Excerpts from the Book of Songs

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Excerpts from the Book of Songs

The Book of Songs is one of the Chinese Five Classics, the most authoritative ancient documents of China. It contains about 300 poems written roughly 3000 years ago. The contents of most of these poems are related to praising and praying to God. Here are a few examples: (Sorry about the poor translation by me)

Praising God:

"O the glorious God of heaven,
 His Light shines on all the lands below.
 O the great God of heaven,
 His authority extends to the world beneath.
 O the eternal and infinite God of heaven,
 He is the Lord of all the peoples of China."

Giving thanks to God:

"O God!
 You nurture all the peoples of China,
 You created everything in the world,
 You have set Laws for us to follow.
 O how good it is!
 All the wheat and grains are nearly ripe,
 Our gracious God,
 He has blessed us with a year of good harvest."

Praying to God:

"As the bright Milky Way glimmers on the starry night sky,
 The king of China looks toward heaven and sighs:
 'What sins have my people commited,
 that our God will punish us so harshly?
 The jadeware used for sacrifices have all been used up,
 O God, please hear our prayers.
 I shall offer bull and lamb as sacrifices,
 To pray for the protection of our God,
 I shall worship God without tiredness during both day and night,
 For I fear the wrath of the God of heaven."

Fear God:

"The great God has displayed his anger,
 He has punished us with disasters on the land,
 All our lands have become barren as a result.
 The God of heaven has opened the web of punishment on China,
 The wicked within our nation have began to fight amongst themselves."

Historical Records:

"The virtuous sage Houyi followed God,
 thus God has granted him grains and harvests,
 and the knowledge of agriculture,
 so that the people can be nutured and fed.
 God has revealed to King Wen of Zhou,
 'Do not glance around uselessly,
  Do not compete with or envy other people,
  Come only to me directly.'
 God has revealed to King Wen of Zhou,
 'Do not be self-righteous,
  Obey the Laws of God.'"

Teachings:

"You must respect and fear the God of heaven and His anger,
 Do not become lazy and indulge in excessive self-enjoyment,
 You must respect and fear the God of heaven and His glorious wisdom,
 Do not conduct yourself with selfish will or disrespectful haste.
 Our God is wise,
 For He clearly knows your ways,
 Our God is wise,
 For He is perfectly aware of your sins.
 The ways of God cannot be measured,
 So you must stay alert at all times."

Warnings:

"Why does the God of heaven punish you?
Why doesn't the God of heaven bless you?
For you have not paid back the good will others have given you,
For you are jealous of righteous people.
Stay respectful!
For the ways of God are great and cannot be brushed aside,
For keeping to the Laws of our God is not easy.
Do not think that God is distant and cannot hear us,
For everything that we do,
Is inspected by God during the day and watched by God at night,
For God can send both rewards and punishments down to us."  

The Chinese texts are found on a Chinese site, the (very poor) English translations are done by myself.
 
The Book of Songs I think holds a special place in the Chinese cultural tradition. The Five Classics is actually a very small sample of the God-worshipping documents that must have been present in China's Faithful Age. Unlike the Bible, which has been protected by the Grace of God and has survived in complete and virtually perfect condition for thousands of years, most of the earliest Chinese records from the God-worshipping era have long been lost. The Five Classics are all that remains. But here in the Book of Songs I can still find remanents of the ways of our ancestors that have since been neglected and forgotten for millennia. Here are glimmers of the Light of God that was once abundant on the Chinese lands, from a time before the Chinese soul became darkened, and it cuts through the spans of the ages and the dark clouds over China that have appeared since the onset of the spiritual dark age, connecting my faith today with the very roots of my cultural tradition.
 
Has it not yet occured to you that god they worshiped was NOT the same GOd. For if the SAME GOd then why NOT the very same protection for the Holy Words?
i am nothing0.
JESUS IS THE LORD1PRAISE THE LORD1THE LORD YESHUA. AMEN
 
There are monotheistic nations, but how many of them worship/ed THE GOd OF ABRAHAM?
Does the muslums worship THE GOd OF ABRAHAM?
THEY DO NOT!
Did the ancient chinese worship THE GOd OF ABRAHAM?
THEY DID NOT!
The mormons claim they worship THE GOd OF ABRAHAM, BUT THEIR "prophets" say THE FATHER also has a physical body.
But as this make Jesus to be a liar, then for that alone, THEY ARE NOT presently worshiping THE GOd OF ABRAHAM!
There is ONE.
i am nothing0.
JESUS IS THE LORD1PRAISE THE LORD1THE LORD YESHUA. AMEN
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (adelpit346 @ Nov. 16 2003,9:01)]Does the muslums worship THE GOd OF ABRAHAM?
THEY DO NOT!
Click to expand...
actually they technically do b/c they trace their lineage thru Ismael(sp?) who was an illegitimate son of Abraham where as Christianity goes through the legitimate son Isaac
 
No trust me the god of Islam is different from the God of Abraham

Our God scarficed His Son for us
Allah requires you to scarficie your sons for Him
 
