Our culture is very interested in genealogy, the records and the study of ancestry. Did you know that born-again believers have no Spiritual connection to their biological family unless someone from that family is born-again?
Genealogy is a form of necromancy, the desire to stay connected to dead people who no longer have any input into our lives other than a name on a line in a tree. When a person desires to have a connection with a dead person they have in their heart the wish that they could speak to the dead, so they pretend the dead can hear them and speak to their grave. Many people now go to the graves to look at the stones of those who have passed, as though there is some value or connection to them by that visit.
In the Catholic church when I was still in that cultic system, rituals, statues, and amulets were important, they made people feel safe and connected to the person who was supposed to be the representation of the person they wanted to connect with. Sadly many traditions and rituals that "protestants" do come from the Catholic church.
It is entertaining to visit a grave, but I cannot see any spiritual value that brings someone closer to Christ. And, the dead cannot hear us, they are gone never to return.
Any relationships we connect with should be in this life while people are still walking this earth.
Most of the people in the genealogy tree we have never met and will not ever meet. We have no way to know what their life was like, whether or not they loved Christ. Most people do not love Christ, in the past or the present. We know this because Christ said "few will find the narrow way", and "most will reject Christ."
Isaiah 43:18-19
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
Philippians 3:13-14
"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
So what are people doing honoring those who may have hated Christ after they are dead.? To honor a person who did not love Christ is to dishonor Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
When we take the time to find out where a ritual originates and whether or not God commanded it in the Bible we realize how many rituals and practices we follow that come against the Bible.
If the Bible is our source for all truth and wisdom then we ought to be seeking the Holy Spirit and His Word the Bible to find God's heart and desire for us.
Those who have left behind all humanistic and paganistic rituals are the freest people you will meet. They have no compulsion to do things God never commanded just because others expect it of them.
There is bondage associated with rituals, the sense that if we do not do something we will not be safe, or that others will not like us and we will lose the love of family and friends who want us to do what they do.
Titus 3:9
"But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."
Genealogy is a distraction to the walk of Christ and even paganistic.
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Christ is not pleased with the rituals we do and claim God is pleased with them. He is only pleased when we seek Him and obey what He tells us from His Word.
Did you know Jesus Christ is the very essence of His Own Word? When we read the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to show us the truth we are hearing from the heart of Jesus Christ.
