Pachacuti, king of the Incas from 1438 to 1471, restored one of the temples of the god worshipped by all his people – the sun. But he began to have doubts. He noted that a mere cloud could dim this ‘god.’ The sun did nothing but the same thing over and over, acting more like a laborer than a god. His observations brought the conclusion that the sun is neither universal, nor perfect, nor all-powerful. In Inca tradition there was a vague memory of Viracocha, the omnipotent Creator. Pachacuti’s own father had had a dream in which Viracocha reminded him that he truly was the Creator of all things.
Deciding that the Creator, not the sun, was worthy of worship, Pachacuti met with the sun priests. He told them that the Creator is supreme and uncreated. He made all spirits and all peoples by his word. He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes but otherwise he is surrounded only by archangels and heavenly warriors. He warms the world through his created sun. He brings peace and order. He is in his own being blessed and he has pity on people’s wretchedness. He alone judges and forgives and enables people to overcome their evil tendencies. From now on, Pachacuti commanded the aristocracy, the sun was to be regarded, like humanity, as created and that prayer was to be directed to Viracocha with awe and humility. (33-41)
In the 1880’s, Pu Chan, a Wa tribesman, persuaded several thousand of his people to abandon headhunting and spirit-appeasement. He said the true God was about to send the long-awaited ‘white brother with a copy of the lost book’ that had been part of their folk-lore from time immemorial. If the brother learned that the Wa people were doing evil things, he might consider them unworthy of the true God’s book.
One morning Pu Chan readied a Wa pony, and told some of his disciples to follow it. He said that the previous night the true God had told him that at last the white brother was near. God would cause the pony to lead them to him. The pony started walking. Surely it would simply stop at the nearest stream. To the disciples’ amazement it kept going. On and on it went for about 200 miles over mountainous trails and down into the city of Kengtung, then turned into the gate of a mission compound and headed straight for a well. The disciples looked all around. No white man. No book. Hearing sounds in the well, they peered in. From the dry well a white face greeted them. Did he have a book from God? Yes! Before long about 10,000 Wa people had given their lives to Jesus. (87, 102-104)
(Of course, there’s nothing special about being white. It’s just an historical fact that for some people groups it was white people who first brought them the Gospel.)
The Gedeo were a half-million strong Ethiopian tribe who believed in Magano, the benevolent, omnipotent, Creator of everything. And yet few prayed to Magano. They were far more concerned about trying to appease Sheit’an, an evil spirit. They felt they did not know Magano well enough to be free from this evil spirit. One day, however, a Gedeo man, Warrasa, prayed that Magano reveal himself to the Gedeo people. Then followed a vision in which he saw two white-skinned strangers erect temporary shelters under a certain sycamore tree near Warrasa’s hometown, Dilla. Later they built more permanent shiny-roofed structures. Warrasa had never seen either type of dwelling before. A voice told him that these men would bring a message from Magano. During the next eight years other Gedeo soothsayers prophesied that strangers would soon arrive with a message from Magano. At the end of 1948, missionaries Brunt and Cain planned to set up base far from Dilla but the political climate forced them to decide on Dilla. So two white men erected tents under that very sycamore tree Warrasa had seen in his vision. Events continued to unfold in accordance with the vision. Today there are tens of thousands of Gedeo Christians. (54-56)
‘What happened among the Gedeo is by no means an isolated incident,’ writes Richardson. ‘Incredible as it seems, literally thousands of Christian missionaries down through history have been startled by exuberant welcome even among some of the earth’s remotest peoples! Folk . . . anticipated the coming of message-bearers for the true God almost as knowledgeably as if they had read about them in the morning news!’ (56)
The Mbaka believed that the Creator revealed to their ancestors that he had sent his Son into the world to do something wonderful for all humanity. Their ancestors, the folklore continues, later turned from the truth about the Creator’s Son and in time even forgot what he had achieved for humanity. Since then successive generations longed to know the truth about the Creator’s Son. All that they could learn was that messengers, who would probably be white, would eventually come to restore the lost knowledge. One day those messengers arrived and the Mbaka embraced the Gospel. (56-58)
In 1795 an English diplomat received an usually friendly welcome from the Karen people. Through an interpreter they asked if he was the ‘white brother’ they had been expecting for countless generations. If he were, he would have with him a book that their forefathers has lost. It was written by Y’wa, the Supreme God, and it would free them from their oppressors. The diplomat shook his head.
