聖經: 我們無誤與無謬的權威Scripture: Our Inerrant andInfallible Authority
作者: Stephen Nichols 譯者: Maria Marta
這是我們希望能親眼目睹的時刻之一。它就是水門前廣場件事發生的時刻。清早以斯拉帶來律法書，他將書卷展開，開始宣讀，一直到中午，會眾都全神貫注地聽著。法律書被宣讀、解釋、研讀。尼希米記第八章記載了這事件，並告訴我們，這次學習聖經的集會引起敬拜。百姓們謙卑恭敬，臉伏在地。當上帝在祂的聖言中啟示祂自己時，百姓們都在祂面前屈膝。
這一舊約事件開創先例：上帝的子民聚集，聆聽上帝話語的宣讀，凝聽上帝說話的解釋和教導，然後他們敬拜。這是上帝子民該有的樣子。然而隨著歲月的流逝，人世的代謝，很不幸，上帝的話從祂子民生活的中心和祂會眾顯著的地位中退去。舊約先知們談及上帝話語的饑荒。當我們查閱整部聖經和整個教會歷史，我們找到這樣的饑荒時期。最嚴重的饑荒之一發生在宗教改革前夕。
最初，馬丁·路德(Martin Luther)就贖罪券問題向教會提出抗議。他想要一場辯論。在發表九十五條論綱後，他參與各種辯論，最終在萊比錫進行了一場真正、真實的辯論。夏季期間，路德與羅馬天王教最主要的神學家約翰·艾克(Johann Eck)對壘。在這場辯論的過程中，路德宣布唯獨聖經的宗教改革綱領，和對聖經絕對權威的堅定不移的委身。路德的著作和與這些辯論有關的報告使教皇獨利奧十世 (Pope Leo X) 確信這位德國修道士是一個異教徒。最終對決的日期、地點鎖定在1521年4月17-18日、沃木斯召開帝國議會，或沃木斯議會。
另一個我們都希望能親眼目的時刻是沃木斯事件發生的時刻。路德，穿著樸素的修士長袍，站在-----和反對-----穿著官方服飾的王子與貴族，紅衣主教與神父前面。王位上坐著21歲的神聖羅馬帝國皇帝查爾斯五世。路德的書攤放在他面前的桌子上。皇帝向路德發出命令：「撤銷!」-------撤回他的著作，撤回他唯獨信心 (唯獨藉著信心稱義) 和唯獨聖經的觀點。那天是4月17日。路德請求一天的考慮時間，得到了批準。他禱告了一夜，第二天再次出現。然後，發表了他名垂千古的宣言:
「我的良心是上帝之道的俘虜。因為違反良心，既不安全也無益處，因此，我不宣布放棄上帝的聖道。我別無選擇，這就是我的立場，願上帝拯救我，阿們。」
這件事引發另一件事，若能親眼目睹它發生的時刻，那是多麼的激勤人心。實際上它非發生在一瞬間，而是歷時數月，因為路德躲藏在俯瞰艾森納赫鎮（Eisenach）的瓦特堡城堡 (Wartburg Castle)。他在城堡裏把希臘新約聖經翻譯成德語; 通過樸實的研究，他寫了一系列講道集，稱為《教會註記》（Church Postil） (Kirchenpostille)。新約當然是上帝的話語，而教會註記是上帝話語的一系列闡述。上帝的話語需要宣講，但也需要解釋和教導。以斯拉在尼希米記八章開創先例。路德沒有做任何新事。相反，他在做非常古舊的事。
唯獨聖經可能被視為一項宗教改革綱領，但更準確地說，它也是一項符合聖經的綱領。然而，探討改教家如何思想唯獨聖經，將使我們受益良多。我們最好從路德對他的批評者的回應來看這一點。
路德不斷受到的批評之一就是: 你拋棄1500年的教會歷史。第二種批評是: 你丟棄教會。聲稱你的良心是上帝之道的俘虜，就是不需要傳統，也不需要教會。你不必為與數世紀以來甚至現在的聖徒交通操心。
路德絕不是一個放棄戰鬥的人，所以他接受這些批評。然而，在我們審視他的批評之前，有一點很重要，那就是看看一些冒稱唯獨聖經的人是如何為反對唯獨聖經辯護的。一些當代的福音派認為唯獨聖經是指他們不需要老師，他們可以丟棄兩千年的教會歷史。但是，路德和其他改教家所主張的唯獨聖經，並不是一項激進個人主義的呼籲，也不是對教會權威的拒絕。有一篇文稿對我們理解路德對議會和教會的看法非常有幫助。
此篇文稿發表於1539年，是路德對其二十年批評的回應。教會歷史價值、健康傳統價值、議會價值都是他所指出的要點之一。認為路德如此看重自己的觀點，以至完全漠視其他人的觀點的想法是錯誤的。即使他沒有將傳統提升至最終權威的地位，但他認為它是必要、有益、具啟發性的。對於改教家來說，傳統跟聖經不同，傳統是錯誤的權威，聖經乃無謬的權威。
保羅告訴提摩太，要訓練忠心能教導別人的人。這些人被交託了「信仰寶庫」(deposit of faith)，是可信賴的人。這些人由提摩太訓練，提摩太由保羅訓練。依次類推，這些人訓練其他人。保羅在提摩太後書二章2節中所使用的字，翻譯過來就是「交託」，是傳遞的意思，就好像你在傳遞遺產一樣。此字在武加大譯本（Vulgate），即拉丁文聖經譯本是傳統的意思，英語單詞傳統由此而出。傳統有健康的傳統。
傳統也有不健康的傳統。路德指出不健康傳統的明顯標誌: 它們高舉外在、形式、內在的實相，最終超越基督自己。第一世紀的法利賽人和撒都該人身上有這些特徵，十六世紀和在我們這個時代的人也有這些特徵。傳統只有在支持上帝話語的中心性和重要性的範圍內才是健康的。信條就是這麽做的。教會議會和改教家的正統教義就是這樣做的。簡單地說，健康傳統高舉基督、福音、與純正教義; 不健康的傳統則不然。
傳統在路德心中占有位置，他也堅定相信教師。新約認可教師職事。是的，我們的良心是上帝之道的俘虜。正因如此，上帝賜給我們教師，幫助我們明白祂的話，愛祂的話，並在我們的生命中實踐祂的話。
作為聖徒交通的一部分，我們並不與傳統或教會隔絕。我的同事馬西森 (Keith Mathison) 曾簡明扼要地指出: 是唯獨聖經 (sola Scriptura, 即聖經是是唯一無謬和最終的權威)，而非唯奉聖經 (solo Scriptura, 即聖經是唯一的權威)。肯定唯獨聖經就是清楚認識聖經的權威，就是像改教家所認識的那樣。
