By Tin-chee Lo (盧天賜, TC); 12.29.13
<里程碑: 這是筆者在此 blog 內所發表的第一百篇短文>
引言
我與一位大陸學者以前曾在網上討論過與基督教信仰有関的問题, 讓我稱此君為 JF 吧. JF 最近發表一篇文章, 他命題為 “浅谈信仰宗教的心理学原因” . 我一看题目便感到興奮. 因為我不久以前在此 Blog 上也發表過類似的文章:
还有另一篇也是对話性的文章:
https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=90
回應
現在我 (TC) 把他 (JF) 寫的每一段作分析並表達我的見解. 我的回應是用英文寫 (因我的中文打字太慢), 而由高玲把它譯為中文, 在此特向她致謝。
JF: 正值圣诞节期间，在这个以基督教文化为背景的节日中，写这篇文章恰当其时。涉及宗教的题目太多太大，我打算只讨论一个很小的题目，这样自己写起来在精力上不成负担，别人读起来也不至于望而生畏。这个题目是：为什么一个人会去信一种宗教？显然，这里不用讨论为什么会形成某种宗教，该宗教已是一个客观存在。我也不去讨论其中的教义或社会影响，重点关注的是一个信徒的初始阶段——他（她）从不信教到信教的心理过程。从心理定律论的观点来看，貌似纷繁复杂的信教过程只不过由三种基本的心理机制作用而成，这三种机制是：
• 学习记忆
• 过程动机
• 目标动机
描述这三种机制的心理学原理只需要学习定律和动机定律就够了。
TC: I agree that these three are common approaches by which people come to believe in certain ideas. But they by no means are exclusive. The phrase “只不过 merely just” is too strong an expression. There are legitimate ways to arrive at one’s conviction. To my mind, people come to believe in a worldview through one to three channels in any order depending on individuals. These three channels are:
• Philosophical (or theoretical) level—rigorous study and analyses through reasoning and laws of logic.
• Art or cultural level—such as music or paintings or social media and like most people the way they believe in evolution. Most of them have never read <The Origin of Species> but they are loud and clear in buying in the concept because the whole society think it is right.
• Kitchen table level—At the dinner table, the father tells story or makes casual talk with the children and they gradually buy in their father’s worldview until they grow up and begin to investigate at the philosophical level.
The writer of the article, JF, seems to ignore at least the theoretical level.
Professor Stephen C.Y. Liu even points out on page 127-130 of his book <Science and Christian Faith> six approaches to ways to knowledge and Truth: Inspiration, Intuition, Rational Search, Meditation, Revelation, and contemplation.
We can now see that JF’s three mechanisms illustration is an oversimplification.
我赞同这三种机制是人们在达到某种信念的过程中，通常采用的渠道，但是它们并不囊括全部，原文中的 “只不过” 过于局限。人们可以借着不同的合理方法达到某种信念，我認為一个人世界观的形成可以籍由以下几种途径，因人而异，顺序可变。
• 哲学（理论）的层面— 慎密的研究, 推理及应用逻輯定律.
• 艺术或文化的层面— 特别是音樂, 油畫, 和大众傳播. 大多数人就是用这种方式相信进化论的。他们中的大多数从未讀过《物种的起源》，但是，他们陣陣有詞地对它却深信不疑，因为整个社会都以其为真理。
• 厨房饭桌的层面— 在饭桌上，父亲给孩子们讲述故事或随便聊聊，父亲的世界观逐步渗入。孩子们长大后，他们可以在理论层面进行再檢驗。
原文作者 JF 似乎忽略了理论的层面或机制。
刘杰垣教授甚致指出認定知识与真理的途径有六種机制: 灵感, 直觉, 理性追求, 沉思-冥想-默祷-宗教-静生, 启示, 和期望. (參考: 科學與基督徒信仰; pp.127-130). 可見 JF 君的見解是太过份简化的。
JF: 典型的依靠学习记忆而信教的情况是从小成长于一个教徒之家，这个人从小就被该宗教的各种信息所包围，像接受语言那样接受了这些信息。在他（她）还没有形成独立思考能力之前，由于这些宗教信息的不断重复而强化在了隐性记忆当中。我们知道，一旦形成隐性记忆，使用时就不会再思考而直接调出。
TC: The writer of the above paragraph implies the effect of “Brainwash”. So we must first distinguish what is brainwash and what is discipline:
• Brainwash: To repeatedly impose a false idea into one’s mind until he/she loses discernment and thus accepts the falsehood as truth.
