How do Christians treat their ancestors?
The god we believe in is the only true god, and he is a jealous god. The first of the Ten Commandments tells us that there is no true God except him, so you should not make idols or worship idols! What is an idol? Anyone or anything that replaces God in people's minds is an idol. We must adhere to principles and resolutely oppose them. God is the god of the living, not the god of the dead. God is the source of blessing, the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the redemption of the cross have achieved the reconciliation between God and man. We can come directly to God through this mediator. Some Christians have a vague understanding of whether ancestor worship is a false god or a spouse, and there are some misunderstandings: (1) ancestor worship is a respect for ancestors and a inheritance of filial piety culture, rather than worshipping ancestors before God. However, Chinese folk beliefs have always believed that the dead have the ability to be detached and can bless future generations, so people have offered memorial tablets and statues to their ancestors in order to "enlighten future generations." It can be seen that ancestor worship is an authentic way to treat ancestors as gods! (2) ancestor worship is to remember the achievements and carry forward the virtues of predecessors, not to worship false gods and idols. In that case, why use folk religious ceremonies to burn incense, paper and worship ancestral tablets or idols? Why not take the form of a symposium (or commemorative meeting)? In those days, Naaman mistakenly thought that he could only worship the Lord in the land of Israel, and made a foolish move to come back from the land of Israel and build an altar to serve the Lord. Today, many Christians do not know the essence of ancestor worship and fall into the sin of worshipping false gods and idols.
2. Honor parents and oppose false filial piety.
The only promise in the Ten Commandments is to honor your parents. Christ teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to give ourselves to God. How can a brother who doesn't like watching love an invisible god?
? Not to mention giving birth to me, raising me and teaching my parents. The filial piety of Christians is to support their parents and elders while they are alive, not to worship after death!
A mother is very satisfied with her son who believes in Christ, and her attitude towards the elderly has changed greatly since she believed in Christ. However, one thing that makes the old man sad is that Christians don't burn paper or confess after their parents die. One day, the old man was taking a lunch break, and his son bought her favorite mutton soup and put it in front of the bed. When the old man woke up, the soup was cold and the meat was cold. The old man finally complained why his son didn't wake himself up. The son said, "I thought you woke up when you smelled it." The old man swore that he was asleep. How would he know? Before I finished cursing, I suddenly realized that I was baptized by my son and returned to the Lord. Yes, people are ignorant when they sleep, let alone dead. It is a very hypocritical practice outside Christianity to offer a tribute and wait for the old man to die without filial piety. Everyone knows that it is meaningless. We Christians need to do the little things in life and truly honor the elderly. Ancestors can neither accept food nor bow down. Therefore, the most important thing for children to be filial to their parents is their inner meaning, not their appearance. As for taking this opportunity to show off your wealth, it is even more outrageous. Therefore, we should not only advocate filial piety to parents verbally, but also truly honor the elderly and honor the Lord's name in action.
Christianity teaches filial piety in the most practical way. When the Pharisees went to the temple with the need to support their parents, Jesus rebuked them as hypocrites (Matthew. 15: 4-5). The Lord Jesus pointed out that filial piety is the first, and other worship cannot be replaced. Jesus' metaphor of a prodigal son not exchanging money is to describe the love of his parents and ask young people to remember their parents' great kindness and repay them forever. People in China talk about filial piety, but many customs are false. I didn't support my parents when they were alive. When their parents died, they invited nuns and monks to cross over, entertain relatives and friends, or do feng shui, hoping that their parents' bones would bless them. Rebuild the main card of God, celebrate the anniversary, and worship them, thinking that this is filial piety. Many children didn't give their parents a chicken before they died, but their parents killed a cow when they died. Knowing that parents can't come back for dinner is a living fool. To make matters worse, parents are not cold, and brothers kill each other in order to fight for inheritance, which is the first unfilial. Christianity is a religion that stresses truth. Since people are dead and souls can't come back to eat sacrifices, don't cheat. This is the main reason why Christianity opposes cults. Filial piety is the "filial piety" advocated by Christianity when parents are alive; As for the death of parents, they should be buried with ceremony. Always remember the virtues and teachings of your parents in life and be careful what you do? Honor your ancestors, do not disgrace your parents' names, and fulfill your parents' wishes. More importantly, if parents haven't believed in God, they can do anything. Children's love and responsibility through prayer and good deeds? Lead parents to believe in the Lord so that they can enjoy the blessing of eternal life. Believers must not fall into the sad scene of "the tree wants to be quiet but the wind will not stop, and the son wants to raise and the relatives are not there" and regret it.
