HAVE WE FAILED AGAIN? A CHA LLENG ING DISCUSSION BY AN EX-"G-I"
By Robert Knight, Biola ’51
T O underestimate one’s enemies is to invite disaster! How often this state ment has been proven true in the last ten years! As related to Japan, I fear that we have been guilty of underesti mating the strength of the opposing forces in regard to the preaching of the gospel. I am no pessimist and I hope that I throw no shadow of doubt on any one, but let us face reality in realizing just what we are going to have to over come in order to fulfill our missionary task in Japan. Let us first admit that we have been too late with too little! The years 1946- 1949 were golden years and precious in their opportunity. They are gone! In three years We have managed to get less than eighty evangelical missionar ies into Japan. Rome has sent her thou sand and more . .'. Why have we failed? We have failed to reach the masses. Most missionary activity has been cen tered around great cities, while the rural areas and out-of-the-way places have barely been touched. Millions of souls in thousands of villages have never heard the name of Jesus. Why? We have not accurately estimated the 1 opposition and as a result have not put forth a concerted effort worthy of our calling. For every convert to Christ there are several times that number going into some other program that has promised something to cling to. We have left “ the house clean and swept” and the enemy, finding it vacant, has brought back “ sev en demons” more powerful and wicked than himself. The history of Christian missions in Japan is unique. There have been many glorious victories, but some records that are not too pleasant, the shadows of which are beginning to fall on present- day activities. Meddling in politics re sulted in the first “closed door” policy. Capitalist exploiters pried them open at gun point and the church was al lowed to go back in. Then the swing in Christian mission circles to the “ social gospel” resulted in a religious exodus and near collapse of all the work accom plished up to that time. This happened at the time when conservative leaders were saying “ another generation, and Japan will be Christian!” The early 1900s found the doors open as never be fore, but still only a trickle of mission ary labor. Then the armored fist of the militarist behind the guise of the most incredible myth and fantastic hoax ever perpetrated took over. Plans for world conquest were carried out by a people longing for security and hope. As a result of our failure to give that which satisfies, World War II came down upon us in all its fury and destruction! . The end came more quickly than we thought. Man’s inhumanity to man knew no limits in that conflict. Our third, and I sincerely believe, A P R I L , 1 9 5 0
JAPAN with an estimated population of 80,500,000 is one of the most challenging missionary fields of the present day. General MacArthur is pleading for missionaries and for Bibles for this needy land.
our LAST chance to reach Japan with the gospel is at hand. What are we do ing? Are we fulfilling our Christian duty? No! We have miserably failed thus far! Oh yes, there has been much accomplished in some sections through various agencies and we do not mini mize their efforts, but if the tremen dous field now open is to be evangelized, it must be done NOW. Why? Let us look at a few things that are clouding up the horizon. More than one million Communists in Japan and the number growing daily; thousands being converted to Roman Catholicism each year; more Catholic churches being erected all the time; modernism, and its counter-part, neo-orthodoxy, spreading rapidly with their faith-shattering teach ings. Nearly four- times as many liberal as conservative missionaries are enter ing the country. Shintoism is being revived and fanned into flame again. It is being resurrected out of the ashes, and'is creeping back into its old place. At a recent New Year’s Day at Ise Shrine, 11,000 people came to pay their respects to the deities. One shrine . . . one day! Buddhism is making an all- out effort to regain its former popu larity. Last, but not least, and perhaps most dangerous, we find that the spirit of Bushindo and the “ Divine Right” are far from dead! They are latent . . . only waiting! On August 16, 1945, we heard broadcast over the J.B.C. Kusuo Oya . . . “We have bowed . . . how ever . . . we have not lost yet. We do not think that the way we have thought has been wrong . . . we have lost, BUT this is temporary!” Another broadcast over the Tokyo Broadcasting Station, JOAK, AFTER the surrender, “ The light of the ideal enkindled by the war . . . will keep burning despite the tragic finale of the conflict!” Perhaps the saddest and most con
demning fact is that some of the mis sionaries have failed to make their “ light shine.” “Man looketh upon the outward appearance” to be sure! Peo ple who do not know our language can read our lives! Being a “hakujin,” (Caucasian), I take full liberty in at tacking the superiority attitude taken by many white missionaries. Nothing can throw up barriers faster than a failure to FULLY identify and associate your self with the people you are to serve. Our beloved brother, Seiji Horiuchi, has strongly stressed that point, and right fully so. A recent remark was made by a Japanese national to a Caucasian missionary, “ If you people of the West were only as good as your Book, we would speedily accept your religion." What a shameful rebuke to any people! Again I repeat, this “ holier than thou” attitude cannot be too bitterly spoken against. Neither time nor space allow me to fully cover the subject. This has not been a polemic against anyone in par ticular, but a challenge to the Church as a whole. The - question remains, “ What are we going to do about it?” If we have faith to believe we can evangelize Japan, where are our works? At the rate we are going it will never be done! I believe that now even ten thousand missionaries could not evan gelize the country in this generation! I hope I am wrong! This is not a de7 featist attitude, but cold, clear facts show we have failed thus far and shall continue to fail in the future UNLESS . . . within the next several years the church of Christ starts a full-scale first century Christian offensive on a scale as yet not seen in any country in any generation! Christ has promised the power . . . His church must do the preaching! It’s up to us—NOW OR NEVER! We will Be held accountable if we fail! Page Nine
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