As a missionary in Brazil I was amazed how people could believe, profess, and practice things that were incompatible. It was illogical to me that someone could profess to believe in God while at the same time pray to a saint to gain penance or offer a sacrifice to Imanja, the goddess of the sea, to insure good luck. I saw volunteers struggling with conflicting and confusing responses to their logical Western witnessing approaches. Questions would arise. Is the interpreter translating correctly? Is this guy toying with me? What is going on here? Paul G. Hiebert’s concept, “The Excluded Middle” helped me understand exactly what was going on.
Clash of Cultures
Of course, the gospel is the gospel no matter where you are, but failure to consider cultural differences can result in misunderstandings with possible eternal consequences. Whether you accept it or not, there are strong cultural contexts into which the gospel is introduced.
Western Culture is primarily dualistic
The rise of scientific discovery and the mechanical age in Western society produced a two-level view of the world that categorizes everything into either the religious or natural realm. God is up there, and the natural world is down here. The tangible, explainable things of the natural world are left to science, while the intangibles and religious beliefs are assigned to theology. A concept that can not surmount enough “scientific evidence” to be declared a “fact” is classified as fantasy, fiction, or a belief held by faith that individuals can accept or reject as reality. Even though we are in the “post-modern” age, the average American still makes these clear dualistic distinctions. Either you believe or you don’t. Therefore, in the US the primary witnessing hurdle to jump is convincing the “non-believer” to accept spiritual things as truth.
Most Non-Western Cultures are tri-level
On the other hand, much of the rest of the world believes in a three-level universe that sandwiches in a spirit world between God and the natural world. This is Hiebert’s “Excluded Middle.” Within this middle level are the powers and embodied gods, spirits, and saints able to influence human life when their power is sought. Mortals in the lower level can control and tap their power, be possessed by them, receive insight and advice from them, or earn “credits” from them. Also, medians, sorcerers, and witch doctors can use objects to channel or transmit “powers” or non-embodied forces to affect the outcome of human circumstances. (This type of thinking was made very popular by the STAR WARS movies – “Use the FORCE, Luke!”) In this view, the supreme, creator God of the upper level is distant, harsh , judging and disinterested with the plight of man. He is unobtainable and can only be implored through the mediation of the spirit beings of the middle level.
Implications for Witnessing in another culture.
As you can see, the “excluded middle” explains my confusion with the incompatible beliefs I encountered. A person with this belief system can logically accept (believe in) a supreme God of mainline religion while at the same time practice sacrifices to another “god.” In fact, this person may believe the only way he can deal with the supreme God is through the gods, saints, or spirits, of the “excluded middle.” That’s one reason why she prays to intermediary spirit beings, or makes sacrifices to them. Perhaps they can appeal to the Almighty God in her behalf. Also, since the upper-level supreme God is so disconnected with the affairs of men, only the middle-level gods can be called upon to make this life better. Usually there is a specific spirit that is the “go to guy” for a particular necessity of everyday life.
You will encounter this type of belief system in many places you go overseas. Even if someone doesn’t practice any religion, they will still operate with this basic view (just like most non-believing Americans operate in the two-level mode).
Cross-Cultural witnessing
A mistake some volunteers make witnessing in other cultures is interpreting the responses of nationals based upon their US experiences. If they get someone to say they believe in Jesus many judge that person to be converted. In most instances in the US, that would be an accurate assessment, but not so overseas. Unlike witnessing to people in the US, the main hurdle is not getting them to believe. They already believe in a lot of things!
I’ve seen that astonished look in the face of volunteers after they’ve gone through their evangelistic presentation and to their surprise the nationals easily respond, “YES, I want to pray to receive Jesus.” It’s a look that says “Wow, this is easy! Man, these people are really open to the gospel!” Yes, they are open to the gospel, but they’re open to every other wind of doctrine that blows through their door as well! Many times what they have done is accept Jesus as another god in their personal pantheon of the “excluded middle.”
Another mistake I’ve seen on the part of volunteers is being impatient and mechanical with witnessing. They have a certain way they are going to witness no matter the situation or the spiritual condition of the person receiving the witness. They do not take the time to establish what is going on with that individual and witness accordingly as the Spirit leads.
So, what should you do?
- Pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you, and witness to the heart of the person you are dealing with.
- Be patient and allow the Holy Spirit to work through you. Remember Jesus commanded us to “make disciples”, not converts. This sometimes takes more time than just one visit. Love the person enough to come back if needed.
- Discover what that person already believes by asking a series of direct questions about the Bible, God, Jesus, how one enters heaven, the church, etc. If he tells you he believes in Jesus at this point you can explore what he means by that as opposed to hearing him say it after you’ve presented a witness and thinking he has accepted the Jesus of your message.
- Start where the person is and lead him from there to a correct understanding of the gospel. Don’t exercise a “one-size-fits-all” approach to witnessing, or focus on (attack) his incorrect beliefs.
- Stress that God is accessible and he does care about his creation
- Stress Christ’s total sufficiency and our total dependency on Him for salvation. Make sure they understand that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, and there is no other name by which men can be saved.
- Give your own personal testimony stressing your certainty of eternal life.
- Give a biblical witness and invitation stressing the unconditional acceptance of Christ that is not dependent on sacrifices because He already made the sacrifice.
- Make sure that Christ is not being accepted as another god in his pantheon – watch out for “easy conversions.” Discuss the difference between BELIEVING as opposed to TRUSTING.
- Lead in a prayer of salvation
- Afterwards, be aware that the new believer might be afraid to let go of the source of help he has depended on for so long. He will need to be discipled and learn to trust Christ. Also he may be afraid of retaliation of the spirits he was serving or leaders of the religion he presently practices. He could have asked for a favor based on a condition he feels he must live up to. Stress that Jesus is more powerful and greater than any other power and can defend him.
