Kikawa’s whole concept is one big generalization that does not take into account the actual history of each nation. He assumes that if they have a name for a supreme god (one of the heavens, which are often called sky gods) who is benevolent then that this is sufficient to make the case for Romans 1. All religious systems grew out of men turning away from the truth. Noah’s worship was pure and was handed down but degeneration quickly took place. Monotheism led to polytheism and then to further corruption with creature worship. Though these cultures may point back to the beginning of history, what they really have are distortions of the Biblical account of the deluge in Chinese, Hindu, Egyptian, Greek or South American traditions. Nearly all systems of religion contain some supreme deity above the others or have a parent deity causing (born or created) sub-deities. This is why God made Israel a Theocracy and gave them the true record. That through His people the whole world would know the truth.

Paul makes this declaration in Romans 3:1-2:

Most importantly (which is intentionally overlooked), God formed the Hebrew people entrusting them with what he wanted mankind to know about themselves and Him. The concepts and teachings of these gods are so corrupted that there is no real resemblance to what is presented in the Bible. The Bible proclaims Israel as recipients of God's favor, while all other nations remained in idolatry, becoming more corrupted as time went on. In these cultures there is no one god (that is Triune) that is separate from all other gods, or did not create other gods. Nor is their god the sole creator of all things, controls all things, and previously existed before all things, being Himself uncreated. He is not described as being infinite, eternal, having all knowledge, knowing the future in advance and is able to give specific details of it to man. Paul asserts that, “all things were created in Him” (Christ) and “all things stand created through Him and unto Him.” (Col. 1:16).

There is no culture's religious background that is to be integrated in one's faith and practice of Christianity. This view of cultural syncretism does not take into account cultures whose religions are demonic in nature, which the majority are. God desires man to freely worship Him but he must do it correctly, in truth. To say that these foreign names of god are the same God is absurd.

YWAM has put into practice these new cultural “evangelization” concepts which are every bit as wrong as their Moral Government teaching. “Redeeming cultures” is now an accepted practice (as is apologizing to reconcile them).

What if one’s culture is connected to their religion, like Islam? Where does the Bible teach to redeem cultures that are fallen? We are to preach the gospel to people. Anything more than this is a personal preference.

Having stories of a creator does not guarantee or remotely approve that they were (are) worshipping the true God. We know the names of the supreme gods these cultures had and we know what they were like. These gods come with historical and spiritual baggage and cannot be separated from their past history of those cultures. These gods have a completely different way to relate to their god[s] to appease them. Acceptance of their cultures myths and god[s] implies the Bible is only a better myth.

Kikawa’s intention is to make people comfortable by having them keep their own god’s name and the culture that was supposedly formed by him.

No one knows for sure if all the legends and mythologies attributed to these ancient gods were kept in their original state. As additions were made, they probably gave expansion to even further corruption. Let’s go over a partial list of the various creator gods of the people throughout the world that are supreme gods (some are similar and may be duplicate names).

Chuku (Africa): Supreme god of the Ibo peoples, the creator god from which all good comes from him.

Kalunga (Africa): supreme creator god of the Lunda people.

Kalumba (Zaire): creator God of the Lumba people.

Kombu (Africa): Creator god.

Bumba (Africa): the Creator god of the Boshongo in Zaire.

Deng (Africa): Creator and sky god of the Dinka tribe.

Umvelinqangi (Africa): Creator god of the Zulu.

Massim-Biambe (Africa): the Omnipotent creator god of the Mundang people in the Congo.

Hunab Ku (chief Mayan god): Supreme god and creator of the world.

Kukulcan (Mayan): Supreme god, pictured as a feathered serpent.

Bitol (Mayan): One of the seven Mayan creator deities.

Ometecuhtli (Aztec): Creator god and the highest god of the Aztec pantheon.

Pachacamac (Inca): creator of the world.

Naryana (Hindu): The original supreme being who is associated with the original man and with Vishnu. Brahma (Hindu) Creator god.

Dharma (Hindu): Originally a creator god, but is no longer.

Tvashtri (Hindu): Creator god of the Vedas.

Atum (Egypt): Creator of the world and Primordial sun god.

Takami-Musubi (Japan- Shinto belief): The Primordial sky god and creator of living things.

Izanagi (Japan): Primordial god of the sky and the creator of everything good and right. His wife Izanami who is goddess of the earth and darkness died in childbirth and became goddess of the Underworld and the dead.

Anam'melech (Babylonian): “Anu is king” Anu was the Babylonian god of the sky.

Kane (Hawaii): Creator god.

Panku (China): Primeval being who formed the world.

Tai-yi (China): The supreme deity of some Chinese mythologies.

Tao-de tian-zong (China): Heavenly ruler. He teaches the wisdom of the Tao to earthlings.

Nelsons Bible Dictionary states:

Pick any one of these Supreme gods and see if they match ANY of the qualities, in detail, of the God of the Bible? You will find immense differences. And let’s not forget the creator goddesses: Citlalicue (Aztec): Dziva (Africa): The creator Goddess of the Shona people and Amaterasu of Japan.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the gods in these cultures that Kikawa claims are the creator God and see if they have any resemblance to the true God presented in the Bible.

