Japan's Problems

21 August 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Lord willing this is my last week in Japan. I have a ticket to return to Chiang Mai on Wednesday. Last week was both good and sad. I had an excellent week visiting David Verwey, Ron and Katie Sisco, Sobi Abraham, Dan Brennen and the Sam Benedict family. Man howdy it was fun to talk about old times. These are some of the very people in the world with whom I can have a conversation with about those days 30, 40, 50, and 50+ years ago. The world and Japan are radically different today that it was in 1960. Japan is totally automated. You don’t deal with people but with machines. When our son Dave was 6 we sent him to a Japanese shogako (primary school). The teachers were deeply impressed by him. They said he was the only child in the school who could entertain himself or work with his hands. We didn’t have TV. Dave never sat in front of a tube looking at cartoons. He either read books or made his own games. For every other child their totally input was by looking at TV. They could not independently use their brains to think. Today everyone (I mean everyone) has ear phones in their ears listening to their smart phones. This means that no one is using their brain for anything, and all their input is either by ear or looking at a computer. This has changed society radically

Japan is a very affluent country to live in. But I get the impression that the church is dying in her sleep. Basically the church in Japan seems to be asleep and she is dying without noticing it. There is no persecution in this country. There is no opposition, trauma, or outward problems. She is just asleep. The age of the average pastor in Japan today is 70. That means that there are no (few) young pastors. The older generation is dying off and there is degeneration in the younger generation. The Southern Baptist was the largest mission organization in Japan. Their seminaries went liberal and all the new pastors are Bible sneering unbelievers. The missionaries quit the field and have gone home. The same thing happened with the Evangelical Free mission. Formally they were a very good mission. Ron Sisco told me that he went to a farewell service for Bob Vermey. He said Bob had an excellent message, but all the pastors were either disinterested or disrespectful. Ron was crushed to see it. The Karuizawa language has closed and so have a large number of small Bible schools. Consequently the number of churches has gone down considerably. It would appear that Jesus has gone on by Japan and the church is dying in her sleep. Like America, there are a few pockets of good churches, but nationally speaking the situation does not look good.

Japan has had a problem for many years in that the church has not been reproductive. This is the biggest problem in Japan. The church has always been highly pastor-centered and believers just do not win souls. I believe the cause of this is that the Gospel has been presented as religion. Religion does not have life. Only Jesus has Life. John told us, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4). And Jesus told us, “I am come that they might have life” (Jn. 10:10). All living this are reproductive. All things, whether it be botanical or zoological; if there is life they will be reproductive. If it is not reproductive there is a serious question about whether or not there is life.

This is a question that I frequently ask about a church – “Is there any life?”. If not you can write it off as a dead church. Dead religion is a drag. You can keep it. I am not interested in dead religion. And this applies to our individual lives. There is only one way to maintain that life. That is to abide in Christ. Jesus said, “I am the true vine”. "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself...neither can you except ye abide in Me" (Jn. 15:1, 4). This is the problem. Are we abiding in Christ? If not we better re-examine ourselves. The proof of that, of course, is fruit. If there is no fruit coming from our lives we better look again.

Seeing the pace of life here in Japan causes me to wonder if we are not so caught up in living that we neglect life. Life is being joined to Jesus. It is not a matter of just having devotions. Of course it is impossible to stay joined to Jesus without meeting with Him on a daily basis. It is assumed that all Christians have daily devotions. But what is the quality of those devotions? Does Jesus speak to us? What does He say? What have we done about it?

In recent months I have gotten away from the Song of Solomon. The other day I went back to it and was slowed down by the shockingly personal relationship of the Bride with Jesus as we read it there. But then I recalled that this is the kind of relationship that Jesus desires with every member of His Body. Samuel Rutherford lived in the S. of S. Every letter he wrote is filled with passages from the S. of S. He frequently mentioned, “Let me smell His breath”. Rutherford talked much about His tender kisses. This might be embarrassing but it is Bible. I believe the Lord meant every word He said in the S. of S. I believe this is the relationship He desires with every member of His Body. But this is almost unknown in today's busy world. Whoa! Slow down! Maybe we should take more seriously what Jesus has said to us in His Word and close the gap between our souls and Jesus.

I cannot escape the conviction that this is one of the problems in Japan.  I cannot imagine the church being so dead if believers were more in love with Jesus. And maybe this applies to Bill Cook. Am I taken with the smell of His breath? I know next to nothing about it, but God knows my heart; if it is possible for a human to know the smell of His breath that I long to know more.

This has been a very profitable time in Japan. It has been great to see a few old friends. It has been very natsukashi (I don’t know how to say that in English - maybe nostalgic) to visit old stomping grounds. I have enjoyed this very much but, Lord willing, I will be writing you from my balcony in Chiang Mai next Sunday.

As they say in the south “Ya`ll pray for us now, heya (hear)”, bill

Ah, natsukashii na…