Participants: Herb Kersten
Series Code: SF
Program Code: SF000037
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00:01 From Melbourne, Australia, HKEA Evangelistic Alliance
00:05 presents "God in Ancient China." 00:09 Who did the ancient Chinese worship 00:12 in the first 2000 years of their long unbroken history? 00:18 Be amazed, at Bible messages 00:20 embedded within ancient Chinese characters 00:23 that are older than even the time of Moses. 00:28 So sit back, grab a friend and be astounded 00:31 by this fact filled presentation 00:33 that has opened ordinance everywhere. 00:39 If you are traveling in an arrowed landscape 00:44 with your friends, a long time ago, 00:49 you're on a camel 00:50 and you're friends are on a camel 00:53 and you've got a long journey a head of you. 00:56 And you are using something in the sky to guide you, 01:02 to give you direction and position. 01:06 So that you'll reach your destination 01:08 and it's a long journey. 01:09 This is gonna take more than two months, 01:13 would a star be more useful to you, 01:16 or would a comet be more useful to you, 01:20 which of these two heavenly phenomena 01:25 would be more useful 01:26 from a navigation point of view. 01:29 I'd put it to you that perhaps a comet, 01:31 because it has a head and a tail. 01:35 The Chinese's astronomers were far more advanced 01:39 than their western counterparts. 01:42 The Chinese astronomers according to NASA 01:46 kept very meticulous records about comets 01:49 when they appeared, when they disappeared, 01:52 and these records were called Comet Atlases. 01:57 And a typical comet atlas looks something like this. 02:03 Doesn't mean much to an American, 02:05 or an Australian, or an Englishman, 02:07 but to the Chinese people this is a detailed record 02:11 of when a comet appeared in the sky, 02:13 and how long it lasted? 02:15 And when it appeared? 02:19 On the 9th of March, 5 BC, 02:22 this record appeared in the astronomy records 02:27 of the book of the Han Dynasty 02:29 and translated into English 02:32 it reads "In the second month of the second year, 02:36 of Jian Ping, the comet was out of Altair." 02:41 Altair is a star, this comet came out of a star 02:45 and it lasted for more than 70 days. 02:48 And It is said, "Comets appear to signify the old 02:52 being replaced by the new." 02:55 "Altair, the sun, the moon, and the five stars 02:57 are in movement to signify the beginning of a new epoch, 03:02 the beginning of a new year, a new month and a new day." 03:06 This is dated that 9th of March, 5 BC. 03:11 That's Altair, it's in the constellation of Aquila, 03:15 its' the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila. 03:18 And the Chinese astronomers are saying, 03:20 "On the 9th of March, 5 BC, this comet appeared out of, 03:24 seemingly appeared out of the star 03:27 and it lasted for more than 70 days." 03:35 The appearance of this comet undoubtedly symbolizes change. 03:39 They said, "The extended appearance of the comet 03:43 for more than 70 days 03:46 indicates that this is of great importance." 03:50 And there is the reference on the screen. 03:53 The Bible says, "The wise men who came to visit Jesus Christ 03:59 who was to be born in Bethlehem." 04:03 They said, "We've seen His star 04:05 in the east and we've come to worship Him." 04:08 The wise men thought it was a star. 04:12 The Chinese astronomers who knew nothing about this 04:15 thought it was a comet. 04:16 To them it looked like a comet, 04:19 to the wise men it looked like a star. 04:25 This record is dated 31 AD, 04:28 and it's in the history of The Later Han Dynasty 04:31 and there is the reference and it says, 04:34 "Summer, fourth month of the year 04:36 on the day of Ren Wu, the imperial edict reads, 04:39 'Yen and Yang have mistakenly switched, 04:43 and the sun and moon were eclipsed. 04:47 The signs of all-- 04:48 The sins of all the people are now on one man. 04:56 Pardon is proclaimed to all under heaven.'" 05:01 They knew nothing about Jesus and this is dated 31 AD. 05:06 They knew nothing about Jesus Christ, 05:09 but in their soul, in their spirit, 05:12 they felt that this sudden eclipse of the sun, 05:17 unexpectedly meant that 05:20 the sins of people were pardoned 05:23 and had been placed on one man, that's amazing, isn't it? 05:29 And then it goes on to say 05:30 "The Eclipse on the day of Gui Hai, 05:33 Man from heaven died." 05:37 How did the Chinese people know this? 05:40 They're in China, Jesus Christ 05:42 was being crucified in Jerusalem. 05:46 They knew nothing about it, 05:48 but in their records when they saw this eclipse. 05:52 These imperial astronomers wrote 05:56 "Man from heaven has died." 06:01 Then three days later, 06:07 there was halo around the sun, 06:10 360 degrees rainbow halo, 3 days later. 06:14 "During the reign of Emperor Guang Wu, 06:16 on the day of Bing Yin of the fourth month Jiang Wu, 06:20 a halo, a rainbow encircled the sun," 06:24 three days later. 06:26 So folks, here is the resurrection 06:28 of Jesus Christ. 06:30 They didn't know what they were writing. 06:33 They were simply recording what they saw, 06:36 not knowing what it meant. 06:38 And so here folks to start 06:40 of this amazing message tonight, 06:44 we have three evidences, 06:47 where the Chinese astronomers unknowing to them, 06:51 pinpointed the year of Christ birth, 06:55 the year of His death, 06:59 and three days later His resurrection. 07:01 And I hope if you watching, I've now got your attention. 