Gods Revelation to Heathen

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)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. Pachacutis 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
peoples 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)
The Wa (Burma)In the 1880s, 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 learnt that the Wa people were doing evil
things, he might consider them unworthy of the true Gods 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, theres nothing special about being white. Its just an historical
fact that for some people groups it was white people who first brought
them the Gospel.)
The Gedeo (Ethiopia)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 Sheitan, 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 whiteskinned strangers erect temporary shelters under a certain sycamore
tree near Warrasas 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 earths 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 (Africa)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 Creators Son and in time even forgot
what he had achieved for humanity. Since then successive generations
longed to know the truth about the Creators 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)
The Karen (Burma)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 Ywa, 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 Ywa. These special teachers
kept reminding the people that the ways of the evil spirits that most of them
followed were not the ways of Ywa and that one day they must fully return to
Ywas 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:
The omnipotent is Ywa; him we have not believed.
Ywa created men anciently;
He has perfect knowledge of all things.
Ywa 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 Ywa,

And heaven is the place where he sits.

He sees all things, and we are manifest to him.
And another:
Ywa formed the world originally.
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 Ywa . . .
When they ate the fruit of trial,
They became subject to sickness, aging, and death . . . (78)
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) 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) The Lisu (China)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)
Korea and ChinaRichardson 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
Gods 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) The Santal (India)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) The Motilones (South America)
There are very many other stories from around the world. This one comes
from Bruce E Olsons 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 missionarys message. A native in
Dutch Guiana (now Suriname, South America)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 Strongs 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 Gods 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. About Don RichardsonWhat prompted Don Richardsons
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 Dons
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 Christforeshadowing 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 Gospelignorant peoples concepts that would prepare them for receiving the

Gospel. He made some fascinating discoveries. The above is no

substitute for reading Richardsons 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.