感謝讚美上帝護理的大能与豐盛的供應。 本網誌內的所有資源純屬學習交流之用。

2020-03-04


5、内在的见证  圣灵在人心证实圣经Inward Witness - Scripture isauthenticated by the Holy Spirit

《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。
http://www.geocities.ws/gary_bee_za/packer/index.html#creator

内在的见证
 圣灵在人心证实圣经

你们从那圣者受了恩膏,并且知道这一切的事。(约壹2:20

基督徒为什么要相信这本由六十六卷书所组成的圣经是神的话?且信其中充满神的指示,使我们得知救赎的实际是藉救主耶稣基督才有的?答案乃是,神自己接着圣灵内在的见证肯定了这个事实。

《西敏斯特信仰告白》1.51647年)这么说:

我们可以受教会见证所感动、激励,而尊重圣经;并且圣经属天的实质、教义的效力、文体的庄严、各部的契合、全书涵盖的范围(就是将一切的荣耀归给神)、人得救恩惟一之法的充足证明,以及许多其他无以伦比的优点和它整体的完美性,都成了辩证,丰足地证明它的确是神的话。然而我们之能够完全的信服并确知它是没有错谬的真理,且具有属神的权威,乃是来自圣灵内在的工作,他在我们的心里用神的话、并与神的话一同作见证。

圣灵为圣经所作的见证,就好像我们在约翰福音十五章26节和约翰壹书五章7节(约壹2:20,27)看到他为耶稣作见证一样。这见证不是赐予新的信息,而是光照先前已经昏暗了的心思,使之感受到那独特的冲击而查觉到神[的存在]——这冲击一方面是来自福音中的耶稣,另一方面则是来自圣经的话。圣灵光照我们的心,使我们在光中知道,神的荣耀不仅显在耶稣基督的面上(林后4:6),也显在圣经的教训里。这见证的结果将我们的心思带入一种光景,救主和圣经皆在其中向我们证明其神性:耶稣乃是一位有神性的人;圣经乃是出自神的产品——而且这证明是直接的、立即的,且是极其醒目的,能抓住我们的心,正如未到和色泽会迫使我们的感官去感受它们,从而见证了其真实性一样。结果使我们发现,要想再去怀疑基督的神性或圣经不是由神而来的,已是不可能的了。

神就是这样向我们证实了圣经为神的话语——他不是藉着一些奥秘的经历、或私下暗中耳语的信息,不是单单藉着人意的辩论(虽然它可能很有说服力),也不是单单藉着教会的见证(虽然回顾两千年之余,它的确能带给人深刻的印象)。神的证实方式,毋宁是藉着监察我们内心的真光与改变人心的能力,圣经因此得以证实自己实出于神的。这光、这力的冲击,正是圣灵[在我们的心里用神的话、并与神的话一同作见证]。辩论、从别人来的见证,和我们自己独特的经验,都不过是预备我们好接受这个见证;但是使人能接受圣经的见证,和使人能有信心相信基督为神圣救主一样,则是全权之圣灵所独有的特权。

圣灵的光照见证了圣经是神的话,这是基督徒普世的经验,而且从起初就是这样的,只是许多基督徒还不知道该怎样把这光照说出来,或不知道该用怎样与这光照一致的态度面对圣经。


INWARD WITNESS
SCRIPTURE IS AUTHENTICATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 1 JOHN 2:20
Why do Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, sixty-six books forming a single book of instruction in which God reveals to us the reality of redemption through Jesus Christ the Savior? The answer is that God himself has confirmed this through what is called the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. In the words of the Westminster Confession (1647):

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverend esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart. (I.5)

The Spirit’s witness to Scripture is like his witness to Jesus, which we find spoken of in John 15:26 and 1 John 5:7 (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27). It is a matter not of imparting new information but of enlightening previously darkened minds to discern divinity through sensing its unique impact—the impact in the one case of the Jesus of the gospel, and in the other case of the words of Holy Scripture. The Spirit shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God not only in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) but also in the teaching of Holy Scripture. The result of this witness is a state of mind in which both the Savior and the Scriptures have evidenced themselves to us as divine—Jesus, a divine person; Scripture, a divine product—in a way as direct, immediate, and arresting as that in which tastes and colors evidence themselves by forcing themselves on our senses. In consequence, we no longer find it possible to doubt the divinity of either Christ or the Bible.

Thus God authenticates Holy Scripture to us as his Word—not by some mystical experience or secret information privately whispered into some inner ear, not by human argument alone (strong as this may be), nor by the church’s testimony alone (impressive as this is when one looks back over two thousand years). God does it, rather, by means of the searching light and transforming power whereby Scripture evidences itself to be divine. The impact of this light and power is itself the Spirit’s witness “by and with the Word in our heart.” Argument, testimony from others, and our own particular experiences may prepare us to receive this witness, but the imparting of it, like the imparting of faith in Christ’s divine Saviorhood, is the prerogative of the sovereign Holy Spirit alone.

The illumination of the Spirit witnessing to the divinity of the Bible is universal Christian experience, and has been so from the beginning, though many Christians have not known how to verbalize it or to handle the Bible in a manner consistent with it.