God Outside of the Bible III
God has often interacted with humanity on an individual level. That is to say that he often does not use missionaries or “spreading the gospel” in order to advance his kingdom. In today’s particular study, this will be much trickier since the “Great Commission” won’t happen for thousands of years. Who exactly is this ancient God?
China & Korea
China’s first known system of beliefs were centered around the being, Shang Ti. The term can be translated a few other different ways (“the Lord of Heaven,” “the Celestial Lord,” “the Supreme God,” etc…), which alludes to just how this God was viewed. In Korea, their ancient God was called Hananim or, “The Great One”. Beliefs in these 2 beings predate every standardized “religion” by an “unknown number of centuries”. In fact, the earliest known reference to Shang Ti is an inscription dating to somewhere around 1500 BC/E. Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism don’t arrive on the scene for over a millennium.However, by the beginning of the next ruling Dynasty, worship of Shan Ti had been lost. The Emperor alone was considered “good enough” to worship this Supreme God, leaving the people with spiritual voids to fill. (It’s interesting to note that under Shang Ti, China experienced greatness, according to historians.) But now that the God was all but expelled, the commoners had to fill their religious void with something else-up and coming religions.
Even though knowledge of the “Lord on High” had been pushed aside, China would not forget God forever. Fastfoward to the Yuan Dynasty where Kublai Khan ruled both Mongolia and China. After hearing the gospel, Mr. Khan was so allured that he sent to the Pope for Christian missionaries to enter his empire. Ironically, when Christian missionaries reached both China and Korea, they preached a God that the people already knew about!
In 1884 when protestant missionaries finally came to Korea, they realized something strange. This god “Hananim” was identical to their God of the Bible. In fact, Korean traditions (Called the Tan’gun) said that Hananim had a Son who desired to live among humanity! Missionaries preached that in the past God had left people to go their own way by choosing other beliefs like Shamanism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, and yet, he did not leave himself without a witness. Both Shang Ti and Hunanim brought these witnesses back.
Korea is now one of the most Christian nations in the world, even surpassing North American, African, and some other Asian countries. Seoul is home to the 2 largest protestant churches in the world, the largest with over 3/4 of a million members and tens of thousands of small groups. South Koreans are now fixated on a new target:
“Their main request-the conversion of their brothers and sisters in North Korea from Communism to Christ. And whenever the winds blow, from north or south along the demilitarized zone, Korean Christians rang along hilltops and release balloons loaded with Bibles toward their brothers beyond the zone. Hananim must have His witness there was well!” [Don Richardson, Eternity in their Hearts]
apologetiks 