More False “First Nations” Teachings
On Genesis 11:1-9 (Babel) and Acts 17:18-34 (Mars Hill)
by Sandy Simpson, Apologetics Coordination Team,

May 2006

 

 

There is another pillar underpinning the false teachings of the First Nations Movement or Indigenous Peoples Movement (IPM) or whatever they are calling it these days. To better identify those teaching these things the reader needs to know that these are the people, backed by the leadership of the New Apostolic Reformation, who are putting on the various events worldwide called the "World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People" (WCGIP) and other names.  Here is a partial list of the events they have already sponsored around the world:

1st WCGIP - Whistler, BC, Canada, July 1995
"Inaugural" WCGIP Gathering - New Zealand, 1996
2nd WCGIP - Colorado Springs, CO, Oct. 24-25, 1997
WCGIP gathering (also called "second gathering") - South Dakota, 1998
3rd WCGIP - Australia, March, 2000
4th WCGIP - Hawaii (Honolulu Oct. 11-17, 2002, Hilo Oct. 6-9, 2002)
A Call To All Nations - Honolulu, HI, June 2005
5th WCGIP - Kiruna, Sweden, August 7-14, 2005
6th WCGIP - Davao City, Davao, Philippines, Sept. 11-17, 2006

7th WCGIP—Israel, 2008

THE TEACHING

This article is written to expose another false teaching based on a misinterpretation of Scripture, namely the Genesis 11:1-9 account of the tower of Babel. First let's listen to what Leon Siu of Aloha Ke Akua, a spokesman for this movement, has to say. He is simply repeating the teachings on this subject of his mentor, Daniel Kikawa of Aloha Ke Akua. Take note of the highlighted passages. I will deal with them later.

“Thank you, Danny (Lehmann). Aloha everybody. Its really a pleasure to be here.  Gonna be talkin' a little bit about Christian history. Actually not just Christian history but the history of God and His involvement in Hawaii from the very beginning of time.  If we go back to the book of Genesis we realize that God has been, He's not only the Creator God but He's also the creator of cultures and peoples.  At the tower of Babel where the people conspired to raise themselves up against God, God in His great mercy did not destroy the people.  Instead He scattered them, He gave them a separate language, He confused the languages, and then He sent them to different parts of the world so that there they might seek Him and indeed call out to Him and they would know Him by the creation around them.  So all the peoples at one time, all the peoples of the world, at one time knew the Creator God, not only that they knew Him by name.  He made Himself known through their language as to what they were to call Him.  And in Hawaii and in Polynesia His name was 'Io. 'Io the uncreated one, the highest one above all else.  'Io in the center of the greatest heaven This is a song that was written a few years ago on a retreat on the Big Island where a group of us got together and a Maori man, a songwriter, a minister, often with YWAM, his name is Luke Ka'a Morgan, anyway he put these together.  And he took his inspiration for the song from various phrases in Polynesian history, Polynesian chants, that refer to that one creator god, 'Io.  And the words go ... "'Io you are the father of all things, father of heaven. ... 'Io you are the water of life.  'Io you are the creator of life.  The maker of all things in all this world.  The rock.  The glorious mountain.  You are 'Io. (Chant begins in Hawaiian).1

 

THE HISTORY

To understand the nature of these Indigenous People’s Movement (IPM) teachings, we have to start back at the beginning of what the Bible reveals and work our way forward. The problem with IPM teachers is that they take Scripture out of context, and thus the undergirding of their movement is proven to be made of sand. In fact, in this case, it is toxic sands that will destroy the faith of those who need the pure Gospel message.

God created a man in His own image (Gen. 1:27). God then made woman from man (Gen. 2:22). But they sinned against God’s command (Gen. 3:6) and thus brought sin for the first time into the world (1 Cor. 15:22). Through them every man is born with a sin nature (Rom. 3:23, Col. 3:9) and because the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), every man is born destined for judgment (Rom. 3:20, Heb. 9:27). Man is sinful because of inherent, inherited sin nature and because of willful choosing to sin (Rom. 3:10). God had to cast Adam and Eve out of Eden (Gen. 3:24) so that they would not eat of the Tree of Life “lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22-23). Their first son, Cain, demonstrated his sin nature in disobeying the Lord and killing his brother Abel (Gen. 4:8). He was cast out from the presence of God, was “cursed from the earth” and made “a fugitive and a vagabond ... on the earth.” (Gen. 4:10-12). 