07:05 Because this is the type of evidence 07:07 that we're gonna present. 07:10 New to westerners, new to Chinese listeners, 07:15 and Asian listeners, 07:17 perhaps you've never heard this before. 07:19 But what you are going to hear tonight 07:22 and for the rest of the message is even more amazing. 07:27 The ancient Chinese 07:31 have amazing contributions to make to the world 07:35 and they confirmed the book of Genesis. 07:39 They confirmed the story of Genesis, 07:43 and if Genesis is not true, folks, 07:46 then you can through the Bible away. 07:48 Because if the first book is wrong, 07:50 the other 65 books of the Bible are wrong. 07:53 Because Genesis talks about sin, and creation, 07:57 and the flood, and the Tower of Bable, 07:59 and if all those things are just a story 08:02 and there is no reality there, then the whole Bible is wrong. 08:06 Because the other 65 books of the Bible 08:09 are based on the veracity of Genesis. 08:14 So during this presentation, 08:15 we're going to touchup on these four areas. 08:18 What did the Chinese say about creation? 08:20 What did the Chinese say about the fall of man? 08:22 What did the Chinese say about 08:24 the flood and the Tower of Bable? 08:28 But we need a very quick lesson in Chinese tonight. 08:32 For those of us, who don't know Chinese, 08:34 this is a mouth, and the Chinese 08:37 characters are not a hieroglyphics. 08:40 The Chinese characters are a pictogram, 08:42 and so when the Chinese see your open mouth, 08:45 they say, "Well, the character that we're going to create 08:48 for mouth is going to resemble a mouth." 08:53 So there you have the first word 08:56 "Kou," which is mouth. 08:58 It can mean a person, it can mean breath, 09:02 it can mean a man. 09:07 And this one is very obvious, 09:08 this is a tree and this one is two trees. 09:12 So it can be a garden, or it can be a forest, 09:15 or it can be two trees, 09:17 and so when we put them together, 09:20 we've got one person in a garden, you see that? 09:26 Now that we understand Chinese, we can proceed. 09:30 Let's look at something about the flood, the Bible says, 09:34 "There were eight people who entered the ark, 09:37 Noah, his wife, Noah's three sons, 09:41 and Noah's three son's wives 09:44 a total of eight entered the ark." 09:47 The Chinese word for big boat is "Chuan," 09:54 and it is made up of these components. 09:57 A boat with a number eight 10:04 and what's that symbol at the bottom? 10:05 That's mouth or people. 10:09 So we have a boat with eight people inside it 10:13 and this character is as old, almost as old as time itself. 10:18 It goes back before Moses, it goes back to 2200 BC. 10:23 Where did they get this from? 10:25 How did they know they were eight people in the ark? 10:28 They didn't get it from Moses. 10:31 Now we'll pick something in creation. 10:34 The Bible says, "God created man in His own image, 10:38 He spoke and it was done." 10:43 The word for create in Chinese, or to make, or to concoct, 10:48 or to put together something is "Zao," 10:54 and its made up of these components, 10:56 words were spoken, you see the open mouth. 10:59 Words were spoken 11:01 and as words were spoken movement happened. 11:05 Now I would have thought 11:06 if I was going to create a Chinese character for create, 11:11 or to make I would have a pair of hands making something. 11:16 What has spoken words got to do 11:19 with moment happening all of a sudden? 11:22 Because this agrees with the Bible story, 11:25 and this word is old. 11:27 This older than Moses, the Bible says, 11:31 "God spoke, and it was done." 11:37 Talking about creation the Bible says, 11:39 "God formed man from the dust of the ground 11:42 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 11:45 and man became a living being," that's what the Bible says. 11:50 If we take this word "Zao" 11:52 apart just that top bit that you see on the screen, 11:56 just that top bit, take it a part. 11:58 This is what we get, we get dust, 12:02 and we get breath, there is the mouth, 12:06 and the result is something living. 12:09 This is exactly what the Bible says 12:11 and this the Chinese word 12:14 for to make or for to create. 12:21 The Chinese history goes back 12:24 in an unbroken record of 4,500 years. 12:30 That's very similar to the Hebrew race, 12:32 an unbroken history of four and half thousand years. 12:35 They've records, they've kept writing, 12:39 there is no other civilization like 12:41 the Hebrew and the Chinese. 12:44 And this is going to be very helpful 12:46 as we unfold some of the truths tonight. 12:50 The very first emperor of China is Huang Di. 12:54 He's called the "Yellow Emperor," 12:56 Di means "Emperor," and Huang means "Yellow." 13:01 And this emperor reigned from 2500 BC, 13:04 a 1000 years before Moses to 2400 BC 13:11 and it is attributed to him 13:13 that all the Huang Chinese people come from Huang Di. 13:17 It's also attributed to him 13:19 that Chinese writings system was developed, 13:23 that's 2500 years BC we are talking. 13:27 Moses lived around 1500 BC 13:30 a 1000 years before Moses, Huang Di existed. 13:34 And under his reign a writing system was developed. 13:37 You could almost say, "He's a bit like Abraham 13:40 from him came the Chinese people." 13:44 But what sort of God were they worshiping? 13:47 What sort of God that the ancient Chinese believe in? 13:51 We think, well, they're all into Daoism, and Confucianism. 13:56 And they're into Buddhism in China, 13:58 yes, today that is the case, 14:00 that's predominately the main religion of China. 