There is a second video in this series which I also wanted to write about. It gives several statistics on Japan’s spiritual and emotional state, then builds on several of the ideas touched on in the first video, and ends with an appeal to follow Jesus. I want to focus on two ideas built upon in the middle of the video, primitive monotheism, and the discovery of the ancient family lineage scroll.
Primitive monotheism, as the video explains, is the idea that the concept of a single creator God can be found in different religions and regions across the world. And it’s so amazing! I think that when so many different people groups come up with the same idea independent of each other, at the very least it points to something real in the human soul, and I believe it points to a core truth of the spiritual reality we live in.
At another point in the video, it shows a lineage scroll that traces a family’s ancestry all the way back to Amenominakanushi, similar to how in the Bible people’s lineage is traced back to God through Adam, the first human in the Bible story. I think that this finding adds evidence to the suggestion made in the first video and makes a compelling case that the Creator God can indeed be found within Japanese culture.
I also find it fascinating how it is possible that the Nestorian Christians may very well have come to Japan during the premodern era and been some of the inspiration behind Shintoism’s documents. A brief look at internet opinion shows that this is not an accepted theory in academia, although it is acknowledged that there are Jewish and Christian symbols in ancient Japanese temples and shrines, which has to mean something. I’m not a historian, and so am unable to comment much beyond this. In conclusion, though, as the video says at 10:19, whether if the creator god Amenominakanushi came from the primitive monotheism in Japan, or from the Nestorian Christians, either way, I think it points to the Creator God of the Bible.
I’m having trouble finding it, but I’ve read somewhere that during the Christian persecution in Japan, they would hide Christian symbols on things in the temples, so that when they were forced to worship there, they wouldn’t really feel like they were worshiping false gods.
Yes, Anne, if you take a look at part one of this video series, around the 18 minute mark, it talks about the prevalence of Christian symbols from the Edo period, the time period when Christianity was outlawed and persecuted in Japan.