The entire pre-flood earth, called the “Ancient World” in the Bible (2 Pet. 2:5), became so corrupted with sin, violence and demonic activity (2 Pet. 2:4-5) that God had to wipe out all of mankind (Luke 17:27) with the exception of one family and the animals on the Ark (1 Pet. 3:20). There was only one man recorded to have walked with the Lord (Gen. 5:22) during the Ancient World before Noah and that was Enoch because of his faith in God (Heb. 11:5). Notice that God sought and called Noah and he alone obeyed the Lord in the Ancient World of his time (Gen. 6:8, 13). After the flood God commanded mankind, through Noah and his sons, to spread out and populate the earth.

Gen. 9:1  So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

But mankind stayed in a relatively small area of the Middle East and only a few generations removed from Noah, through Ham, Cush, and Nimrod (Gen. 10:6-8), congregated in “a plain in the land of Shinar” under the rulership of Nimrod. The fact that it was only a few generations from Noah is also backed up by the genealogy of Shem, Arphaxad, Eber, Peleg. The Bible talks about the Babel dispersion: “To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided” (Gen. 10:25).  It is also testified to in the genealogy of Japheth, Gomer, Javan when the Bible states about the dispersion from Babel: “from these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.” (Gen. 10:4-5). You can read more about Nimrod as a type of the Antichrist in the next chapter. Nimrod and the people of earth built a ziggurat, high tower or migdal in Hebrew meaning tower, castle, elevated stage (Strongs) with which to worship the created things (Deut. 4:19). These created things included the stars and even Nimrod and his wife. They did not worship God from that elevated stage. From the worship of Nimrod almost all pagan mythologies and religions have a connection, such as Marduk of Babylon, Osirus of Egypt, the Baals, etc.  Thus the nations carried away false worship rather than true worship of God. Towers are often mentioned in the Old Testament as places of heathen worship and God often commanded them to be torn down (See Judges). So God had to come down and judge mankind once again (Gen. 11:5). This judgment was necessary because the imaginations of mankind were continually sinful and wicked (Gen. 8:21, 11:6) and they had imagined themselves creating a civilization apart from the commands of God (Gen. 11:4). Since God had promised never again to wipe out mankind with flood, God came down (notice that He calls Himself “Us” which is another Old Testament allusion to His Triune Nature—Gen. 11:7) and He confused or confounded their languages (Gen. 11:7, 9). 

When they could not understand one another they could no longer carry out their evil plans to build a high place to worship the created things and create a civilization in opposition to God. So God, in confusing their languages, scattered them over the face of the earth (Gen. 11:9) so that they would carry out His commands even in disobedience. From there mankind spread out to every corner of the earth. But the Bible records that they did not seek the God they had already rejected at Babel. Instead the Bible is clear that they rejected God (1 Pet. 2:4), were without God (Eph. 2:12) and did not know God (1 Thes. 4:5, Gal. 4:8). God was a mystery to them (Col. 1:27), they had no hope (Eph. 2:12) and they continued in idolatrous worship (1 Cor. 10:20, 12:2).

It is with this background information that we can understand what Paul was teaching the Greeks on Mars Hill in context. It was always God’s intention that people would seek Him (Heb. 11:6) and find Him (Acts 17:27). He would never force them to do so because He created them with free will. But because of man’s sin only a few individuals, from the time of Noah to Abraham, had faith in God and, without exception, those few people are named and detailed in the Bible. The rest continued in godless heathen idolatry (Eph. 2:12). Because Abraham obeyed God’s call, the Lord began to reveal Himself to Abraham and his descendants exclusively (De. 29:29). Through Moses, God’s Law was revealed to Israel exclusively (Ex. 24:12) and only through faith in God and by following God’s Law as a Jew could one be saved before Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:11-12). After Jesus Christ died on the cross as the perfect Lamb Whose blood sacrifice atoned for sin, and rose again to provide us eternal life, the only way to be saved is to have faith in God's Son (1 Pet. 1:19), confess our sins and repent (1 John 1:9, Acts. 3:19), believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31) and obey His commands (1 John 5:3).  We are to preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15), put off the old man (Eph. 4:29, Col. 3:9), put on the new man (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10) and display the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

 

THE DECONSTRUCTION

 

Now we can deconstruct what IPM teachers are basing their blasphemous teachings on. I use the Biblical term “blasphemous” because ascribing other names to YHWH is blasphemy (Ex. 20:7, James 2:7, Rev. 17:3). Let’s take each highlighted sentence, in Leon Siu’s opening statement, and look at them from a Biblical standpoint. I will show that Leon Siu and others in the IPM, who have made similar statements, “secretly bring in destructive heresies” (2 Pet. 2:1), laying error alongside truth in order to deceive people because they themselves are self-deceived. Leon Siu made these statements in a church that has, heretofore, stood for sound doctrine. Yet even there if Christians do not exercise discernment they can believe statements like these and the blasphemous conclusion brought to them before the song, claiming ‘Io is God. But take a closer look at it from a Biblical point of view and you begin to see the evil these teachings hide.