14:04 But these religions entered China round 600 to 500 BC, 14:10 and Huang Di lived 2500 BC. 14:13 So the question I want to ask is, 14:16 what sort of God 14:18 where the ancient Chinese worshipping 14:20 before Daoism, and Buddhism, 14:23 and Confucianism came into China? 14:26 There is a 2000 year gap there 14:29 and the answer come from Chinese 14:33 greatest historian called Sima Qian. 14:36 He is highly respected, he is highly reveled, 14:41 very few criticize this man. 14:44 And when he writes, people take it as fact 14:48 and he wrote, that Huang Di 14:51 built an altar in Tai Shan to worship a God 14:57 that they called Shang Di. 15:00 Di means emperor. 15:02 So today their God was Emperor Shang, 15:06 but it was their God, it wasn't a human being, 15:09 and so they worshiped Shang Di a 1000 years before Moses. 15:17 Now second answer comes from Confucius and Sima Qian. 15:22 Confucius wrote five classics of poetry, 15:25 and Sima Qian wrote the historical records, 15:28 highly respected, and both say that 15:31 the people of the Shang Dynasty worshiped Shang Di. 15:38 Now The Shang Dynasty goes back to 1776 BC. 15:44 When Moses was leading 15:46 the children of Israel out of Egypt, 15:48 through the red sea, 15:52 200, 300 years before that event 15:55 the Shang Dynasty was alive and well. 15:58 And the Shang Dynasty is unique 16:00 because they kept records. 16:03 They kept documents, and when you can record things, 16:07 and document things you can record history. 16:12 Here is a picture of my Seventh-day Adventist friend, 16:16 Victor Lee holding a tortoise shell, 16:21 that is dated 1770 BC, and he is holding it, 16:26 he should be holding it a lot more carefully, 16:28 I would have thought. 16:29 He is holding with two figures, 16:31 it is very old and on that tortoise shell 16:34 is some very ancient Chinese writing 16:37 and this is how old it goes back to 1770 BC. 16:43 So when Moses was writing Genesis, 16:48 300 years before that 16:50 the Chinese were already writing. 16:55 So there is the timeline, 16:57 you can see Huang Di, 2500 BC, 17:00 you can see the Shang Dynasty, 17:01 with the tortoise shell and the writing. 17:04 1770 BC and Moses looks 17:07 as though he is arrived a little bit late, 17:11 he has arrived at 1500 BC. 17:14 But the Chinese were already writing 17:16 and recording and capturing concepts 17:20 that are embedded in the Bible 17:23 and it's embedded in there language, 17:25 and if I was Chinese, I would be so proud tonight. 17:29 I would be so proud because you got there first. 17:34 You had Biblical concepts in your language, 17:37 before the Jews, before the Hebrews, before Moses. 17:42 And so you can see the Daoism, and Confucianism, 17:47 and Buddhism they came very late. 17:50 They came very late. 17:53 And so here is the letter for Shang Di, 17:56 there is no image of him. 17:58 There is no sculpture of him. There is no idol of him. 18:02 Because they didn't believe in idolatry, 18:04 they just wrote a character to describe, Shang Di. 18:10 We know that Hebrew's worshiped Yahweh, 18:14 or Jehovah, or Elohim. 18:18 The Chinese worshiped Shang Di. 18:20 And I want to put it to you tonight 18:23 that Shang Di and Jehovah or Yahweh are the same. 18:29 I'm going to show you proof and evidence from Confucius. 18:35 That the Shang Di has the same characteristics 18:40 of Yahweh, in his five classics, 18:47 Confucius describes a 175 references to Shang Di. 18:52 And we are not gonna through them all tonight, 18:53 we'd be here forever, 18:55 but I'll give you some descriptors 18:57 from the five classics of Shang Di. 19:00 Shang Di is described by Confucius 19:03 as a "God is all powerful, 19:05 a God who has authority over all nations, 19:08 a God who is all knowing, a God who is ever present." 19:12 You might say, "Well, that could be anybody. 19:14 That could be any Pagan God, most Pagan Gods claim this." 19:19 But wait, there is one descriptor 19:23 that sets Shang Di apart from all the Pagan Gods 19:28 and that is that Shang DI is a "God of love" 19:31 and that is very unique. 19:33 This is not a Pagan God, this is the same God 19:38 as the God of the Bible. 19:41 This is the same God as Yahweh 19:43 and so to summarize 19:46 some of those recitations of Shang Di, 19:49 "He is a God of justice, and wisdom, 19:52 and grace, and holiness, and faithfulness, and mercy, 19:56 and righteousness, and he's eternal." 19:59 These are the characteristics of Yahweh. 20:02 These are the characteristics of the God of the Bible. 20:05 And so Shang Di and Yahweh are the same. 20:10 Now Huang Di, we are told built an altar 20:14 to worship Shang Di. 20:18 And every year, every year, 20:22 the ancient Chinese people had a major event, 20:25 a major religious event called "The Border Sacrifice." 20:29 And it was moved according 20:31 to where the capital city of China was of that time, 20:34 wherever the capital city was that's where they had it, 20:37 and this happened every year. 20:40 Imagine all the Christians in the world getting together, 20:44 into one place, every year to worship God. 20:48 This is what the Chinese were doing. 20:50 They made every year 20:52 huge crowds to worship Shang Di. 20:56 And Confucius tells us 20:59 "The ceremonies of the celestial 21:01 and terrestrial sacrifices 21:05 are those by which men serve, Shang Di." 21:11 "And on that day, the emperor became priest." 21:16 Now this is very similar to the day 21:19 of atonement of the ancient Hebrews. 