Should Chinese Christians discard all artifacts that have “dragon” on them?
Including the T-shirt, flower vase and Lunar New Year decorations?
To some, this may sound like a silly question to ask. Dragon, like all animals are just pictures for display and soft toys to play.
To others, it touches the core of our Christian belief and faith. Dragon, like serpent is symbolic of evil in the Bible and has no part in a Christian life at all cost.
Last Sunday message by Brother Paul Johnson was on Titus 1:10-16 about false teachings. This “dragon” thingy raised in the message brought back memories of the time when I was a student in SBC studying on cultural sensitivity in relation to Bible teaching. Our lecturer and missionary, Dr. Timothy Wirada, an American married to a Singapore Chinese lady for many years raised this question in class. Suddenly the class became alive! By a show of hands, half supported to motion, the other half disagreed. And these are theological students and church leaders, yet holding different views!
Those support the motion fired the first salvo:
“In Revelation chapter 12 & 13, we read that the dragon, like the serpent is evil making war against the angels. Christians should not associate with symbols of evil.”
The other camp responded:
“Symbols are just symbols used within that text. In 1Peter 5:8, the devil is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Yet, Christ is also the Lion of Judah in Rev 5:5. Likewise, the serpent is Satan in Gen 3. But Moses made a bronze serpent to cure all who were bitten by serpent in Number 21:9.”
“But dragon to the Chinese is different; it also has a religious connotation. All the robes of the Taoist priests and Chinese folk religions have a big dragon on them. By having dragon with us, we identify with these Chinese religions.”
“To us Chinese, dragon is more cultural than religious. It associates with goodness, prosperity, majesty and blessing. Jesus Christ did not come to abolish culture. He followed the Jewish culture closely.”
“Fairy tales and legends frequently have dragons in them. In Chinese fairy tales the kings of the seas are the dragons. There is this mystic in them that Christian should avoid.”
….
….
Most of us know that we keep our culture like Chinese New Year but forbid practicing what is religious like burning joss stick and praying to idols.
Including the T-shirt, flower vase and Lunar New Year decorations?
To some, this may sound like a silly question to ask. Dragon, like all animals are just pictures for display and soft toys to play.
To others, it touches the core of our Christian belief and faith. Dragon, like serpent is symbolic of evil in the Bible and has no part in a Christian life at all cost.
Last Sunday message by Brother Paul Johnson was on Titus 1:10-16 about false teachings. This “dragon” thingy raised in the message brought back memories of the time when I was a student in SBC studying on cultural sensitivity in relation to Bible teaching. Our lecturer and missionary, Dr. Timothy Wirada, an American married to a Singapore Chinese lady for many years raised this question in class. Suddenly the class became alive! By a show of hands, half supported to motion, the other half disagreed. And these are theological students and church leaders, yet holding different views!
Those support the motion fired the first salvo:
“In Revelation chapter 12 & 13, we read that the dragon, like the serpent is evil making war against the angels. Christians should not associate with symbols of evil.”
The other camp responded:
“Symbols are just symbols used within that text. In 1Peter 5:8, the devil is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Yet, Christ is also the Lion of Judah in Rev 5:5. Likewise, the serpent is Satan in Gen 3. But Moses made a bronze serpent to cure all who were bitten by serpent in Number 21:9.”
“But dragon to the Chinese is different; it also has a religious connotation. All the robes of the Taoist priests and Chinese folk religions have a big dragon on them. By having dragon with us, we identify with these Chinese religions.”
“To us Chinese, dragon is more cultural than religious. It associates with goodness, prosperity, majesty and blessing. Jesus Christ did not come to abolish culture. He followed the Jewish culture closely.”
“Fairy tales and legends frequently have dragons in them. In Chinese fairy tales the kings of the seas are the dragons. There is this mystic in them that Christian should avoid.”
….
….
Most of us know that we keep our culture like Chinese New Year but forbid practicing what is religious like burning joss stick and praying to idols.
So, is the dragon a cultural issue or a religious issue?
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