使人淪為奴隸的革命The Revolution That Enslaves
作者:R.C. Sproul 譯者: Maria Marta
在美國，我們曾經歷過的最重要的革命是哪一個呢？我想大多數美國人會說是美國革命（the
american revolution），它標志著我們作為一個國家存在的開始。有人可能會說是工業革命，它把我們的國家轉變為世界強國。但我認為這兩個答案都是錯誤的。
在美國歷史上影響最深遠的劃時代的革命始於大約五十年前，現正達到它的頂峰。這場革命沒有爆發軍事沖突方面的戰爭，但卻殺死數百萬還未出生的人。事實上，在今晚午夜之前，這場革命將造成大約三千條生命喪失。這個數字還不包括其他傷亡人數。在「改變」性別的名義下，屍體將被肢解。性傳染疾病將造成不育，身體連同情感將留下永久的傷痕，甚至宣判男人和女人死刑。年輕女子將懷孕，遭拋棄，剩下她們自己在沒有父親的家庭撫養孩子。色情扭曲了人們的性與關系的觀念。
我說的是性革命，它使美國文化行為發生變化，其程度遠超於爆發在十八世紀與英國對抗的美國獨立戰爭。性革命是一場戰爭，所對抗的並非任何地上的君王，而是宇宙的君王，主自己。這場戰爭的根源可追溯到比六十年前還要久遠得多的--------伊甸園，當亞當和夏娃加入撒旦的宇宙叛亂之時。
當這個月我們的新總統舉行就職典禮時，這場披上言論自由、性自由、不受壓迫的自由之旗幟的革命還在繼續。然而，這場革命所尋求的自由並非擺脫不公正民法的自由，而是擺脫自然法和上帝永恒的道德律法之約束的自由。這場革命所擁抱的自由是道德自治的，努力使我們自己成為自己的律法的邪惡的「自由」，我們朝天揮動拳頭，宣稱上帝不是掌管我們的主。
性革命有其哲學根源，同一根源推動了尼采（friedrich nietzsche）實現他的目標：棄絕他所認為的猶太教--基督教道德的弱點。在尼采看來，植根於聖經的道德給真實的個體套上了枷鎖。他以真實為名擁抱「權力意志」這種人類最基本的驅力，他尋找人性，為的是擺脫外部的道德約束。最終尼采精神錯亂，徹底崩潰，但他所主張的道德失常/悖德狂（moral insanity），卻在我們今天取得了支配性的地位。從某種意義上說，西方已完成尼采所描繪的，從上帝「解放」出來的目標，我們文化中的性混亂狀態就是證據。然而，這樣的解放最終無法實現。我們仍會被主問責，仍要面對審判。此外，我們所找到的自由證實了其實一點也不自由，相反，卻是一種奴役，受控於不可饒恕的需求：對不受約束的性愛、性欲這種假神的需求。
性革命是一場在多個陣線作戰的戰爭。它包括：1. 從「言論自由」的濫用到最邪惡、最露骨的色情形式的合法化。2.
攻擊傳統性別規範的所有觀念，並給那些想按生物性別差異分隔衛生間的人士貼上「討厭的偏執狂」的標簽。3. 要求流產權和消除程序上的每一種限制。4. 制造性亂交的準則和貞潔的偏差。5.
把同性戀提升為正面良好的行為。現在，人類的性驅力從一切形式的壓迫中解放出來，這些壓迫剝奪了我們不可剝奪的享樂和性歡愉的權利------卻是根據我們為自己所下的定義------人類的快樂和滿足似乎是必需的。
性革命的成果和推動力是廣泛的道德相對主義。我們的社會一直全盤拒絕罪惡的觀念-----除了一個例外。現在我們的文化承認，唯一的罪惡是拒絕加入革命者所追求的「性解放」的行列。我們要繼續停留在上帝這邊，革命將要求你付出高昂的經濟和社會代價。
最可悲的是，許多教會為了使自己適應革命帶來的變化而不遺余力。所有宗派都急於追趕文化。如果我們有什麼罪要悔改，那肯定是上帝一直在說的淫亂。但如果我們順應趨勢，我們將沒有好消息可傳講，因為我們沒有罪，無需福音從中拯救我們。我們知道上帝仍會標識罪，但如果教會不稱罪為罪，教會就不能呼籲任何人悔改，和藉著轉向基督，脫離上帝的定罪。淫亂和上帝的國水火不相容。違反上帝性倫理的人，沒有一個有份於祂的國度。如果我們不向失落的人宣告這一點，他們仍然是失落的。
新約福音是關於赦免----赦免所有類型的罪。如果罪不存在，則無需要赦免（約壹一8–10）。但是，耶穌-----以及保羅、摩西、和其他的先知與使徒都承認通奸、同性戀，和其他形式的淫亂是罪（利十八5；太五27–30；約七53至八11；林前六9–11）。福音的好消息是所有的性犯罪都得赦免；赦免一切所需要的是悔改和唯獨信靠基督。但赦免罪是一回事，實施制裁完全是另一回事。給犯罪許可證並不使人得自由，而是使他們作奴隸。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2017年一月號 。
The Revolution That
Enslaves
by R.C. Sproul
What’s the most
significant revolution we’ve ever experienced in the United States? I imagine
most Americans would say it was the American Revolution, which marked the
beginning of our existence as a country. Some might make the case that it was
the Industrial Revolution, which transformed our nation into a world power. Yet
both answers, I think, are wrong.