21:24 Where they met once a year 21:26 and the high priest became priest 21:30 and represented all the people 21:32 and here the ancient Chinese emperor, 21:36 the king became priest. 21:38 And they offered blood sacrifice 21:41 as atonement to Shang Di. 21:44 And if you go to South of Beijing today, 21:48 Southern Beijing, you'll have this massive complex, 21:52 the Temple of Heaven, and the Altar of Heaven. 21:57 There is the Temple of Heaven, here are no idols in there. 22:00 There are no statues in there. 22:02 There is the Altar of Heaven, 22:03 where this blood sacrifice used to be offered once a year. 22:09 And then suddenly it all came to an end, 22:13 this emperor, Qin Shi Huang in 259 BC, 22:19 he put an end to the worship of Shang Di, 22:23 and he said, "No more blood sacrifices to Shang Di. 22:27 And he lowered the boon, and he stopped it." 22:29 And this is why Buddhism and Confucianism 22:33 and Daoism began to flourish 22:38 and it's still flourishing in China today. 22:40 If the Chinese people only understood 22:45 that you are worshiping the same God, 22:47 it's the God of the Bible. 22:50 You would look at this again through intelligent eyes, 22:54 through discerning eyes, 22:55 and see that it is in your history, 22:58 it's in your culture, and it is this emperor, 23:01 Qin Shi Huang who stopped it. 23:06 So if we put it on the time chart 23:08 you can see the line of Huang Di 2500 BC, 23:11 the Shang Dynasty 1770 BC, with the oracle bone script, 23:17 the ancient writing on those tortoise shells, 23:20 Moses 1500 BC, and the religions of China 23:25 they started to come in 500 BC. 23:32 Now here is my friend, 23:33 Victor Lee holding this very old tortoise shell. 23:39 And on that tortoise shell are inscribed 23:42 very ancient Chinese characters dated to 1770 BC, 23:48 they called them "oracle bone scripts." 23:51 Why oracle? 23:53 The writing was on bone, animal bone, 23:56 or it was on tortoise shell, 23:59 so what's oracle got to do with it? 24:01 Well, what they use to do? 24:03 they would heat the tortoise shell 24:05 or they would heat the animal bone 24:08 with these characters on it, 24:10 and then the tortoise shell will crack 24:14 or the bone would crack, 24:15 and depending on the formation of the cracks 24:17 in relation to the characters written on it 24:20 they would start to tell your fortune 24:22 or they would start to tell an oracle, 24:24 and so it's called oracle bone script. 24:27 But when no heat is applied, 24:30 it is simply called bone or shell script 24:34 and it goes back to 1770 BC, 24:39 is that clear? 24:42 It was written on bone, or shell, or pottery, 24:45 and even in axe heads. 24:47 They are starting to discover ancient writing 24:49 on Chinese axe heads 24:51 and they are now dating this to 2200 BC. 24:55 So the Chinese writing goes back further 24:58 than the Shang Dynasty. 25:00 The Chinese writing is older than just oracle bone script 25:03 and there is the evidence. 25:05 And the Chinese archeologists are now pushing back 25:10 the origin of a Chinese character by a 1000 years. 25:14 They thought it was around 1500 BC, 1200 BC, 25:19 that's as all has it got. 25:20 But now they're saying 25:22 "It's older than that by a thousand years." 25:24 Why is that important? 25:26 Because it means that these characters 25:28 that have Bible concepts in them predate, Moses. 25:34 They didn't copy it from Moses 25:37 and Moses didn't copy it from them. 25:39 It was given to them by word of mouth 25:42 after the Tower of Babel when the people dispersed. 25:47 Here is a website called "China View" 25:51 and it says, "New technology discovery rewrites 25:55 earliest Chinese character dating 2200 BC." 26:01 So this is probably new to many listeners 26:04 who always thought that Chinese writing is no older 26:08 than 1200 BC maybe 1500 BC 26:12 and at a stretch, at a stretch 1700 BC. 26:16 But now Chinese archeologists are saying, 26:19 "It's a lot older than that." 26:22 So Huang Di, who lived 2500 BC 26:27 who under his reign developed a Chinese writing system 26:31 and everybody thought, 26:33 that's a bit of an exaggeration. 26:35 People thought that was a story 26:36 just made up to make him look famous. 26:40 But the archaeologists are now saying, 26:42 "Yes, there was Chinese writing around the time of Huang Di." 26:48 So just to sum up, we have shell 26:52 and bone script that's dated 2200 BC, 26:57 no oracle, no heat applied, no cracking of the media. 27:02 Then we have oracle script 1770 BC 27:07 and the characters on the oracles bone script 27:10 are identical to the characters on the non-oracle bone script. 27:17 They didn't invent a whole new set 27:18 of characters for oracle bone. 27:21 It's the same set of characters and from oracle bone 27:24 characters comes classical Chinese characters, 27:27 and from classical Chinese characters 27:29 comes Cantonese and Mandarin. 27:32 Can you see the pedigree? 27:34 So what we are going to look at tonight 27:37 is classical Chinese characters because most people, 27:40 who are Chinese watching, viewing, 27:42 can understand these characters, 27:44 you can't read oracle bone script, 27:46 but you can read traditional Chinese, 27:48 but even that's becoming a rare thing in china. 27:52 As the younger generation 27:54 is now focusing on the modern script. 