Respect for elders needs no reminder

Learning Point No 381

Need men be the same and do what others do in the name of God and saints? 

Did God ever say that the ancestors were wrong and did God ever say that the descendants or later-on men were right just because what they did or believed were different? 

Many would like to judge but the reality is that what was right might no longer be right and what was later considered right might really be no more that more right than before or even not as right. All depended on the times, the people and the context.

With change of prophets, the basic beliefs might be same but the way of believing and approach might well differ and be poles apart. There was the same God but different men were involved. 

Men would say that there was the old and the new chapters or testaments. Some even went to the point that there was the new religion different from the old but God was the same God. In fact, the same one God might be described very differently and even given different descriptives and names as though there were different gods. 

Though the ancestors would normally predict that the descendants would differ and be more right, the descendants might even say that the ancestors were wrong when in fact the ancestors were right in their own ways. This would obviously be not in keeping with respect for the elders or pioneers. 

Respect for elders needs no reminder. No wonder, it is one of the seven universal precepts of mission undertaken by Lord Bo Tien. 

Men of later years should not despise and belittle the men of old. That would be a bad reflection of the work of the old timers and a worse reflection of the new.. 

Had the old timers somehow failed to connect with the later-on men of God? Was it in bad taste that the descendants wanted to be different and to discredit the old timers and gave themselves credit and applause instead? They would even distinct themselves in religion different from the men of old.

There would never be any right or wrong but for sure, respect for elders needed no reminder. It had to be cultivated and not God given or to be taken for granted. 

In fact, the so-called newer religions or sects were really just continuity of older religions or sects, albeit repackaged with new orientation. How could they say the older religion or sect was not of God? 

The latter day adherents of the older religions too should not say likewise of the newer religions. This is often forgotten and they basked in secluded pride and deception.

Respect needs no reminder, more so for elders, for it would always be likely that the respect for elders to be denigrated by the latter day men who simply just wanted to be different and to strike out on their own due to their wanting or rebellious nature.

They carried a new banner and said theirs was the one when the old and new were really one and same. God too was and is one, the very same one God though saints might differ somewhat.