The Sumerian word for "God", pronounced as "AN". It is also the ancient Chinese word for "God, pronounced as "TIAN".
It is also the real meaning of the Chinese symbol of the Bagua! The Chinese have been hanging this ancient symbol of God over their doors for millennia!
This actually means that the Chinese people are the most Godly people!
STARTLING TRUTHS ABOUT ANCESTOR WORSHIP
The Chinese civilisation is the only culture which preserves the true ancestor worship as a continuance of the ancient ritual of the worship of the Supreme God, Shang Di or Tian. Many, especially Christians, do not realise that without this ancestor worship there is no real worship of God!
These historical facts should be noted:
- The Vatican actually misinterpreted that the Chinese ancestor worship is alike to the Catholic veneration of saints. However, while not banning the veneration of saints, the Vatican banned ancestor worship.
In the Christian Bible, many passages noted terms like "God of Abraham, Jacob etc." The worship was only to God but never to Abraham and the patriarchs. This is what the original Chinese ancestor worship as defined by Kang Hsi is about!
The "Tu Hsien", the ancestral tablet, means a return to the first ancestor who is God. It signifies that the dead has returned to be with God! This is actually in line with what Confucius stated, that when a person dies, his Shen goes back to Heaven of which it is made of, and his po returns to earth. This is also what the Christian Bible stated in Ecclesiastes: "The spirit goes back to God who gave it and the body return to dust of which it is made up."
Confucius stated that if a society does not perform the Rites it is dead. By "Rites", Confucius actually includes ancestor worship. Confucius was merely recording down a Divine warning that those who do not perform ancestor worship will be rejected by God!
From ancient times, this ancestor worship revolves around 3 levels: daily worship, worship at 1st and 15th days of the lunar month, and the four major seasons. The lunar months and seasonal worships were also adopted in the Old Testament and the ancient Jews!
Time to return to the true ancestor worship and its real worship of the Supreme God, Shang Di or Tian.
- Many so-called "pagans" have idols which never exist and are therefore actually harmless. But many so-called "Godly" people have idols like greed, corruption and hypocrisy which are really very harmful.