27:57 And the classical script comes from oracle bone, 28:01 and oracle bone comes from non-oracle bone. 28:05 So the pedigree for classical Chinese 28:07 goes right back to 2200 BC. 28:12 Now in 2009, the Chinese government opened 28:17 a museum in Anyang called "The Chinese Character Museum" 28:24 and I'm glad they did 28:26 because everything I'm telling you tonight 28:28 can be verified if you go to this museum. 28:31 And it's a magnificent structure. 28:34 A museum dedicated to Chinese characters. 28:38 A museum dedicated to the heritage 28:41 and culture of Chinese writing. 28:45 Here is my friend, Victor Lee, 28:47 Seventh-day Adventist, Christian, 28:50 holding that oracle bone script written on tortoise shell. 28:55 And here he is standing 28:57 in the Chinese character museum. 29:00 This looks like the "Great Wall of China" doesn't it? 29:04 This enormous wall, 29:06 that houses oracle bone characters 29:10 and the classical Chinese character equivalent. 29:15 This is a Seventh-day Adventist researcher, 29:17 Dr. Ethel Nelson who wrote a book 29:22 on this very subject called 29:24 "God's Promises to the Chinese." 29:26 And she is a pathologist, and she is an author, 29:30 and she meticulously traces 29:34 the history of oracle bone script 29:36 in relationship to Biblical concepts. 29:39 But the world doesn't know about it, 29:41 and that's why tonight we're recording 29:44 this program and broadcasting it. 29:46 To get the message out and I take my head off, 29:50 I salute the Chinese people for your culture 29:52 and your heritage and your history 29:55 and your Chinese characters, 29:58 which contain Bible truths, Bible concepts. 30:02 Here is an oracle script that means woman. 30:07 Very old script this is probably 1770 BC, 30:14 if not older and next to it 30:17 is the character for desire, or to covet, 30:21 or to have greed in your heart. 30:24 That's the oracle bone script for that concept 30:27 and there is the classical word. 30:29 You can see there is a similarity. 30:31 There are two little trees above the woman. 30:33 The woman is below the trees. 30:35 And it's the same in the classical character. 30:40 So let's take the classical Chinese character 30:42 to desire something, and to covet something, 30:45 and to have greed in your heart. 30:47 There is the classical character 30:49 and it comes from this oracle bone script, 30:52 which is dated 1770 BC and it's made up for two trees 30:57 with a woman kneeling under them. 31:00 The Bible says when Eve, the woman 31:03 committed the first sin, she had a choice between 31:07 the tree of life says the Bible 31:11 and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 31:14 two trees, not four, or three, two. 31:18 And this ancient Chinese character 31:20 that's older than Moses puts the woman 31:24 under two trees, isn't that amazing? 31:27 That's exactly what the Bible says. 31:30 And so here we are today 31:33 and we're going back in time 4,200 years 31:40 when shell script, and bone script, 31:42 were produced and before that was Huang Di in 2500 BC 31:49 and the Shang Dynasty in 1770 BC, 31:51 I'm just summarizing so you can put it all together 31:56 and there is Moses 1500 BC, 700 years before Moses. 32:02 The Chinese had developed characters 32:05 that carry the Bible story. 32:08 This is not an American import. 32:11 Christianity is not an invention of the Americans. 32:15 Christianity is not an invention 32:18 of people in Australia, or New Zealand, 32:21 or even the Middle East. 32:25 Christianity is embedded in your culture, 32:28 and in your language, and in your characters. 32:31 And if you go to that Chinese Character Museum 32:35 in Anyang you will see that. 32:38 And your current religions, which I respect, 32:42 came a lot, lot later then your original religion. 32:50 And so you are worshipping 32:53 one supreme god called Shang Di, 32:55 "the creator of heaven and earth" 32:58 and you did not copy this from Christian missionaries, 33:02 you did not get this from a Christian evangelist 33:04 who came to China. 33:06 Because the first Christians to go China was in 620 AD 33:13 long after you had already 33:15 developed your character language. 33:17 So there they are the Christian missionaries 33:20 coming in very late long after 33:22 you'd already developed your writing. 33:25 And so we can say that once you know how to write, 33:30 you can start documenting history, 33:32 you can start recording things, if you know how to write 33:36 and we're going back to 2200 BC. 33:39 And so you can write about 33:41 how many bags of rice you have in your shed. 33:44 You can write about how many donkeys you have, 33:47 or how many sheep you have. 33:49 These are mundane trivial things 33:52 but when something major happens 33:54 like the creation of the world, 33:57 or the entry of sin into the world, 33:59 or the fall of man, and the flood, Noah's Ark, 34:03 and the Tower of Babel, these are big events. 34:06 These are headline events. 34:08 When things like that happened 34:12 you would be recording that would you now think, 34:14 if you can write and record they did. 34:17 Let's look at creation the Bible says in Genesis, 34:21 "God blessed Adam and Eve saying 34:24 'Be fruitful and multiply.'" 34:28 The Chinese word for blessed is "Fu." 34:31 And "Fu" means good fortune, prosperity. 34:36 If you are running a business, you're a Chinese businessmen 34:39 you probably have this letter above your business place. 34:42 Because it means "May I be profitable, 34:45 may I experience good fortune." 34:47 But the word blessed has these components. 34:51 God together with one person with a mouth, 34:56 there is the mouth, you see the little mouth shape, 34:59 "Kou" 35:02 in the garden. 