15. The Real Culprit: Spiritual Darkness
Fifteen
The Real Culprit: Spiritual Darkness
My hosts in the southern U.S. city where I was preaching at a mission conference had thoughtfully booked me into a motel room. It was good to have a few minutes alone, and I looked forward to having some time for prayer and Scripture meditation.
While settling in, I flipped on the big TV set that dominated the room. What burst on the screen shocked me more than anything I had ever seen in America. There in beautiful color was an attractive woman seated in the lotus position teaching yoga. I watched in horror and amazement as she praised the health benefits of the breathing techniques and other exercises of this Eastern religious practice. What her viewers did not know is that yoga is designed for one purpose only—to open up the mind and body to the false gods of the East.
Because this American yogi was dressed in a body suit, claimed a Ph.D. degree and was on educational TV, I assume many of the viewers were deceived into believing this was just another harmless exercise show. But those of us born and raised in nations dominated by the powers of darkness know that hundreds of Eastern religions are marketing themselves in the United States and Canada under innocuous—even scientific-sounding—brand names.
Few Westerners, when they see news reports of the poverty, suffering and violence in Asia, take time to stop and ask why the East is bound into an endless cycle of suffering while Western nations are so blessed.
Secular humanists are quick to reel out many historic and pseudoscientific reasons for the disparity, because they are unwilling to face the truth. But the real reason is simple: The Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe has brought the favor of God, while false religions have brought the curse of Babylon on other nations.
Mature Christians realize the Bible teaches there are only two religions in this world. There is the worship of the one true God, and there is a false system invented in ancient Persia. From there, Persian armies and priests spread their faith to India, where it took root. Its missionaries in turn spread it throughout the rest of Asia. Animism and all other Asian religions have a common heritage in this one religious system.
Because many Westerners are unaware of this fact, Eastern mysticism is able to spread in the West through pop culture, rock bands, singers and even university professors. The media have become the new vehicle for the spread of spiritual darkness by American gurus.
It is hard to blame average Christians for misunderstanding what is happening to them and the Judeo-Christian heritage that has brought such blessings on their land. Most have never taken the time to study and discern the real situation in the Orient. Few pastors or prophets are sounding the alarm.
In Asia, the religion of Babylon is woven into every waking minute of the day. Without Christ, people live to serve religious spirits. Religion relates to everything, including your name, birth, education, marriage, business deals, contracts, travel and death.
Because Oriental culture and religion are a mystery, many people in the West are fascinated by it without knowing its power to enslave its followers. What routinely follows the mystery religions of Babylon are degradation, humiliation, poverty and suffering—even death.
Most believers in America, I find, are overwhelmed by the TV and media news reports from Asia. The numbers reported are beyond imagination, and the injustice, poverty, suffering and violence appear to be unstoppable. All things Oriental appear to be mysterious, and measured either on a grand scale or by one so different that it cannot be compared to things familiar.
In all my travels, therefore, I have found it is extremely difficult for most people to relate to Asia's needs. Sometimes I wish I could just scoop up my audience and take them on a six-month tour of Asia. But because that is not possible, I must use words, pictures, PowerPoint presentations and videos to paint a clearer picture.
Asia is a wonderful place in many ways, as God has blessed it with the awesome Himalayas, mighty rivers, tropical forests and an exciting mix of beautiful peoples. Diverse cultures merge in huge cities like Mumbai (Bombay), Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and their corporations are among the world leaders in fields as diverse as physics, computer technology, architecture and film-making. People travel from around the world to visit monuments like India's Taj Mahal and Cambodia's Angor Wat. But since nearly two out of every three people in the world live in Asia—more than the combined populations of Europe, Africa, North America and South America—it is also important that we take the time to understand the real needs of its precious people.
From the standpoint of Christian missions, Asia is more than just big numbers. Asia makes up the vast majority of the more than 2 billion hidden people who are being missed by traditional missionary efforts and mass media evangelism. They are the most lost of the lost—trapped in utter spiritual darkness.
What are the challenges facing native missions today? How real are the needs? How can Christians best help the Asian Church and its missionary efforts?
