would have forgotten them!”

God has left his witness in nature; it does not say anywhere He has done the same in everyone’s culture. Only Israel was formed by God; He gave to them alone what was necessary to be holy unto the Lord. How arrogant to attribute these cultures that were always in rebellion not knowing God were directly created by God.

On p. 20 of Perpetuated in Righteousness, he writes: “The name 'father' is applied to the Supreme Being in every single area of the primitive culture when he is addressed or appealed to.”

This is not correct at all, what he omits is crucial. That these other religions had a mother, they had other gods as offspring under the supreme deity. That is not Monotheism but Henotheism. Few people of a culture in the ancient world were really monotheistic (i.e. Job and Melchizedik are the Bibles examples), not a hundred cultures, not dozens that they are trying to apply to today. And what does it matter, we have the completed revelation. We are to be preaching Jesus Christ, not ancient gods are God, as though we have not learned the true knowledge that accompanies the grace of the New covenant.

Not all that is called monotheism is equal. The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten is called a monotheist. Yet the Pharaoh had the sun disk (the Aten); he is not a monotheist in the same way as found in the Hebrew Old Testament.

Why would someone try to make another nation on equality with Israel? With the only nation God covenanted with. There is no other nation mentioned in the Bible that knew God or was given the oracles. What exactly is the purpose of finding ancient gods of supposed monotheism when we see no example of this in the Bible? This is not evangelism.

Saying they know the supreme god by another name is meaningless. I can know the name of the president but to know him personally is entirely different. I can know the name of a CEO, but he may not know who I am, so knowing a god's name does not mean that is sufficient; there are numerous other qualifications. I always hear it’s a relationship that counts. Why does that not apply here?

Thus to claim to be Christian and say, “all of us are worshipping the same God with different names” is a grand deception of the last days. God does not want to be worshiped or called by other gods’ names; but these other gods want to be worshiped as God.

Malachi 1:11: “My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations," Says the LORD of hosts. Not my names but one name, so to say that the name of all the other culture's gods in ancient days is the same because of a few similarities is absurd. (i.e. Lives in the sky, invisible, creator etc.)

Lev. 19:12: “And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD” (YHWH). Using other gods names as if they are representing Him is profaning His name.

Combine this with the idea of putting a culture’s ancient god’s name in the Bible translation of their language and this becomes a deadly combination of changing historic Christianity, Jesus and the gospel. It is spiritual harlotry. We do not see one example of other gods or cultures’ religious past being accepted in the Bible.

Kikawa and others speaks of cultures with a trinity of God[s]. Are we to accept that these cultures had the revelation of the Triune God before the Hebrews had it through the New Testament? Think of what he is having you believe. Then when it says of the Jews “to them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2-3) cannot be true. You see that this theory directly challenges the Bible’s record on numerous fronts. And no matter how much they assure you that they respect the Bible, they are going against Bible history and God’s revelation.

The Bible actually says that the nations did not know God. But it does not seem to matter when one does not base his work on the Bible but instead uses the Bible’s words for a theory birthed outside the Bible. This agenda leads away from the salvation spoken of in the Bible.

The Gentiles did not know God needs to be repeated over and over for it to sink in. The Scripture said at the time the gospel was going out, from the time of Moses 1,500 years before this, from Abraham’s time, the nations did not know God. This becomes a large flaw in the whole ecumenical theory of “other ancient nations supreme gods being THE true God.” Altogether that’s well over 4,000 years the Bible specifically states the nations worship false gods. Jesus did not recognize cultures but a Gentile’s individual faith, not other nations’ gods. Even the Samaritan woman, who was half Jewish was corrected in her worship by Jesus saying, "You worship what you do not know; (Acts 17) we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:22-23). Truth; which means that in the last nearly 2,000 years without Jesus, you have no way to the Father.

Even in Athens they heard of every religion and philosophy of their time; they said of Paul: "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. Acts 17:18-19. And this was at the time that it all occurred in Israel (the prophecies of the Messiah being fulfilled). It took a missionary with the gospel to have them hear the truth, just as Paul said in Rom.10.

Kikawa (and Richardson) misuse Rom.1 (v. 21) focusing on “They knew God.” You can’t apply this to being within the last 4,000 years. You cannot fill in this gaping silence by doing some radical cut and paste for an interpretation to have application in our day. It goes on to say, “they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (V. 25)

Paul is saying from the beginning that man knew God was the creator but refused to acknowledge him (referring to before Babel). Once they did this, they pursued worship of created things. He scattered them at Babel because of their polytheism. Their cultures were then created in false worship of god[s] though some had known the truth.

