China's Ancient Monotheistic Religious Roots

Our thesis is that the worship of Shang Ti or Heaven in ancient China was monotheistic in nature and was indeed their general revelation of the one true God of Christianity and Judiaism. In the past century a large body of research by anthropologists and missiologists has brought to light much exciting information about the worldwide "Sky God" or "High God" phenomena. We show how that research supports our thesis.

A foundation is laid for our thesis by documenting how a researcher's worldview often leads to biased conclusions. This helps explain why we find many conflicting views concerning the origin and nature of China's ancient religious beliefs. We give evidence to show that the Judeo-Christian biblical worldview best explains and interprets all the facts. We then chart the attributes of "Sky God" as they are revealed in the special revelation of the Bible. The comparison shows we are dealing with the same God in both revelations.

We then document the attributes of Shang Ti from the Chinese classics to understand who they originally believed Shang Ti to be. These attributes are compared with the attributes of God revealed in general and special revelation. It becomes evident that Shang Ti is the same God revealed in the Bible.

We Strengthen our thesis by documenting the many similarities between the law in the Bible and the law in the Li Ki of China. This demonstrates the similarities in their underlying moral principles and points to a common source in the same God. The defense of the thesis is then concluded with a comparison of blood covenant in China with covenants found in the Bible and around the world. We discover a powerful lesson that will enable the Chinese to understand the spiritual implications of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This research helps remove many barriers to Christianity by presenting its truths in a more relevant contextualized form for the Chinese.