Jesus
started off his public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth. In the synagogue,
on a Sabbath day, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (written abt 600 to 700 yrs BC) was
handed to him to read.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has
anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke
4:18-19 NIV
Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar, unlike
the Western calendar which follows the solar calendar and falls on 1st
January. For believers, this is not the year of the wooden
horse but the year of the Lord’s favour! In fact, it has been so since Christ
mentioned to the synagogue hearers that this scripture has been fulfilled in
their hearing. He did not include the
day of vengeance of God.
The Chinese zodiac, steeped in legends & mythologies,
relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes,
according to a 12-year cycle. The Western zodiac relates constellation to each month. Both are linked to
astrology or fortune telling, the focus is usually on what will happen to
people in various stages of their lives or on what people should do on a
particular day or in a certain
month or year. Astrology
has its roots in Babylon; king Nebuchadnezzar summoned the magicians,
enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamt
(Dan 2:2 NIV). Daniel and his 3 friends were tested and stood out amongst all
in the dept of wisdom and understanding.
The king found them 10 times better than all magicians & enchanters in
his realm.
We live in a world whereby it is becoming
fashionable to reaffirm culture (beliefs, practices and lifestyles of different
ethnic communities) and to advocate a multicultural society. The diversity of human culture is part of
God’s creation. God’s imprint is seen in
the diversity of natural creation. God’s
original purpose was to have the human race scatter over the earth and develop
into diverse cultures.
However, mankind decided to reverse the
scattering process by building a tower in Babel (ancient Babylon). It was not
any ordinary tower though.
Archaeologists tell us it was a typical ziggurat, a well-known ancient
structure designed for occult purposes – “tower that reaches to the heavens” (Gen
11:4) in order to draw on satanic power for their desired one world movement. God’s respond was swift. In one stroke, He ruined their plans by
confounding their languages and they proceeded to scatter as God had
intended. The human race ended up, “Separated into their lands, everyone according to his
language, according to their families, into their nations.” (Gen 10:5 NASB).
Cultures are designed to glorify God. However, Satan has succeeded in corrupting
them, to prevent God from being glorified.
He did it first by provoking Adam & Eve to sin against God,
corrupting the very human nature that was created in the image of God. Then using multitudes of depraved human
minds, he has continued his perverse activities, starting with individuals and
then society as a whole. His influence
can be subtle at first before becoming militant.
Much of human culture and heritage is
inextricably linked with religious philosophies and beliefs that Christians
should not embrace. How can we maintain
an active appreciation of our cultural heritage without compromising our faith?
In particular, how are we to show filial piety at funerals or celebrate the
various Chinese festivals without going against the
teachings of God by engaging in unscriptural practices? To be sure, many of these issues can be
emotionally-charged as they involve family ties.
The Bible tells us to “…
contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the
saints.” Jude 1:3b NKJV
How
can we as Christians, living in a culture that is governed by humanism and
paganism, walk as salt and lights of the world without compromising our faith? Jude continues by giving three specific
examples of judgment passed by God for rebellion and unbelief (Jude
1:5-7).
But I want to remind you, though you once knew
this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed those who did not believe. [cowered by giants despite
God’s promises]
Giants
can come from pressure by society to conform or from cares and worries of life;
deceitfulness of riches.
And the angels who did not keep their proper
domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness for the judgment of the great day; [angels, closest to God, not
spared]
as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around
them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual
immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire. [immoral lifestyle not condoned by God]
Recently, Facebook has added a customizable option with about 50 different
terms people can use to identify their gender such
as transsexual, androgynous, etc. I
don’t believe this diversity in human identity beyond male and female is God’s
intention but a corruption of human identity from the pit of hell.
Let’s read Paul’s famous address to the
Athenians on Mars hill [Greek is Areopagus: hill of Ares, god of thunder &
war; Roman equivalent was Mars] with regard to handling cultural practices that
are opposed to God.
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was
greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So
he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as
in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A
group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of
them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to
be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good
news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him
and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we
know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You
are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what
they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived
there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the
latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus
and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For
as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: to
an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and
this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is
the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything
else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should
inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and
the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they
would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far
from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have
our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should
not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made
by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such
ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For
he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has
appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the
dead.” Acts 17:16-31 NIV
Two principles to guide us in
living under an open heaven and to experience God’s favour in our lives:
1.
Acknowledge God as Creator and renounce false worship
(v 25, 29-30)
Athens is the centre of Greek
culture, philosophy and education. No doubt, when Paul was addressing the
people, they could overlook the city with its magnificent temples and many
gods. They thought Paul was introducing 2 new gods – Jesus and the
resurrection.