“the history of God and His involvement in Hawaii from the very beginning of time.”

God has NOT been involved in the history of Hawaii from the beginning of time, at least not in forming their culture and religion as its Author. Of course God upholds everything by His Word (Is. 46:4, Col. 1:17, Heb. 1:3) but that is not what Siu is talking about. First, the Hawaiians cannot even trace their history back beyond the Polynesian islands without marked differences of opinion. It is impossible to even set an accurate date for when the first Polynesians found the Hawaiian islands.

“It is highly unlikely that the exact date when Polynesian people first set foot on these previously uninhabited islands will ever be known.”2

This is demonstrated by the differing ideas people have about the origin of the Hawaiians.

“First, from the Marquesas, came a settlement as early as 600 or 700 AD, and then from the Society Islands, another migration about 1100 AD.” 3

“Settlers who came to Hawaii 1,000 years ago, for example, are presumed to have come from the Marquesas, 4,000 kilometers to the southwest. There was some kind of pre-Polynesian population on the island, but it was probably absorbed by the newcomers. A second substantial wave of Polynesian migrants arrived 500 or 600 years ago.”4

“Anthropologists believe that Polynesians from the Marquesas and Society Islands first populated the Hawaiian Islands in approximately AD 300, followed by Tahitian settlers in approximately AD 1300 who conquered and eliminated the original inhabitants of the islands. These Tahitian conquerors preserved memories of their migrations orally through genealogies and folk tales, like the stories of Hawai'iloa and Pa'ao. Relations with other Polynesian groups were sporadic during the early migratory periods, and Hawai'i grew from small settlements to a complex society in near isolation.” 5

That being said, God was not in the business of forming the Hawaiian culture, their society, their customs, their traditions, and above all their religion. Hawaiians are hard pressed to trace their roots back to 600 A.D. let alone the “beginning of time”. We are all descended from Noah because there was only Noah and his family after the flood. Man rebelled against God before the flood and after the flood, and had to be dispersed in judgment at Babel. From the time of Babel to the present ALL Gentile nations did not know God through any special revelation, nor did they even have hope (Eph. 2:12). They might remember that God created the earth. They might have a vague recollection of the flood, though not accurate as demonstrated by the many flood myths around the world as compared to the Biblical account. There is a very slight chance they might even understand that God created man in His image. This means they did not know God. God was not involved in the Hawaiian culture from the beginning of time. This is a lie designed to attempt to make a culture, which was sinful and heathen, into something that is “good” after the fact. ALL GENTILE CULTURES WERE HEATHEN! 

 

The word for heathen in the Bible is ethnikos which means “heathen, heathen man, adapted to the genius or customs of a people, peculiar to a people, national , suited to the manners or language of foreigners, strange, foreign, in the NT savouring of the nature of pagans, alien to the worship of the true God, heathenish, of the pagan, the Gentile” (Strongs).  In the Old Testament the word nokriy means pagan,stranger, strange, alien, strange woman, foreigner, outlandish” (Strongs). This was used in reference to the Gentile nations who were foreigners to the covenant of God with Israel (Eph. 2:12, 19).

“He’s also the creator of cultures and peoples.”

 

Cultures are the traditions of men (Micah 6:16, Mark 7:8-9, Gal. 1:14). God did confound the languages of men, which all came from one language, and by that act they could no longer communicate with one another and were forced to spread out and populate the earth as God had told them to after the flood. In doing this, God did not “create” a bunch of cultures. He sent people groups out to where they were supposed to be to later be in proximity to Israel after He dispersed the Jews (Deut. 32:7-11). But they clearly did not know God and developed their own heathen cultures based on idolatry they brought from Babel. To ascribe to God the charge of having “created” heathen Gentile cultures, from which ALL Gentiles originate, is an affront to a holy God. This assertion by Siu is also a good example of laying error alongside truth. God did not “create” cultures. But God did create people and put within their seed the ability to continue to procreate, while God breathes life into them at birth and sustains them through life. This type of false teaching method is what fools people. They accept one true proposition, and swallow the false along with it.

