mission.japan

There are a few major obstacles that keep Japanese people away from Christianity. The most quoted one is the fact that the vast majority of the nation is Buddhist, Shinto, or a harmonious mixture of the two. I used this factoid several times in my support letters before coming to Japan.

But there’s another obstacle that I think is becoming more of a factor among the Japanese. Rather than being unwilling to break ties with the traditional religions, some Japanese are looking to create ties to a religion. The playing field widens in this case to include “foreign” faiths such as Christianity and Islam. This can be good in that a person in this situation is willing to look at Christianity as a viable option, but bad in that Christianity has more competition.

I see this now in at least two people that I can think of offhand. One, Mr. S, is in a private English class that I teach on Tuesday nights at 21:30. We have extensive Bible times nearly every class, often 20 or 30 minutes beyond the end of the scheduled class time. He asks very pointed questions about what I believe, and he has said that he is interested in Christianity. But he is also interested in other religions, so he is still looking for the “best fit”, as I suppose the best description would be.

Another person, Makoto, was one of our regular attenders at church and at the various student family group activities. (His name was in a Sedlacek prayer bulletin so I think I’m safe in giving it here.) Up until recently he was even participating in a Bible study with Pastor Goto. The reason we haven’t seen him in several weeks is that he made the decision to step back and look at things from a fresh slate. And by “things” I mean other religions—again, in order to find the best fit. Since then he has stopped attending church and English classes, presumably so the many friendships he has formed here do not interfere with his final decision.

In no way do I look down on these decisions or shake my head in disappointment. In fact, I am glad to see willingness to consider Christianity and take the time to see how it stacks up against other beliefs. Given my personality I can imagine myself in the same situation if I grew up in Japan without much in the way of Christian influence—I think I too would want to look at things very carefully and analytically.

However the point that draws the most concern among the group of believers here is that being fully convinced of the Truth ourselves does not guarantee that these two people (and others like them) will also find that Truth. Encouraging, though, are Jesus’ words, “If you seek you shall find,” so please pray with us that these seekers would indeed find Him in their quest for what is true.