Urna Semper
Instructor’s Name
February 11, 2020
——引子
这是我对自己比较满意的一次翻译，老师强调要先练习翻译的准确度，因此我基本上都是按字面意思来翻译的。由于我还是菜鸟，虽然翻译的很仔细很慢，但依旧避免不了出现一些比较大的失误，盼望各位翻译大佬不吝赐教。同时，也愿我们能更多思考上帝的公义，并甚愿史普罗牧师的讲道能深入我们的内心。我对这片文章的感触比较深，因此，就分享出来吧。
圣洁和公义
原著：R.C.史普罗（路加翻译）
如果我们来看十八世纪时期，我们注意到在“大觉醒”那时建立的布道里面反复出现的主题。一方面来自布道家的信息是，人是非常、非常、非常败坏的，且神是非常、非常、非常愤怒的。 换句话说，这主题强调人是罪恶满盈及上帝的愤怒之重，以至于，几乎有人所持的叫作“害怕神学”的观念主导了那时期。
然后紧接着在十九世纪，我们便看到一个戏剧性的反应，这反应，它是反对这种布道中的强调。并且，这反应的信息是温和的：人并非完全的败坏，而且上帝并没有那么的愤怒，这观念是在以神的爱和人的良好之下的基础上的。
如今在转变到本世纪，在二十世纪的最开始；这时便有了对这反应的回应，连同着出现了一种叫做“恐怖神学（crisis theology)”的神学，它被称作“恐怖神学”是因为它借用了希腊词语krisis，它的意思是审判。这些神学家们在大陆上宣称：如果我们去认真对待圣经所描绘的上帝，我们必须再次认真对待圣经所说的关于上帝愤怒之事。
如今那里有一些极端分子，他们在那些说他们在圣经所发现的事的那些人的圈子里，尤其是在旧约里，还有着确定的时间和地点，表达这样一个样事情——上帝性情之中也有不理性的一面。换句话说，他们说：是的，我们是看见一个毫无谬误也不可置疑的呈现，一个对来自旧约经卷里记载的上帝愤怒的呈现，但是那个愤怒并不像上帝的正直或者祂的圣洁表达的那样强烈，它反倒是像一个上帝属性内的缺点的表达那样强烈。
基于这种观点的一些引文，它会包含接下来我要为你们简读的在利未记里的描述，在利未记十章的开始，我们读到这样的话：“亚伦的儿子拿答、亚比户各拿自己的香炉，盛上火，加上香，在耶和华面前献上凡火，是耶和华没有吩咐他们的， 就有火从耶和华面前出来，把他们烧灭，他们就死在耶和华面前。”
现在，在这轻描淡写又简短的对亚伦儿子之死的描述中，它似乎在向我们展示一个上帝的愤怒反复无常且这愤怒迅速发生的例子。当我的读到这里时，我试图在字里行间细细品味，然后我问自己：“亚伦会对此作出怎样的反应？”想象一下！你记得在更之前的经文里，当上帝选召亚伦作为以色列的大祭司时，祂指挥的那场精心安排的典礼。上帝多么细致入微的嘱咐着大祭司要穿的圣服的细节，那些细节是如此荣耀和华美啊。我们可以想像当亚伦看到他的儿子承接神圣的祭司职任是怎样的感受，如今这些年轻的祭司们在这里，他们做了那些我们如今很难清楚的事情——以某种方式到祭坛前，然后像一个年轻的神职人员常做的那样去服侍。他们并不担心，也未受斥责，就像往常一样，把凡火献在祭坛上。砰！上帝立刻就击杀了他们。
～～～
圣经里还有其他类似的场合，不是吗？旧约里令人血液凝固的故事之一——哥辖子孙乌撒的故事。你们都知道乌撒的故事，它是搬运约柜的故事。要记得约柜乃是上帝的宝座，是至圣所里最神圣的器具、、、我们知道，（故事中）约柜是被放在一个牛车上来搬运的，圣经告诉我们当车子在路上走着的时候，只有哥辖的子孙们走在它旁边保护它、照看它，乌撒就是其中之一。在中途中，一只牛突然惊跳，然后车子开始摇晃并倾斜，如此看来好像以色列的圣器即将从车上跌落，并被泥土玷污；出于本能，乌撒不由自主的伸出他的手来扶稳约柜，如此确保上帝的宝座不会跌入泥土中。但是，怎样的事情发生了呢？天堂的门开了？然后有声音降下说：“谢谢你，乌撒。”吗？不，就在乌撒触碰上帝的圣约柜那一刻，上帝击杀了他。、、、如果我们再小心翼翼的去看在旧约中哥辖子孙的历史，我想答案对我们来说将明明白白。
