我們 [不] 能做得到!We Can[not] Do It!
摘錄者：Shane Lems/Maria
Marta
如果你手頭還沒有這本書，你應該盡早去買一本。我在此摘錄兩段, 以饗讀者。這本書是《沒有基督的基督教-美國教會的另類福音》Christless
Christianity：The
Alternative Gospel of the American，邁克‧何頓（Michael Horton）著/浩熙、夏蔚譯，美國麥種傳道會出版。
「在世界上，我們美國人不是一個因為懂羞愧而聞名的民族。相反，我們非常自信。我們最不願聽見的就是有人告訴我們，我們不能作什麼，來救自己罷脫最嚴重的難題，即是我們曾碰過或將會遇上的問題中最嚴重的——就會說，我們完全需要神的憐憫。除了神蹟之外，在這種氛圍下論宗教上的成功，總是指向某些人物，他們能有效地訴諸積極自信的精神，又能把那些可能窒礙到這樣傲慢自我的事物拋諸腦後。當我們尋求終極的答案，會轉向自己裡面尋求，信任自己的經驗，而非觀看我們以外，神那由外而來的聖言。」（89頁）
「如果教會宣講的信息言之成理，但不會令人悔改；如果這信息不能偶爾使得作了一輩子信徒的人也感覺受到冒犯，叫他們也需要更加徹底地向自己死，更有朝氣地向基督活，那就不是福音。當我們談論基督，有很多事情可以發生，但不一定會有持久的影響力。當我們宣揚基督拯救人的職分，教會就會變作死亡與復活的舞台。」（194頁）
We Can[not] Do It!
by Reformed Reader
If you haven’t grabbed this book yet, you
should do it sooner than later. Here are
a few blurbs from two different sections (Michael Horton, Christless
Christianity [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008]).
“We
Americans are not well-known in the world as people who know how to blush. On the contrary, we are a very self-confident
people. The last thing we want is to be
told that we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the most serious problem
that we have ever or will ever encounter – that we are entirely at God’s
mercy. Apart from a miracle, religious
success in this atmosphere will always go to those who can effectively appeal
to this can-do spirit and push as far to the background as possible anything
that might throw our swaggering self off-balance. When looking for ultimate answers, we turn
within ourselves, trusting our own experience rather than looking outside
ourselves to God’s external word” (p. 65).
Later
on, Horton writes, “If the message the church proclaims makes sense without
conversion, if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time so
that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it
is not the gospel. When Christ is talked
about, a lot of things can happen, none of which necessarily have any lasting
impact. When Christ is proclaimed in his saving office, the church becomes a
theater of death and resurrection” (p. 141).
shane
lems
sunnyside
wa