On this day sixty years ago, General Douglas MacArthur officially dismantled and declared illegal the Shinto religion as the national religion of Japan. In one sweeping blow, unparalleled in the annals of modern history, millions of people lost their faith within less than an hour. The emperor went on national radio, confessed that he was not the god he had claimed to be, and told the Japanese people that he should no longer be worshipped.

At the same time that MacArthur denounced and destroyed this hellish pagan religion, he specifically called for large numbers of Christian missionaries to invade Japan, discipling these lost, pagan people in the truth of the Gospel and the doctrines of Christianity.

To make sense of this remarkable Great Commission act (“make disciples of nations”), one must first understand that the America of 1945 believed itself to be a Christian nation fighting a war against anti-Christian forces. Even liberals like FDR were not afraid to say just that.

There are several remarkable aspects to the MacArthur story: First, MacArthur’s approach differed fundamentally with the policies of nineteenth century and early twentieth century imperialist Great Britain who not only refused to bring the Gospel to their colonies, but (in the case of nations like India) actively inhibited and persecuted missionaries for disturbing the peace with the local pagan potentates.

Second, tearing down Shinto and replacing it with Christianity was a personal conviction of MacArthur as well as a strategy for rebuilding the nation. He had full authority to implement this policy.

Third, it is difficult to imagine that any of our modern Ramadan-in-the-White-House-celebrating leaders would do what MacArthur did. In fact, in the case of Iraq, having conquered (at least in theory) the ruling Muslim government, we have bent over backwards to show our support for Muslim rule and have largely inhibited Christian missionaries from having a role in the rebuilding process of the nation. All this in just sixty years. All this in the lifetime of our fathers.

Fourth, the tragedy of what happened sixty years ago is this: Despite the fact that MacArthur called for missionaries, few actually came. There simply were not enough willing and ready to do the work. Though the few that did travel to Japan had a phenomenal impact, a great opportunity was lost because the Christian community was unprepared and lacked vision. In the wake of this vacuum of spiritual leadership, Japanese culture turned to the other god that Americans love to boast about — the marketplace. Today, both America and Japan have replaced the God of Scripture with the god of materialism.

Several years ago, I had the honor of preaching in major cities throughout the nation of Japan. I met with pastors whose children were in gangs, husbands with broken marriages who worked an average twelve hour day, six days a week, and families that had been laid desolate by the Japanese adaptation of the Western vision of success.

We saw a lot of social chaos, but we also saw tremendous hope. By and large, the hope came from what we affectionately call “MacArthur’s children” — those grandparents and their progeny who were converted by the Holy Spirit working through the missionaries who responded to General MacArthur’s appeal. I will never forget meeting one of them — a man in his eighties with a very long, grey beard. He introduced himself to me after my sermon by proudly proclaiming that he was one of the men who had responded to the Gospel presented by a missionary in 1947, that today his children and grandchildren are home schooling in order to be faithful to Deuteronomy 6, and that he and his sons had read The Institutes of Biblical Law. Amazing!

This anniversary is important because it represents the last day in the history of our nation, when our leaders were more interested in exporting Christianity, than democracy.