你们记得在旧约里，以色列十二个支派都被分配了一定的土地和任务、、、那时哥辖还是亚伦的一个儿子，哥辖和他的家庭被上帝安排了一个特殊任务。他们的工作，他们整个生命存在的意义、使命就是看管圣器；他们从小就严格的被训练和教导学习上帝的律法，学习如何照看这些圣器。有一条每个哥辖子孙们都要被反复强调的铁律：永远、永远、永远、永远、永远不能摸上帝的宝座，上帝这样吩咐说：“若你碰它，你就会死。”
在最开始，我们想知道为何约柜被放在一个牛车上搬运。它以前是被人步行抬的；约柜的边角有撑索，并以此确保没有人能碰到它，但是先今他们却匆匆将其放在牛车上。他们继续前行，乌撒便做了难以置信的事情，他摸了上帝的宝座。我们会说：“等一下，他为什么做这件事呢？他的目的是单纯的啊，他试图保护上帝的宝座不受污泥玷污。“——这便是乌撒自以为是的罪了，女士们先生们：他以为他的双手不比尘土肮脏。地上没有任何事物能污秽这上帝的宝座。土地休憩在大地之上遵行上帝的吩咐。它日复一日的遵行着上帝的律法，土地并没有什么污秽之处。当上帝说：“我不许触碰宝座，”时是指着人的手说的。这样，乌撒违背了上帝的律法，上帝便击杀了他。
但是，这看起来仍旧是一个极其残酷而且不寻常的惩罚，不是吗？举个例子，假如你去找，在摩西五经中便可以找到以色列的死刑规定条款，在犹太人人中有超过三十项神点名吩咐要处死的罪行。超过三十项神的命令要治死人，再后来，神学家们看到这些时，他们说：“真是原始粗暴，真是血腥残忍。这不可能是神的话语，尤其是在新约里（散发着）怜悯和爱之精神的光芒。”
马吉安制造了第一版正式的圣经印刷版本。它是一个非常奇怪的经书。缺少旧约，也缺少大多数福音的材料，只有寥寥使徒保罗的言论被纳进经书里面。因为马吉安的工作原则是：任何提及在旧约里的上帝——耶和华，也许都不能是圣经，因为在新约里耶稣展现出来的神，强烈的破坏了旧约里，那位来自西奈山雷电里的易怒又心底不善的神。秉承马吉安学说的人到处对我说，“我喜欢新约，旧约里的神是我不能接受的。”当我们把新约和旧约做比较时，旧约显得沉重难当。
通过阅读他的名著，我在和一个非常有名的神学家的交流中得到了帮助，这人在罗马大公教会备受争议。他叫汉斯·库恩，在他早期最著名的著作里，他用德语写下《正当理由》。库恩博士面对这个关于我们在圣经中找到的，上帝盛怒看起来不公义这个非常的问题，尤其是在旧约，他提出一点：他说：“你们知道，真正的关于这不公义的神秘之处，真正的疑惑不应该是为什么圣洁仁义的上帝要实施公义。那，什么是一个神圣的创造者，惩罚故意反叛之受造物的神秘之处呢？”他（接着）说：“真正的神秘之处在于，为什么上帝容忍一代又一代的，对祂的权柄发动宇宙性叛乱的受造物们反抗祂。”（你有没有想到过这一点？）然后库恩紧接着说了这些话：他说：“请记住，虽然在旧约里有超过三十项死刑规条，但是这并不相当于上帝的公义之手是残忍和不寻常的，反而意味着这是对死刑条例数目宽厚的缩减。”他说：“要记得从创造那天以后赐于的法律，当上帝，天和地全能的统治者，呼吸着进入尘土，带给一个动物祂的形象和生命之气息，并给这个受造物在行星上最高的地位。祂还给予至大的祝福和礼物——祂欠他们（并非所有）生命之非常礼物，又将他的形象贴在泥土块里给了他们生命。祂说：“犯罪的灵魂将要死亡。”
所有的罪对于创造的观点来说，都将处死刑。、、、上帝毁灭任何一个受造物，又有什么错呢？谁能大胆的挑战上帝的权威来慑令祂的创造呢？你有没有停下来思考过最微小的罪又将要如何呢？这让我对我们文化感到恐慌不安，人们干一些就像流产那样的事情，然后说他们这样做在道德上是正确的。如果我知道关于上帝的任何事情，我知道上帝从来没有给任何人道德上的正确去做像这样的事情，然后我颤抖着思考当一个人站在上帝面前说：“我做这事是正确的。”后会发生什么。你从哪里得到的正确呢？而且即便是最微小的罪，更不用说是像堕胎这样可耻的罪，在最微小的罪里（我们叫做轻罪/小过失）。在这样的罪里，我便反抗了上帝的权威，我便侮辱了上帝的王权，我在挑战上帝的公义。但是我们如此习惯于做这样的事，又如此小心的把我们那来自内心的抗拒不服从之心合理化。我们的良心已然烧焦，我们还认为违背宇宙之王并不是什么严肃的事情。我把它称作宇宙性的叛国罪。