Some people think that not worshipping ancestors is not filial to parents and ancestors. We must never regard ancestor worship as a kind of filial piety. We don't worship our ancestors, but we honor our parents. Some people beat and scold their parents at birth; But when their parents died, they also bowed to their parents' portraits. Are these people filial to their parents? This is a lie! Christians should not consider themselves unfilial just because they don't worship their ancestors; Unbelievers should not confuse ancestor worship with filial piety. Don't be afraid to believe in Jesus because of this, or you will miss your eternal life.
3. Remembering the ancestors, the method is proper.
Christians also have ways to commemorate their ancestors, not forgetting their roots and history. There are often cemeteries behind western churches, and people have their own ways to express their posthumous commemoration. We can also commemorate instead of sacrifice.
(1) Commemorative activities, learning from ancestors. Through commemorative activities, we will remember our ancestors and predecessors, learn from their excellent morality and lessons, and better serve the Lord, the church and the society.
(2) Sweeping graves to remember and cherish gratitude. Walking to sweep graves, advocating ancestor worship, commemorating predecessors, offering flowers instead of tributes, and burning incense and paper. Let the society know that Christians are also from China, and the church is also from China. It is by no means forgetting our ancestors, nor is it a foreign religion. We can climb mountains, see the greatness created by God and feel our own smallness, which is good for our health. We can also put up a tombstone: "Jacob put up a unified tombstone on her grave, which is Rachel's tombstone, and it is still there today." (Gen. 35: 20). You don't have to choose a day to sweep the grave. You can sweep the grave at any time, not just on Qingming Day. Fruits should not be placed in front of graves. Don't think that the dead will eat fruit. Put some flowers not to smell dead. Never kowtow to the dead, that's idolatry.
(3) Don't put "spirit cards" at home. Some people put the "God Lord Card" at home. "God's card" means that the dead father has become a god, and he has the ability to bless his children and grandchildren. As children and grandchildren, we should repay our ancestors with incense sticks every day, put their portraits on the "spirit table", put wine, vegetables or fruits and burn incense for them. They think the ancestral spirits are on it, so they are called "spiritual positions". In fact, the souls of ancestors have long gone to places where they will always enjoy happiness or pain. This is not a "spiritual position", but a "memorial tablet". Christians should not have "memorial tablets". We can hang the portrait of our ancestors on the wall as a souvenir, but it should not be placed on the "memorial tablet", let alone dedicated to the portrait.
4. Two misunderstandings:
(1) It doesn't matter if you agree. But we should be clear: on the one hand, the echo of appearance is to participate in the activities of worshipping false gods; On the other hand, participating in worship will make weak believers mistakenly think that Christians can worship idols, which is really tripping others. Christians should imitate Daniel's three friends and refuse to worship false gods and idols! (But 2:1-30,6:1-28) Of course, if there are inevitable reasons, in order to show respect for their ancestors, Christians can bow instead of bowing down and offer flowers instead of burning incense and paper. Because bowing and offering flowers are a kind of etiquette, which is different from worshipping.
(2) Don't make elders (such as parents) feel sad, and satisfy their wishes. Can Christians participate in ancestor worship? Jesus Christ said, "People who love their parents too much are not worthy to be my disciples." (also.
10: 37) if it's to spread the gospel, so as to get in touch with friends and relatives more widely, can we go to the people who worship our ancestors? The answer is yes, but we should pay special attention to being holy with the world (don't kneel, don't burn paper, don't eat sacrifices) and be a good witness to the Lord (former)
2:9)。 I want to remind my brothers and sisters to wash away the "great sin" of Christians.
The crime of "failing to honor parents" is not to give in to the secular world, but to care for parents and other elders with true feelings and do my duty as a younger generation!
Christians value the filial piety of life rather than the sacrifice of death. Sacrificing to death is easy to become a pure ritual and pretense, while honoring life is in line with the opinions of ancient sages, as Ouyang Xiu said: "It is better to cultivate one's morality than to sacrifice richly. Therefore, Christians should respect and commemorate their ancestors, but should not worship and sacrifice. Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Since "worship" is aimed at the highest object, of course, we can only worship the true source of mankind-the only God. All ethics in the universe have their own order, and we still maintain appropriate ethical relations with all kinds of people (such as love for parents, love for friends and so on). ), these are all different. What's more, to the most high god? It is right to remember our ancestors, but the way is open to question. Worship is by no means the right way. Because on the one hand, we can't worship all our ancestors. Isn't that unfilial? On the other hand, our ancestors are still living and dying. How can they protect us from what is coming? To sum up, only God who has no beginning and no end is our only father, and only he deserves all our worship.