• Disciple: To reinforce what is true until the learner becomes internalized the concept and thus making the truth as part of his/her DNA. Example: When I was young, my teachers and parents kept reminding me to memorize the “Multiplication Table.” I reluctantly complied until I could recite it by heart and use it naturally in my daily life. This has been the most valuable thing I have ever done. Quite clear, This is not brainwash; in fact, this is a good thing to do. Is urging your children to study hard a good thing, or a brainwash? We parents know the answer.
Secondly, we must distinguish what is superstition and what is true faith.
• Superstition: To blindly take in something that you do not understand without questioning why or inquiring evidences. Do those who worship the Earth Deity (土地公) in order to get rich know why they are doing? Numerous Chinese folk religions (民間宗教) belong to this category. It is very bad that people believe something without going through independent thinking (独立思考能力). To avoid superstitious practices, discernment is the key.
• Faith: To believe something that though you do not fully understand, you spend time to investigate to see if there are evidences. Faith means to believe where the evidences point. True faith must pass the faith-tests. For any worldview, the faith-testing questions are related to: Origin, Morality, Meaning, and Destiny. If you carefully examine, you will find out that Christianity makes sense. You also realize that God has put enough into the world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing, and He has left enough to make it impossible for us to live by sheer reason or observation alone. Faith is a bridge between the natural world and the transcendent world. To deny the necessity of faith is to deny that human rationality has limitation. If the atheists think that men can exhaustively understand all things before he can believe, he must have already thought that he is all-knowing, an attribute only God can possess. In other words, he is in effect proclaiming that he is God—the very idea he deny regarding the existence of God. You see, right here, atheism is self-defeating.
上文中原文作者似乎在隐喻 “洗脑”，因此我们必须要区分洗脑和训练两个概念。
• 洗脑：不断地把错误的思想强加于别人，直到对方失去洞察力，从而接受并把它当成真理。
• 训练：强化正确的概念，直到学习者从内心接受，把它作为他/她DNA的一部分。例如：当我年幼的时候，我的老师和父母不断地提醒我要记住“乘法表”，我开始很不情愿地服从，但是后来我能背诵它，并自然地在日常生活中使用它，这是我曾经做过的最有价值的事情。这不是洗脑，事实上，这就是所谓的训练。敦促你的孩子努力学习是洗脑吗？我想我们巳作父母的都知道答案。
• 我们知道有些人在家人强烈反对下仍能信教。据说有一位穆斯林女孩冒着生命危险和家人的反对成为基督徒並受到迫害。此與原文作者所述的机制恰恰相反.
其次，我们必须区分什么是迷信，什么是真正的信仰。
• 迷信：盲目地相信自己不明白的东西，不质疑为什么，也不追问证据。那些拜土地公以求发财的人们知道他们在拜什么吗？众多的中国民间宗教都属于这一类。人们没有经过独立思考去信仰一些东西，这确实非常糟糕。为了避免迷信，鉴别力是关键。
- 信仰：自己对要相信的东西并非完全理解，但是他会去研究，会去看证据有否存在。信仰就是相信证据所指，真正的信仰必须通过诚信测试。比如说对宗教的選擇，你必须要对生命的起源，道德，意义和歸宿的问题仔细考察，看看各宗教对这些问题的答案是否一致，符合现实。在这个过程中你会发现基督教是合理的，其实上帝已经把足够的东西放进这个世界，使得我们能作出 ‘信仰祂是最合理’ 的结论，同時上帝也保留了足够的东西没有给这个世界，讓得我们无法只單靠通过纯粹的推理或单独观察而存活。信仰是联系自然界与超自然界之间的桥梁，否认信仰的必要性就是否认人类理性的局限性。如果无神论者认为人类可以详尽地认识所有，那么他一定是全知的，但只有神才能拥有 ‘全知’ 这个属性。换句话说，他巳经在無形中宣称自己是神 — 而神的存在本身正是无神论试图极力否定的理念。你看，在这方面，无神论就巳不攻自破了。
JF: 我曾问两个信基督教的美国朋友：“你们为什么认为《圣经》所写的全都是正确的？”他们说：“基督徒是不能质疑《圣经》有任何错误的。”我又问：“既然《圣经》不是上帝写的，为什么今天的人必须相信过去的人比自己还要正确？”他们回答说：“我们从来都没有这样考虑过，因为从小就认为这是理所当然的。” 可见，从幼年起形成的记忆一旦被隐性固化，当事人后来很难自察。
TC: The writer of the above paragraph violates the logic law of over-extrapolation. For one thing, he needs to understand the uniqueness of the Bible (see Appendix). It is interesting to note that Muslims are prohibited to criticize their Qur’an but the Bible is opened to all kinds of challengers and criticisms including skepticism from Christians. Throughout the centuries, numerous thinking people came to believe that the Bible is the Word of God through their rigorous research and investigations. Many skeptics who started out to prove the Bible was wrong but ended up becoming Christians. Examples:
• Sir Lionel Alfred Luckhoo (1914-1997) is considered one of the greatest lawyers in British history. He’s recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Most Successful Advocate,” with 245 consecutive murder acquittals. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II – twice (’66 and ’69). Luckhoo declared in his book <The Question Answered: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?> with this paragraph: “I humbly add I have spent more than 42 years as a defense trial lawyer appearing in many parts of the world and am still in active practice. I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials and I say unequivocally the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.” He then became a Christain!
• Dr. Frank Morison, a skeptical and rationalistic lawyer thought the resurrection (one of the key ideas of the Bible) was a fairy story until he looked at the evidence and became convinced that Christ was raised from the dead. He had originally set out to write a book debunking the whole thing, but ended up publishing a brilliant defense called <Who Moved the Stone?> It talks about an un-explainable fact: “This fact is that, sometime between the close of the thirty-six hour gap (after Christ’s death) and a period we cannot reasonably place more than six or seven weeks later, a profound conviction came to the little group of people…that Jesus had risen from the grave.”
- Historical evidence: Just few years after these events, the Christian church stretched from Jerusalem through Asia Minor to Rome itself.
- In 1949 persecution of God’s people commenced and the churches have suffered from all kinds of attacks since. Within a few years all missionaries were expelled. In just one city in China, Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, 49 pastors were sent to prison labor camps near Russian border in 1950. Many were given sentences of up to twenty years for their “crimes” of preaching the gospel. Of those 49 pastors, just one returned home. 48 died in prison. By 1958 the government had closed all visible churches. Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, told foreign visitors, “Christianity in China had been confined to the history section of the museum. It is dead and buried.” In the 1970’s a visiting Christian delegation from the United States reported, “There is not a single Christian left in China.” The simple fact that the Chinese church has grown into a force tens of millions strong today is a sign not only of God’s existence but also of his matchless power. In the 1970’s the Chinese church, like a rosebud that has been closed for a long time, started to open up and reveal its beauty and life to the world again.
- Many Christian thinkers such as, Saint Augustine, C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel and many more came to their believe in Christ through endless hours of investigation throughout their lifetimes. One can Google them to learn more about their journeys of pilgrimage. You then can conclude that they are not the people who accept something without convictions (i.e., blindly believe). In fact, these people’s self-understandings were more perceptive than ordinary people like you and me.