Burma was home to about 800,000 Karen people and living in perhaps a thousand of their villages were people they esteemed as prophets of the God they called Y’wa. These special teachers kept reminding the people that the ways of the evil spirits that most of them followed were not the ways of Y’wa and that one day they must fully return to Y’wa’s ways. They rigorously opposed idolatry, and the Karen people refused to succumb to centuries of strong Buddhist influence. (73-77)
Here is one of their hymns:
Finally the white man they had been expecting arrived, opened the book and found it to be Christian – the Book and Common Prayer and the Psalms. The missionary affirmed it was indeed a good book from God, who alone should be worshipped. Their faces lit up, but darkened again when he explained they should not have worshipped the book. The tribesman who had gained honor as custodian of the book surrendered his status and became a humble follower of Jesus, along with tens of thousands of his people. (95)
In southwestern China several hundred thousand Lisu expected a white man to one day arrive with the book of the true God written in their own language. The amazing thing is that as at that time there had never been a written form of their language. Of course, it happened and they responded. (89, 105)
Richardson cites evidence of an ancient belief in China and Korea that there was just one God and he must never be represented by idols. This belief seems to have predated Confucius by over 2,000 years. By about 1000 BC, however, religious leaders so emphasized God’s majesty and holiness that they decided that the Emperor was good enough to worship him just once a year. Everyone else was forbidden from worshipping God directly. (63)
In the late 1860s two missionaries began preaching to the Santal people, of whom there were about two and a half million. Suddenly Santal sages excitedly declared that this new teaching must mean that the ‘Genuine God’ had not forgotten them after all. It turned out that these people believed they originated from the direction of what we call the Middle East and that their ancestors traveled with a knowledge of the Genuine God, until they came to some impassable mountains. In desperation they made a covenant to serve the spirits of the mountains if the spirits showed them a way through the mountains. Soon after they found a pass (the Khyber Pass?). Because of their oath, the Santal began appeasing spirits and engaging in sorcery until all knowledge of the ‘Genuine God’ was lost except the name. The thought that Jesus could heal the rift between their race and the ‘Genuine God’ moved them so greatly that tens of thousands became Christians. (41-48)
There are very many other stories from around the world. This one comes from Bruce
E Olson’s book Bruchko, Altamonte Springs, Florida, Creation House, 1978,
pages 132, 139-140, 152. The Motilone people believed that a long time ago a false
prophet deceived them, leading them away from God and now they were unable to find
their way back. They had a legend that a prophet would come carrying banana stalks
and God would come out of the stalks. Upon questioning this belief, Olson was shown
a banana stalk like the one mentioned in the legend. Suddenly he realized that the
stalk looked like the leaves of his Bible. This significantly increased the natives’
interest in the missionary’s message.
Years before he had heard of missionaries, Adiri received dreams and visions in which he was
convicted of sin and apparently converted. Heaven and hell were revealed to him. Near death because of illness, One appeared to him announcing that he was the mediator between God and man, and telling Adiri to go to missionaries for instruction.
(Source: The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1896: 519-523, referred to in Strong’s
Systematic Theology: 844)
You might say, ‘Ah, but missionaries were involved!’ Yes, for two reasons. First, if this
had happened centuries before the arrival of missionaries, we would never have heard
of the event. In other words, who knows how many times such incidents have been repeated
in unrecorded history? Second, would God have let Adiri remain in ignorance of so many
other spiritual truths when missionaries were so close? Moreover, I believe missionaries
are always God’s preferred option, because the enormity of his love for his children drives
him to seek our involvement in his work. Christ died to make us royalty, and he longs for us
to start acting like it right now by sharing in the most important work in the universe.
Even when no obvious human intermediary is involved, I believe God is working through
the prayers of his people.
What prompted Don Richardson’s research into the religions of primitives is itself an amazing story. He bravely brought his family to live with cannibals for whom treachery was their highest virtue. This Irian Jayan tribe delighted in befriending strangers and showering them with kindness for months until their unsuspecting victims felt totally safe and accepted. Then they would suddenly kill and eat them. So perverse were these natives that when Don shared with them the Gospel story, Judas became their new hero. Jesus was the dupe to be laughed at. It seemed impossible for Gospel light to penetrate their darkened minds. Then tribal war broke out and Don threatened to leave unless they made peace. They wanted Don’s medicines, so they decided on a truce. Richardson began to wonder how a peace settlement could ever take place between people who esteemed deception. A man sadly gave up his baby boy and offered it to the other tribe for adoption. For as long as the son lived, there would be peace. Don, seeing the connection, exclaimed that Jesus was the Peace Child given by God to the world. Suddenly, the natives saw everything in a new light. To kill a Peace Child was a grave offense. They knew that a person giving up his son was a person to be trusted. Because Christ lives forever, peace with God is possible. Don found other ‘Christ-foreshadowing beliefs’ in their traditions. Everything began to fall into place. It was not too long before they were building a church to hold a thousand people.
This experience made Don wonder whether the Lord has similarly seeded into the religions and traditions of other Gospel-ignorant peoples concepts that would prepare them for receiving the Gospel. He made some fascinating discoveries.
The above is no substitute for reading Richardson’s books, which contain valuable additional details. Bracketed numbers in the text below indicate pages in Eternity in their Hearts from which the information was taken.
Startling examples from around the world of God working in the lives of heathen peoples and preparing them, often centuries in advance, for the coming of the Gospel.
The Incas (South America)
The Wa (Burma)
The Gedeo (Ethiopia)
The Mbaka (Africa)
The Karen (Burma)
The omnipotent is Y’wa; him we have not believed.
And another:
Y’wa created men anciently;
He has perfect knowledge of all things.
Y’wa created men at the beginning;
He knows all things to the present time.
O my children and grandchildren!
The earth is the treading place of the feet of Y’wa,
And heaven is the place where he sits.
He sees all things, and we are manifest to him.
Y’wa formed the world originally.
In 1816 a Muslim made contact with some Karen people. He was not very light skinned but upon questioning they discovered that he had a book he said was from God. The people were so interested that he gave it to them as a parting gift. For twelve years they venerated that book and kept constant vigil for the teacher who would one day give them understanding of the contents of the book. (76)
He appointed food and drink.
He appointed the ‘fruit of trial.’
He gave detailed orders.
Mu-kaw-lee deceived two persons.
He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of trial.
They obeyed not; they believed not Y’wa . . .
When they ate the ‘fruit of trial,’
They became subject to sickness, aging, and death . . . (78)
The Lisu (China)
Korea and China
The Santal (India)
The Motilones (South America)
A native in Dutch Guiana (now Suriname,
South America)
About Don Richardson
Some books by Don Richardson:
Peace Child Ventura CA, Regal, 1974
Lords of the Earth Ventura CA, Regal, 1977
Eternity in their Hearts Revised Edition CA, Regal, 1981, 1984
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