Kotaku - Religion in Games: Less a Leap of Faith, More a Suspension of Belief.
This is why it's so tough to trace the history of religious depictions in games, because any interaction with the actual messengers of a faith, outside of prayer, is so basically controversial, if not comprehensively taboo. Even in Left Behind: Eternal Forces, an openly religious game completely unafraid to place Christianity in a context of combative righteousness, the instruments of that faith are new characters, and mortal, not divine. And, it should be said, the antagonists to be converted are not believers of another faith, but the minions of the "Global Community" a secular, world dominating government.