在这段话里作者忽略了一个历史事实：圣经的独一无二性，圣经在历经严厉的批评和挑战后，仍然毫不动摇地作为人类历史上最重要的一本书。作者需要了解圣经的独特性（请参见附录）。回教徒是绝不可以质疑《可蘭经》是否有任何错误的。但人们甚致基督徒是可以质疑《圣经》是否有任何错误的。纵观几个世纪以来，无数思想家通过严谨的研究和调查，最终相信圣经是神的话；许多持怀疑立场者，想证明圣经是错误的，最后却成为了基督徒。示例：
• 莱昂内尔•阿尔弗雷德 Luckhoo 爵士（1914-1997）被认为是英国历史上最伟大的律师之一。他是世界吉尼斯纪录中“世界上最成功的代言人”，他为245个连环杀手辩护，使他们无罪释放，他两次被女王伊丽莎白二世授以爵位（1966年和1969年）。 Luckhoo 在他的书中（注）宣称：“我谦卑地说，我花了超过42年的时间在世界许多地方做辩护律师，而且我至今仍然从事律师职业。我有幸成功地辩护了很多案件。我毫不含糊地说耶稣基督复活的证据是如此充足，没有怀疑的余地，让人无法不接受。”
注：选自莱昂内尔Luckhoo 的《難题找到答案：耶稣真从死里复活了吗？》
• 弗兰克 莫里森博士是个凡事持怀疑态度和唯理主义律师，他认为复活是一个童话故事。他花了很多年精心研究，仔细取证，最后相信了基督的確从死里复活。他原本打算写一本书，推翻复活之事，但最终出版了一本为复活辩护的书，叫做《谁移动了石头？》。它讲述一个无法解释的事实：“这一事实是，在基督死后三十六小时，到随后不超过六、七个星期的时间段里，一组人已经深信…耶稣已从死里复活了。”
• 历史就是见证：这些事件（特指耶穌的受难和复活）仅仅几年后，基督教会从耶路撒冷通过小亚细亚蔓延到罗马全地。
• 中国信徒的见证：中国对信徒的逼迫始于1949年，教会也随后遭到各种攻击。几年之内，所有传教士被驱逐出境。1950年，仅仅浙江省温州市，就有49个牧师被送往中俄边境附近的监狱劳改，许多人被判高达二十年的刑期，“罪行” 是由于传福音。这49人中，最后只有一人得以回家，其余的48人全部死于劳改监狱。到1958年，政府已经关闭了所有可见的教堂。毛的妻子江青告诉外国游客，“中国基督教只有在历史博物馆才可以找到，它已经死了，被埋葬了。”上世纪70年代，美国某基督教代表团来中国访问后报道说，“中国国土上連一个基督徒都没有了”。然而，一个简单的事实是，今天中国教会已经增长为几千万人，它不仅标志着神的存在，而且证明祂的大能。上世纪70年代的中国教会，像已一个关闭很长时间玫瑰花蕾，开始绽放，再次向世界显示出它的美丽和生命。
- 基督教思想家如圣奥古斯丁，魯益斯，李斯特罗贝尔，还有许许多多，他们信仰的坚固是基于在有生之年花大量时间不断研究的结果。 若Google一下，你会更多地了解他们的心路历程，可以确定他们不是那种盲目地接受某种信念（如 JF 君所說的 “当事人后来很难自察”）的人。事实上，他们的洞察能力比起像你和我这样普通人更加敏锐。
JF: 依靠过程动机而信教，就是在情绪的激发下由直觉引导而最终信教的情况。比较典型的是在事业失败之际，或感情受挫之时，或亲人离故之初，甚至连出国手续不顺之类等等境遇之时，让当事人气馁失望，产生逃离这类负性情绪的困扰的动机。这时，如果他（她）受到了一种宗教的关怀，那种动人的场景（包括音乐），那些教徒发自心底的善意，那种庄严的仪式，能够极大地带来安慰，他（她）就会充满感激地接受这种关怀，并常常导致对这种宗教的接受。
TC: I agree with the possibilities. Adversities can drive people to believe in God. Our inner longing can lead us to believe in God. In fact, there are at least six longings built into our souls. Christian thinker and apologist, Ravi Zacharias, in his book “Cries of the Heart” explores the inner feeling of futility that can overwhelm a human heart:
• The cry to know God
• The cry to feel my faith
• The cry for a reason in suffering
• The cry of a guilty conscience
• The cry for freedom in pleasure
• The cry of a lonely heart
Only human beings have these longings. Men are born disobedient toward God, but the God of love put these longings in our hearts so we may search Him. The best promise that our God has given to us is this: “Those who seek will find, and those who knock and the door will be opened for them.” So our searches are not futile.
Scottish author George MacDonald stated it succinctly long ago that to give truth to a person who does not love the truth is to only give more reasons for misinterpretation. Hence, disbelieving in God is not an intellectual problem but rather a moral problem.
我同意。逆境能促使人相信神，我们内心的渴望可以引导我们认识神。事实上，我们的灵魂深处至少有六种渴望。基督教思想家和护教家拉维撒迦利亚，在他的书《心灵的渴望》中探讨充满人内心的无助的感觉：
• 渴望认识神
• 渴望触摸到我的信仰
• 渴望知道苦难的原因
• 渴望自责的良心被听到
• 渴望有快乐的自由
• 渴望孤独的心被听到
人天生是悖逆神的，但爱我们的神把这些渴望放在我们的心里，使我们来寻找祂。但聖經给我们應許: “尋找的必定尋見, 叩门的必為他間開门.” 所以我门的渴望是不会徒然.” 苏格兰作家乔治•麦克唐纳很久以前曾经言简意赅地说过：把真理传给不爱真理的人，只能使他有更多的理由去曲解真理。因此，不相信神不是一个智力问题，乃是一个道德问题。
JF: 我有一个非常知心的朋友，在九十年代早期刚来美国时，本来不相信任何宗教。后来妻子才来美国团聚不久，就发现他自己患有恶性肿瘤，顿时陷入了绝望的境地。当时伸出援助之手的人很多，但是只有当地的华人教会帮助得最有成效，因为那个团体组织得很好，在人力物力和精神慰籍上都更加到位。后来手术成功，我的朋友度过了五年危险期，他们夫妇俩认定这是上帝挽救了他们，从此就成了基督徒。
TC: Yes, indeed, there are many cases where people came to know Jesus because of their spouses or their children had first believed in Jesus, or because of their hopelessness in times of trouble.
• After years of investigation, well known literary author Lin Yutang (林語堂) decided to be baptized after following his wife to church many years and witnessing the love and caring of the Christians.
• Philosopher, historian, and one of the “June sixth pro-democracy Movement” leader, Yuan Zhiming (远志明), having sought political asylum, moved to the United States. When he was studying in Princeton University, the Christian fellowship cared for him and showed love and kindness to him, he was moved by the Christian charity and opened his ears to the gospel, he was finally converted to believe in the Gospel. Today he is a pastor of a Chinese church in California.
- Russian literary giant, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, had a similar experience. He spent his entire life seeking after truth, yet when he was sick in old ages he was cared for by a compassionate physician and felt moved to become a Christian. Though Christianity indeed stands firm in the face of rationality, most importantly, it has the inner power of life.
Human beings are relational beings. Good relationship can win people’s trust and cause people to open their ears to the Gospel, but it is the Gospel that converts people, not the friendship. Friendship is just a means to earn people’s hearing.
是的，确实有很多人信耶稣是因为他们的配偶或孩子先信了耶稣。或因绝望而求天助.
• 经过多年的学习研究，知名作家林语堂在陪他的妻子去教会多年后，看到基督徒的愛心, 受感决志受洗成为基督徒。
• 哲学家、历史学家、《河殇》的作者人之一，远志明，陆肆后来美国寻求政治庇护。他在普林斯顿大学就读时，基督徒校园团契关心他，向他展现了基督徒的爱心，他深受感动，于是愿意打开耳朵听福音，最终相信了神。如今，他已成为一名牧师，他写了一本非常有见解的书：《神州忏悔录》http://www.cclw.net/famous/szchl/index.htm
- 俄國文豪 亚历山大·索忍尼辛 (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) 有類似經歷. 他終生追求真理, 結果在晚年病危中被一位有愛心的醫生照顧, 心受感動成為基督徒. 基督教誠然在理性面前堅立不動, 但最重要的是它有內在的生命力.
人类是籍关系互相依存的，良好的关系，能让人们愿意打开耳朵听福音，但改变人心的是福音本身，而不是友谊。友谊只是一个桥梁。明白這个因果関係是很重要的.
JF: 在目标动机下的信教过程相对理性些，通常起因于当事人的思维困惑。比如：红楼梦里的《好了歌》，唱出了人间的虚无，什么功名、金银、娇妻和子孙，是好便是了，是了便是好。既然这样，为什么还要追求这追求那呢？如果都不值得追求，那么人活着是为了什么？当进入“看破红尘”的境界时，在宗教中寻找答案就成了他（她）的目标动机。在各色各样的思维困惑中，最吸引信教者的有三大问题——生死观、名利观和情感调节。没有一个正常的人天生就能坦然地面对死亡的命运，这是最本能的一种恐惧。所有的宗教里都必须回答死后会怎么样的问题，并许诺凡信此教的教徒都会在死后有一个圆满的安排，使信教者放下对死的恐惧。
TC: Death is a mystery that motivates people to think: Where will I go after I die? What is the meaning of life? These kinds of questions can never be raised by animals. Just for this, the worldview of evolution is being called into serious question. Poverty may cause suffering, but success and prosperity may cause emptiness—another kind of suffering. All these human struggles point to a Creator who made us. Our biggest sin is not murder nor treason, nor steal, but the violation of purpose — the purpose for which we are made. Objective moral value is another thing that points to God. How can people with different cultures, backgrounds, races have basically the same set of Rights and Wrongs? Can it come from amoral materials? We should think about that.
死亡是一个谜，激励人们去探讨思考：我们死后会到哪里去？生命的意义是什么？动物从来不会思考这些问题的。就凭这一点，进化论就没法自圆其说。疾病和贫穷可能使人受痛苦，但成功和富裕可能使人空虚—这是另一种痛苦。人类所有这些挣扎都把我们引向创造我们的造物主。我们最大的罪不是谋杀、不是叛国, 也不是偷盗，而是违背了宗旨—即我们被造的目的。另外，客观的道德标准是另一个证明有神的证据，为什么不同的文化、背景和种族的人都有基本相同的是非观呢？無道德意識的物貭怎能進化為有道德意識的人類? 我们应该好好思考一下。
JF: 特别对于年事已高而生命力减弱的非教徒，这是一个重要的精神需求。指出人有名和利是人类活动中被追逐的两个主要目标，源于自私的本能。但是，一个人的追逐未必能如愿，即使暂时追逐到手也未必守得住，未必不会产生新的追逐目标。这样的人累得要命，还总是不得满足。于是他（她）需要一种解释，给自己以精神慰籍，而宗教中超自然的解释就很容易满足需要。人生一世，生活在情感之中，对情感的调节和控制能力往往成为幸福多寡的重要因素。情绪的产生机制并非意识所能控制，但是情绪产生之后，意识活动能够有所调节。各种宗教里虔诚的祈祷中，祈祷者会说出自己真实的情感，由于动机的过程抑制机制的作用，在说出之后，那些情感活动会受到反馈抑制，这就是一种调节负性情绪的有效方法。
TC: Please read my following link (請看):
JF: 在走向信教的历程中，学习记忆、过程动机和目标动机三种心理机制常常以复合的方式发生作用。比如，一个从小受洗的基督徒，长大之后可能会出现思维困惑，再经历比较理性的探求，从而增进了对教义的理解。一个在理性下还未完全接纳教义的人，突然遇到灾难来临，试着祈祷上帝保佑，后来获得生机，会促使其接纳教义。诸如此类，不胜枚举。
TC: The writer of the above paragraph seemed to focus on some special cases and generalize them to a universal rule. This presents a serious problem of logic. Let me point out: Jesus’ disciples were willing to suffer and even sacrificed their lives to proclaim the Gospel. Right here, we see that the hypothesis of self-preservation as a reason for believing in God is not explainable. Another example is that when a man saw a boy falling into the subway track, he would jump down to rescue him. Was he not violated the evolutionary principle of survival of the fittest and the law of self preservation? How can you explain human conscience arising from natural evolution where everything equal to material plus time plus chance? In the final analysis, the real question is: Which one has stronger explanation power to life and reality—atheistic worldview? Or theistic worldview?
作者似乎集中在一些特殊案例，并将其推广到普遍规律，这在逻辑上出现了严重问题。反例是：耶稣的门徒们愿意承受疾苦，甚至牺牲自己的生命去传扬福音，这些不能用 ‘人们相信神是由于自我保护的属性’ 来解释。有人看见一个孩子掉进地铁轨道时，奋不顾身地跳下去救他，这也违背了优胜劣汰和自我保护的进化论原则。如果我们相信自然演变，即一切等于物质加时间加机遇，那么如何解释人的良心從何而來呢？说到底，真正的问题是哪一种世界观对生命和现实能给出更強有力的解释能力—无神论? 还是有神论？
Appendix (附录)
The Uniqueness of the Bible (圣经的独特性)
No other books has ever been written in as many languages and for as many peoples and cultures as the Bible itself. No other book has ever been attacked and challenged undermined by skeptics and atheists throughout the history than the Bible itself. Yet the Bible stands firm for centuries as an unshakable edifice. These are miracles worthy of our time to investigate. This is why Christians are encouraged to read the Bible. The following points may serve as points of uniqueness to demonstrate that the Bible is intellectually tenable as well as spiritually trustworthy.
