Published by “Ancestor worship,” first coined in 1885 by the British anthropologist Herbert Spencer, is now thought to be a misleading term. “Ancestor respect” might be more accurate phrase. This broadens the concept considerably but not illogically. Jewish people light candles and say special prayers on the anniversary of the death of a close family member. Christians celebrate All Soul’s Day. Putting gifts and flowers on the graves of the family dead is probably the oldest universal human religious gesture and is still a sign of ancestor respect. These practices which are followed by members of modern societies as well as those who practice ancient cultural traditions, indicate a belief that at some level people continue to exist after they have died. This is the link between ancestor worship and ancestor respect.
The veneration and respect shown to the dead in many cultures and societies is called ancestor worship. It is ones of human history’s oldest and most basic religious beliefs. It is believed that when family members die, they join the spirit world and are closer to God or the gods than the living are. Spirits, no longer burdened with bodies, are thought to be very powerful – possessing the ability to help or to harm people in the living world. They may even be powerful enough to be reborn into the community. The living who believe these things therefore view ancestors with a mixture of awe, fear, and respect. The feel they are dependent on the goodwill of ancestors for prosperity and survival. Under such beliefs, the family link does not end with the physical death of the individual.
The dead are thought by those who practice ancestor worship tp have many of the same needs as they did when they were alive. Thus, the living believe in bestowing on them respect, attention, love, food and drink, music and entertainment. This veneration of ancestors may be carried out either by individuals or by the whole community. Community worship would be normally center on some great leader or hero, as was the case with the cult of the emperors in ancient Rome. Special days of the year have often been set aside for such commemoration.
The living perform practices and rituals to honor ad maintain a good relationship with ancestral spirits. These practices are particularly evident in funeral and burial customs, such as wake-keeping and second burial. Worship of the ancestors is shown in other ways too. For example, before certain people drink alcohol beverages, they pour some on the ground for the ancestors. Also, after a meal is cooked, food is left in the pot so that if the ancestors come, they will find something to eat. Other people believe that the living possess an immortal soul that survived the death of the body. If a person lives a good life, the soul is said to go to heaven, or paradise, but if a person lived a bad life, the soul is supposedly condemned to hell. Often people combine this idea with traditional beliefs. Foe example, newspapers obituaries that announce church funeral services will sometimes also say that the person has “crossed over” or “gone to the ancestors.” These beliefs are all based on the idea that the soul, or spirit, survives the death of the body.
The Bible shows that the soul is not something inside a person; the soul is the very person himself. For example, when God created Adam, “the man came to be a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) Adam was not given a soul; he was a soul, a complete person. Some Bibles render the original-language word as “soul” in those verses, while others use the words “being,” “creature,” or “person.” All mean the same thing. Since the soul is the person, when a person dies, the soul dies. Ezekiel 18:4 says: “The soul that is sinning – it itself will die.” Also, Acts 3:23 says: “any soul, or person, that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people.” So the soul is not something that survives the death of the body.
The spirit is not the same thing as the soul. In humans, the spirit is the life-force that enables them to perform the activities of life. The spirit is like electricity. Electricity can run a fan or a refrigerator but cannot by itself move the air or make things cold. In the same way, or spirit enables us to see, hear, and think. But the spirit itself can do none of those things without the eyes, ears, or brain. That is why the Bible says of man: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” Psalm 146:4. According to the Bible, therefore, neither the soul nor the spirit leaves the body at death to continue life in the spirit realm.
Since Jehovah is the one who created humans, he also knows what happens to us when we die. His word teaches that the dead are lifeless, unable to hear, see, speak, or think anything. The Bible says at Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10: “The dead . . . are conscious of nothing at all. Their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perish. There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place to which you are going.” Jehovah formed Adam “out of the dust of the ground.” (Genesis 2:7) If Adam had obeyed Jehovah’s law, he would have lived forever in happiness on earth. However, Adam disobeyed Jehovah’s law, and the penalty was death. Where did Adam go at death? God said to him: “You will return to the ground, for dust you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19)
He said “When he [Satan] speaks the lie.”(John 8:44) So the first liar was Satan the Devil. When did he start telling lies? According to the bible, it was shortly after the beginning of the history of the human race. The event is recorded in the bible book of Genesis, and the lie was a matter of life and death for mankind. God indicated to the fist man, Adam, that his continued life depended on obedience. He gave Adam a simple law to keep and said that if he failed to keep that law he would “positively die.” But Satan maliciously lied and said: “You positively will not die.” That was the first of billions of lies tat have been heard on this planet Earth. – Genesis 2:17; 3:4.
Many today do not believe that account in the Bible. But Jesus, the most truthful man who ever lived, confirmed that the record in Genesis is not myth but true history. (Matthew 19:4, 5) Certainly, the results of that lie are still with us. It spelled disaster for the human race.