35:04 God and man have a relationship in a fruitful garden, 35:11 to have a fruitful family 35:13 and that's what the word blessed means. 35:16 That's what the word prosperity means, 35:18 nothing to do with business, 35:21 nothing to do with making a lot of money. 35:23 It's got everything to do with 35:25 one person having a relationship with God 35:28 and being blessed in that relationship. 35:33 The Bible also says, "The Lord took the man 35:37 and put him in the Garden of Eden 35:40 to tend and to keep it." 35:43 The word for Garden is "Yuan" 35:47 and it is made up of these components clay, 35:52 breathing with a mouth, there is the "Kou" symbol, 35:57 or the mouth symbol. 35:58 Breath, clay breathing with a mouth on a man, 36:01 and out of the side of the man comes a woman. 36:04 Have a look, there is the woman 36:06 coming out of the side of the man, 36:08 just as the Bible says that "Eve the woman says, 36:13 'The Bible was formed from a rib of the man, 36:16 came out of came out of the side of the man."' 36:18 And your word for garden has this concept. 36:22 The woman is coming out of the side of the man 36:24 and then they are placed in the garden. 36:27 And this is exactly what the Bible says, 36:29 "God took the man and put him 36:31 in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it." 36:34 And this is in your word, Garden 36:37 and it agrees with the Bible. 36:40 Then the Bible says, 36:41 "The Lord commanded the man saying, 36:43 'Of every tree in this garden you can freely eat 36:47 but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 36:50 you shall not eat of this tree. 36:52 Because the day that you eat of it, you will die."' 36:55 And so the Chinese word to forbid is "Jin" 37:01 and it is made up of two trees, 37:05 and it is made up of the man getting a revelation, 37:10 receiving a revelation about these two trees, 37:13 this is the word for forbid. 37:15 And so God gave the man the Bible calls Adam, 37:20 God gave this first man a revelation 37:23 about these two trees. 37:25 The tree of life, the tree of knowledge 37:27 of good and evil and God said, 37:29 "You can eat of any tree, but not this one." 37:33 And this is embedded in the Chinese word to forbid. 37:41 Let's look at something now about how sin and wrong, 37:44 and how evil came into the world, 37:47 according to Chinese characters. 37:52 The Bible says, "The serpent was more cunning 37:54 than the beast of the field, 37:55 which the Lord God had made." 38:00 The word for tempter is "Mo" and it is made up of a garden, 38:08 and then there was a movement in the garden, 38:12 and one came to a man and it was done secretly. 38:19 So somebody came very secretly 38:21 and sneakily to the man in the garden 38:27 and at this point the word is "Gui," which means devil 38:35 and the devil came among two trees. 38:39 Secretively undercover, 38:42 this is the Chinese word for tempter. 38:45 And this is exactly what the Bible says, 38:48 "That the devil sneaked around, 38:52 and seduced, and deceived, 38:55 and tricked the first man and woman." 39:00 He didn't do it openly, he did it sneakily in a garden, 39:04 two trees are involved exactly as the Bible says. 39:10 Isn't that amazing? 39:11 Then the Bible says, 39:12 "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 39:16 and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 39:18 and a tree desirable to make one wise. 39:22 She took of its fruit and she ate." 39:26 The word for greed, we've already covered this, 39:28 remember when we went to the oracle 39:31 the Chinese Character Museum in Anyang. 39:35 The word for greed is "Lan," we looked at it earlier, 39:39 and it's made up of two trees with a woman underneath. 39:43 The woman fell into sin because of lust and greed, 39:46 coveting and desiring. 39:48 And this is embedded in your character, 39:50 your word for greed and coveting and lusting. 39:54 Then the Bible says, "The eyes of both of these people 39:57 were opened and they knew that they were naked, 40:00 the moment they sinned they realized they were naked." 40:03 And the word for naked is "Luo" and it is made up of clothing. 40:10 Your clothing is gone when you eat of the fruit. 40:15 What has fruit got to do with being naked? 40:22 I would have thought, if I was going to draw 40:24 a picture of a naked person I would just draw 40:26 a stick person without clothing. 40:29 But here this character for naked 40:32 is embroiled in the concept of you are now naked 40:37 because you ate a fruit and that's the story of Genesis. 40:44 And we read on "And they heard the sound of the Lord God 40:47 walking in the garden in the cool of the day 40:50 and Adam and his wife hid themselves 40:51 from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden." 40:55 And the Chinese word for to hide is "Duo" 40:58 and it means his body 41:02 is superimposed to the trees. 41:06 He now looks like a tree, he is hiding behind the tree. 41:10 You can't see him. 41:12 He's hiding behind a tree 41:15 because of the guilt of sin and the shame of sin. 41:22 And the word for guilt is "Kui" 41:25 and it's got to do with the heart 41:28 and the devil "Kui" gets into your heart 41:33 and you feel guilty when the devil get's into your 41:37 heart because of sin and this is the Chinese word for guilt. 