Heathens Miraculously Prepared
for Christianity

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 Christianity.




African prophets

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 Sheit’an, 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 white-skinned strangers erect temporary shelters under a certain sycamore tree near Warrasa’s 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)

(Of course, there’s nothing special about being white. It’s just an historical fact that for some people groups it was white people who first brought them the Gospel.)

‘What happened among the Gedeo is by no means an isolated incident,’ writes Don Richardson. ‘Incredible as it seems, literally thousands of Christian missionaries down through history have been startled by exuberant welcome even among some of the earth’s 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) Richardson has documented some of these incidents in a book mentioned below. Bracketed numbers indicate relevant pages from that book.

An amazing pony

For countless generations, the Wa people in Burma passed on their ancient tradition that one day a ‘white brother’ would bring them a copy of the book about God that they had lost. In the 1880’s, Pu Chan, one of their tribesmen, 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 learned that the Wa people were doing evil things, he might consider them unworthy of the true God’s 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)

Dreams and visions

Years before he had heard of missionaries, Adiri, a native in Dutch Guiana (now Suriname, South America) 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 Strong’s 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 in ignorance of so many other spiritual truths when missionaries were so close?

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)

Saved from drowning

The Camaroons lived in southwestern Africa. Long before the arrival of missionaries, many of them were caught in a storm while fishing. When his canoe capsized, the chief was in a quandary as to whom he should cry for help. Reasoning that the god of the hills could not help, and that the evil spirit would not help, he prayed to the ‘Great Father’ to save him. Immediately his feet touched the beach. He was one of the few in the party who survived. He gathered his people together and recounted the story, concluding, ‘Now let all my people honor the Great Father, and let no one speak a word against him, for he can save us.’ Thereafter he became renowned as a man of peace, making every effort to prevent strife and bloodshed.

The chief’s son related the story to missionary Alfred Saker, saying, ‘Why did you not come sooner? My father thirsted for the knowledge of God.’ (Strong’s Systematic Theology, page 843)

Saker reported this in England in 1879.

At last!

In 1795 an English diplomat in Burma 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 Y’wa, 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 Y’wa. These special teachers kept reminding the people that the ways of the evil spirits that most of them followed were not the ways of Y’wa and that one day they must fully return to Y’wa’s 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 Y’wa; him we have not believed.
Y’wa created men anciently;
He has perfect knowledge of all things.
Y’wa 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 Y’wa,
And heaven is the place where he sits.
He sees all things, and we are manifest to him.

And another:
Y’wa 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 Y’wa . . .
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 was not a Muslim book but a Christian one – 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)


Source: Numbers in brackets refer to pages numbers in Don Richardson: Eternity in their Hearts Revised Edition CA, Regal, 1981, 1984

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