We do not know when, in the long history of China, the Chinese New Year's Eve was considered as the beginning of a year. On that day, the Chinese welcome the god of wealth according to folk custom.
There is no problem with welcoming the god of wealth, but there is something wrong in the way people see it. In many cases, people only consider what they want, rather than the real god. Worse still, welcoming god of wealth itself makes them poorer and poorer for the extra cost of worshipping it.
Some folk customs are deeply rooted in people's mind. It is to the benefit of no one to completely deny and resist them. We should see such folk customs in the right way. Welcoming the god of wealth, for example, is actually a long lasting wish deep in people's mind of getting better year by year. It is not wrong to have such a wish, but it is wrong to take the false god as the real God. We should tell those who welcome the god of wealth to welcome the real god. Or else, they do it in vain. Do not worry that our doctrines may change along with the customs. The Bible tells us that God emphasizes on the salvation of soul. God promises that there is no fear in his love. That is to say, we are to be blessed, rather than to blame, for saving a lost soul, spreading the gospel, and learning the truth.
We should reasonably treat the customs and cultures, clarify the facts and guide people to know the truth that Jehovah is the one and only real God, the sovereign. It is the Christians' responsibility use customs and cultures to spread the gospel and make the Chinese nation blessed as soon as we can. That is what we should do.
- Translated by Lin Changfeng
