2020-03-04


《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs,巴刻(J. I. Packer)著/張麟至译,更新传道会,2007年。


圣经的启示
圣经是神的话

法版------是神的工作,字是神写的,刻在版上。(出32:15-16

基督教乃是真正敬拜并服事真神的——那位人类的创造主与救赎主——的一种信仰。它是依赖启示的一种信仰,亦即说,如果神不先将他自己启示出来,就没有人会认识关乎神的真理,或能和神发生个人的关系。然而神已将自己启示了出来。圣经共有六十六卷书——三十九卷写在基督降生之前,二十七卷写在之后——正本圣经合起来就是神自我揭示的记录、诠释、表达和彰显。神,以及人对神的敬虔,就是圣经一以贯之的主题。

由有观点来说,圣经(Scriptures[著作]之意)是对神敬虔的人向他们所爱慕、所侍奉之神的忠实见证;由另一观点来说,圣经是神自己的见证,虽然是以人的方式在教导,但在其整个组成中,却有神独特的支配与运作。教会称这些著作为神的话,因为它们的作者与内容都是神圣的。

耶稣基督和奉他之名从事教导的使徒们一再向我们保证,圣经是出于神,并且由他的智慧和真理组成。耶稣,这位道成肉身的神,视圣经(指我们的旧约圣经)为他的天父所写的指引,他本身也要服膺,并不亚于他人(太4:4,7,105:19-2019:4-626:31,52-54;路4:16-2116:1718:31-3322:3724:25-2745-47;约10:35),他也是为成全旧约圣经而来到人间(太5:17-1826:24;约5:46)。保罗描述旧约圣经全然是[神所默示的]也就是说,他和宇宙一样,都是神的灵([默示][]为同一字)所成就的产物(诗33:6;创1:2)——而且是为教导基督教的信仰而写的(提后3:15-17;罗15:4;林前10:11)。彼得在彼得后书一章21节和彼得前书一章1012节里,肯定圣经的教导的源头来自神,而希伯来书的作者也藉着引用旧约圣经的写作方式来肯定它的源头(来1:5-133:74:310:5-715-17;另参徒4:2528:25-27)。

由于使徒所论有关基督的教导,其本身就是以神所教导的话语所启示出来的真理(林前2:12-13),所以教会认定,加入真正由使徒写成的著作,全本圣经方告完成。彼得已指称保罗书信为经书(彼后3:15-16),而保罗在提摩太前书五章18节引用路加福音十章七节的话,这些都很明显地认定路加的福音书为圣经的一部分。

用神自己所写的指引作为敬虔生活基础的这种想法,要追溯到神当初的一些作为——他曾在石板上刻写十诫,并接着激励摩西写下他的律法以及他如何带领他百姓的整个历史(出32:15-1634:1,27-28;民33:2;申31:9)。对以色列人的领袖和百姓两者而言,融会贯通这些材料,并靠它而活,永远是真崇拜的中心(书1:7-8;王下17:1322:8-13;代上22:12-13;尼8章;诗119篇)。我们必须用圣经——亦即将旧约和新约合起来使用——作为管治原则,这也同样是基督教的基本道理。

圣经所说的,就是神所说的;它几乎可与道成肉身这奥秘的道理相较,圣经既有完全的神性,也有完全的人性。因此之故,圣经多方面的内容——包括历史、预言、诗歌、歌曲、智慧著作、讲章、统计数字、书信和任何其他的著作——我们都当视作是从神而来的领受,而所有圣经作者的教导也都敬如神权威的指教。基督徒应当感谢神赐下这套写成了的话语,并打心底起将他们的信仰和生活,全然惟独地建基在其上。否则,我们就无法按着神所呼召我们的原委,去尊崇他或讨他喜悦。

REVELATION
SCRIPTURE IS THE WORD OF GOD

The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. EXODUS 32:16

Christianity is the true worship and service of the true God, humankind’s Creator and Redeemer. It is a religion that rests on revelation: nobody would know the truth about God, or be able to relate to him in a personal way, had not God first acted to make himself known. But God has so acted, and the sixty-six books of the Bible, thirty-nine written before Christ came and twenty-seven after, are together the record, interpretation, expression, and embodiment of his self-disclosure. God and godliness are the Bible’s uniting themes.

From one standpoint, the Scriptures (Scriptures means “writings”) are the faithful testimony of the godly to the God whom they loved and served; from another standpoint, through a unique exercise of divine overruling in their composition, they are God’s own testimony and teaching in human form. The church calls these writings the Word of God because their authorship and contents are both divine.

Decisive assurance that Scripture is from God and consists entirely of his wisdom and truth comes from Jesus Christ and his apostles, who taught in his name. Jesus, God incarnate, viewed his Bible (our Old Testament) as his heavenly Father’s written instruction, which he no less than others must obey (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; 5:19-20; 19:4-6; 26:31, 52-54; Luke 4:16-21; 16:17; 18:31-33; 22:37; 24:25-27, 45-47; John 10:35), and which he had come to fulfill (Matt. 5:17-18; 26:24; John 5:46). Paul described the Old Testament as entirely “God-breathed”—that is, a product of God’s Spirit just as the cosmos is (Ps. 33:6; Gen. 1:2)—and written to teach Christianity (2 Tim. 3:15-17; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11). Peter affirms the divine origin of biblical teaching in 2 Peter 1:21 and 1 Peter 1:10-12, and so also by his manner of quoting does the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 1:5-13; 3:7; 4:3; 10:5-7, 15-17; cf. Acts 4:25; 28:25-27).

Since the apostles’ teaching about Christ is itself revealed truth in God-taught words (1 Cor. 2:12-13), the church rightly regards authentic apostolic writings as completing the Scriptures. Already Peter refers to Paul’s letters as Scripture (2 Pet. 3:15-16), and Paul is apparently calling Luke’s gospel Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18, where he quotes the words of Luke 10:7.

The idea of written directives from God himself as a basis for godly living goes back to God’s act of inscribing the Decalogue on stone tablets and then prompting Moses to write his laws and the history of his dealings with his people (Exod. 32:15-16; 34:1, 27-28; Num. 33:2; Deut. 31:9). Digesting and living by this material was always central to true devotion in Israel for both leaders and ordinary people (Josh. 1:7-8; 2 Kings 17:13; 22:8-13; 1 Chron. 22:12-13; Neh. 8; Ps. 119). The principle that all must be governed by the Scriptures, that is, by the Old and New Testaments taken together, is equally basic to Christianity.

What Scripture says, God says; for, in a manner comparable only to the deeper mystery of the Incarnation, the Bible is both fully human and fully divine. So all its manifold contents—histories, prophecies, poems, songs, wisdom writings, sermons, statistics, letters, and whatever else—should be received as from God, and all that Bible writers teach should be revered as God’s authoritative instruction. Christians should be grateful to God for the gift of his written Word, and conscientious in basing their faith and life entirely and exclusively upon it. Otherwise, we cannot ever honor or please him as he calls us to do.