The Japanese "I AM JESUS"

The Silk Road was established before the birth of Jesus. By the Asakusa era, 538 to 710 AD, Japan was a part of this trade network. It received outsiders from Korea.

By 710 to 794 AD, known as the Nara era, the Silk Road had a maritime route which put in to the port of Osaka, Japan. Goods were delivered to the nearby Japanese capital of Nara, the final destination. (UNESCO) Traders to Osaka usually came from nearby China and Korea.

Sent by their government, Japanese individuals also visited China. (Doug Fuqua, “The Japanese missions to Tang China and maritime exchange in East Asia,” 7th-9th centuries,” The Japan Society, 2004.)

It is very probable that the Japanese were aware of the Christian faith. A Chinese Gospel of Matthew was located in Mogao Cave number 17 in China, together with literature from other religions from the Tang Dynasty period (618 to 907 AD).

Dr. Samuel Lee has studied the Japanese language. He maintains that approximately 300 words of Japanese are very similar to Hebrew and Aramaic. (Dr. Samuel Lee, Rediscovering Japan, Rediscovering Christendom: Two-Thousand Years of Christian History in Japan, Langham: University Press of America, 2010.)

Hebrew is the language of the Bible’s Old Testament. Aramaic was the vernacular of the Jews during the time of Jesus on earth. The Church of the East uses a form of Aramaic known as Syriac in its liturgy. Their missionaries traveled from Persia with the Gospel in Syriac, which was given to the Chinese in their own tongue. (Verification of this exists upon the Xi’an Stele.)

The linguistic evidence of the inclusion of Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Japanese language, demonstrates that it is highly probable that the Church of the East reached Japan via China where they were welcomed and built monasteries and Christian communities.

This was the first wave of the Gospel to reach Japan. Christians in Japan at this time were members of the early church. Japanese is an early church language.

In the 1540s, Catholic missionaries arrived in Japan where they were welcomed. With them came a Japanese Christian from abroad.

In 1550, Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit missionary, went to speak with the “daimyo” or ruling feudal lord. Once again, he was welcomed. Christianity and conversion to the faith were allowed. Hundreds came to know the Lord. (Jesuits)

This included members of the aristocracy, such as, Omura Sumitada.

But the tide was turning for believers. In 1597 AD, in the Christian city of Nagasaki, foreign Franciscan priests and Japanese members of the church were martyred by crucifixion. (Cristina Osswald, “On Christian Martyrdom in Japan,” Macau Polytechnic Institute, China, 2021.)

The youngest martyr was a 12-year-old boy.

In 1603, the Tokugawa Shogunate was the military power in Japan. Moving against Christianity by 1610, the faith was banned and foreign missionaries with it. The Japanese church went underground. Martyrdom in Japan continued.

Japan’s hidden Christians became known as Kakure Kirishitan. Churches and crosses were eliminated. Religious and biblical words were morphed and encrypted.

Prayers began to sound like chants of the local religion; however, they retained the untranslated words of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin that had been learned from the foreign priests. With the end of access to the Gospel, this oral practice and Christian traditions have been handed on from generation to generation through families of the Kakure Kirishitan. (Amano Hisaki, “The Hidden Christians of Ikitsukishima: Japanese Islanders Who Kept the Faith,” Nippon, 2024)

Even the rite of baptism was kept.

This was the second wave of the Gospel to take root in Japan.

In 1865, the Catholic Church opened a house of worship in Nagasaki. 20,000 Japanese Christians came. (Britannica)

In 1868, the Meiji emperor returned the rights of Christian Japanese. Also at this time, Orthodox and Protestant churches sent their own missionaries to Japan.

This was the third wave of the Gospel to Japan.

God loves the Japanese, just as He loves all people. (John 3:16) His love keeps sending those with the light and the truth to all who would believe.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church:

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1Corinthians 3:6-9)

Each wave of the Gospel to Japan was seeds planted and watered. No matter the branch of the church it arrived with, the wave had one purpose—to speak the Words of of Scripture, “I AM JESUS.”

During periods of Christian suppression, written documents, such as the Gospels and prayers are often destroyed. The Scriptures carry the knowledge of the truth and light of Jesus. They are freedom. They are the Sword of the Spirit. Literacy, education and the Gospel are fundamentally important.

The Word of God was hidden within the hearts of the Japanese from the first wave. Those words stuck firmly in the language.

The Word of God was hidden within the hearts of the Japanese from the second wave, being chanted and prayed in a hidden way.

It is God who gave the growth.

Modern Japanese believers also suffered persecution during World War II. The government still believed that believers were aligned with the West, as during the time of the Jesuit and Franciscan missionary efforts. Some Christians went into hiding. Some of the Kakure Kirishitan remained in hiding.

The Word of God was hidden within the hearts of the Japanese from the third wave, helping them prepare for further persecution during modern days. (Psalm 119:11)

Yes, the West sent missionaries to Japan. But Jesus came out of the Middle East. The first missionaries to Japan, based upon linguistic evidence, were highly likely from Persia’s Church of the East and the Chinese Church of the East.

The Japanese faith today is yet a minority, but they too are mission-oriented, reaching out to their own people. (Kelly Jadon, “Hallelujah Community Church: What God Did,” 2020.) These Japanese believers in Jesus, no matter the denomination of the church, are the spiritual and physical descendants of the early church, the Kakure Kirishitan, the martyrs of Jesus and the persecuted.

To honor the Lord and the witness of the Japanese Church for Jesus for perhaps close to 2,000 years, I have embroidered わたしがイエスです meaning “I AM JESUS” from John 18:5 into this artwork titled “I AM.”

Listen to the Lord’s prayer in Japanese:

Please share!