The most far-reaching,
epochal revolution in American history began about fifty years ago and is now
reaching its zenith. No war has been fought in terms of military conflict, but
this revolution has killed millions of unborn people. Approximately three
thousand lives, in fact, will be lost to this revolution before midnight
tonight. And this number does not include the revolution’s other casualties.
Bodies will be mutilated in the name of “changing” one’s gender. Sexually
transmitted diseases will sterilize, leave lasting physical and emotional
scars, and even pronounce death sentences on men and women. Young women will
get pregnant and be abandoned, leaving them to raise children in fatherless
homes. Pornography will warp people’s views of sex and relationships.
I’m talking about the
sexual revolution, which has wrought far more changes to the cultural behavior
of America than the War of Independence fought against England in the
eighteenth century. This sexual revolution is a war that’s been fought not
against any earthly king but against the King of the cosmos, the Lord Himself.
It’s a war with roots that stretch much further back than the sixties—to Eden,
when Adam and Eve joined Satan’s cosmic revolt.
As we inaugurate a new
president this month, the revolution continues, draped in the flag of free
speech, free sex, and freedom from oppression. However, the freedom being
sought isn’t freedom from unjust civil laws but from natural law and the
eternal moral law of God. The freedom embraced is the ungodly “freedom” of
moral autonomy, of our trying to be a law unto ourselves, of our raising our
fists to heaven and declaring that God will not be Lord over us.
The sexual revolution
has the same philosophical roots that fueled Friedrich Nietzsche’s goal of
casting off what he saw as the weakness of Judeo-Christian morality. In
Nietzsche’s eyes, the morality rooted in the Scriptures kept the authentic
individual in chains. In the name of authenticity, of embracing the most basic
human drive of the “will to power,” Nietzsche looked for humanity to set itself
free from outside moral constraints. Nietzsche was eventually driven to
insanity, but the moral insanity he argued for has gained ascendancy in our
day. In one sense, the West has accomplished what Nietzsche desired—a
“liberation” from God, and evidence for this is the sexual anarchy of our culture.
However, such liberation cannot ultimately be accomplished. We’re still
accountable to the Lord and will face judgment. Moreover, the freedom found is
proving to be no freedom at all, but rather enslavement to the unforgiving
demands of the false gods of unrestrained eros and libido.
The sexual revolution
is a war that is fought on many fronts. It includes the abuse of “free speech”
to legalize the vilest and most explicit forms of pornography. It includes
attacking all notions of traditional gender norms and labeling as “hateful
bigots” those who want bathrooms segregated by biological sex differences. It
involves abortion on demand and the elimination of every restriction on the
procedure. It includes making promiscuity the norm and chastity the aberration.
It includes elevating homosexuality as a positive good. The human sex drive is
now liberated from all forms of oppression that would deny us our inalienable
right to pleasure, and sexual pleasure—however we define it for ourselves—is
seen as necessary to human happiness and fulfillment.
The fruit and fuel of
the sexual revolution is widespread moral relativism. Our society has rejected
wholesale the very notion of vice—with one exception. The only vice our culture
now recognizes is the refusal to join the revolutionaries in their quest for
sexual “liberation.” Stay on God’s side, and the revolution will demand that
you pay a high price economically and socially.
Saddest of all, many
churches fall over themselves to accommodate the changes wrought by the sexual
revolution. Entire denominations are rushing to catch up to the culture. If
there’s any sin of which we must repent, it’s the sin of affirming what God has
always said about sexual morality. But if we go along with this trend, we’ll
have no good news to preach, for we’ll have no sin from which we need the
gospel to rescue us. We know that God will still mark the sin, but if the
church won’t call sin sin, it cannot call anyone to repent of it and escape
divine condemnation by turning to Christ. Sexual immorality and the kingdom of
God are incompatible. No person who impenitently violates God’s sexual ethic
has any part in His kingdom. If we don’t proclaim this to lost people, they
will remain lost.
The New Testament
gospel is about forgiveness—forgiveness for all types of sin. Forgiveness is
not needed if sin does not exist (1 John 1:8–10). But Jesus—as well as Paul,
Moses, and the other prophets and Apostles—recognized adultery, homosexuality,
and other forms of sexual immorality as sin (Lev. 18:5; Matt. 5:27–30; John
7:53–8:11; 1 Cor. 6:9–11). The good news of the gospel is that every sexual sin
is forgivable; all that’s required is repentance and faith in Christ alone. But
it is one thing to forgive sin; it is quite another to sanction it. To give
license to sin is not to free people, but to enslave them.