为什么我们今天看到的神迹如此稀少？Why Do We See So Few Miracles Today?

作者: John Piper  译者: Duncan Liang

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/why-do-we-see-so-few-miracles-today

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s1lVzeUTtAd7Lc7Q7hwqpA

似乎我们在整本圣经都看到神迹奇事，但对我们许多人来说，我们在自己的生活里，在周围的世界上看不到有神迹奇事。那么神迹奇事都到哪里去了？这是一位写信给我们的大学生提出的问题。

It seems we see signs, wonders, and miracles all over our Bibles. But for many of us, we see an absence of signs, wonders, and miracles in our lives and in the world around us. So where did the wonders go? It’s a question from a college student who writes in to us.

 “约翰牧师，谢谢您很棒的广播，我有固定收听。我是宾州大学新生，我父母是在格鲁吉亚共和国宣教，我也曾经在宣教工场与他们度过一段时光。生活在一个非常世俗化的校园里，与生活在宣教工场有天壤之别，我与同班同学讲到信仰、人生和基督教信仰普遍情况的时候，这就特别明显。我的朋友常问我的一个问题就是：‘为什么神今天在21世纪的美国不像祂在旧约和新约时候一样行明显的神迹？是不是可以这样说，神只是在圣经中行神迹？’您如何回答这反对信仰的问题？”

“Pastor John, thank you for the wonderful podcast. I listen regularly. I’m a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. My parents are missionaries in the Republic of Georgia. I have spent some time on the mission field with them as well. Living on a very secular campus is obviously a night and day difference from the mission field, especially as I talk to my classmates about faith, life, and Christianity in general. One question that my friends often ask me is this one: ‘Why doesn’t God work overt miracles today in twenty-first century America like he did in both the Old and New Testaments? Doesn’t it seem convenient that God only worked miracles in the Bible?’ How would you answer this objection to the faith?”

我对这问题的回答很简单，回答就是：圣经中的神迹比你可能以为的要少，而今天的神迹比你可能知道的要多；圣经中通行的神迹类型与今天不一样，而这是有很有合乎圣经的道理的。

My answer to this is fairly simple. It’s this: there were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think, and there are more miracles today than you probably know, and there is a good biblical reason for why there would be a certain kind of prevalence of miracles in the Bible that is different from today.

让我对这三种观察都简单说几句。

Let me say a word about each of those three observations.

旧神迹

Old Miracles

想想旧约圣经。一种典型的说法，就是诗人在诗篇77：11说的：“我要提说耶和华所行的，我要记念祢古时的奇事。”你读旧约圣经的时候，意识到那时候大多数圣徒都会这样说：“古时的奇事，哦，要记念古时的奇事。”

Think about the Old Testament. Here’s a typical statement: the psalmist says in Psalm 77:11, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” When you read the Old Testament, you realize most of the saints in most of those centuries would have talked like that: “The wonders of old. Oh, remember the wonders of old.”

他们当时可能有和我们一样的问题：“为什么在以利亚的时候，在摩西的时候有更多神迹，比今天先知的时候，列王的时候要多？”

“There were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think, and more miracles today than you probably know.” Tweet Share on

认为按圣经记载的，贯穿神百姓的历史神迹不断，这想法完全是极大的错误。神迹并不是贯穿神百姓的历史持续不断。它们在某个时期突然出现，就像在出埃及的时候，就像在以利亚和以利沙侍奉的时候。

It’s simply a great mistake to think that there are miracles running all through the history of God’s people as the Bible records it. They were not running all through the history of God’s people. They sprung up around certain periods of time like the exodus and like the ministries of Elijah and Elisha.

大多数时候，旧约圣经的圣徒是因信而活，相信神对将来的应许，这信是扎根在神过去已经行的神迹奇事上。这就是我们今天的生活之道——通过回头看圣经中耶稣基督决定性的工作，以此相信神的应许，盼望一个尚未得到完满的国度。

Most of the time, the saints of the Old Testament were living by faith in the promises of God for the future, rooted in the past wonders of God that he had worked. This is the way we live our lives today — by faith in the promises of God, for a kingdom that’s yet to be consummated, by looking back to the decisive work of Jesus Christ in the Bible.

新神迹

New Miracles

到新约圣经的时候，充满荣耀的事实就是，虽然耶稣只让三个人从死里复活，并没有在祂去到、没有去到的许多地方医治人，祂却是完美和连贯一致行神迹。

When it comes to the New Testament, it is gloriously true that Jesus did miracles perfectly and consistently, though even he raised only three people from the dead and didn’t heal people in many places where he traveled or where he didn’t travel.

耶稣行的神迹，显然不是表明国度已经完满。这些神迹表明国度已经入侵这世界，指向将来有一天，人人都要从死里复活，相信基督的人不再生病，因为这就是耶稣的做事之道，祂现在就在表明这其中一部分。

The miracles of Jesus were clearly not to show that the kingdom had been consummated. They showed that the kingdom had broken into the world, pointing to a future day when everybody would be raised from the dead and those who believe in Christ will not be sick anymore, because that’s the way Jesus is, and he’s showing some of that now.

不仅如此，耶稣还亲自解释说，祂自己行的神迹是指向祂的神性。换言之，这些神迹有一些方面与祂有密切关系，你不能期望它们以同样的方式与别人密切相关。

Not only that, but Jesus himself explains his own miracles as pointing to his divinity. In other words, something about these miracles attached to him and you wouldn’t expect them to attach to other people in the same way.

例如，祂在约翰福音10:37说：“我若不行我父的事，你们就不必信我。”换言之：“行的这些事是有力的证据，证明我在父里面，父在我里面，我独一无二，我是神的儿子，这是真的。”

For example, he said in John 10:37, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.” In other words, “These works are good evidence that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. I’m unique. I am the Son of God. This is true.”

