A Heathen Doctrine

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 12, 1908

A Heathen Doctrine

SPIRITUALISM is an essential feature of heathenism. It forms an important part of the Shinto religion of Japan, as is clearly shown in this quotation:—

The elementary beliefs of Shinto are that all the dead become gods, good or bad, according to their lives; that these gods, the spirits of the dead, remain in this world, in their tombs or in the homes which they occupied in life, and, though invisible, share in the life of the living; and, most important of all, that the happiness of the dead depends upon the care and service of the living, and, in turn, the happiness and prosperity of the living depend upon the spirits of the departed.

In his book on Japan, Lafcadio Hearn tells of the belief of the Japanese concerning their departed relatives:—

They are not thought of as dead; they are believed to remain among those who loved them. Unseen, they guard the home, and watch over the welfare of its inmates; they hover nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp; and the stirring of its flame is the motion of them. They dwell mostly in their lettered tablets; from their shrine they observe and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys and sorrows; they want affection; but the morning and evening greetings of the family are enough to make them happy. They require nourishment; but the vapor of food contents them. They are exacting only as regards the daily fulfilment of duty; to neglect them is a cruelty, is the proof of an evil heart; to cause them shame by ill conduct, to disgrace their name by bad actions, is the supreme crime.

Those who believe in the conscious state of the dead characterize this as “really a very touching faith, the belief that the dear ones are or may be very near.” But how can the Japanese be induced to give up ancestor-worship if the basis of their belief is still retained as gospel truth? The teaching of the Scriptures concerning the nature of man and life only in Christ, overthrows the very foundation of the false religions of the far East, and ought to be proclaimed everywhere among them.