41:40 The Bible says, "The Lord set a mark on Cain, 41:43 Cain killed his brother who was called Abel 41:48 because he was jealous that Abel's religious sacrifice 41:52 was acceptable to God and his was not. 41:55 And so jealousy consumed him 42:00 and he killed his brother Cain." 42:03 Now the word for brother in Chinese is "Xiong" 42:06 and it looks like that, but the Chinese word for murder 42:11 looks exactly the same except it has a mark 42:15 and it's exactly the same word "Xiong," 42:18 pronounce the same, 42:19 it's a different representation. 42:23 But the murderer has a mark 42:25 and the murderer has a mark on his forehead. 42:28 Do you see that? 42:29 And that's exactly what the Bible says. 42:33 It's exactly what the Bible says 42:35 and it's in your language. 42:37 Where does it come from? Where did you get it from? 42:40 Isn't that amazing? 42:42 Let's go to the Tower of Babel. 42:46 The word for Tower is "Ta" let's take the first bit. 42:50 All the people were speaking with one mouth 42:55 and they were united. 42:57 They had one vision, they had one language, 43:01 and they were united together. 43:03 Then we take the second bit for Tower 43:06 and it says, "All the people was speaking with one mouth 43:10 and they took grass, or they straw, 43:13 and they took clay, and they built something." 43:16 The first time in Chinese writing 43:20 with the word Tower is created. 43:23 It has to do with people who are in unity, 43:27 who are building a Tower 43:29 out of bricks made of clay and straw. 43:34 Isn't that amazing? 43:36 Genesis tells us, "The whole earth 43:39 had one language and one speech." 43:42 And they said, "Let's build a tower 43:44 whose top is in the heavens, 43:46 let's make a name for ourselves, 43:48 lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth." 43:53 That's in the Bible 43:54 and the Chinese word for confusion is "Luan" 44:00 and we break it down, we get your tongue 44:05 with your right leg scattering in one direction. 44:10 Because of the words that were spoken 44:13 the people were scattered. 44:15 You see the mouth symbol there, 44:18 words were spoken, tongue was used, 44:22 the right leg is scattered in one direction, 44:25 and because of these spoken words, 44:27 because of these confusion of language 44:30 at the Tower of Babel, 44:31 the people were scattered and confusion reigned. 44:36 The word for scatter is "Fen san". 44:39 And there's the first bit "Fen" 44:41 and then we'll do the second bit. 44:43 "Fen" means to divide, 44:45 it's made up of the number 8 and with a knife 44:51 8 generations from creation to the Tower of Babel. 44:56 And they were divided by the knife. 44:59 After 8 generations, that's in that word "Fen." 45:04 Then we take the second bit "San," 45:07 which is dispel and it all the people 45:10 in the flesh followed. 45:12 All the flesh followed the people because 45:16 of the confusion and this is the word for dispel. 45:21 So scatter those two words together "Fen san." 45:27 We looked at that, generations were divided, 45:31 8 generations, from creation 45:34 to the Tower of Babel were divided by the knife. 45:39 And all the flesh, all the people followed. 45:43 That's the Chinese word for scatter. 45:48 The Bible says, "Its name is called 'Babel' 45:52 because there the Lord confused 45:55 the language of all the earth 45:58 and from there the Lord scattered them 46:00 over the face of the earth." 46:05 From the Tower of Babel that the Bible talks about 46:08 this is where the Chinese people come from. 46:11 Yes, Huang Di is your original ancestor 46:15 but where did Huang Di come from? 46:17 He came from the Tower of Babel and that's in the Middle East 46:22 and one group after the scattering, 46:25 they traveled to the East. 46:27 The Chinese people originate 46:29 from this group that traveled to the East. 46:32 They migrated to the East. 46:34 And word for migrate is broken up 46:37 and it means something big, 46:40 big division, from the west. 46:48 And people were scattered, a big division from the west. 46:53 You know this is very funny. 46:55 The Chinese people refereed to the west as westerners 46:59 and they come from the East. 47:02 Now let me put it to you, that you are the westerner. 47:04 The Chinese people are the true westerners. 47:07 Because you came from the west 47:10 and you moved to the east and settled in China. 47:15 But you came from the west 47:16 and this is in your word migrate. 47:20 It says in the word migrate you came from the west, 47:24 just as the Bible says. 47:30 So Huang Di was familiar with him 47:33 by now he's a descendent from Babel. 47:38 We've looked at these characters. 47:42 We've seen how their writing system 47:46 was developed under Huang Di, 47:49 and the oldest writing is on shell bone, 47:52 and pottery pieces, and axe heads, 47:57 and bones script 2200 BC, we've seen that. 48:02 We've seen that the truth of creation, 48:08 the entry of a sin, the flood, 48:11 and the Tower of Babel and the scattering, 48:15 are all embedded in your Chinese characters. 48:20 And they can't be removed overnight, 48:23 that'd be an awful lot of undoing to do. 48:27 That you were ahead of the Hebrew people in terms of 48:32 getting these truths embedded in your writing 48:36 because the earliest writing of the Hebrew people 48:38 is around the time of Moses. 48:44 There is Moses in the meridian dessert, 48:49 in the Midian dessert, before the Exodus, 48:54 he's a shepherd and he's writing a book of Genesis. 49:00 Some say, "He wrote is after the Exodus," 49:02 doesn't really matter, 1500 BC, 1400 BC 49:06 it's not a lot, it's not a lot-- 49:09 Chinese writing goes back 2200 BC 49:12 and the Chinese are there in the Shang dynasty 49:15 on the writing on oracle bone, 1770 BC under Huang Di. 49:22 Chinese writing system was developed long before Moses. 