Book :
English : Pg. 1-11 / 中文 : Pg. 35 - 49
(Audio Part 1 : 14:21 to 14:39 Min)
1. 本位倒置的高速飞翔 - 现今社会的状况
-一个失去了道德知识的时代。 200-300年来,我们都被人文世俗主义 (secular humanism is an idea movement) 的意识形态运动所影响。 观念思想是一种力量,左右支配着大众和人类文化的演进。
The power of mere ideas is a matter about which intellectuals commonly deceive themselves and intentionally or not also mislead the public. The constantly take in hand the most powerful factors in human life, ideas and most importantly, ideas about what is good and right. And now they handle and live them thoroughly pervades our world in its every aspect. (Pg. 6, Para. 2)
i。书本里使用的例子:
- Robert Coles 在“ The Chronicle of Higher Education” 的报告,关于他的一位女性学生的遭遇。
- 苏联哲学家的故事 Leo Tolstory’s Journey
ii. 无神论的纪录片 :
- Carl Sagan - Cosmos Series (以科学的名义来传讲无神论的人文世俗主义思想)
(Carl Sagan 和 Stephan Hawkins 都相信外星人才是人类的救星)
-The Glorious Accident (无神论的科学家现身说法)
关于意识形态的纪录片:
以下是我个人特别的推荐, 书里没有提到,但是却可以加强你的理解;
The Century of Self - BBC 2002 的纪录片 (我们可以看到纯学术的“观念思想”怎样演变成支配大众生活的幕后力量。 这记录片,揭开心理学的观念思想,配合有意图的群众操控技术 (Public Relations) ,透过大企业和政治的推手,如何在第二世界大战后,改变了全球的文化 ; 新纪元运动和消费主义成为了我们今日的主流文化。)
我们今天的社会,许多时候会有这么极端的想法,和这么荒谬的举动,是由于潜移默化意识形态的“观念思想”所作祟。
iii. “人文世俗主义”意识形态运动的后果 -真善美的消失
真(真理的理解)变成- 我们只是漫无目的,宇宙的产物 : 物质和演进 (Particles & Progress) 成为我们的存在。
善 (道德的知识)变成-失去了道德标准的道德知识 : 专做道德理念的学术辩证,但是却把负起责任的能力给丢失了(Moral Reasoning/ Ideas or theory) - 道德变成一种相对的理念,不能强迫他人接受你的价值观。 没有了道德的标准,也失去了负起道德责任(Ethical responsiblity) 的义务。 我们唯一只能用经济(钱和利益)和政治(权力和组织)的潜在游戏规则来考量,去做道德判断,又或只能向人大声叫骂。
美 (艺术和潮流) 变成 - 一种荒谬(可笑或无厘头)的存有 (Absurdity of our existence):只有可爱和聪明 (Cuteness and Cleverness) 才被青睐,为要得到别人的注意。
失去了真善美的世界,就是一个荒谬 (Absurdity) 的世界。这个本位倒置高速飞翔的世界就是这样的世界,再聪明,也于事无补。
What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. That is what it means to fly upside down. (Pg. 10, Para. 3) - That is Absurdity (laughable)
* 我们对于这时代意识形态的影响力认识得越深入,就越能帮助我们看到耶稣基督的“邀请 - 天国近了,你们应当悔改”,对于今日的我们仍然是那么重要,贴切和革命性的。
2. Word from a Different Reality
Book :
English : Pg. 11-33 / 中文 : Pg. 50 - 84
(Audio Part 1 : 14:40 to Part 2 : 32:24 Min)
i. 回到我们“ 再熟悉不过”耶稣基督的“邀请”,才是正确飞翔的指南。
耶稣基督教导我们怎么“活”,而不只单单关乎我们怎么“死”后有盼望和在社会里的功能*。
* 关于“福音”的课题,作者在第二单元会更详细的处理和讨论。
Jesus’s enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity. He comes where we are, and he brings us the life we hunger for… they are flying right-side up, in a world that makes sense. (Pg. 13, Para. 3,4)
ii. 耶稣那时代的听众们近乎疯狂的回应,让我们不能不去思考和认真看待耶稣到底讲了什么。
我们要好好的来明白,耶稣讲这句话的含义:
Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7) .
天国近了,你们应当悔改.
… Jesus’ hearers understood the invitation to base their own lives on the rule of God “at hand”. Of course they had no general understanding of what was involved, but they knew Jesus meant that he was acting with God and God with him, that God’s rule was effectively present though him. (Pg. 19, Para. 5)
iii. 什么是天国 ?对国度的理解
a. 我们每个人都有个国度 - 要了解天国,先要知道我们自己也有个“国度”。
To gain deeper understanding of our eternal kind of life in God’s present kingdom, we must be sure to understand what a kingdom is. Every last one of us has a “Kingdom”… a realm that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens. Here is a truth that reaches into the deepest part of what it is to be a person… John Calvin remarked rather balefully, “Everyone flatters himself and carries a kingdom in his breast.” He understood this to mean that “there is nobody who does not imagine that he is really better than the others.” … we presume to rule others - in opinion and word, if not in deed. (Pg. 21, Para.3&4)
Our “Kingdom” is simply the range of our effective will.