 

“He gave them a separate language, He confused the languages”

 

Here again we have one false and one true fact. The Bible does state that God confused or confounded the languages. That word in Hebrew is balal from which the name Babel is associated. It means “to mix, mingle, confuse, confound” (Strongs). But the Bible does not say God “gave them” separate languages. We have to be careful to use Biblical terminology. Yes, in a sense God did “give” them separate languages, but to be accurate and not leave the wrong impression, since we do not understand the way in which God did this, we must use Biblical terms. Notice that the Bible uses the word balal and not nathan or to give, put, set” (Strongs). That is significant as the Bible is accurate in every word it uses in the original languages (Matt. 5:18). IPM teachers try to use this act of confounding languages to prove that God “created cultures”, but in the case of languages, the Bible says that He mixed, mingled, confused and/or confounded them.

 

“and indeed call out to Him and they would know Him by the creation around them.”

 

This assertion is taken from Acts 17.  But there is nowhere in Paul's discourse on Mars Hill where Paul is guaranteeing that Gentiles knew or would know God. The Greeks had sought many gods and did not find God, nor were they interested in finding Him once Paul told them about Him. Men do not naturally call to God, seek God or know Him. You cannot have a relationship with God based on general revelation such as creation. All the way from the time of Babel men changed the immortal God for worship of the created things (Rom. 1:25) and ALL Gentile nations were doing the same.  There are very few notable single exceptions to this, such as the case of Job (Jobab?) and Melchizedek, both likely from the line of Shem. In the case of Melchizedek he was likely either a Christophany (an appearance of the preincarnate Christ in the Old Testament) or Shem himself, as Shem was still alive during the time of Abraham. In any case, these people are named and we are told about them in the Bible.

For an explanation of the misuse of Acts 17, which I need not go over again here, please go to that chapter. But let me briefly note what this passage really teaches as opposed to how it is being used in the IPM. It is clear from the outset that the Greeks knew nothing about God and stated as much to Paul.

Acts 17:18  Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
Acts 17:19  And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
Acts 17:20  "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean."

Paul was bringing them news of an “unknown God”, not one they knew about.

Acts 17:23  "for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

God did create all life, including mankind, and continues to uphold it with his power.

Acts 17:25  "Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

God created one man from the dirt and one woman from man and so every human is related by blood.

Acts 17:26  "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

The writer of Acts, Luke, was quoting from the Old Testament. We can understand the context of Acts 17:26 by reading Deut. 32:7-11.

Deut. 32:7-11  "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

God was setting the boundaries for the nations according to the children of Israel so that the Gentile nations would end up in proximity to Israel and thus possibly come to know the God of Israel. It was not that God was creating nations and giving them “promised lands”. He was going to spread Israel out among the nations as a witness from the establishment of Israel till the incarnation of Jesus Christ. After Jesus Christ the message of the Gospel would be spread through Jews and Gentiles who had come to understand and believe in the mystery of the Gospel.

God is omniscient; therefore, He knows and has ordered where people will be. He has set the times of their living on earth and where they will live. He knows all these things and all things are according to His Will. But this does not mean that every man follows Him, knows Him, is His child (John 1:12) or is saved.

Acts 17:27  "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

God spread people out from Babel because they had disobeyed the Lord.  If they had stayed together there would have been no way they would have ever had a chance of finding God since they were already into idolatry and worship of the created things. So since God is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9), He sent them away from one another in groups so that another disaster like the flood would not have to happen. But the facts from Romans 1 are that men did not seek God. They instead traded the general revelation they had of God for worship of created things (Rom. 1:25). Of course, God is never far from anyone as He is omnipresent, and He is never far from those who cry out to Him in faith. But how are they to know how to be saved without the Gospel and one to preach it (Rom. 10:14)?

Acts 17:28  “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Acts 17:29  “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

God sustains all living things.  This is not saying God is in all of us (Pantheism), that we are all little Gods (Benny Hinn), or that we are all saved. The poets were correct in saying we are His “offspring” because we are made in the image of God.  But the IPM teachers try to make “offspring” sound like we are all “children of God”. There is only one way to become a child of God and that is to be born again (John 1:12). But men, like the Stoic philosophers of Paul’s day, were trying to make God in their own image. This has not changed today. God is the only One who is Divine. We, the creation, are not the Creator, nor do we share in His Divine nature, His indwelling Holy Spirit, unless we are born again (2 Pet. 1:4).

Acts 17:30  “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

The point is that men have sinned, they have worshipped false gods and they did not and do not know God unless they have a revelation of His Son through the Bible or someone preaching the Gospel. Notice that this is the part of the verse that IPM teachers do not quote. What they are doing is trying to credit God for ungodly cultures and religions to take the blame off where it belongs ... on sinful people!