但是上帝却这样做，就像库恩博士点出的那样，当他说：作为在当人类反叛上帝的权威，以及这反抗行为发生那一刻毁灭人类的代替，上帝从那个时刻开始扩展祂的怜悯。作为公义的代替，祂倾倒恩典，并且旧约的历史，是钟爱的历史，就是不断重复呈现上帝向那些日复一日地违背祂的人，他向他们恩典宽容以及怜悯、原谅这一个事情。库恩思索道：“现在，假设我不明白上帝神圣的规劝，我不能读懂神的思想，但是，”他说：“我想要知道为什么我们周期性地找到在经文里，这即迅速又突然的实行公义。或许上帝认为必要打断祂长期忍受中的标准的图案：克制、恩典、以及怜悯，从而去提醒我们祂的公义。祂自己抗议自己坚忍的怜悯——给我们时间来悔改；但是我们却利用祂给的悔改机会，我们还开始去认为上帝不在乎我们犯的罪，或者祂确实在乎，但却没有去做任何的行为。
女士们先生们，我们开始如此习惯于上帝恩典和怜悯的标准图案，以至于我们不仅仅只是开始把它当作理所当然，我们开始把它当成想当然，我们开始强烈要求它，而且，一旦我们不能得到它，我们就会发火。
女士们先生们，我们需要明白公义和怜悯二者之间的不同。渺小的你认为上帝欠你怜悯，这时一个铃铛就要在你脑中告诫你并告诉你，不要再这样思考慈爱了，因为怜悯的根本是自愿的。上帝从来没有义务对一个反叛祂的受造物怜悯。祂不欠你怜悯。就像祂所说的那样：“我将对那些我愿意怜悯的人施怜悯。”
我也将以这样的话来结束：一个神圣的上帝是怜悯又公义的，永远也不非公义。圣经里面没有任何一页纸记载有任何一次，上帝惩罚了无罪的人。简而言之，上帝不知如何非公义。我每夜思考祂，他知道如何做到不用公义（non just)因为恩典是不用公义（non just)，但是它不是非公义。
最后，我要留给你们这些话：当你去祷告的时候，不要总求上帝以公义待你。祂或许会这么做，但若上帝待我们与公义一致的话，我们将迅速的以拿达和亚比户以及乌撒还有新约里亚拿尼亚和撒菲拉那样死去；但是我们活着，是因为慈爱、恩典、和祂的怜悯，让我们永不忘记这些。
我们来祷告：我们的天父，饶恕我们滥用你的慈爱、怜悯，饶恕我们强烈的要求得到它们，饶恕我们，从当我们不接受它们而招惹你愤怒的时候。哦，天父，帮助我们使我们因恩典而感到惊奇。我们祈求是奉基督的名，阿门。
原文（讲道的文字誊录）：
If we look at the period of the eighteenth century, we notice that there was a recurring motif during the Great Awakening in the preaching that was found at that time. On the one hand the message of the preachers was that man is very, very, very bad and that God is very, very, very mad. In other words there was such an emphasis on the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God that almost what some have called a “scare theology” dominated that period.