I am not trying to minimize the social and material needs of the Asian nations, but it is important to reemphasize that Asia's basic problem is a spiritual one. When the Western media focus almost entirely on its problems of hunger, for example, showing pictures of starving children on TV, it is difficult for Americans not to get the false impression that hunger is the biggest problem.
But what causes the hunger? Asian Christians know these horrible conditions are only symptoms of the real problem— spiritual bondage. The key factor—and the most neglected—in understanding India's hunger problem is how its belief system affects food production. Most people know of the "sacred cows" that roam free, eating tons of grain while nearby people starve. But a lesser-known and more sinister culprit is another animal protected by religious belief—the rat.
According to those who believe in reincarnation, the rat must be protected as a likely recipient for a reincarnated soul on its way up the ladder of spiritual evolution to Nirvana. Although many Asians reject this and seek to poison rats, large-scale efforts of extermination have been thwarted by religious outcry.
Rats eat or spoil 20 percent of India's food grain every year. A recent survey in the wheat-growing district of Hapur in North India revealed an average of 10 rats per house.
Of one harvest of cereals in India, including maize, wheat, rice, millet and so on—a total of 134 million metric tons—the 20 percent loss from rats amounted to 26.8 million metric tons. The picture becomes more comprehensible by imagining a train of boxcars carrying that amount of grain. With each car holding about 82 metric tons, the train would contain 327,000 cars and stretch for 3,097 miles. The annual food grain loss in India would fill a train longer than the distance between New York and Los Angeles.
The devastating effects of the rat in India should make it an object of scorn. Instead, because of the spiritual blindness of the people, the rat is protected and in some places, like a temple 30 miles south of Bikaner in North India, even worshipped.
According to an article in the India Express, "Hundreds of rats, called 'kabas' by the devotees, scurry around merrily in the large compound of the temple and sometimes even around the image of the goddess Karni Devi situated in a cave. The rats are fed on prasad offered by the devotee or by the temple management. Legend has it that the fortunes of the community are linked to that of the rats.
"One has to walk cautiously through the temple compound; for if a rat is crushed to death, it is not only considered a bad omen but may also invite severe punishment. One is considered lucky if a rat climbs over one's shoulder. Better still to see a white rat."
Clearly, the agony we see in the faces of those starving children and beggars is actually caused by centuries of religious slavery. In my own beloved homeland of India, thousands of lives and billions of dollars go into social programs, education and medical and relief efforts every year. Many of the crisis problems that are considered disasters in the United States would only be normal, everyday living conditions in most of Asia. When we have disasters in the Orient, the death tolls read like Vietnam War body counts. Asian governments struggle with these tremendous social problems and limited resources.
Yet despite all these massive social programs, the problems of hunger, population and poverty continue to grow. The real culprit is not a person, lack of natural resources or a system of government. It is spiritual darkness. It thwarts every effort to make progress. It dooms our people to misery—both in this world and in the world to come. The single most important social reform that can be brought to Asia is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. More than 400 million of my people have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. They need the hope and truth that only the Lord Jesus can provide.
Recently, for instance, one native missionary, who serves the Lord in Jammu, asked a shopkeeper at the market if he knew Jesus. After thinking a moment, he said, "Sir, I know everyone in our village. There is not one by that name who lives here. Why don't you go to the next village? He may live there."
Frequently native missionary evangelists find people who ask if Jesus is the brand name of a new soap or patent medicine.
In fact, in India proper there are more than 1 billion peo-ple—four times the population of the United States. Only 2.4 percent of these call themselves Christians.1 Although this figure reflects the official government census, other Christian sources believe the number to be as high as 7.4 percent.2 Still, India, with nearly 500,000 unevangelized villages, is undoubtedly one of the greatest evangelistic challenges facing the world Christian community today. If present trends continue, it will soon be the world's most populous nation. Many of India's 29 states have larger populations than whole nations in Europe and other parts of the world.
Not only are their populations huge, but each state is usually as distinctive as if it were another world. Most have completely different cultures, dress, diet and languages. But few nations in Asia are homogeneous. Most are like India to some extent, nations that are patchwork quilts of many languages, peoples and tribes. This diversity, in fact, is what makes Asia such a tremendous challenge to missionary work.