改革宗信仰基础01：起初，上帝Basics of the Reformed Faith:In the Beginning–God
作者: Kim Riddlebarger 译者/校对者: 蔡璐/王一
圣经的开篇第一句话引人注目：“起初，上帝……”（创1:1）
这个简单明了的宣告却充满了深刻的含义。基督徒信仰中一些最重要的真理都包含在这句话里。因此，应当对其给予重视。
我们从这段经文里知道的第一件事就是，在任何事物被造以先，上帝已经存在。实际上，上帝一直都存在，无始无终。唯有上帝不是受造的，我们称他是永恒的。早在时间开始以前，上帝就存在，他不像我们这样受时间的限制。
接下来，《创世记》第一章继续展开创造的记载，我们从中知道这位永恒的上帝创造了一切。万物之所以存在，完全是因为是上帝创造了它们。
永恒物质这种东西并不存在；柏拉图试图说服我们的那个理念（理型）的永恒国度并不存在；现代科学教导的物质的永恒振动，不停的膨胀收缩，并不存在。
唯一永恒的是创造万有的上帝，他从起初就存在了。
这意味着没有任何事物的存有不是来自于上帝的意志，而且一切被造物（天上地下的万物，所有的人类和天使）都必然依靠上帝而存在。
与受造物不同，上帝并不受时间与空间的限制。
从这个最基本的层面上讲，上帝与我们不同，因此，他必然与他的受造物有所区分，也决不依靠受造物。
我们有需求，但上帝没有需求。我们有组成部分，但上帝没有组成部分。
虽然上帝是有位格的（personal），但他并没有受造物的那种情绪或情感（passions）。
正是这位上帝，命令太阳和众星运转井然有序，从无生命的物质中创造生命（正如他从地上的尘土造出亚当，创2:7），他也是掌管死亡的主。这位上帝完全超越于受造物之上。
上帝的这种“全然不同性”（otherness，或译作“他性”）——也就是指上帝与受造物之间的差距——被称为造物主与受造物的区分。这个区分是基督教神学中最重要的基本要义之一，我们必须先弄清楚这一点，才能继续探讨基督教信仰的其他方面。
我们这些有限的，受时间空间的辖制，被罪侵害污染的受造物，如何能正确清楚地认识这样一位远超万有之上而不能被肉眼所见的上帝呢？
解决这个难题的答案是，这位无限的上帝的确是无法被有限的受造物认识，除非上帝决定亲自向受造物启示他自己，并且这种启示必须以我们可以明白和理解的方式进行。
这正是上帝所作的：当上帝俯就向我们启示他自己时（上帝的临在
immanence），他是通过自然界（即普遍启示）和圣经（即特殊启示）来启示自己。
作为受造物，我们永远要依靠上帝对我们生命和气息的供应。但是，如果想要对上帝有任何有意义的认识，我们则需要依靠他的自我启示。意识到这一点是正确认识属灵的事物的开端。
这也是为什么我们要想认识上帝是谁，就必须留意上帝启示他自己的这两处地方，一处是受造界（即自然秩序），另一处是他话语中至高的自我启示（即圣经）。
Basics of the Reformed Faith:
In the Beginning–God
By Kim
Riddlebarger
In
the Beginning–God
The
Bible opens with a remarkable statement in Genesis 1:1– “In the Beginning, God
. . .”
This
simple assertion is packed with meaning.
Some of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith are found in
this short declaration, and it is important to give them due consideration.
The
first thing this passage tells us is that before anything was created, God
already was. In fact, God always was,
without beginning or end. Since God
alone is uncreated, we speak of him as eternal.
God exists before time itself, and is not bound by the succession of
moments (time) as are we.
As
the creation account unfolds in the subsequent verses of Genesis 1, we learn
that the eternal God creates all things.
Whatever now exists, exists only because God created it. There is no such thing as eternal matter. There is no eternal realm of mental forms (or
ideas) as Plato led us to believe. There
is no eternal convulsing of matter–ever expanding, ever contracting–as taught
in much of contemporary science. There
is only the eternal God who created all things, and who already was in the
beginning. This indicates that nothing
exists apart from the will of God, and all created things (the heavens and
earth, humans as well as angels) are necessarily contingent, and depend upon
God for their existence.
Unlike
his creatures who are bound by both time and space, God has no such
limitations. Because God is unlike us in
this most fundamental way, he must be distinct from that which he has created,
and can in no sense be dependant upon created things. God has no needs, as do we. God has no parts, as we do. Although he is personal, he does not have the
kind of passions or emotions that we do as creatures. This is the God who gives orders to the sun
and the stars, who gives life to inanimate matter (as when he made Adam from
the dust of the earth – Genesis 2:7), and who is Lord over death. This God utterly transcends his creatures.
This
“otherness” of God–the distance between God and his creatures–is known as
Creator-creature distinction. This
distinction is one of the most fundamental points of Christian theology, and
must be clear to us before we can meaningfully talk about any other aspects of
the Christian faith.
How
can finite creatures, bound by both time and space, and prejudiced by sin,
truly know and correctly understand anything about a God who is so transcendent
that he cannot be seen or observed? The
answer to this dilemma is that such an infinite God cannot be known by his
finite creatures, unless and until he chooses to reveal himself to his
creatures in such a way that we can know and understand this revelation. This is exactly what God does through both
nature (general revelation) and Scripture (special revelation), when God draws
near to reveal himself to us (immanence).
As
creatures, we will always be dependent upon God for our very life and
breath. But we are also dependent upon
his self-revelation if we are to have any meaningful knowledge of him. The realization of this fact is the beginning
of a proper understanding of spiritual things.
And this is why we must strive to understand who God is by directing our
attention to those two places where God reveals himself–through that which has
been made (the natural order) and through the supreme revelation of himself in
his word (Scripture).
