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.