Acts 17:31  “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

You mean God will judge His “offspring”, His creation?  Yes!  Those who do not believe in His Son, in this day and age, are on their way to hell. This is further proof that the word “offspring” is not talking about the “children of God”. God cannot be our Father unless we believe on His Son (Gal. 4:6).

Acts 17:32-33   And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them.

Godless Gentiles, like these Greeks, when confronted with the Gospel, prove they do not know God because they reject His Son. This is still true today. The sticking point is always the Son and His resurrection. Our God is alive in Jesus Christ! You cannot simply spiritualize Jesus by claiming some pagan god is a type of “Jesus” like IPM leaders do.

May the Father, Adadoda, who is the Creator, Adanehilahusgi, and His Son, Tsisa, bless you with perfect peace and favor by the power of the Holy Spirit, Yohewa (Great Spirit). 6

Richard Twiss, president of Wiconi International and keynote speaker at the 2001 conference, said the land restitution is "the fruit of following traditional indigenous protocol in presenting the redemptive message of faith and hope in Jesus Christ as Healer, Great Spirit and Chief Shepherd of all tribes and nations." 7

All the gods of the nations are myths, are demonic, and on their way to destruction, including ‘Io and, sadly, those who worship him (Ps. 4:2, 2 Pet. 3:7).

Acts 17:34  However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Acts 18:1   After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth.

A few will find the narrow gate and the narrow road (Matt. 7:13-14) when the Truth is presented to them, but it is never large numbers. Today we are seeing large numbers of people believing lies and myths from IPM leaders while they claim to be preaching “the Gospel”. In point of fact they are turning people away from YHWH and His Son, Jesus Christ, back to false demonic gods like ‘Io.

 

“all the peoples of the world, at one time knew the Creator God”

 

The Bible says they knew of Him(his existence) by general revelation only, but vitually all people and ALL people groups from the Ancient Times to the present day DO NOT KNOW GOD (Gal. 4:8). So this statement by Siu is a false statement. It is clear from the eyewitness accounts of Scripture, breathed by the Holy Spirit, that FEW men have EVER really known God. Remember also that God “called” men to Himself (Rom. 8:28), and a few obeyed. It is also clear from history that Hawaiians did not know God either. Even this “secret” ‘Io cult did not allegedly, according to Kikawa, share their knowledge with Hawaiians who continued and continue today to worship false gods. So even by Kikawa’s false argument he disproves his own theory. All you have to do is go look at the latest 2006 International Cultural Summit here in Hawaii sponsored by practically every Hawaiian government and Hawaiian society to see that (1) ‘Io is not even on the radar screen and (2) they still worship other false gods and goddesses like Pele. The cult of ‘Io in New Zealand among the Maori was also a cult syncretized by two men, one of whom wanted to mix Christianity with his pagan religion so as to not lose their influence in their culture and religion. Even the last priest in Hawaii, Hewahewa “the Kahuna nui under the reign of Kamehameha I” found out from sailors that there were people coming to Hawaii to tell tales of a man named Jesus doing great miracles. He pretended to prophesy the missionaries were coming yet “Hewahewa may well have invented this story as a means of ingratiating himself with the missionaries”. He wanted to help them so that he could find out how to do the “Jesus magic stuff” he had heard about. When he realized later on that Christians were simply preaching the Gospel and he was losing his hold over the Hawaiian people, he reverted back to the pagan Hawaiian religion.8

A few web sites out there have obviously bought the myth of Hewahewa recounted by Daniel Kikawa (Leon Siu's pastor) in Chapter 9 of Perpetuated In Righteousness, about him being a “prophet” of God.

“Hewahewa, being the high priest, knew the Prince of Peace was on his way. ... Hewahewa knew the prophecy given by Kalaikuahulu a generation before. This prophecy said that a communication would be made from heaven (the residence of Ke Akua Mooli, the God of the Hawaiians) by the real God. ... Hewahewa also knew the prophecy of the prophet Kapihe, who announced near the end of Kamehameha's conquests, "The islands will be united, the kapu of the gods will be brought low, and those of the earth (the common people) will be raised up." ... Therefore, it was quite prophetic that, when he saw the missionaries' ship off in the distance, he announced "The new God is coming." One must wonder how Hewahewa knew that this was the ship. ... At Kailua, Hewahewa gave an even more astounding prophecy, he pointed to a rock on the shore and said to the new king, "O king, here the true God will come. ... Hewahewa later retired to Waimea, O'ahu and became one of the first members of the church established there. This church is now located in Haleiwa and is called the Lili'uokalani Protestant Church."9

There are also non sugar-coated versions of the end of Hewahewa. When you read another account below you will realize that Hewahewa's motivation was not unlike Simon the Sorcerer’s in the Bible, and that he was apparently never really saved.