More about the art piece: “I AM”

(C) Kelly Jadon, 2025

The English "I AM"

In 1382, English scholar and priest, John Wycliffe published a Bible in English, translated from Latin. His purpose was to take the truths of the Gospel to the people.

In 1415, Wycliffe’s remains were dug up and burned, the ashes thrown into the River Swift. He had been declared a heretic.

The first English Scriptures translated directly from the Old Testament’s Hebrew and the New Testament’s Greek were done so by linguist William Tyndale between 1522-1535. He had been influenced by the work of Martin Luther’s German New Testament.

“It came into his heart that the thing to do in life was to translate the scripture into the common language of the people.” (Dr. Timothy George at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, 2009)

The translation was a direct challenge to the Roman Catholic Church. His English Scripture translations were banned in England by Catholic authorities. Tyndale was later declared guilty of heresy, strangled and burned at the stake. Just prior to his death, witnesses heard Tyndale pray, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” (Houston Christian University)

God answered the prayer. The King of England allowed the English Scriptures into his country’s churches. In 1611, the King James Bible was printed in his royal name.

Government leadership that promotes the Gospel does its people a great service.

The King hired on 47 translators who consulted various sources, including Tyndale’s. A large portion, up to 90% of his work was incorporated. The King James Bible remained the standard for more than 200 years and is still widely used.

God puts into the hearts of key people, a love for the Gospel, causing them to translate the Scriptures for the majority. People must have and know the Scriptures. Knowledge of the Lord, the Word himself, is within them, recorded since the beginning, and instructing the church about what will come.

The printing press had been invented and believers took the Gospels with them to remote areas of the world. (Dr. Philip Jenkins, Baylor University, 2011) The majority were those of Protestant denominations.

In the Colonies, the King James Bible was the most widely used version of the Scriptures. Since colonial days until 1963, Bible reading in United States public schools. During this time volatile disputes about which version of the Bible should be read occurred between Protestants and Catholics. (Pew Research Center, 2019) This disagreement was approximately 400 years old, existing between two branches of the church which call Jesus Christ the Lord.

The result was a court case, Abington Township v. Schempp (1963). The United States Supreme Court struck down compulsory Bible reading as unconstitutional.

When the honor of God is removed, evil enters.

The King James Bible puts it this way: “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” (1 Samuel 16:14)

The Virginia Law Review ( Mark Storslee, 2024) states that at the time the Schempp court case was decided, “More than half of Americans disapproved” of its resolution.

It is yet a controversial, but necessary subject that students and parents contend with.

A few states—Oklahoma, Idaho and Texas, are working toward reintroducing the King James Bible or Bible stories into their curriculums. (Ryan Suppe, Idaho News, 2024)

Historically, believers fought against believers about what their children would hear being read from the Word of God in the U.S. classroom. The result has been that nothing Scriptural reaches the ears of children while at school.

Forgiveness must be made. Apologies must be given on both sides, Protestant and Catholic.

Church leadership must settle this issue themselves, outside a court of law. The Apostle Paul spoke on this subject:

“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to be judged before the unjust: and not before the saints? Know you not that the saints shall judge this world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? how much more things of this world?

“If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to this world, set them to judge who are the most despised in the church.

“I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you any one wise man, that is able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers.” (1Corinthians 6:1-6 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

This ancient dispute began within church leadership and they themselves must end it. The people follow church leadership.

The Word of God is for the children too. Jesus said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:16)

Protestants and Catholics must rally around the four Gospels, around Jesus, where there is agreement in who is Lord. There should be no division within the United States between those who are true believers.

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35 KJV) Unity in Jesus is a witness to the world. It is safety for the children.

Jesus speaks “I AM” to both Catholics and Protestants.

To honor the Lord and the Christian Church in the United States and Britain, “I AM” from John 18:5 has been embroidered into this artwork titled “I AM.”

Please share!

More about the art piece: “I AM”

(C) Kelly Jadon, 2025

The Armenian "I AM"

Bartholomew and Jude, two of the 12 apostles of Jesus, went to the land of Armenia with the good news of Jesus and his resurrection. By the year 301 A.D., Armenia declared Christianity its state religion. The first Christian nation was officially born.

How did this happen? Early Armenian Christians were first persecuted by their kings. Then came Gregory the Illuminator. As a child, he was saved from death during a political conflict between his own father and the king of Armenia. Gregory survived after being taken away from Armenia to the Roman Empire by his nurse. There Gregory was raised as a Christian.

As an adult, he returned to Armenia. After enduring torture and prison himself by the king of Armenia, Gregory persuaded him to receive Christ, baptizing him in the Euphrates River.

Gregory, the first head of the Armenian Church, built churches and schools for the study of Syriac and Greek— Scriptural languages.

By 405 A.D., Mesrop Mashtots, who was an Armenian theologian, created an Armenian alphabet for the purpose of translating the Scriptures from Greek into Armenian. This solidified the Christian faith across the nation.

God uses language, both spoken and written, to unify his church, even nations.

During the 5th Century, the Persian Shah used Zoroastrian priests to coerce Armenians into renouncing Jesus and accepting the pagan religion. The Armenian Church held fast to Christ.

The Armenian Church has stood for close to 2000 years and continues to do so, despite persecution even into modern times.

As Jesus is alive, so too has he kept his church alive.

“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7)

In 2016, “The Catholic Thing” publication reported that approximately 9 million people are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, while 750,00 belong to the Armenian Uniate Catholic Church.

Listen to liturgical Armenian prayer:

To honor the Lord and the Armenian Church, the Armenian words of the Lord, “It’s me,” from John 18:5 have been embroidered in this artwork titled “I AM.”

Please share!

More about the art piece: “I AM”

(C) Kelly Jadon, 2025