Before, fathers and ancestors fought with enemies and poisoned each other and they thought there was no God. Later the missionaries brought the Good News of Jesus Christ. We heard it and it was like a good story or news others sent to us, and our happiness was great. Day and night we didn’t sleep; we wanted to hear more of this talk. It was like a sweet medicine. We believed that Jesus is the Child of God. He said: If we leave all our evil ways, we will get a good life in Heaven. This talk stirred us and I was baptized at 12 years old with many other children. After I was baptized I went to a primary school of the Lutherans. The teachers told us the same story of the Good News of Jesus and this strengthened us. We went to school at our enemies’ place, but they didn’t hurt us. They cooperated with us and helped us with food, when we were short. This strengthened our belief.114
The war forced most missionaries to give up their work, but this did not result in a breakdown of the church. Shortly after the war, in 1946, the Australian anthropologist Ian Hobgin researched the Lutheran Mission in Busama (20 miles from Lae), which had been without a missionary or evangelist since 1941. His detailed report helps us to understand how deeply the Christian faith had put down roots:115
The conversion in the village had been entrusted to indigenous evangelists until the local elders took over. Christian teachers had set up a village school and Hobgin commends the Lutheran education system as superior to that of most other Pacific missions. Neither evangelist nor teacher received a salary besides the annual offering of the village. Despite the wartime destruction of school and church, daily prayers were conducted in the morning and evening by elders and the teacher. On Sunday all would walk to the circuit church and attendance was obligatory. Holy Communion was rare because of lack of pastors.
The Bible was the fundamental basis of faith; everyone read it, quoted it, and referred to it.116 The salvation of the people of Israel provided the master plan for understanding the present. The New Guinea people regarded themselves as part of the history of conflict between good and evil, God and Satan. They were descendants of the cursed Hem, Noah’s son, hence their economic inferiority. The blood of Christ at the cross has washed away all sins.
The Decalogue is the guide and norm; whoever keeps it will enter kingdom of heaven. The first part requires people to abandon the old deities, pay honor to God, and attend Sunday services. The second part defines the conduct of life in respect and care for parents and elder kin and respect of property. To some extent, the Decalogue confirms the traditional code of behavior, but the highest value is love as mutual regard of others outside the tribe.
The gravest sin is adultery and this temptation looms everywhere, so that the elders ban women from wearing flowers or dancing. Sin is an offence to God the creator and must be punished. If a sinner is not punished in order to change him, sin would bring him to hell. In that respect God resembles a village headman. He intervenes directly. Shame about sin leads to confession. It is important that the community is straight with God before any sacrament is received. “To attend without confession would be certain death.” Repentance may be followed by spectacular recovery, because confession removes the spell of sin. Hogbin notes that conscience is a Christian invention, different from the traditional feeling of shame which occurred when one was caught with disapproval of the action. Conscience is the same as being watched by the all-seeing eye of God under the risk of hell.117
God gave rules, and if Christians follow them, they will receive his blessings. It is their choice and responsibility. Believers are tempted by Satan, however, God gives them strength to resist. Hogbin did not notice any reference to the Holy Spirit in this regard. After death the soul passes to the spirit world and waits for the Day of Judgment.
Hobgin’s portrait of a Lutheran congregation confirms the changes and the continuities of second-generation Christians. The greatest change was the recognition of the universal righteous and holy God as creator, savior, and judge. Indigenous Christians had left the mythological worldview and become part of a universal history with a future judgment. On the practical level, however, there seems to be some continuity in the context of the communal definition of law, sins, and sanctions for transgressions. Even though the forgiveness of sins in the blood of Christ is known, a deeper understanding of it in terms of unconditional acceptance by God and the transformation of the sinner seems to be missing.
These observations are confirmed by Georg F. Vicedom, another leading missionary, in the Highlands from 1929 to 1939, and mission inspector in Neuendettelsau from 1946. He described the changes from the old to the new worldview in the religion of the Mount Hagen people.118 The earlier religious life was marked by veneration of the power over life and death. Death was the unsolved problem, and the purpose of the secret cults was to prolong and renew life in all its forms. Through a kind of fall, humans were separated from this power of life. In the cult and rites they tried to relate to it again, making up for the fall of the ancestors in order to escape death. This power of life originated from the high gods. They lived at remote distance and were only called at the time of feasts or important events. Their decisions over life could only be accepted. Once sacrifices or sorceries proved ineffective, only resignation remained.
Besides these transcendent gods there were the familiar spirits of the ancestors who reflected the social structure. People related to them in reciprocity, which is the fundamental principle of their social life: the exchange of gifts and assistance placed obligations on one another. The ancestor spirits could be influenced and also manipulated. They followed the same obligations as humans. Gifts and prayers were the means to ensure their support. Gifts reinforced prayers. Prayers persuaded, convinced, or even threatened the spirits to help: “Come, brothers and sisters. We have brought you a pig. Take it and lead its soul into the land of the dead where you can eat it. In return let the sick father recover!”
At night the soul of the sleepers conversed with the spirits and feasts confirmed the fellowship with them. Everything was caused by the spirits: sickness, good or bad harvest, good and bad luck. But sin and death remained unresolved problems. If death was caused by punishment of the gods, it must be accepted. If it was caused by another person, it must be avenged. A personal feeling of sin did not exist—only shame about breaking the rules of the community. There was no forgiveness, only penance and the retributive gift which removed the guilt.
According to Vicedom, Christianity totally changed this religious relationship. In eight points he described these changes:
1. The creator God encounters creation as a person. Everything and everyone on earth belongs to him and has to be treated with respect. All humans are brothers and sisters.
2. God claims his right even after the Fall; he has not retreated like the old gods. He acted as a caring Father by sending his Son for the salvation of sinners. This means that wrongdoings do not automatically result in evil fate, but require confession and seeking of redemption.
3. Relationship with God is dependent on relationship with others, while the old rules were given by the spirits to serve them. Many commandments were already present in the pre-Christian tribe; however the laws of God are universal and altruistic, while the old laws were confined to the tribe.
4. In contrast to the former aim to increase the power of life for one’s own family and tribe, the new goal of life is to serve God. God guides through good and bad days; the times where life is limited are also times of God.
5. The new life follows a universal ethos. The spirits were neither omnipresent nor omniscient, so that they could be betrayed, but God knows every action and thought. The converts believed that God sits on their forehead and watches everything they do.
6. God gives eternal life and salvation. This-worldly religion is replaced by an other-worldly orientation through the proclamation of the resurrection.
7. Pastoral care happens through church discipline. If the individual Christian is not willing to adhere to the rules, the community will discipline him or her.
8. The sacraments express the close encounter with the holy God, therefore confession is required before approaching the Holy.