即使他赋予使徒权柄，让他们也能行神迹，使徒却知道，这人有一些独特之处，祂行神迹的方式有一些独特之处。这权柄和能力是独一无二存在祂里面，祂就是神的儿子。

Even though he gave his disciples authority to do miracles also, they knew that there was something utterly unique about this man and the way he did miracles. The authority and power uniquely resided in him as the very Son of God.

寥寥可数

Few and Far Between

当你翻开使徒行传和新约圣经的其他部分，很明显使徒确实行了一些令人震惊的神迹，但同样真实的，就是他们受了很大的苦，他们的同工生病，保罗随身带着一位医生，他们被关进监狱，他们被人杀害。

When you turn to the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, it’s obvious that the apostles did some astonishing miracles, but it’s also true that they suffered much and their colleagues got sick. Paul carried a doctor around with him. They got thrown into prison. They got killed.

即使哥林多前书12章讲到行神迹的恩赐，医治的恩赐，赶鬼的恩赐，认为第一世纪有这些恩赐的基督徒是像耶稣一样行神迹，这也是非常牵强的想法。在第一世纪，在耶稣的生平以外，情况已经有了改变。

Even though there were gifts of miracles and gifts of healing and gifts of exorcism that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12, it would be a huge stretch to think that the Christians with those gifts in the first century were performing miracles the way Jesus did. Already, in the first century, outside the life of Jesus, things had changed.

我的第一个观察，就是我们不应认为在圣经的时候，无论是在旧约还是新约的时候，神的圣徒都是至始至终在行神迹，这样想就是扭曲圣经的记载了。旧约的时候神迹很稀少，新约的时候以一种非常独特、尊崇基督的方式集中在耶稣和祂的使徒身上。这些神迹部分是通过属灵恩赐与所有圣徒共享。

My first observation is that we shouldn’t think of the Bible times, either Old or New Testament, as times in which saints of God consistently did miracles. That would be a distortion of the biblical record. They were few and far between in the Old Testament. They were uniquely concentrated in Jesus and his apostles in a very special, Christ-exalting way. They are shared in part through spiritual gifts with all the saints.

数不尽的神迹

Countless Miracles

我要作的第二个观察，就是今天发生的神迹很有可能比我们意识到的要更多。

The second observation I would make is that there are probably more miracles happening today than we realize.

如果我们能收集全世界——全世界所有国家、所有文化当中全部宣教士和全部圣徒身上发生的真实故事，如果我们能收集数以百万计基督徒和鬼魔之间，基督徒和疾病之间发生的事，所有世人说的碰巧的事，我们就会震惊，我们就会认为我们生活在一个充满神迹的世界上，情况确实也是如此。

If we could collect all the authentic stories all over the world — from all the missionaries and all the saints in the all the countries of the world, all the cultures of the world — if we could collect all the millions of encounters between Christians and demons and Christians and sickness and all the so-called coincidences of the world, we would be stunned. We would think we were living in a world of miracles, which we are.

我们信心的根基

Basis of Our Faith

我要作的第三个观察，这很有可能这就是我会对挑战我的不信的人说的话，就是基督教信仰的核心并不在于国度已经完全降临，所有的罪和邪恶在这个时代正在被对付解决。

The third observation I would make, and this is probably what I would say to the unbeliever who is challenging me, is that the heart of Christianity is not that the kingdom has fully come and all sin and evil is being overcome now in this age.

基督教信仰的核心，就是神的儿子基督耶稣在历史过去某一时刻降世，显明神是一位怎样的神，以死和复活为所有相信祂的人施行拯救。神迹环绕历史上耶稣的显现，使徒的生平，为要验证祂的宣告和他们所写的圣经为真。

 “We live today by faith in the promises of God by looking back to the decisive work of Jesus Christ.” Tweet Share on Facebook

The heart of Christianity is that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world at a point in history in the past to reveal what God is like and to accomplish salvation for all who believe in him by dying and rising again. Miracles cluster around that appearance in history in Jesus and in the life of the apostles to vindicate his claim and their writings.

基督教信仰在根本上是带着信心回头看基督的作为，带着盼望朝前看，因着过去盼望那将要来到完满。它是愿意现在受苦和爱人，呼吁人有这样的信心。

Christianity is basically a life lived by looking back with confidence in the work of Christ and looking forward in hope, because of that past, to a consummation that’s coming. It is to be willing to suffer and love people now and call them to that faith.

我们生活在一个时期，正正就是受苦是正常的时候。虽然如此，神确实时不时，有时在复兴的时候经常使用祂的大能，按祂主权的旨意，为祂的百姓行神迹。为什么祂现在不行比此刻更多的神迹，部分也许是因为我们缺乏期望和信心，但这最终要归因于祂主权的预旨。

We live in a period of time precisely where suffering is normal. Nevertheless, God does now and then, and sometimes regularly in periods of revival, use his power to perform, according to his sovereign will, miracles for his people. Why he doesn’t do it more now than he does is partly (perhaps) owing to our lack of expectancy and faith, but is ultimately owing to his sovereign decree.

我们呼吁人悔改相信的时候，不是呼吁他们根据他们昨天看到的一件神迹悔改相信，即使真有这样的神迹发生。我们是根据在圣经中，耶稣基督通过祂的死和复活显明的荣耀，呼吁他们悔改相信。这是根基。即使今天发生更多的神迹，这仍是信心的根基需要立定的地方。

When we call people to repent and believe, we’re not calling them to do this on the basis of a miracle they saw yesterday, even if it happened. We are calling them on the basis of the glory of Jesus Christ revealed in his death and resurrection through Scripture. That’s the basis. Even if miracles were happening more today, that’s where the foundation of faith would need to lie.