On 11 March we were in Shichigahama when the tsunami hit and have been attempting to reach out with the gospel and relief work in the town. We have had many opportunities to share the gospel and witness since then. Handing out relief supplies and helping people in need gives us an open door to people's hearts and we hope that many Japanese are more open to the gospel. We have seen a handful of conversions since the disaster for which we praise God. In a sense the tsunami changes nothing. Japan is the world's largest unreached group at 127 million

The Wrath of God?

I was sitting in church before the prayer meeting when two German men entered. I greeted them and assumed they were evangelicals come to help in the relief effort. It turns out they were ‘prophets’ and had come to tell the Japanese to expect God’s wrath to be poured out on them. They couldn’t speak a word of Japanese, or explain the gospel, point anyone to Christ or say a kind word, but one of them had ‘ Wrath of God’ in Japanese on his T-shirt.  This kind of unloving, unbiblical and Christless attitude is what frightens many of us off from clearing telling the gospel to those who are suffering. So what is right?

people and 0.25 % Christians and the greatest need is still the gospel but the devastation makes evangelism more urgent and, we hope, more effective. As church member Emiko pointed out recently 27000 people died in the tsunami but 30000 have been committing suicide every year. As always in Japan our initial approach when we tell the gospel is to say that God is Creator. This often resonates with people who have lost everything to the power of nature, because the little local gods or ancestors were quite powerless to protect against such a disaster. We also say that He is seeking them, and that they mustn't ignore Him any longer. Is there anger directed toward God? Yes, some, but probably less than there would be in the West. But we do need to say that God is love and his purposes are good. Here are some further thoughts;

1. God is sovereign and we should be proud of it. I was speaking to a Japanese man in a evacuation centre who claimed to be a Buddhist and he asked me 'Why did God send the tsunami?'. Now Buddhists don't believe in any god, and he agreed with me that he was being inconsistent. But it showed the truth of Rom 1:20 'For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities―his eternal power and divine nature―have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.'  All men know the existence of God, and his power and his eternity. It doesn't do the proclamation of the gospel any favours to be embarrassed about the fact that God sent the tsunami (Amos 3:6b  'When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?') Even non-Christians know this in their hearts. The Bible is clear that God selectively sends disasters that people may know Him,  "I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up." Amos 4:7.

2. God is merciful and so we should be urgent. I was asked if God would do the same to England. The questioner expected me to reply: 'God punished Japan because it is so bad but he wouldn't do the same to a christian country like England'. The truth is quite different, I'm sure. God is being merciful to Japan and giving it an opportunity to know Him and an urgent summons to repent. Jesus interprets local disasters as a call to the survivors to repent, Luke 13:1-5. Interestingly, the right-wing Shinto governor of Tokyo, Ishihara, said the disaster was a punishment from Heaven. (He is also being inconsistent because Shintoists are not supposed to believe in a personal Creator, or sin.) But if God did pour out his wrath he would have wiped out the whole country, also the NE coastal areas weren't more sinful than the rest. So it is not a punishment but a severe but loving warning. For a Brit the comparison with UK is thought-provoking. God also punishes sin in this life by handing over those who sin against their knowledge of God to more sin and greater and greater apostasy (Rom 1:28). Is that happening to England? Rather have a disaster which God uses to turn people to him in repentance, than a comfortable society with progressive judicial hardening. Let's not pray for a disaster but lets pray for God to show mercy on Japan and UK whatever it takes. While we can be clear about the broad picture we cannot pretend to know why one family escaped while another lost everything. I have often asked myself 'Why this person, Lord?'. While God keeps us in the dark about the details, we clearly know that in love He is summoning the Japanese to repent so we should be urgent and do our duty. Incidentally the man in the evacuation centre agreed with me that Japan needs to repent but he stopped short of doing it himself!

3. God is taking action and so we should be bold. The big prayer request in the early church was for boldness in telling the gospel, 'Now, Lord,... enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness' Acts 4:29. They seem to have been bold up until then but they knew it was still their great need. How often do we hear that prayer in our prayer meetings even though our need is greater? Boldness is a miracle of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31) not a natural working up of courage to do something we don't want. It is an overflow of joy inspired by conviction and assurance that shows itself in clear speech at every opportunity, Eph 6:20b "..I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak". Rev Takata was surveying the tsunami destruction at Shichigahama and said, 'This is our last chance'. I said 'What do you mean?'. And he replied, 'If the Japanese Church doesn't use this opportunity God will give up on us'. Paul calls us co-workers (cooperators, 2 Cor. 6:1 ) with God. But if at a time like this, we sit on our hands and say nothing, or when we do speak are so timid that no one knows what we mean then we are being very un-cooperative co-workers!

4. God wants us to love one another. When fellow-Christians suffer we think that God is testing them. That may be true but He also maybe testing us to see how we respond to their need. Let us love Japanese Christians. And even though we have never met them let us pray for them.

'But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Gal. 6:14

5. Only God is worthy of praise so let's be Christ-centred. We get a lot of praise for handing out relief supplies and people thank us profusely. But let us point people to Christ. It is not enough to say 'Jesus died for your sins' and 'Jesus is the friend of sinners' if we don't immediately add 'and I am a sinner too, probably worse than you, and have been forgiven much'. Let's follow Paul who exalted Christ by denying himself and calling himself the worst of sinners, 1 Tim 1:15. Otherwise we create the false impression that Christians do this relief because they are just good people, that church is a no-go zone for sinners, that becoming a Christian is out of reach for ordinary people and we steal God's glory for ourselves. A nickname for Christians over here is the 'Amen-people' but all that distinguishes us from the crowd is that we have a great Saviour.