The Athenians were very religious
but they did not have a personal knowledge or relationship with the Creator of
the universe. They were rather
superstitious and just in case they missed any god, they erected one “to an
unknown god” altar; for fear of deprived blessing or incurring punishment.
One legend
had it that there was a terrible plague in the city of Athens, and attempts to
appease the gods and stop the plague had no effect. One of the wise men of the
day brought a flock of sheep to the top of Mars Hill and released them. Wherever
these sheep stopped, an altar was set up to an ‘anonymous god’ and the animal
was sacrificed. This course of action was allegedly effective and the city
returned to health.
Paul took the opportunity to
correct their ignorance by presenting God as the Creator of everything. They were ignorant on 3 counts:
- About where God dwells (24) – not in temples
- About the kind of worship God wants (25) – not
through offerings of man
- About how God can be thought of or represented (29)
– not made by human design & skill
This
teaching, where God is the Creator, flatly contradicted both the Epicureans, who believed matter was
eternal and therefore had no creator, and the Stoics, who as pantheists
believed God was part of everything and could not have created Himself.
As
believers in Christ, we are not to participate in the worship of graven images
nor those of our ancestors. We can
respect our ancestors but we are not to worship them in the hope that they can
grant us blessings from beyond the grave.
We should also not participate in rites and rituals performed by pagan
religious people for the dead. In many
cultures, works of art glorifying the creature rather than the creator may
become tourist’s souvenirs eg. Tiki (Polynesian carving of human form), tribal masks,
lamps with beautiful works of art, statues of deities, etc. Some of these
objects could attract evil spirits. When in doubt, don’t buy or get
rid of them, if you have the authority to do so.
Our lives should be governed by God
and not by the clever philosophies of men. In particular, man has invented and dabbled in
divination by looking at the stars and animals (horoscopes) to govern their
lives. As believers, we are not to
participate in such things as palmistry or card reading, following our
horoscope signs or almanacs, etc. We should get rid of anything associated with
such signs. You
would have to pray over artwork depicting horses; what was its intent? Was it
to glorify the created thing rather than God?
In the celebration of Chinese New
Year, there are good cultural traditions that believers can observe such as
coming together for reunion dinner and showing respect for the elders. However,
Christians are not to fall into the trappings and trimmings of luck and
prosperity symbolised by various practices such as exchanging of oranges,
tossing of yu sheng, decorations with auspicious words in red paper and pussy
willows, etc. as if these practices confer blessings. To be sure, these are man-made traditions
which serve to fill the coffers of lucrative commercial traders. The same can be said of Christmas
traditions. Blessings, favour and
prosperity comes from the Lord.
2.
Seek Him, reach out for Him and find Him (v 27)
The Athenians believed they were racially
superior to all other people groups. So
imagine the shock for them to learn that God has created ALL people from Adam
and Eve alone. No one race is superior to
the other; we all bleed and are all equally corrupt, desperately needing a
Savior. God has apportioned each nation
their inheritance in the hope that they would seek after and find Him because
He is not far from anyone. The Bible
tells us to: “Seek
the Lord while he may be found; call
on him while he is near.” Is 55:6 NIV
God is a personal God (not an
impersonal one). Ever since the fall of
mankind, He has been reaching out to men.
Firstly, by calling to Adam, “Where are you?” and subsequently, through
Abram, by calling him out of Ur of Chaldees.
The Lord
had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s
household to the land I will show you. 2 “I
will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you
will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Gen 12:1-3 NIV
King David penned these wonderful
words (a reminder of God’s holy intent for all nations):
All the
ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. Ps 22:27-28 NIV
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. Ps 22:27-28 NIV
God’s
outreach to mankind culminates in the Person of Jesus Christ who came to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favour. As if to preempt the Athenians’
thoughts: ‘If we are so wrong, then why is there no catastrophe, no
plague?’ Paul declared: “That there was
no catastrophe is not due to the effectiveness of your idol-worship, but rather
to God’s mercy in overlooking your ignorance.”
He urges repentance while there is still time to do so, lest the day of
vengeance or judgment comes, when it would be too late. God’s final revelation to mankind is through
the man, Jesus, whom God raised from the dead – a personal God coming in flesh
to reveal Himself but also one who is going to judge the world.
God’s favour is tied in with atonement
at the cross for all mankind. As we proclaim the good news, we have the opportunity to set the prisoners free (salvation), bring recovery of sight to the blind (healing) and set the oppressed free (deliverance). As believers, we can also lay hold of the promise that God's favour would surround us like a shield (Ps 5:12). Have a favourable year in the Lord!