According to Bible history, they abandoned the true God very early on. So then, how is it possible that nations, even from the time of Paul, knew the true God? (Paul says in the New Testament the Gentiles did not know him; Moses says the same).

The Bible teaches us that man does not seek God, which fits perfectly with Romans 1. Romans 3:10-12: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." We see Adam and Eve hiding from Him after they sinned and even after they knew Him face to face in the garden.

Why does Kikawa and others like him avoid the plain teaching of the Scripture? Because they have an ecumenical agenda and it is about “redeeming the cultures” (aka YWAM).

What has entered the church has the objective to bring the church into unity with the world's religions. A spiritual Synthesis; many are working toward a religious unity that fulfills Scripture in the last days (Rev.17-18).

“[W]orship must be indigenous. The gospel must be communicated in the language, cultural forms, and technology of the people you are trying to reach.” (Growing Spiritual Redwoods p. 66; bold added)

”Indigenous worship can be a gateway into unexpected partnerships.… Who knows where these new conversations will lead? One day God will lead us poor humans to a truer harmony of which our indigenous worship is only a sign.” (Growing Spiritual Redwoods; pp. 104-105; emphasis added)

  “Indigenous worship breaks down stereotypes of theological, ideological, and denominational perspective.…(Growing Spiritual Redwoods p. 103; emphasis added)

“… Culture itself, in all its complexities and nuances, can become a vehicle for eternal truth.” (Growing Spiritual Redwoods; pp. 199-200; emphasis added). This certainly sums up the new direction in which the church is being led. They have taken Jesus out of the Old Testament prophecies and made him the Christ of the world, instead of the Christ for the world. This is such a voided exercise in evangelism I can only accept that it has gone this far because certain people like their ears tickled and do not love the truth.

Romans 16:25-26: “… the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but NOW has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations.”

It’s by the Bible, through Israel’s Messiah, God is made known by mission work; the nations Gentiles did not know him before this. Yet Kikawa is saying they (Gentiles) even had the revelation of a triune God before the New Testament was known. Its ludicrous!

Ephesians 3:1-7: “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles-- if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”

Where does the Bible instruct or give an example of what Aloha ke Akua is doing?  Kikawa’s universalist approach of digging up ancient gods to make a bridge to today’s culture is not evangelism.  And for YWAM that is calls itself a missionary organization to have their president say this is showing us the way certainly makes one question how well they understand the word.

Kikawa teaches on the International School of Reconciliation Studies, obviously a YWAM venture. John Dawson is the Founder, International Reconciliation Coalition. He worked closely with Cindy Jacobs in developing his "identificational repentance”; he was also the president of YWAM when he endorsed Kikawa:

“Marvelous!…This is what we need for every people group. If only [they} had the clear picture of the Lord’s redemptive destiny that the Hawaiians now possess.” “Daniel Kikawa and the Hawaiian’s are showing us the way.”

In redeeming a culture, Kikawa believes you first redeem the god of that culture. This idea certainly did not come from the Bible. Capitulating to a culture's god IS SURRENDERING Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. This is replacing Him with another name of another god.

Posted on Aloha ke Akua website, John Dawson comments, “…We would like to use this video as a central part of our missionary work in Japan and to use it as an example for our missionaries around the world, of how to present the gospel to indigenous peoples."

At the end of Kikawa's video, Fingerprint of God Dawson has an endorsement. On the back cover of the DVD, Dawson's endorsement states, “After seeking to communicate to Japanese people their beauty for so many years. I know that we have the key to open the correct door.”

Even Loren Cunningham, Founder of YWAM: “thank you for your in depth research that that is giving us keys that I believe will help us teach modern day youth in Japan.”

So why would YWAM have such a warm promotion of this kind of teaching? This is the YWAM teaching on redeeming cultures (where is that teaching found in the Bible exactly?) How YWAM can call this evangelism, that this is showing us the way, when it is not the gospel the Bible says to bring. They are supposed to be a missionary organization not an ecumenical organization.

YWAM teaches that you can go around and ask forgiveness on behalf of your ancestors (which is what Kikawa did on his DVD of Japan that they endorsed). Apparently, it is the westerners that need to do this; I do not hear of others. I have an idea - why don’t they first try to redeem America’s culture, at least it has some biblical roots. But Kikawa wants to redeem the pagan cultures, as this will transform them into Christian. How? By Christianizing their ancient gods. I find this to be a destructive error. He dithers around words instead of looking at the substance. Don’t be fooled, this is not evangelism, this is ecumenism.