Obviously, Kikawa is disappointed that they did not use the native name of the Chinese God as the other cultures do. Again, names represent the one that stands behind that name. They are not just names of nation’s creator gods but there are personalities behind them. In the eighth century the first Christian missionaries to China arrived. Instead of utilizing any of the lingering monotheistic belief, missionaries introduced a completely foreign name to the Chinese as the God of the heavens. They emphasized that the God of the Bible is foreign and different from any God the Chinese had heard of before. China continues to enjoy a revival throughout its land.

There is also FO-HI: The first Supreme Ruler and God-Emperor of China, born about 3,468 B.C. TAI-YI is also known as the Supreme Sky God of Ancient China.

Yuan-shi tian-zong (China) “Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning,” literally the creator of all things in Heaven and earth who is considered eternal, limitless and invisible. If we were to isolate the description it almost seems that we could say we have a match—almost. He is one of the pure ones, the so-called San-qing and resides in the Heaven of Jade Purity. It is believed that he came into being at the beginning of the universe as a result of the merging of pure breaths. He then created Heaven and Earth.

Legend tells that he existed before everything, having formed himself from pure QI energy.

Of course none of these descriptions are a problem for those who mix and match gods like Kikawa is teaching. He can glean some of the qualities that are similar in the Bible and ignore the rest.

Then there is also “Yu the Great”. Da-yu is called, “Master of the Way.” He was said to be the son of the Sky God. Here we have another similarity—until we find that he is sometimes portrayed as half-man, half-dragon, but later portrayed as all human. He, like others are national deities. He started out as Yuan-shi tian-zong’s (Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning) assistant. When Yuan-shi tian-zong retired, Yu became the main deity. Yu started out as the son of a mortal king and was a mortal himself. When his father died, Yu became king.

What about Allah?

The Arabic Bible does use the word Allah, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. Unfortunately, Jesus Christ is called the son of Allah in the Arabic Scriptures. Consider John 1; the word was with Allah and Allah was the word does not seem remotely acceptable to me no matter what Bible translator is doing this.

Some claim that Allah was used before Islam. The Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151 was discovered at St. Catherine monastery in Mt. Sinai in the 1800's. It is the oldest Arabic translation of the Bible in existence is from 867 AD. That is over 200 years after the advent of Islam, there is no Arabic Bible found before the 9th century.

Every Muslim knows that the Qur’an states God does not beget nor have a son. If this name represents God’s nature differently in its original religion then it cannot or should not be applied to the God of the Bible. Muslims, at times, may claim that Allah is the same as Yahweh when it’s advantageous. But they do not allow Christians the same claim, that Yahweh is Allah, since to us Yahweh has a son and is triune in His nature. He is the God who loves Israel and gave them his oracles (Rom.3:2). Allah does not correspond to being the God of Israel since the important points of His nature and activity need to be denied. The true God chose Israel and loves her, Allah does not.

Allah is believed to be the generic word or term for God. History shows us that Allah is the name of a well-known deity among the pagans before Mohammed even challenged the people with his brand of monotheism. It is not the generic term as the English word for God, or like the French Dieu, the German word Gott, or the Spanish Dios. The generic word used for God throughout the Qur'an is Ilah, Allah is for The God, the God of Mohammed. Islam's position is that God has one name only and it is “ALLAH.”  The name Allah is not a god of a nation, or even a culture, but a specific religion—Islam. In other words, to a Muslim God is Allah.  Other names are not acceptable, so this does not fit well in Kikawa’s theory.

The Qur'an uses Allah as a proper, personal name.  The first pillar of Islam, when they recite the shahada is: “there is no ilah but Allah (there is no god (il-lah) but God (Allah), and Muhammad is his messenger.”

If “Allah” were a generic Arabic word for god as some want us to believe it seems that it would have been written: “There is no Allah but Allah”. Arabic Christians that use the name Allah are carrying the name of a God who has repeatedly given the opposite message contrary to the Bible. To substitute Allah for the name of God in Bible or use any other ancient gods name brings confusion and perpetuates the religion this God is originally from.

Kikawa makes the case in his book Perpetuated in Righteousness that ‘Io, the supreme God of Hawaii is the same as Yahweh. He calls “Mighty 'Io the Creator of All Things.” “Io the Eternal.” Maori scholar Peter Buck writes, “This exalted personage was Io, who created all the processes of nature and caused the ahead existing gods to be. He was given various titles of which Io-matua-kore (Io-the-parentless) indicates that he himself was the very beginning. The old theology had a sky of ten successive levels, but the new version added two more and placed Io in residence in the highest heaven” (p.274 Vikings of the Pacific, Peter Buck).

‘Io the parentless is also named the self-created who then created all the other gods. He allegedly created himself. This is why He is parentless. How can this be considered the God in the Bible.

This is not the Godhead in the Bible where they are all equal. Kane is superior to the other two. In Kepelino's Traditions of Hawaii it states:

Can gods make other gods? This is not related to the Bible account at all.