And then in the nineteenth century we saw a dramatic reaction against that kind of accent in preaching so that now the message was well, man’s not quite so bad, and God’s not really quite so mad. And there the emphasis was upon the love of God and the goodness of man.
Well at the turn of this century, in the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a response to that reaction with the adventof a theology called “crisis theology,” and it was called crisis theology because it borrowed the term from the Greek word krisis, which means judgment. And these theologians on the continent said that if we’re going to take seriously the biblical portrait of God, we must once again take seriously what the Bible says about the wrath of God.
Now there were some extremists in that group who said that what we see in the Scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament at certain times and places, is an expression of something that is irrational in the character of God himself. In other words, they said that yes, we do see unavoidably and unmistakably a manifestation of the anger of God in the pages of the Old Testament, but that anger is not so much a manifestation of God’s righteousness or of His holiness as it is a manifestation of a defect within God’s own character.
Some of the passages that are in view would include a narrative that we read in the book of Leviticus, which I’ll read briefly for you. At the beginning of the tenth chapter of Leviticus, we read this account: “Now Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, took their censors and put fire in them and added incense, and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to His command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” Now in this understated, terse description of the death of the sons of Aaron, it seems to indicate for us an example of this swift and capricious manifestation of God’s wrath. When I read this, I try to read between the lines, and I ask myself, “How did Aaron react to all of this?” Imagine it! You remember earlier in the Scriptures the elaborate ceremony that God ordained when He consecrated Aaron as the high priest of Israel, how God ordered the minute 细微的details of the design of the garments that were to be worn by the high priest, that were designed for glory and for beauty. And then we could imagine how Aaron felt when he saw his own sons consecrated to the priesthood, and here are these young priests, who, they do something — and we’re not exactly sure what it was — but somehow they came to the altar, and they did as young clergy will often do. And without warning, and without rebuke, as they offer this strange fire in the altar, wham! God strikes them dead instantly.
……
But there are other occasions like that, aren’t there? One of the most blood-curdling stories in the Old Testament is the story of Uzzah, the Kohathite. You all know the story of Uzzah. It’s the story of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant. Remember the Ark of the Covenant was the throne of God. It was the most sacred vessel in the holy of holies.…… And we are told that the Ark of the Covenant was transported by virtue of( =by means of) being placed in an ox cart, and the Bible tells us that as the cart was moving down the road, the Kohathites were walking along beside it protecting it, watching over it, one whose name was Uzzah. And in the midst of the procession, suddenly one of the oxen stumbled, and the cart began to teeter and to tilt, and it looked as if this holy vessel of Israel was about to slide from the ox cart and fall into the mud and be desecrated， and so instinctively, involuntarily Uzzah stretched forth伸出 his hand to steady the Ark, to make sure that this throne of God would not fall into the mud. And what happened? The heavens opened, and a voice came down saying, “Thank you, Uzzah.” No, as soon as Uzzah touched the holy Ark of God, God struck him dead. ……If we look carefully at the Old Testament and see the history of the Kohathites, I think the answer is made apparent to us.