聖經是我們信心和生活唯一無誤和無謬的權威。聖經是上帝的話，上帝呼出的氣。因此，我們必須順服它。我們務要力爭看到聖經置於我們一切所作之事的中心，而非看到它被取代，被丟棄。我們可以回顧上帝聖言被賦予恰當位置的時刻。據尼希米記八章記載，在被擄歸回耶路撒冷的人當中發生這樣的時刻。在16世紀發生這樣的時刻。未能親眼目睹這些時刻，不要悲嘆。相反，讓我們為我們自己的時刻，即為將上帝的話置於中心，傳播上帝的話，看到上帝的話在作工的時刻祈禱。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌。
Scripture: Our Inerrant and
Infallible Authority
FROM
Stephen Nichols
It’s
one of those moments we wish we could have seen firsthand. It took place in the
square before the Water Gate. At daybreak, Ezra brought out the law. He
unrolled the scroll and began reading. He kept on until noon, and all the while
the great crowd gave their rapt attention. The law was read, interpreted, and
studied. Nehemiah 8, which records this event, also tells us that this Bible
study session resulted in worship. The people were humbled, and their faces
looked to the ground. They bowed before God as He revealed Himself in His holy
Word.
This
event from the Old Testament is a precedent-setting moment. God’s people
gather, they hear God’s Word read, they hear God’s Word interpreted and taught,
and they worship. This is how it’s supposed to be. As the decades pass and
generations come and go, however, God’s Word sadly recedes from the center of
His people’s lives and from prominence in His congregation. The Old Testament
prophets spoke of a famine of the Word of God. As we look through the pages of
the Bible and through church history, we find such times of famine. One of the
severest of these times of famine came on the eve of the Reformation.
Martin
Luther originally launched his protest against the church over the issue of
indulgences. He wanted a debate. While he was involved in various disputations
in the wake of posting the Ninety-Five Theses, he finally got a real and true
debate at Leipzig. Over the summer months, Luther squared off with Johann Eck,
Rome’s premier theologian. Over the course of the debate, Luther declared the
Reformation plank of sola Scriptura, the firm and unwavering commitment to the
absolute authority of Scripture. Luther’s writings and the reports of these
debates convinced Pope Leo X that this German monk was a heretic. The date and
the time was set for the ultimate showdown: April 17–18, 1521, at the Imperial
Diet, or meeting, at Worms.
Worms
is another one of those moments that we all wish we could have seen first-hand.
Luther, adorned in his simple monk’s garb, stood before—and against—princes and
nobles, cardinals and priests, all wearing the trappings of their offices. On
the throne sat the twenty-one-year-old Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor.
