拣选给人安慰（或：伯拉纠主义冷酷无情）The Comfort of Election (Or:Pelagianism Has No Pity)
by
Reformed Reader/Duncan Liang 译
巴文克，《改革宗教理学》，卷二，《神与创造》
Herman
Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend,Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation, vol.
2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,2004), 401–402.
有人错误认为，圣经关于无条件拣选的教导是可怕黑暗，拦阻人传福音，让人变得相信宿命论。的确，对拣选的错误看法（例如极端加尔文主义的观点）妨碍传福音，会让人有一种宿命论的眼光。但是，合乎圣经的对拣选的认识却不会这样；事实上，它把一切荣耀归于神，安慰跟从耶稣的人，是与各种各样的人分享福音的一个理由！对此巴文克有很好论述：
Some
people wrongly think that the biblical teaching of unconditional election is a
frightening and dark teaching that hinders evangelism and makes people into
fatalists. It is true that wrong views
of election (such as a hyper-Calvinist view, for example) do get in the way of
evangelism and can give people a fatalistic outlook. However, a biblical understanding of election
does neither; in fact, it ascribes all glory to God, it gives comfort to
followers of Jesus, and it’s a reason to share the gospel with all kinds of
people! Herman Bavinck said it well:
“子不是感动父去爱人；拣选的爱出于父祂自己。圣经相应在每一处地方都教导说，一切预旨的原因并不在于任何受造之物，而是唯独在于神祂自己，在于神的旨意和美意（太11:26；罗9:11及后；弗1:4及后）。
The
Son did not move the Father to love; electing love arose from the Father
himself. Scripture, accordingly, everywhere teaches that the cause of all the
decrees does not lie in any creature but only in God himself, in his will and
good pleasure (Matt. 11:26; Rom. 9:11ff.; Eph. 1:4ff.).
“正是出于这原因，对不信的人和相信的人来说，拣选这教义都是那无法言喻极大安慰的源头。神若是根据公义和功德拣选，所有人都要失丧了。但现在，拣选是按照恩典发挥作用，那么就连最恶劣的人也有指望。如果行为和奖赏是神接纳人进天国的标准，那么天国的大门就不会为任何人开放。或者，如果伯拉纠的教训是标准，有美德的人是因他们的美德蒙神拣选，法利赛人是因着他们的义蒙拣选，恶劣的税吏就会被挡在门外了。伯拉纠主义冷酷无情。
For
that very reason, both for unbelievers and believers, the doctrine of election
is a source of inexpressibly great comfort. If it were based on justice and
merit, all would be lost. But now that election operates according to grace,
there is hope even for the most wretched. If work and reward were the standard
of admission into the kingdom of heaven, its gates would be opened for no one.
Or if Pelagius’s doctrine were the standard, and the virtuous were chosen
because of their virtue, and Pharisees because of their righteousness, wretched
publicans would be shut out. Pelagianism has no pity.
“但相信和承认拣选，就是认识到就连最不配和堕落的人也是神所造，是祂亘古之爱的对象。拣选的目的不是一些人如此经常宣称的那样，把许多人拒之门外，而是邀请所有人来分享神在基督里的恩典。无人有权认为他/她是一个被神遗弃的人，因为神真诚迫切呼吁每一个人来相信基督，为要得救。无人能确实认为自己是遭遗弃之人，因人自己的生命，连同让这生命变得可喜爱的，都证明神断不喜悦他死亡。无人能真的认为自己是遭遗弃之人，因为若是如此，他就是活在人间地狱。但拣选是安慰与力量，顺服与谦卑，相信与立志的源头。神对人类的拯救，是牢固建立在神满有恩典和全能的美意之上。”
But
to believe in and to confess election is to recognize even the most unworthy
and degraded human being as a creature of God and an object of his eternal
love. The purpose of election is not—as it is so often proclaimed—to turn off
the many but to invite all to participate in the riches of God’s grace in
Christ. No one has a right to believe that he or she is a reprobate, for
everyone is sincerely and urgently called to believe in Christ with a view to
salvation. No one can actually believe it, for one’s own life and all that
makes it enjoyable is proof that God takes no delight in his death. No one
really believes it, for that would be hell on earth. But election is a source
of comfort and strength, of submissiveness and humility, of confidence and
resolution. The salvation of human beings is firmly established in the gracious
and omnipotent good pleasure of God.