Actually they technically DO NOT!
They do not believe Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac!
In fact by technicalities they have DISQUALIFIED themselves from worshiping THE LORD GOd OF ABRAHAM, BY rewriting many things.
i can tell you there is not so much as a single jew that would say the muslum is worshiping THE LORD GOd OF ABRAHAM.
Did i tell you they make a claim the spot of the sacrifice is not even in Jerusalem?
You have been deceived.
i am not so easily deceived, and though i may disagree with nonmessianic jews tremendously over the Messiah/Jesus, i still would NEVER war with them in person, and would always be willing to rise up for them in THE DAY OF THE LORD. AMEN
i am nothing0.
JESUS IS THE LORD1PRAISE THE LORD1THE LORD YESHUA.
ALL the sheep of the LORD KNOW you can not rewrite the HOLY WORD. AMEN
 
THE Blood lineage OF Ismael(SP) has nothing to do with it!
THE SEED GOd spoke of was passed down to Joseph by Isaac, and NOT by Ismael. amen amen amen
They have been led astray by jealousy and satan.
i am nothing0.
JESUS IS THE LORD1PRAISE THE LORD1THE LORD YESHUA.AMEN
 
All you ignorant men of the wisdome of the world have forgotten one very important thing:THE SEED!
i am nothing0 and can NOT be defeated as long as THE LORD GOd JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH AS DECIDED TO STAND BY me.
JESUS IS THE LORD1PRAISE THE LORD1THE LORD YESHUA. AMEN
i suggest you try harder.
 
Just a point on the whole god thing...
The Jews would claim that Christians do not worship the same god as they do...after all, their god has no son. Same thing as with the Muslims...they believe that the god they worship is the same god of Abraham as is worshiped by Jews and Christians.

LS, do you believe that the god of Zoaroastrian is the same god as well?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]LS, do you believe that the god of Zoaroastrian is the same god as well?
Click to expand...

I hope the points I have put forward have not been misunderstood.

It is not meaningful to argue back and forth about whether the various gods are identical or not. That is what the atheists do. For they don't believe that God objectively exists, and therefore they treat God as if He is a philosophical and cultural concept.

But no, God EXISTS. He is REAL, not a cultural concept. The Bible is the truth of God. God is universal, not cultural.

There is only one God. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. Lord Jesus Christ is God, and he is the only way to God.

Because God is real, it is not a philosophically meaningful question to ask whether the various "gods" are the same. The question should be how well does the concept of God in various cultures agree with reality. In other words, how well did the various peoples know the real God?

People certainly knew about God to different degrees. But before the coming of Lord Jesus Christ, no one had a complete knowledge of God. The complete truth of God is only revealed through Lord Jesus Christ. Even the ancient Israelites' knowledge of God is incomplete.

According to the Bible all the nations of the world are descendants of Noah, and therefore all the nations of the world are descendants of Adam and Eve (or as the Chinese would say, Andeng and Nuwa). The first eleven chapters of the Bible consist of the common history of every nation of the world. Ancient Chinese texts agree with Genesis 1-11 and resonate with the truth of the Bible. The fact that the Chinese civilisation which developed independently from the cultures of West Asia and Europe (and had no contact with the Jews in BC times) testifies to the truth of the Bible is a very good piece of external evidence that the Bible is indeed the truth.

Because every nation can trace back its root to Noah, the tradition of worshipping God can be found within the history and legends of all the ancient cultures. Their knowledge of God only differ in degree.

I am not suggesting the ancient Chinese knew about God as well as the ancient Jews did, nor am I suggesting that the Chinese Five Classics have the same level of spiritual authority as the Bible does. (Well actually no book has the same authority as the Bible as the Bible is the only book that is God-inspired) But it is clear from the content of the ancient Chinese classics that they certainly did know quite a lot about God (compared with other gentile nations) and for centuries before about 1000BC they did worship Him.

So to answer your question:

Well the word "same" is not very meaningful in this context, as I have explained. The important thing is how well it agrees with reality. In terms of how well the Zoroastrians knew about God, I would say not a lot. Certainly much less than the Jews or Muslims, and much less than the ancient Chinese too. Good and Evil in Zoroastrianism are completely independent and dualistic (whereas in Christianity Satan is created by God), so unlike the real God, the Zoroastrian god does not have complete power over evil. This is a fatal difference between the identity of the true God and the Zoroastrian god and partly explains why Zoroastrianism is now nearly extinct as a religion.

Zoroastrianism introduces an unsolvable problem of meta-ethics. For if Good and Evil are completely independent and dualistic, who is to say what is Good and what is Evil? Who is to provide the ethical standard? The only way out is for there to be a third "force" or "power" over and above the dualistic Good and Evil in Zoroastrianism. But this would deconstruct the Zoroastrian religion inside out. Christianity on the other hand does not have this problem. The Christian God is the Creator and is infinitely Good so God is the ultimate ethical standard. The God of the ancient Chinese has the same ethical attributes as the Christian God so it is clear that the ancient Chinese knew about God much better than the Zoroastrians do.

If you think anything I have said here is wrong, please feel free to criticise.
 
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