Can Kane be the God in the Bible if he is created? Almost all ancient cultures had a supreme God the leader of the pantheon. This is not a true monotheistic belief in one God. Tane of Polynesia is Kane in Hawaii. H. T. Whatahoro in The Lore of the Whare-wananga says that there are 70 gods.

Roman Catholicism came to Korea at the end of the 18th century, and the first Protestant missionary came a hundred years later:

Only if the Koreans God is the same as the Bible would their worship be acceptable. In a list of 28 Korean gods, Hananim is the Sky God and Hananim is the Supreme God of ancient Korea (http://www.houseofenlightenment.com/korgod.html). There is no creation myth in the Korean collections. What we have is from the 12th and 13th centuries. In the Korean myths we have a son born to a son:

Korean shamanism has ancient roots. It is closely related to the primitive cult of communal worship rites offered to the gods of heaven and is infused with Buddhist tradition. Belief in a world inhabited by spirits is why Korean shamanism seeks to solve human problems through a meeting between humanity and the spirits mediated by the shaman. Hanullim ("Sky" or "Supreme Being", the power that manages the periodic changes of the entire universe. The cosmogonic goddess Solmundae Halmang (Grandmother) is the creator of the islands, mountains, valleys, hills, and rivers on Cheju Island, Korea.

There is a rather unorganized pantheon of literally millions of gods, spirits, and ghosts, ranging from the “god generals” who rule the different quarters of heaven to mountain spirits (sansin). This pantheon also includes gods who inhabit trees, sacred caves, and piles of stones.

I came across this article that summarized Korea’s previous and present religious history:

Amenominakanushi- Japan

Who is Amenominakanushi? According to the Kojiki he was the first kami (deity) to come into being at the time of the creation of the universe. This is the god Kikawa says loves them, a created god among others. The Kojiki is one of the two primary sources for the Shinto, the Japanese national religion. It starts in the realm of myth, with the creation of Japan from foam. Innumerable gods and goddesses are described. Shinto is a Chinese-derived word which means “the way of the gods” (Shin= gods; To, from Tao= the way).

In the video Catholicism is passed off as genuine Christianity. He also misrepresents the Kojiki of Japan to try to syncretize the two belief systems.

Kikawa quotes the preface to the Kojiki:

He intentionally ends this quote here and excludes what comes next:

Unfortunately the Kojiki from which he quoted (B.H. Chamberlain, translator 1882) does not say this. He changes the words and adds his own meaning to form his Christianized version.

Kojiki: “The names of the deities that were born in the Plain of High Heaven when the Heaven and Earth began were the deity Master-of-the-August-Center-of-Heaven; next, the High-August-Producing-Wondrous deity; next, the Divine-Producing-Wondrous deity. These three deities were all deities born alone, and hid their persons. The names of the deities that were born next from a thing that sprouted up like unto a reed-shoot when the earth, young and like unto floating oil, drifted about medusa-like, were the Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder deity, next the Heavenly-Eternally-Standing deity. These two deities were likewise born alone, and hid their persons. [emphasis mine]

He conveniently (purposely) forgot to include the next sentence where there are two other deities.

“The five Deities in the above list are separate Heavenly Deities”  (p.15, The Kojiki).

Despite the fact that these three separate deities came into existence by being born (not procreated by parents) Kikawa tries to Christianize the Japanese myth to be like the Bible, showing Genesis 1:1-2 as a comparison. He puts on the screen a portion of the Kojiki to make his point of the three Japanese deities as being equal to the Genesis 1:1-2 account: “In the beginning elohim (literally the gods). Biblically the trinity created the heavens and the earth.”

Elohim means gods?  Is this what Gen. 1 is actually saying? Elohim is only translated gods (in plural) for false gods, not for the one true God. The Kojiki says they all came into existence and they are three deities. Kikawa is endorsing tritheism by his interpretation of three gods. Besides, there are actually five in the Japanese pantheon (along with many others that were birthed).

This is nothing in the Kojiki related to the account in Genesis except for some similar words. God was not born and He existed before heaven and earth were created. If these deities were born in the plain of high heaven then they did not existed before they came into existence.

Amaterasu is actually the most important of the kami (deity). There are generations of deities. In Shintoism there is a Younger sister deity but no only “begotten Son” or Son that was eternally with the Father.

We do not worship God under a different cultures name, because it is advantageous to use the name of their god, who is a god of another culture’s history. Anyone can find some word, some practice, in nearly every culture that would have a similarity if they strip it down to the bare minimum and shuffle enough stories and names around.

Christians use the Biblical names of the Lord, not pagan names, but names that truly represent Him. 

Using other names, as if they are representing God, is profaning His name. The Name represents the One behind it, His nature and ability. The names of these culture’s gods are not transliterations of the true God’s name, they are names of false god’s that should never be connected to or attributed to God’s only begotten Son, our Savior who died for them. The Lord is called the Holy One of Israel, not the holy one of Korea, Japan, China or anywhere else. Though He is the Savior to people in every land and culture, God says in prophecy: