Indigenous People Issues
a warning about
the “World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People”
by Sandy Simpson,
Pacific Waves Newsletter, June 2002
I grew up in
the islands of Micronesia.1 I have never seen, in all that time, a
movement with such destructive potential to evangelism in the Two-Thirds World
as the World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People. This movement will usher in a new era of
unrepentance from former pagan cultures and religions. I will be using Micronesia as an example of
the efforts and effects of the WCGIP movement.
More than
two-thirds of the world today is made up of non-Western indigenous people
groups. This is why outreach to and by indigenous peoples is of vital
importance today.
The indigenous
peoples of the Micronesian islands were first introduced to the Gospel in 1852
in Kosrae and Pohnpei by missionaries from the American Board of
Commisioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) founders of the Hawaiian
Missionary Society. The Hawaiian islands were first introduced to the
Gospel in 1820 by the ABCFM, and later sent a team to Micronesia which included
ABCFM missionary families Gulick, Sturges and Snow accompanied by Hawaiians
Daniel Opunui and wife Doreka and Kaaikaula and wife Kekela. They brought with
them a letter of introduction from King Kamehameha. The Snows and Opunuis were
given land on Kosrae and stayed there as missionaries. Later the gospel spread
to Western Micronesia primarily under Liebenzell Mission (LMI) that first sent
missionaries to Pohnpei in 1906. The gospel was spread from island to island by
LMI missionaries accompanied by indigenous Micronesian island Christians. Since
that first introduction of the Gospel to the islands, that were deep into
worshipping other gods, the indigenous churches that were planted by the
missions were eventually nationalized. LMI is now working alongside the
evangelical churches of Micronesia in partnership. It has long been the goal of
LMI to disciple and encourage the evangelical churches to become completely
self-sustaining, to disciple their own island groups using their own
methodology, and then to reach out to other islands and the world with the
Gospel message. This has been encouraged since the early days of LMI mission
work and continues to be encouraged today, and indigenous mission work has been
ongoing by national churches for decades. But, as is always the case in every
area of the world, there is still much to be done. This article was written to
encourage the churches to continue to fulfill the Great Commission because the
time is short. We must all work together to get the Good News to every nation,
tribe and tongue.
But it was also
my unpleasant duty to write this article in order to warn the churches of some
“indigenous people movements” that are not biblical. The World Christian
Gathering on Indigenous People (WCGIP) is a front for the Third Wave and
will not only divide the churches but is fostering bigotry and animosity
against their partnerships with historical Western mission organizations.
I will prove these statements in this article using the WCGIP leadership
teachings. All churches in Micronesia would be well advised to tell their
people to avoid the upcoming WCGIP in Hawaii in October of 2002, as well as
other similar gatherings like the Many Nations, One Voice celebrations.
These gatherings are being promoted by Youth With a Mission (YWAM) and
were the subject of a ten-part radio program on “Word To The World” by Danny
Lehmann, director of YWAM Honolulu.
One additional
note before I get any further into this article: I have made contact with the
leadership of YWAM, including the director of the Pacific area, over some of
the issues raised by this movement. I am sad to report that I have received
only one negative response and, otherwise, no response at all. I have also
written to Richard Twiss and Terry LeBlanc asking for an explanation of their
views but did not receive any direct response to my questions. When events like
this are promoted publicly those involved must expect public scrutiny.
Some directors of discernment ministries have talked to WCGIP leadership on
separate occasions regarding some of these issues, but they have been
unreceptive and, in most cases, unconcerned about trying to effect needed
changes in groups like YWAM. I’m sad about that, but I must warn the churches
to stay away from YWAM and other promoters of the WCGIP.
The
series of Word To The World radio programs featured three of the key
leaders who are promoting the WCGIP. Those men are Richard Twiss, a Lakota
Sioux Indian from Wiconi International; Leon Siu, a native Hawaiian of Aloha
Ke Akua; and Terry LeBlanc, director of My People International, a
Micmac/Acadian Indian from Canada and also Director of Aboriginal Programs in World
Vision Canada. I warn the churches of Micronesia that, though the goals of
these men and their organizations sound lofty, the fact that they all have a
connection to the Third Wave and C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation is
not well known. This is evidenced by the endorsements the WCGIP leadership have
received from them and their meetings. These gatherings are an entry level into
the false doctrines of the Third Wave, no matter how culturally aware and
politically correct they may sound.
That is because the views taught and expressed in this movement came
primarily out of Fuller Seminary and from the writings of people like Charles
Kraft, John Dawson, Don Richardson and many others.
Some
of the stated goals of these gatherings is to teach indigenous peoples that God
is “redeeming cultures”; in fact that God “created cultures”. The claim is that
the gospel was already evident before Western missionaries came in contact with
indigenous cultures. Therefore Western missionaries, et al, are primarily
blamed and must repent of bringing Western culture with them which ruined the
godly societies God had already put in place. So the goal is for indigenous
people groups, now called “First Nations”, to get together and assert their
“redeemed” cultures by way of regalia and cultural shows throughout the world.
The reasoning is that they are the only ones who can effectively reach out to
the Two-Thirds World and finish the task of “world evangelization” which will
usher in the return of Christ.
These ideas are
riddled with false assumptions. First of all there is NO mention in the Bible
about “redeeming cultures“. God will redeem the nation of Israel, but today He
is in the business of redeeming individuals, people! Cultures are the
“traditions of men” which the Bible tells us are in opposition to the commands
of God. (Mark 7:8-9)
The second
erroneous assumption is that missionaries are mainly responsible for turning
indigenous cultures toward Western culture. It is true that Western
missionaries were coming from a Western perspective and sometimes made the
mistake of teaching Western cultural values instead of Biblical ones. But a careful study of history will show
that sailors, whalers, traders and others who plied their trade in the islands
were often the ones who caused most of these problems. It must also be taken
into account that island peoples welcomed the modern world conveniences and are
only now waking up to the fact that with those conveniences comes an inevitable
loss of a simpler island lifestyle and some aspects of culture. Are Western
missionaries then the main people to blame? As you will see, according to these
WCGIP representatives, the answer is “yes”.
The third false
idea is that putting on cultural shows can somehow further the Gospel message.
It can certainly attract people, but the Gospel must be clearly preached,
otherwise it just becomes a secular exercise in First Nations’ unity.
The last false
idea being presented is basically Dominionism, as often espoused by YWAM and
these men. It teaches that we must Christianize the whole world before Christ
comes. It is important to understand the use of the term “world
evangelization”. Though it sounds like the word “evangelism” it bears little
resemblance to preaching the Gospel to all nations. It is really talking about
Christianizing and “redeeming cultures” and preparing the world for Christ to
return because allegedly He won’t come back until this Christianizing work is
done. But the Bible is clear that the end times will see a great apostasy,
a falling away, rather than a great revival. Then Jesus Christ will
return bodily to rule and judge the earth and set up His Kingdom. Yes, the
whole world will hear the Gospel message before Christ returns, but it is also
clear from Scripture that few will answer that call.
I want you, the
reader, to be aware of where the men mentioned in this article are coming from
theologically. I will give you some quotes from their radio interview and let
you know a little of what they believe.
Richard Twiss,
one of the guests on the radio show, was on the 700 Club show with Gordon
Robertson (Pat Robertson’s son) recently and in an interview he told Gordon
that the Great Spirit of the Indians is the same as the Holy Spirit. Robertson
heartily agreed. The problem with this idea is that the Great Spirit has no
son, and without the son there is no redemption. The Great Spirit required
human sacrifices and other atrocities. Twiss is highly endorsed by the leaders
of the Third Wave on his Wiconi web site. He travels all over the world wearing
his Indian headdress, “dancing” his “prayers” to drums, chanting old Indian
songs and lyrics. He could be seen dancing in a video I have of one of the
early indigenous peoples gatherings in Colorado where people were dancing
around, stripping to the waist, and attempting to manipulate the spirit world
with their hands and music. Ancient Maori war chants were used apparently
without changing the words. Would Micronesian islanders use ancient chants,
where the words and meanings have sunk into obscurity, to do evangelism? How do
they know they are not summoning demons? Twiss said in his interview on Word
to the World:
“Indigenous peoples have perpetually been put in the position of the
mission field never fully recognized as been given gifts and callings and
anointings to be coequal partners …”2
There
are two false assumptions here that were used throughout the radio show. That
full transcript along with my comments is available online.3
One
of the false ideas is that indigenous peoples had “gifts and callings and anointings”
before the Gospel had even been preached to them.
The second is
that there are many “anointings”. There is clearly only one anointing of
the Holy Spirit that all true believers share, and that is the anointing of the
Anointed One, Jesus Christ.
Furthermore it
is implied that missions still don’t recognize the importance of indigenous
peoples in reaching the world with the gospel. That is patently false. LMI has
long encouraged, both in word and with finances, any mission efforts by
indigenous peoples. Twiss also states:
“...We’re introducing native leaders and native ministry
organizations to the greater body of Christ by partnering with people like Don
Richardson, John Dawson and George Otis …”4
This
statement clearly shows that the WCGIP is associated with YWAM (John Dawson)
and the New Apostolic Reformation (George Otis). Don Richardson, though he
wrote an interesting book about cross-cultural ministry many years ago, which
had some good ideas and some equally bad ones, has now apparently signed on to
the WCGIP bandwagon himself. He is an endorser of the book Perpetuated In
Righteousness by Daniel Kikawa, friend of Leon Siu, which we will cover in
a moment. The WCGIP is clearly an arm of the Third Wave as further evidenced by
the following:
“… And some exciting news. Mission America … at the last meeting in
St. Louis a decision was made that every November, for the Church from this day
forward, would be a celebration of First Nation’s history.”5
Mission
America is a coalition formed by the “8,000 churches and nearly 1 million
Lighthouses” of the Lighthouse Movement. This movement is a direct
brainchild of C. Peter Wagner and Ed Silvoso, and a way for the New Apostolic
Reformation to gather information on all the “Christian” churches of the world,
gaining control over them. The new “Transformations” movement is a part of this
scenario headed by Silvoso. Notice that now the “new apostles” like C. Peter
Wagner are dictating to the “Church” that the first Sunday of every November
will now be dedicated to First Nation’s history. I think it is great to have
churches involved in supporting mission work, particularly mission work done by
indigenous people, but now the “new apostles” think they can dictate calendar
dates for all the churches. It‘s obvious; they believe they are “God’s anointed
foundational apostles” upon which the whole Church will now rest. They forget
that the Church already rests on Jesus Christ and the Apostles of Scripture and
that they can never meet the biblical criteria for “foundational
apostles”. For further information on
this subject, order the Apologetics Coordination Team DVD series on the New
Apostolic Reformation.
Leon
Siu, also on the radio show, is a promoter of the ideas in the book Perpetuated
In Righteousness by his friend Daniel Kikawa, who was a main sponsor of the
WCGIP gatherings in Hawaii. Kikawa and Siu have a ministry called Aloha Ke Akua
on the Big Island of Hawaii. In Perpetuated In Righteousness Kikawa
makes up an elaborate mythology about Hawaiian culture claiming that Hawaiians
already were worshipping God in the form of the (bird) god “‘Io” long before
missionaries arrived (pg. 18, pp. 2). He claims that the Polynesian people were
descended from Israel (pg. 62), that they can trace their genealogies back to
Noah (pg. 72-73), and that they knew the gospel because it was written in the
stars (pg. 55). This is all fanciful mythology. Dr. Arnold Fructenbaum of Ariel
Ministries says of Kikawa’s work:
“To claim the Polynesian peoples “may have been part of the nation of
Israel for a time” is one of the more horrendous assumptions in the book. There
is absolutely no truth to this whatsoever”.
The
problem is that Leon Siu continues to pray to the god ‘Io as Jehovah. ‘Io is a
bird god. Micronesian Christians know that they were saved from
worshipping animals, fish, birds, rocks and trees as gods when they came to
know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The sin of trying to substitute YHWH
for other gods is not new. Israel itself went up into the high places to
worship YHWH in disobedience to the Law and ended up worshipping Baal there.
Leon
Siu is a musician who continues to play in bars and makes drums with carvings
on them for use in cultural hula events glorifying the false Hawaiian god
Pele. In the radio program Leon Siu stated:
“So these are clues that we felt God had left (the
Hawaiian people) and evidence that He’s left as well as processes He has left
in which our Hawaiian people can respond in a very natural way to God and
really set things right between them and God.”6
Siu
uses the same claims as Kikawa that the Hawaiian people had a way of
reconciliation with God prior to the arrival of missionaries. But how can they
believe without a preacher?
1 Cor. 4:4: “The god of this age had blinded the
minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, which is the image of God. “
Romans 10:14-15: “How, then, can they call
on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of
whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Throughout
these radio programs there seemed to be an “attitude problem” displayed toward
Western missionaries and virtually no credit given them for being the ones with
beautiful Gospel feet. Siu goes on to say:
“Way back 150 years ago when the gospel was first
came to Hawaii … immediately the Hawaiians set forth to become missionaries to
other places … so they actually, Hawaiians were ones that evangelized
Micronesia ...”7
You
would think that the organizers of a very large event like WCGIP could get
their historical facts straight for a radio program. The Gospel came to Hawaii
182 years ago. They did not set out immediately to Micronesia but some 32 years
later. The two Hawaiian Christian couples went along with Western ABCFM
missionaries. The Hawaiians did not evangelize all of Micronesia but helped
evangelize Kosrae, Pohnpei and the Marshalls. These missionary efforts were a
joint effort of the ABCFM and the Hawaiians. Missions in Micronesia continue to
be a joint effort, though the national churches are doing most of it today.
With misinformation are these third or fourth generation Christians trying to
create division in the body of Christ?
Terry
LeBlanc, also featured on the radio program, was openly critical of white Western
missionaries to the point of calling them names.
“...we don’t know what to call white people,
Caucasians or haoulis or Pale Faces …”8
Do
we really need name-calling in the body of Christ? Are we not to be fair and
loving to all, and not respecters of persons? LeBlanc also says:
“There’s a myth that we have labored under for
centuries in indigenous communities and the myth is that we are a godless
heathen people.”9
If
Canadian Indians are saved then they are no longer heathen and I know no Christian
who is claiming this. But LeBlanc is actually claiming that they were NEVER
heathen. This is patently false as they did not have the Gospel message and
were worshipping false demonic gods, including the false god the “Great
Spirit”. He goes on to say:
“And yet all brings glory to God in its own
special way, and that’s true of human beings and cultures as well.”10
Do all cultures bring glory to God? What about Nazi
Germany? What about Saddam Hussein and Iraq? What about cannibals in Papua New
Guinea? What about Iran and North Korea?
What about American culture? Does ANY culture bring glory to God? Not
even Israel is bringing glory to God today, let alone the Gentiles. We must
strive to evangelize individuals who will, in turn, try to effect change in
their cultures. But more importantly they need change in their own lives and
then to apply biblical precepts to any cultural activities in which they
participate.
Read
the article called A New Culture by Juanita Simpson, also available in
the June 2002 edition of the Pacific Waves Newsletter:11
LeBlanc
continues:
“God is now calling forth from among the
indigenous communities of the world that good deposit which He has made in them
of their cultures, their languages, their musical expressions and all that sort
of thing ... as an expression of praise and worship unto Himself.”12
God
did indeed “confuse” the languages at Babel, but He is not the originator of
cultures and musical expressions. Those must be brought into subjection to the
Spirit through the written Word of God by believers. Our cultures and
expressions of culture through the arts are certainly not God-instituted and
are fallen into sin in a multitude of ways. We can worship God as peoples and
nations from many cultures with our arts, but we must not mix what was
dedicated to false gods with our worship of Jesus Christ. Israel adopted the
cultural ways of nations around them to their disgrace. The Levites brought
strange fire before the Lord to their judgment. Uzzah and Israel ignored the commands
of the Lord in bringing up the ark to Jerusalem and Uzzah died. It’s a serious
thing to claim to love the Lord and not obey His commands. When we are
crucified with Christ we lay down our cultures and everything about us at the
foot of the cross (Phil. 3:7-9) and allow God to reshape us into the image of
His Son Jesus Christ.
LeBlanc
further mistakenly argues:
“Western cultures seem to be acceptable as they
are, as cultures in which we express our faith commitment to Christ, whereas
indigenous cultures are almost uniquely denigrated and set aside as culture
unacceptable in any way ..”13
I
don’t know where LeBlanc has been hanging out, but this is not true. If he had
visited churches in many countries he would know that expressions of worship
vary in many, many ways, and are often molded to fit more closely with cultural
ideas. No one thinks that Western culture is “acceptable”, at least no one in
this generation. There are many practices in the Western church that are a
legacy of Rome that should have been done away with centuries ago. Indigenous
people are not “denigrated” and “set aside”. Many indigenous churches today are
nationalized and have great control over how they worship the Lord and do
evangelism. The idea is to mold what we do to the law of Christ, the written
Word of God, so that in everything we do we are being salt and light to the
world. We must not just put on cultural floor shows to try to draw people
together into some kind of ecumenical unity.
Danny
Lehmann, director of YWAM Honolulu whose radio show Word To The World
featured these guests, has had a good past record as an evangelist. But his
organization, YWAM, is now promoting unbiblical doctrines and it is my
hope that he will either try to effect change from within YWAM or get out. I
have talked with a number of YWAM leaders on issues such as their endorsement
of and alliance with Benny Hinn and their anti-evangelism methods in dealing
with “Messianic Muslims”, but all to no avail. YWAM is now openly promoting the
agenda of the Third Wave as well as the New Apostolic Reformation. In fact I
would venture to say YWAM is one of the largest promoters of the NAR in the
world. Let’s look briefly at how Lehmann has obviously bought into the “world
evangelization” methods of the WCGIP, as he mentions that phrase himself more
than once in his radio show. He also gives bigotry a little promotion when he
states:
“The book of Revelation the Bible doesn’t say
we’re going to be all one block of one color of people, it says every kindred, tongue,
people, language and nation will be there, uh, languages, peoples and cultures
in heaven.”14
This
is a straw man argument. No Christian that I know of, with the exception of
certain cults, believe that only one color of people will be in heaven. Nowhere
does the Bible mention that “cultures” will be in heaven. When the Bible talks
about nations, tribes and languages it is referring to genus, people groups—not
cultures. Cultures are the traditions of men. The Bible warns us against the
traditions of men.
Mark 7:8-9: “You have let go of the commands
of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. And he said to them: “You
have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your
own traditions!”
Lehmann
also made this ridiculous claim:
“... Every nation will stand around the throne of
God … and some people will be playing diggerydoos and some people will be
playing electric guitars and some people will be dancing the hula.”15
So
there will be electric generators in heaven where God is the only light source?
Women will be swiveling their hips suggestively in front of God Almighty? This
brings up a point … if Christians might be embarrassed to dance the hula in
front of God, is it appropriate to be dancing this dance that was formerly a
dance to the false god Pele in churches? Lehmann goes on to state:
“I think this is true when we go into other
cultures and we talk to people that are especially from other religions and
they feel like, well they have to put on. Muslims, for instance, that you have
to sit on a chair in church or sit on a pew. Well, that‘s offensive to a Muslim
because they never sit in the presence of God in Mosques.”16
First
of all, we are to witness to Muslims. No Muslim has the presence of God in
their mosques and no one is forcing any Muslim to come to a Bible study and sit
in a pew that I know of. In fact, in most Bible studies today people are free
to sit on the floor. Try going to a Mosque and see what Muslims require you to
do!
But
the most telling aspect of this statement is that Lehmann makes no distinction
between Allah and God. This is exactly how YWAM is handling their
“evangelization” today by saying that Allah is God. In our last “Pacific Waves”
we showed that, without a doubt, Allah is not God. He is a false, vindictive,
evil god of hate, fear and death. Lehmann also says:
“… Several of these … redemptive analogies ... are
in most if not all cultures.”17
People
need more than an analogy to be saved. They need the Word of God preached to
them, and they cannot grow without it.
CONCLUSION
YWAM
and the WCGIP are bringing many cultures together for fellowship and sharing of
cultural differences and similarities. If this were their only goal it would be
fine. But there are agendas lurking just beneath the surface in this movement
that are to be avoided. The blurring of lines between the false gods of the
past and Jehovah God, YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the great “I
AM”, is reprehensible. The Third Wave manifestations in these meetings are
patently lacking the fruit of the Spirit of self-control and peace, and instead
glorify the traditions of men. The fact is that this movement is yet another
way for C. Peter Wagner and his false apostles to gain control of the churches.
I
want to be sure that those reading this article understand my position clearly.
I have been and always will be a champion for indigenous people movements,
especially when they are in the business of preaching the Gospel—to their own
“Jerusalem” first, then to their neighbors, then to the uttermost parts of the
earth. Much work is still left to be done in Micronesia and the rest of the
world. It’s going to take anyone and everyone who is a true believer to get the
job done. The harvest fields are ripe, but the laborers are always in short
supply. It’s my hope that those who have an interest in Micronesia will
dedicate themselves to the goal of reaching the islands for Christ.
But
I do not endorse movements that, for all their good intentions, are a mixture
of good, unbiblical and heretical theology. How can we effectively bring the
Gospel if that Gospel is tainted by the world, the flesh and the devil? We as
Christians must stand firm in the “faith once for all delivered to the
saints”. We must not get involved in ecumenical movements that look like
the world, act like the world and, instead of bringing the Word to the world,
are bringing the world to the world.18
Endnotes
1--By way of
introduction, Sandy Simpson is a commissioned missionary with Liebenzell
Mission USA working out of Hawaii primarily with Micronesian islanders from the
islands of Guam, Saipan, Yap, Palau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and the
Marshalls. He grew up as an MK in Palau where his family came out as
missionaries in 1962, learned the language and became so much a part of the
culture that he was even asked, at one point, if he wanted to become a Palauan
citizen. He has written music in Palauan as well as translated songs and
other materials, done concerts and preached in the Palauan language.
Since 1989 he has been working in Guam and Hawaii serving the people of the
Evangelical Churches of Micronesia in teaching Bible studies to Christian
leaders as well as doing counseling and visitation. He is also the
director of the Apologetics Coordination Team (ACT) of which the Deception In
The Church web site is a ministry. ACT was established to help island church
leaders grapple with the onset of the apostate Third Wave movement. He
read over 200 books on the history and culture of Micronesia and Polynesia in
the writing of a treatise on Micronesian music with a grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts and CAHA which is a video script detailing the use and
advancement of music in Micronesia. That treatise is available at MARC in
Guam. For those who disagree this little introduction was written so that you
could at least know where he is coming from and understand that he has a deep
knowledge of the islands, indigenous people, and this subject matter on which
he has spent the last decade studying.
2—Richard
Twiss, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, 2001, show #541
3—http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/lehmann.html
4—Richard
Twiss, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, 2001, show #547
5—Ibid.,
show #548
6—Leon
Siu, Ibid., show #544
7—Ibid.,
show #549
8—Terry
LeBlanc, Ibid., show #541
9—Ibid.,
show #542
10—Ibid.
11—http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/anewculture.html
12—Terry
LeBlanc, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, 2001, show #542
13—Ibid.,
show #544
14—Danny
Lehmann, Ibid., show #542
15—Ibid.,
show #544
16—Ibid.
17—Ibid.
18—Additional
note: Danny Lehmann has since taken
down the audio files for this program which were formerly on the Calvary Chapel
web site.
(http://www3.calvarychapel.com/honolulu/Chapel/Missions/lehmann/wtw.htm).
We have the full audio from the KLHT radio broadcasts and the transcripts. We
are prohibited from posting the audio files in their entirety because they are
copyrighted, but we quote from them for the purposes of proving that what they
are teaching is unbiblical. If you wish to procure the original programs you
will have to write to KLHT in Honolulu and request them.