In October of 1820, when missionaries from New England arrived at the same spot on the same beach from Hewahewa’s vision, the big Kahuna was there to meet them. He welcomed the new Christian priests and their “gods from far high places.” However, it soon became evident that these “white Kahunas” possessed little, if any, real magic. “The blind and sick and halt had been brought before them and had been taken away, still blind, still sick and still halt,” Long wrote. “Something was amiss. The Kahunas had been able to do much better than that, idols or no idols.” Hewahewa still hoped to see the powerful magic of these new arrivals. When the missionaries said they needed a temple, he and his crew helped to build one of cut stone, thinking that the creation of sacred space would enable them to perform their miracles. “But, when it was at last done and dedicated, the missionaries still could not heal, to say nothing of raising the dead as they had been supposed to do.” Evidently, this was the last straw. Soon afterwards, when Hewahewa was urged to convert to Christianity, he refused and returned to his native spirituality. At the same time, he ordered his fellow Kahunas back to their native healing practices..10

Like so many people today, pagan priests were looking for signs and wonders when they ought to have first learned to place their faith in Jesus Christ who is the only one who really does Divine miracles. The “signs and wonders” the kahuna were doing were not Divine miracles, they were “lying signs and wonders” (Mark 13:22, 2 Thes. 2:9) designed to trap (2 Tim. 2:26) people deeper into false religion.

“they knew Him by name.  He made Himself known through their language as to what they were to call Him.”

If the Hawaiians, assuming they could even begin to trace their roots back to Babel, knew God “by name” then ALL Gentile nations would have been worshipping God by the name He used at Babel.

Ge 11:9  Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

That name is Yahovah or YHWH.  Strong defines this name as: “Jehovah = the existing One 1) the proper name of the one true God.” If ANY Gentile nations carried away the name of God from Babel, then there is no evidence of it whatsoever in history. Why? How could they have known His name when it had not yet been revealed! Only Israel later came to know that God was called the “I AM”, YHWH, through Moses. 

 

So the facts are that no Gentile nation knew the name of God from the beginning of the world or from Babel. They had no relationship with Him as they had been sent away in judgment partly because of the false religion they had started at Babel which included the worship of Nimrod. They had to later have had contact with the Jews, been circumcised and believed in YHWH or they would have had to wait until the Gospel was preached everywhere in the world (Mt. 24:14) to learn about YHWH and His Son, Jesus Christ.

 

“in Hawaii and in Polynesia His name was ‘Io.”

 

This is simply a myth made up by Daniel Kikawa, and does not even jive with what the anthropologists and Hawaiian scholars state. To read more about this, so that I don't have to cover this subject again, go to Mike Oppenheimer's excellent chapter on Kikawa’s book “Perpetuated In Righteousness” on this subject. Let me just quote a few scholars, that Daniel Kikawa cites out of context, to put this myth to rest. Here is the truth about ‘Io in Hawaii:

I had come to the conclusion that 'Io (Hawk), would be a hawk-god as a result of perusing much of the same material. It seemed obvious that the hawk was named for its note: `io'io in Hawaii, and Iciolcio in the Tuamotus and the Cook islands, means to chirp like a chick. Kepelino, writing in 1859 (10, p.2G5) says of the hawk, “It is named for its cry.” The hawk, then, which does not occur elsewhere in tropical Polynesia, was named for its cry, and not for a god named 'Io.11

Here is what the experts say about ‘Io in the Maori myths:

Anthropologist and researcher Peter Best did not believe the supreme being of the Maoris was based on Christian teaching. Because “There would have been some analogies or some rendering of the old Scriptural myths.” However he goes on to say “ Nor is there any resemblance between the Io of Maori myth and the somewhat truculent Jehovah of the Old Testament12

Peter Buck, whom Kikawa quotes in his book to support his theories, actually stated the following:

“Moreover, he and other scholars were suspicious of the fact that both Te Matorohanga and his scribe Te Whatahoro had become Christians before details of the Io cult were written down. Buck himself concluded that no authentic proof existed for the concept of a supreme creator named lo, Kio or Kiho in Eastern Polynesia before dispersal to the various island groups took place13

 

 

“‘Io the uncreated one, the highest one above all else.  ‘Io in the center of the greatest heaven.”