• The Bible itself claims to be the inspired Word of God.
This is called “Internal Evidences”. The Bible says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17)”.
• Jesus and apostles confirmed the authenticity of the Old Testament.
Lord Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished (Matthews 5:18)”. The following points are “External Evidences”.
• The historical church has recognized and used the Bible as God’s inspired record of Himself and His will—The Bible has always been the ultimate rule of faith and practice for the true church.
• History and archaeology combimed to confirm the accuracy of the Bible.
Hundreds of archaeological sites have yielded ample evidences to substantiate the Christian’s claim that the Bible can be trust.
• Fulfilled prophecies witness to the Bible’s accuracy.
The Bible is the only Book in the world that predicts the future. The Bible is more modern than tomorrow morning’s newspaper. The prophecies concerning Christ have already been fulfilled except those concerning the Second Coming of Jesus and the future New Heaven and New Earth.
• The Bible’s remarkable unity and coherence confirm its authenticity.
The Bible was written by more 40 authors over the span of nearly 1600 years and yet it is not a collection of writings but a self-consistent and coherent book.
• The Bible is God’s book of promises.
Unlike the books of men, the Bible does not change or get out dated. God’s immutability is our basis for trusting the certainty of His promises.
• The Bible is confirmed by its power to transform lives.
The unschooled, timid, powerless fishermen were transformed into men of faith who took the Gospel from Jerusalem into the unknown world of their time at the risk of losing their lives. Apostle Paul was turned from a terrorist into the missionary of the Gospel who wrote the majority of the New Testament Books.
世上沒有一本書在語文的種類上和所針對的種族和文化的數量上能與聖經相比. 世上也沒有一本書曾被歴世歴代那麼多懷疑論者和無神論者的攻擊和挑戰而能迄立不移. 這豈非是神跡值得我們去思考嗎?
• 聖經自己宣稱它是神呼出來的話語
這是聖經的內證. 經上說, “聖經都是 神所默示的，於教訓、督責、使人歸正、教導人學義，都是有益的，叫屬 神的人得以完全，預備行各樣的善事。” (提摩太後書 3:16-17)
• 主耶稣和使徒們肯定舊約聖經的權威
耶稣說, “我實在告訴你們：就是到天地都廢去了，律法 (舊約聖經) 的一點一畫也不能廢去，都要成全。” (馬太福音 5:18). 以下數點是聖經的外證:
• 教會在兩千年的歷史中認聖經是神的啟示和神的旨意的記錄
聖經一直是正統基督教會的準則. 是正統教會 “信仰宣言” 的核心.
• 歷史和考古學同證聖經的準確性
數以百計的考古塲所提供了巨大的證據支持基督徒所宣告的聖經可信性.
• 預言的應驗證實聖經的準確度
聖經是唯一的書可準確地預測未來. 聖經比明天的報纸更是先知先覺. 有關基督的預言大部份巳應驗. 只有與基督再來有関和將來新天新地的事尚待應驗.
• 聖經那不尋常的一貫性和一致性證實了它超自然的源頭
雖然聖經是由四十多位作者 (從摩西到使徒, 從君王到農夫) 寫成, 涵蓋數千年的人類歷史, 但聖經不單單是一套文集, 而是一本有驚人的連貫性的書. 英文稱它為 Bible 乃是由希臘文 biblos 一字而來, 意即 “一本書”.
• 聖經是一本充滿應許的書
聖經不像人寫的書, 隨着時間而需更改. 但神是不改變的. 祂的不變性便成了祂的應許的可靠性的基礎. 應許是基督徒盼望的因由.
• 聖經能改变人的生命
主的門徒本是不學無術之民, 膽怯無能的漁夫, 居然成為信心偉人, 不顧性命地把福音從耶路撒冷傳到當時的世界, 都是因為被神話語改變之故. 使徒保羅本是恐佈分子却成為福音使者. 大部份的新約聖經都是由保羅受聖灵感動而寫成的.
