Title: Sacrifice and Idolatry
Contents
How many types of gods do people worship on this planet? There are so many gods that it is impossible to compile those statistics. There are 8 million miscellaneous gods in neighboring Japan. It is said that 152 other gods are worshiped in Korea. This is the number registered with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. If you include all the shamanic beliefs, the number would be indescribable. The fact that there are such a large number of gods shows how weak people are. Being weak, man seeks God. Not only that, when God created man, he made him seek God. That is, he made man into a spiritual being. Therefore, when a person seeks God, he can distance himself from worries and worries even for a moment. It shows that no one can live alone.
Next week is “Seol”, the biggest holiday of our nation. When it comes to the Lunar New Year, you have to pay a turn to your ancestors. Some of you may already be experiencing religious conflicts. There is no need to conflict. You can worship.
What do you say, pastor? Do you know how difficult it is for me to be alone when the whole family gathers for a ceremony? Of course it will be difficult, right? But exactly assert your opinion? Because I believe in God, I cannot attend the sacrifice. However, we will do our best to be filial to our living parents. Also, I cannot do God's work of not serving foreign gods and serving idols. When I say this, most people these days understand.
Then why is sacrifice idolatry? Let's go through the word.
First, let's look at the origins of the rituals performed by non-believers.
During the Song dynasty in China, Confucian scholar Zhu Hui (朱熹, 1130-1200) was the first to argue that 'one should offer sacrifices to ancestors', and this was established as a virtue of Confucian philosophy. These rituals were derived from 'filial piety' (孝), one of the basic virtues of Confucianism, and 'filial piety' was a virtue practiced through 'religion' and 'sacrificial system'.
Chinese kings and emperors embraced this Confucian virtue to boast of their families, and then the commoners began to hold ancestral rites without the king's permission, thinking, "Are only the ancestors of the kings wonderful? Our ancestors are also wonderful." did.
In Korea, the idea of ancestor worship was born through the book <Juju Garye, 朱子家禮>, which came along with Neo-Confucianism from the end of Goryeo, and then, when Lee Seong-gye founded Joseon, Confucianism and Zhujaga-rye (朱子家禮) were the basis of politics. It was the beginning of the sacrificial rites as a rite of passage. By taking Neo-Confucianism as the basis of government, ancestral rites became common and have been passed down to the present day. Since the religion of the Three Kingdoms period and the Goryeo period was Buddhism, there were no ancestral rites. In Korean Buddhism, ancestral rites are held, but in fact, orthodox Buddhist countries do not hold ancestral rites.
Whenever Christians face a problem with ancestral rites, they are often criticized for not keeping the good custom of our nation, called filial piety. It has nothing to do with filial piety and this sacrifice. I would like to introduce you to the analysis of the psychology of the people who attend this ritual.
1. It is that the psychology of apology for infidelity works when parents are alive.
2. The thought that the dead ancestors will eat the food prepared with care on the day of the ancestral rite and bring blessings
However, dear saints, our dead ancestors cannot come back on the day of the memorial service. Once a person's soul is dead, it cannot come back to this world.
Luke 16:19-31
Those who believe and die go to Abraham's bosom, that is, Paradise, and those who die without believing go into Hades. A soul, once dead, cannot come to this earth.
Also, blessings come from God, not from our ancestors.
If ancestral rites are really for deceased parents, then which parent will not bless their children?
No matter how disobedient children are, parents want their children to live happily and peacefully. This is the heart of parents. Therefore, sacrifices are not made to the deceased parents, but to the demons.
Reveal the identity of the sacrifices distributed. Let's see the contents of
Then did God tell our parents not to be filial but to be filial?
Let's look at Ephesians 6:1-3.
"Honoring" a deceased parent can never be the basis for judging filial piety or disloyalty. When God tells you to honor your parents, you should know that he is referring to living parents.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on the land the Lord your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12). “There is hope for those who share in all the living, for a living dog is better than a dead lion” (Ecclesiastes 9:4).
Dear saints, We must serve our parents. Serve your parents, but please serve them well while you are alive. This is the foundation of filial piety.
Should we, then, express our feelings for our deceased parents?
Please have a family worship service on the day your parents passed away. The words of a memorial service or a memorial service are not correct. Since mourning and remembrance are words that express respect for deceased ancestors, please hold family worship. Therefore, we should give thanks to God for giving us our ancestors.
In Matthew 1, Luke 3, we are talking about the genealogy of Jesus. In addition, Genesis 5 and 1 Chronicles 1-8 are about genealogy. Then why did God record the genealogy like this?
It is to establish historicity and orthodoxy about Jesus Christ. In other words, this is to show that Jesus did not suddenly appear from heaven, but was promised to come to this earth from the beginning of mankind.
In this context, it is the fact that we should give thanks to God with a heart of gratitude for who gave us early birth and established me here through the lineage of our ancestors.
If our ancestors believed and died, we should talk about their beliefs while sharing blessings. If they died without believing, we should pray a prayer of thanks to God for giving us faith and a prayer of hope that the roots of this faith will be passed on to our ancestors. will be
Let's get to the main topic today.
It is God who blesses you. No one will bless you. I pray that you will receive great blessings by believing that only God gives blessings and serving God sincerely.