 

Just because a nation, a Gentile culture, chooses to ascribe great titles to their supreme being gods does not make them YHWH.  As a side note, Leon Siu is mixing up what is ascribed (by Daniel Kikawa and not the Kojiki) as an attribute of Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi with ‘Io by saying “‘Io in the center of the greatest heaven”. Daniel Kikawa, on his “God's Fingerprints In Japan” states that “Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi ... means the God in the glorious center of heaven”. This is a syncretism within a syncretism! The Kojiki actually states that this false god’s title is “Divine Lord of the Middle Heavens and god of the Pole Star”.14  He is not even the high god of Japan. That would be Izanagi and Izanami, male and female deities, who spawned the rest of the Japanese false gods.

Let's take only three cases of “supreme beings” and there are many, many more I could cite.

The case of Amen (Aman) of Egypt.

Amen, Aman or Amon was the “supreme being” of Egypt.  Notice a few of the similarities ascribed to Amen by his worshippers that also belong to the true God, YHWH.

“Primeval Creator God mentioned already in the Pyramid Texts (5th Dynasty) as a primeval deity whose shadow protects the other gods. His female counterpart is Amaunet. He is often called “The Hidden One” which shows an association with invisibility. The ancients regarded him as being behind and in all things, a deity too complex to describe in one name or even possible to depict in his true form. Therefore another name was “He who abides in all things”. ‘Hidden of aspect, mysterious of form’ or the ‘ba’ of all things are other epithets. They also called him ‘asha renu’ which means 'rich in names.”15

Yet God said that this “supreme being” was judged. Was YHWH judging Himself? Ridiculous! He was judging yet another false demonic god trying to set himself up to be worshipped as God.

 

Jer. 46:25  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings—Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

 

The case of Hadad of the Arameans.

 

Hadad, the false god of the Arameans, was ascribed basically the same attributes as YHWH because there was a long-standing rivalry between those who worshipped the Baals, of which Hadad was one, and Israel who worshipped the true God.

 

“While El or Il, whose name means ‘god’, is commonly described as the creator of the earth, the Arameans ranked Hadad before him. (http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/canaanite-faq.html)  Baal Hadad (alternately, Adad) is portrayed as a god who dwells within the darkness of a thundercloud, whose thunder is his voice, and whose rains, initiate the Flood that destroys all mankind. (http://home.comcast.net/~theseeker/Yahweh.htm)  Hadad was the supreme Baal or God of Fortresses, whose worship extended southward from Carchemish to Edom and Palestine. At Damascus he was adored under the Assyrian name of Rimmon. (http://www.clydelewis.com/dis/sungods/sungods.html) Hadad. Hadad was a prominent god among the Arameans, Syrians, and other west Semitic peoples. The name appears especially in the Edomite genealogy of Genesis 36 and in the history of the two Israelite kingdoms to the downfall of the northern kingdom in 722 b.c. Hadad was the deification of natural forces and war. He was viewed as the god of the storm, who displayed his power in thunder, lightning, and rain. He was credited with both the good (desirable) and bad (undesirable) sides of storms. He was regarded as the origin and regulator of the beneficial rains, making him the principle of life and fertility. The Assyrians saw him as a mighty warrior-god. He was portrayed as standing on the back of a bull, wearing the horns of the bull on his helmet and wielding a mace and thunderbolt.”16

 

Just because a god is given some attributes of YHWH does not make him the true God.  The Bible is clear about Hadad:

1 Kings 20:28  The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD (Hadad) is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

Remember that Hadad was the “supreme being” of the Arameans above El.  Israel was judged because they did not fully destroy the Arameans and their worship of the false “supreme being” Hadad.

Is. 9:11-15  But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD Almighty. So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; the elders and prominent men are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

The case of Marduk of Babylon.

The god of Babylon was Marduk. Note the “godly” attributes ascribed to him by his followers.

Marduk (Merodach) was called “lord of Babylon.” ... “lord god of heaven and earth.” ...  According to one version of the creation story Marduk was the one who has created us. ... The chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia. As such, he was called simply Bel, “Lord.” His name probably of Sumerian origin, is of uncertain meaning. He was given all the powers and prerogatives of all gods, because it was his mission to conquer the monster of the primeval chaos Tiamat - the first Satan in history. He becomes "lord of the gods of heaven and earth, king of the gods of heaven and earth, king of all gods and kings and lord of all lords." All nature, including man, owes its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects is in his hands.17

And yet those who worshipped the true God, YHWH, refused to bow down to Marduk or any statues made in his honor or of Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 3:16-18  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