49:26 Now I don't want to end this meeting tonight 49:29 without saying something about salvation. 49:32 How did the Chinese people see salvation? 49:35 How did your ancient ancestors see 49:40 that will be made right with God? 49:42 How that would be made right with Shang Di? 49:45 How that would be made right with Yahweh? 49:47 How did you see that? 49:49 Huang Di built his altar to worship Shang Di 49:53 and the word for sacrifice is "Xi" 49:59 and it's made up of a cow and the lamb. 50:07 You take a cow and you take a lamb 50:09 and they must be without blemish. 50:13 And that's exactly what the Holy Bible says 50:17 that "Jesus who this lamb represents 50:24 had to be without blemish, had to be without sin, 50:28 had to be perfect." 50:29 And this cow and lamb without blemish 50:32 was a symbol Jesus Christ who was to come 50:36 in the future without sin, without blemish, 50:39 and He would be the sacrifice for the sins of the world 50:43 and it's embedded in your language in the word sacrifice. 50:48 And you kill this lamb and this cow without blemish 50:51 with a spear and offer this as a sacrificial atonement 50:57 to get at one with God again 51:01 and this is the truth of the Bible. 51:03 This is what Jesus Christ came to do and He did it 51:06 on the cross but it is embedded 51:08 in your language and I thank you for it. 51:15 In Leviticus in the Bible, the book written by Moses, 51:19 he writes that you take an unblemished cow 51:22 and you take an unblemished lamb 51:24 and you offer it as a sacrifice representing Jesus Christ 51:29 who was to come into the future and do exactly that. 51:36 Jesus, Son of God, Lamb of God 51:40 that takes away the sin of the world, 51:43 unblemished took the sin of mankind upon Him 51:49 to take away the sin of the world. 51:51 He is the sacrifice. He is the unblemished lamb. 51:57 Now the word for righteousness, 51:58 I find this absolutely amazing. 52:01 As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 52:03 I understand what righteousness means, 52:06 what the gospel means, when it comes to 52:08 how you get it, how you get righteousness, 52:11 but it is in your word for righteousness "Yi" 52:15 and it is made up of a lamb. 52:18 And then the lamb is over me and that's the word righteous. 52:24 If I want to be right with God, 52:25 I've got to make sure that I am covered by the lamb. 52:30 The lamb is over me, I'm not over the lamb 52:33 and if I take the word apart, 52:36 just a little bit more I get even more meaning, 52:41 I learned if I take that bottom bit 52:43 of the word "Yi" I get this with a hand 52:49 and a spear is used against the lamb. 52:56 And this word is 4,200 years old, 53:00 2,200 years before Jesus Christ died on the cross. 53:06 Your Chinese character script had a word that captured 53:11 the good news of the gospel where a spear was used 53:16 against the innocent lamb representing our sins 53:21 that killed the unblemished lamb of God 53:25 to take away the sins of the world. 53:30 Praise God. 53:36 Christ's death on the cross prophesy in Chinese writing, 53:43 isn't that just amazing? 53:48 So if we put it all on the chart, 53:50 we can see while the Egyptians 53:52 were building the pyramids in Egypt 53:55 you had already developed a writing system 53:58 that contained the great truths of Scripture 54:03 and I am just so excited about this 54:06 and I hope if you are watching or if you have a DVD, 54:10 that you get it into the hands of some 54:12 of the government leaders in the 54:14 People's Republic of China 54:17 because I believe that if they see 54:20 that they have this head start on the Hebrews 54:26 that they have the Bible concepts in their writing. 54:31 That it's not an American import, 54:33 that its not a foreign religion, 54:35 that it is embedded in your culture and writing. 54:38 I believe if government leaders in China knew this, 54:42 they would open the doors 54:46 to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus 54:50 to the Chinese people. 54:52 All these great truths the lamb being pierced, 54:56 blood sacrificing, righteousness by faith, 55:01 being washed clean, and eternal life, 55:03 these are all embedded in your characters. 55:06 And I recommend for those who want more reading, 55:09 to get this book by Dr. Ethel Nelson, 55:14 you can get it online, Amazon.com 55:17 "God's Promise to the Chinese." 55:21 And for those who want more reading 55:23 there's another one called, "God and the Ancient Chinese" 55:27 by Dr. Ethel Nelson, her second book. 55:31 And for those who want even more reading 55:34 there is another book 55:36 "Chinese Traditions and Beliefs" 55:39 by Daniel Tong, a Christian writer. 55:42 And for those who want even more evidence 55:45 and I want to do more reading 55:47 there's a 200 page manuscript dated 1852 55:52 by the Reverend James Legge from Princeton University 55:56 who studied Chinese characters script 55:58 and the concepts of the Bible in your language. 56:03 May God bless you, 56:04 as you reflect on the contents of this message, 56:07 that it is embedded in your language 56:09 and I thank God for the Chinese. 56:12 Amen. 56:17 If this presentation has gripped your attention 56:20 and you have some questions or wish to get DVD's 56:22 of this message to share with others, 56:24 please contact us at HKEA at hkea.org.au. 56:30 Thank you for watching this presentation. |
Revised 2015-04-30