神用祂的形象创造了我们,给了我们意志和思想,可以掌控一个自己的国度。人类堕落后,我们虽然保存着这个人性,但是我们自己的国度往往与神的国度是互相对抗的,又或是背道而驰。
Apart from harmony under God, our nature imposed objectives go awry. The social and individual chaos of human desires sees to it. Much of our time and energy is spent trying to dominate others or escape domination by them, from “office politics” to tribal warfare to international relations on a global scale. In the biblical account of our fall from God… ( Pg. 23, Para. 4)
b. 神的国度 (天国) - 神的意志(旨意)所涵盖的领域
God’s own “Kingdom” or “rule”, is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organising principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom. (Pg. 25, Para.4)
天国是透过耶稣基督而进入的
“The Kingdom was an Old Testament phrase which served to enclose what he (Jesus) brought in himself… The Gospel of the kingdom was Christ in essence; Christ was the Gospel of the Kingdom in power … He was the truth of his own greatest Gospel. It is wherever he is. To have him is to ensure it” (Pg. 402, Ch. 1 notes no. 12)
c. 我与神同国, 永恒的进驻 - 神要我们与祂同国,与祂同工,我们在祂里面,祂在我们里面。
神要我们与祂同国,和同工
However unlikely it may seem from our current viewpoint, God equipped us fro this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive responsibility with him. We are meant to exercise our “rule” only in union with God, as he acts with us. He intended to be our constant companion or coworker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. That is what his love for us means in practical terms. (Pg 22. Para. 5)
透过耶稣,神改变我们的“国度”- 我们的意志/心/灵,生命,和心意。
C.S. Lewis writes, our faith is not a matter of our hearing what Christ said long ago and “trying to carry it out”. Rather, “The real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to “inject” His kind of life and thought, His Zoe (Life), into you; beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin. “ (Pg. 20, Para. 6)
与神同国,我们的能力和所能完成的是无法想象的
God equipped us for this task (Creation Covenant) by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive responsibility with him. We are meant to exercise our “rule” only in union with God, as he acts with us. He intended to be our constant companion or coworker in the creative enterprise of life on earth… Now, what we can do by our unassisted strength is very small. What we can do acting with mechanical, electrical, or atomic power is much greater. Often what can be accomplished is so great that it is hard to believe or imagine without some experience of it. But what we can do with these means is still very small compared to what we could do acting in union with God himself… (Pg. 22, 23. Para. 5-6)
d. 其他的国度
无论如何,神允许一些领域,不直接在祂意志管辖之下 -人的国度,社会和政治的领域等
Accordingly, the kingdom of God is not essentially a social or political reality at all. Indeed, the social and political realm, along with the individual heart, is the only place in all the creation where the kingdom of God, or his effective will, is currently permitted to be absent. (Pg. 25, Para. 6)
这些国度是与神对抗的,唯有透过与神同国和内在被神形象所取代的人(耶稣的门徒)才能真正带来改变。 这是神圣密谋之名的由来。
Sometimes the places where God’s effective or actual rule is not yet carried out, and his will is not yet done, lie within the lives and little kingdoms of those who truly have been invaded by the eternal kind of life itself - those who really do belong to Christ because his life is already present and growing within them. (Pg. 30. Para. 2)
e. 经历我与神同国的例子
- Frank Laubach 如何操练每时每刻与神同国,意识神的同在。
iv. 天国“近了”,现在就“随手可得” 。 The Kingdom is now “at Hand”。。
过去只能透过先知和律法进入的天国,现在透过耶稣基督已经是随手可得的了 (New accessibility through Jesus)
God did not start to bring his kingdom, the “kingdom of the heavens” as Jesus often called it, into existence through Jesus’ presence on earth. All too frequently it is suggested that he did. But Jesus’ own gospel of the kingdom was not that the kingdom was about to come, or had recently come, into existence. If we attend to what he actually said, it becomes clear that his gospel concerned only the new accessibility of the kingdom to humanity through himself. (Pg. 26, Para. 2)
天国不是一个时刻或一个经历 (It is not a specific event)它是一个委身进入关系的旅程
New Testament passages make plain that this kingdom is not something to be “accepted” now and enjoyed later, but something to be entered now (Matt. 5:20, 18:3; John 3:3,5). It is something that already has flesh-and-blood citizens (John 18:36:36; Phil. 3:20)… (Pg. 28. Para. 3)
例子:
Electricity is “at Hand” 电源已经近了,是随手可得的。 电源如何改变了进入它“国度”的人,天国对于我们的果效也可以这样做类比。
* 天国,
天国不是指神的教会,
天国不是指我们进入“恩典”时期,
天国不是单单指罪人得赦免而已,
天国不是指得救的经历(时刻)而已,因为如果是指这些,我们可以很“被动”,
天国是透过耶稣基督,让我们得以进入神的国,成为耶稣的门徒,神国的子民;跟他学习,开始改变我们内在的国度,在改变我们外在的国度,让我们的国和神的国合一,是“主动积极”也与我们每日的生活息息相关。