What do we learn from these few examples? There is only One God in Three Persons, and His Name is YHWH. His Son's name is Yeshua Ha Mashiach or Jesus Christ. His name is not Amen, not Hadad, not Marduk, not ‘Io, not Ama-No-Minaka-Nushi or ANY other “supreme being” of the nations. He revealed Himself exclusively through His chosen people, Israel, to whom God committed His oracles (Rom. 3:2) culminating in Jesus Christ being incarnated, dying and rising again. Today the Gospel must be preached for men to have a relationship with God.  There is no other way.  But Leon Siu seems to think there is:

“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.”18

 

“a Maori man, a songwriter, a minister, often with YWAM ... he took his inspiration for the song from various phrases in Polynesian history, Polynesian chants, that refer to that one creator god, ‘Io.”

 

In the end, all Leon Siu has is myth upon myth. We are supposed to believe that this song, concocted by a YWAMer, is “history” and accurately reflects what the Hawaiians believed about “God”.

“Thank you Danny.  Aloha everybody.  Its really a pleasure to be here.  Gonna be talkin' a little bit about Christian history.  Actually not just Christian history but the history of God and His involvement in Hawaii from the very beginning of time.”19

But the fact is that this is just a case of syncretization. It is clear that this Maori pastor took his inspiration from the mythologies of people like Te Matorohanga and his scribe Te Whatahoro, and from Daniel Kikawa to write this song about a false god. On top of this disgrace, he chants this song without fully translating it for an English-speaking audience so they don't even know what he is singing (1 Cor. 14:28).

 

“The rock.  The glorious mountain.”

 

Finally, in this short clip, ‘Io is ascribed names like “the rock” and “the glorious mountain”. Only Jesus Christ is the Rock, the Cornerstone (Eph. 2:20), not a literal rock. God is also not a literal mountain, nor is He described as such in the Bible. God has dwelt at the sites of mountains in the past (Ps. 43:3, 99:9), and His temple is called a “mountain” (Is. 2:2), but God is not a mountain. God is not His creation, as the American Indians, Maoris and many other cultures believe. God is separate and distinct from His creation (Is. 40:22, Acts 17:24). This is an important point to make among cultures that tend toward pantheism.

 

THE CONCLUSION

 

When will this all come to an end? Only when the Lord comes back and defeats the forces of Satan, the "Zeitgeist", the spirit of this age that is at work to bring people back into slavery to false gods like ‘Io and bring them together into a false apostate world religion.  This stuff is, for lack of a better term, blasphemy—especially when it is allowed to take place from the pulpit of a church. Yet this is what we are to expect in this age of apostasy (2 Thes. 2:3), great delusion (2 Thes. 2:11)—a falling away from the faith and a following after the coming Antichrist.

 

2 Pet. 3:14-18 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation——as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

 

What has long been the command for those who follow YHWH with regards to other gods?

 

Exodus 23:13  "Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips. (NIV)
Exodus 23:13  "And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. (NKJV)

 

 

 

Endnotes

 

1—Leon Siu, interview by Danny Lehmann, Calvary Chapel Komo Mai, 4/06

2—Hawaiian Roots, http://www.hawaiian-roots.com/hawaiihistory.htm

3—Ibid

4—An Outline of American Geography, Chapter 17, Hawaii, http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/geography/geog17.htm

5—Hawaii, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii

6—http://www.injesus.com/Groups/ViewMessage.cfm?MessageId=YA006JT4&GroupID=SA006ILX&UCD=hjn

7—Richard Twiss, Charisma Magazine, October 2004, http://www.charismamag.com/a.php?ArticleID=9744

8—http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/kona/history5a.htm; http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ku/ku03.htm; http://www.gonorthshore.org/history.htm; http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_8_114/ai_n15696923/pg_3

9—Daniel Kikawa, Perpetuated In Righteousness, The Makahiki Symbol, http://www.wovoca.com/prophecy-hawaii.htm

10—http://www.alternativeapproaches.com/altapr/aahuna1.html

11—Journal of the Polynesian Society, The Hawaiian God Io by Kenneth P. Emory

12—Maori Religion and Mythology by Peter Best p.47

13—The Lost Caravel by Robert Langdon, pg. 252

14—Japanese Gods, http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/godsjapanese.htm

15—http://www.philae.nu/PerAnkh/perankhA.html#Amun

16—http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/BakersEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi?number=T301

17—http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm, http://www.geocities.com/spenta_mainyu/god2.htm

18—Leon Siu, Word to the World with host Danny Lehmann, KLHT, 2001, show #544

19—Leon Siu, interview by Danny Lehmann, Calvary Chapel Komo Mai, 4/06