The goal, (not just in his book) is to redeem the ancient gods of the nations i.e. cultures. Rev.17 speaks of a unity of religion in the last days that corrupts the true religion. The Bible says a harlot is one that joins with other gods.

But Kikawa says some of these supreme gods are the true god, not other gods. YES, THEY ARE OTHER GODS! God says so. These are the gods of the nations the true God did not recognize, then, nor now. Micah 4:5: “All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.”

God says in Deut. 12:29-32: “…take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

Exodus 23:13 "Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips (NIV). Why say this if these other gods are the same god of Israel? Are there any exceptions? No, not one. In the Old Testament, what did Israel do to people who led the people to worship other gods? They took this as a serious offense; shoudn’t we?

Does God answer your prayer if you invoke another god? This something the church better get straight very quickly.

Deut. 2:25: “This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven” Why? Because the nations would see the true and living god with Israel and know their god is not the same. In the last days we read, Zephaniah 2:11: “The LORD will be awesome to them, For He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth.” All, not some.

Other nations or peoples (Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, native Americans) were NOT worshipping the God of Israel. Something that Kikawa cannot bring himself to admit. Eph. 2:11-12 “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)—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.” The Olive Tree represents the place of spiritual blessings of the Jewish Covenants. In this tree there are two types of branches; the Jewish believers are the natural branches that correspond to the very nature of the tree. The wild olive branches are the Gentile believers, which are grafted in to the natural branches broken off because of unbelief (in Jesus).

2 Samuel 7:23-24: “And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name-- and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land-- before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods? For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, LORD, have become their God.”

1 Chronicles 17:24 So let it be established, that Your name may be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God.”

This is the choice people will have to make because now we have a doctrine teaching people under missionary organizations like YWAM to seek the former supreme god and make him the god you call on. Just as 2 Timothy 4:4 states, “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (myths).

Kikawa repeatedly states that the devil is not a creator God. He neglects to understand that just because something is called the creator by a person or a culture does not make it so. He expects us to accept, as he did, that every supreme creator who lived in the sky and is benevolent is the God of the Bible. That is what I call incompatible to the nth degree.

Kawika: “Well, what’s been made known through many chants and writings even oral history, we could find it a lot in Auntie Malia 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.” (Connecting point, Interview by Wayne Cordeiro)

This is why this can’t this be possible. While some may claim these are Bible truths found in other religions, portions of what was once known early on, I have to propose another view. Two other options: that these are later editions put into their culture, by assimilation or something far more insidious. The Devil knows the Bible and is certainly capable to put obscure statements in other religion’s teachings; planning to the future he can then cause confusion. Certainly, it is He that would want a false god to be worshiped as the true one. Just because a god is called the creator does not make him the true God. (Benevolent supreme god[s])

Daniel Kikawa’s modus operandi for his myth of the universality of god: “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. We should instead introduce Jesus as the Son of their creator God.” (Perpetuated in Righteousness, p.27 Daniel Kikawa.)

Then Jesus is not from the Hebrew lineage, which changes the God of the gospel. This perpetuates pride to have people think they knew God as Israel knew God without any of the direct revelation that necessarily took place over the many hundreds of years. It is far better and honest to tell them they do not know God and find a bridge to explain something of this God they do not know than to make them feel good about their idolatry. Think of what Jonah did that got the results. He is the only example the Bible gives of a culture converting. Jonah did not go in and tell them your god is benevolent and you should start reflecting his character; he told them to repent. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

And Paul says, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." (2 Cor.11:4)

1 Thess. 1:8-9: “For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” The New Testament has no mention of any supreme god of a culture being the God who actually made of heaven and earth; they are ALL called idols. Richardson’s and Kikawa’s theory is completely divorced from the Scripture. Paul was aware of those so-called supreme gods in heaven as he was idols on earth: 1 Corinthians 8:5-7 “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.”

Kikawa has spawned and spinned ancient false gods into the true God by the weave of his pen. How this construct can make sense, people, is beyond comprehension, it does not support itself by the authors quoted nor in history and it fails miserably when one read’s the Bible in its context. As we have demonstrated, he discriminates the use of quotes (pt.2) to obfuscate the actual research of the authors. Don’t be carried away by his postscript corrections of religious history.

1 John 5:19-21: “and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. This is not just individuals, it would include cultures

I don’t believe Kikawa will stop doing any of this. He will adjust his story as he has done before. After all, there’s always another culture’s god to redeem. Yours may be next.