Luther’s books were spread out on a table before him. He was commanded,
“Revoco!” —to recant his writings, to recant his views of sola fide (faith
alone as the instrument of justification) and of sola Scriptura. That was April
17. Luther asked for a day to consider, and he was granted it. He spent the
night in prayer and appeared again the next day. Then, he delivered his famous
speech:
I am
bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word
of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor
right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God
help me. Amen.
That
moment led to one more moment that would have been wonderful to have seen
firsthand. Actually, it was not a moment, but a few months, as Luther was holed
up in Wartburg Castle overlooking the town of Eisenach. There he translated the
Greek New Testament into German, and there, in his modest study, he wrote a
series of sermons called the Church Postils (Kirchenpostille). The New
Testament is, of course, the Word of God, and the Church Postils are a series
of sermons that expound the Word of God. The Word needed to be proclaimed, but
the Word also needed to be interpreted and taught. Ezra set the precedent in
Nehemiah 8. Luther was not do-ing anything new. Instead, he was doing something
very old.
Sola
Scriptura may be considered a Reformation plank, but it is also, more
accurately, a biblical one. It is fruitful, however, to consider how the
Reformers thought of sola Scriptura. We see this best in the way Luther
responded to his critics.
One
of the incessant criticisms Luther received amounted to this: You have thrown
away fifteen hundred years of church history. The second criticism was this:
You have thrown away the church. By claiming that your conscience is captive to
the Word of God, you need neither tradition nor the church. You need not bother
with the communion of saints through the centuries or even now.
Luther
was never one to back down from a fight, so he took these criticisms head on.
Before we look at his criticisms, however, it is important to see how some
people who profess sola Scriptura justify these objections. Some contemporary
evangelicals take sola Scriptura to mean that they do not need teachers and
that they can jettison two thousand years of church history. But the
affirmation of sola Scriptura by Luther and the other Reformers was not a call
for radical individualism or a rejection of church authority. One text that is
helpful here is Luther’s On the Councils and the Church.
In
this text from 1539, Luther responds to two decades of criticism. One of the
things he points out is the value of church history, the value of healthy
tradition, and the value of the councils. It’s a mistake to think that Luther
thought so highly of his own views that he totally disregarded the views of all
others. While not elevating tradition to the position of final authority, he
did see it as necessary, helpful, and instructive. Tradition, to the Reformers,
is a fallible authority, unlike Scripture, which is an infallible authority.
Paul
tells Timothy to train faithful men who will be able to teach others. These are
men entrusted with the “deposit of faith,” men who are trustworthy. They are to
be trained by Timothy, who was trained by Paul. They, in turn, train others.
The word Paul uses in 2 Timothy 2:2, translated as “entrusted,” means to hand
over, as if you are passing on an inheritance. The word in the Vulgate, the
Latin translation of the Bible, is tradidit, from which we get the English word
tradition.There is such a thing as a healthy tradition.
There
is also such a thing as an unhealthy tradition. Luther points to a clear sign
of unhealthy traditions: they exalt the externals, the forms, over internal
realities and ultimately over Christ Himself. This happened among the Pharisees
and Sadducees in the first century, and it happened in the sixteenth century.
It happens in our day. A tradition is only healthy to the extent that it
supports the centrality and prominence of the Word of God. Creeds do this. The
orthodox teachings of the church councils and of the Reformers do this. Simply
put, healthy tradition exalts Christ, the gospel, and sound doctrine; unhealthy
tradition does not.
Luther
had a place for tradition, and he also firmly believed in teachers. The New
Testament sanctions the office of teacher. Yes, our consciences are held
captive to the Word of God. And because of that, God has given us teachers to
help us understand His Word, love His Word, and live out His Word in our lives.
As
part of the communion of saints, we are not isolated from tradition or from the
church. Keith Mathison, my colleague, put it succinctly: It’s sola Scriptura
(the Bible is the only infallible and final authority) not solo Scriptura (the
Bible is the only authority). To affirm sola Scriptura is to understand the
Bible’s authority well and to understand it as the Reformers did.
Scripture
is our only inerrant and infallible authority for faith and life. It is God’s
Word, God breathed. Therefore, we must obey it. We must strive not to see it
displaced and cast aside but to see it placed at the center of all that we do.
We can look back at moments when the Word was given its proper place. It
happened among the exiles upon their return to Jerusalem as recorded in
Nehemiah 8. It happened in the sixteenth century. Let us not lament that we did
not see these moments first-hand. Instead, let us pray for our own moments when
we put God’s Word at the center, when we broadcast God’s Word, and when we see
it at work.
This
post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