You remember that in the Old Testament that the twelve tribes of Israel were given certain tasks and certain allotments of the land.……Now Kohath was one of the sons of Levi, and the family of Kohath were separated by God for a specific task. Their job, their whole reason for being, their life’s vocation was to take care of the sacred vessels; and they were trained and disciplined from children with all of the prescriptions and the meticulous details of the law of God about how these sacred objects and vessels were to be treated. And the one absolute, non-negotiable principle that every Kohathite had drummed into him from the time he was a child was this: Never, never, never, never, ever touch the throne of God, and God said, “If you touch it, you die.”
In the first place, we wonder why in the world the Ark was being transported in an ox cart. It was to be transported on foot. There were loops at the edge of the throne to which stays were inserted to make sure that no human hand touched that throne, but instead they were in a hurry, and they put it in the ox cart. And they’re going down, and Uzzah did the unthinkable. He touched the throne of God. But we say, “So wait a minute. Why did he do it? His motive was pure. He was trying to preserve the throne of God from being desecrated by the mud” — that the presumptuous sin of Uzzah was this, ladies and gentlemen: He assumed that his hands were less polluted than the dirt. There was nothing about the earth that would desecrate the throne of God. The earth was lying there on the ground doing what God has called earth to do. It obeys the laws of God day in and day out, doing exactly what dirt is supposed to do. There is nothing defiling about the earth. It was the hand of man that God said, “I don’t want on this throne.” In a word, Uzzah broke the law of God, and God killed him.
But still it seems, doesn’t it, that this is a manifestation of cruel and unusual punishment? If you look, for example, in the Pentateuch and see the list of capital crimes that are set forth in Israel, there are over thirty offenses for which God commanded the death penalty among the Jews. Over thirty offenses God ordained that people should be killed, and again, the theologians look at that, and they say, “How primitive, how bloodthirsty, and how severe. That can’t possibly be the word of God, particularly in light of the New Testament’s spirit of mercy and love.”
……Marcion produced the first formal edition of the Bible. It was a very strange canon经书. The Old Testament was absent, and most of the gospel materials was absent, and just a few remarks from the apostle Paul were comprised in this canon because Marcion’s working principle was this: that any reference to the God of the Old Testament, Jehovah, couldn’t possibly be sacred Scripture, because Jesus in the New Testament reveals a different deity from that explosive, hot-tempered, ill-willed deity that thundered from Sinai in the Old Testament. There are Marcions all over the place saying to me, “Well I like the New Testament, but that God of the Old Testament is more than I could handle.” When we compare the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Old Testament seems severe.
I’ve had help in dealing with this from the writings of a very important theologian who is very controversial in the Roman Catholic Church. His name is Hans Kuhn. In one of his earlier and most important writings written in German under the title Justification. Dr. Kuhn deals with this very question of the seeming injustice of God’s wrath that we find in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, and he makes this point: He said, “You know, the real mystery of iniquity, the real puzzle is not that a holy and righteous God should exercise justice. What is mysterious about a holy creator punishing willfully disobedient creatures?” He said, “The real mystery is why God, through generation after generation tolerates rebellious creatures who commit cosmic treason against His authority.” Did you ever think of it like that? And Kuhn goes on to say this: He said, “Remember that even though there are thirty-some超过30种 capital offenses in the Old Testament, that doesn’t represent a cruel and unusual form of justice at the hands of God. It already represents a massive reduction in the number of capital crimes.” He said, “Remember the rules that were set forth at creation, when God, the omnipotent ruler of heaven and earth breathed into dirt the breath of life and shaped a creature in His own image and gave that creature the highest status in this planet and the greatest blessing and gift that He owed them — not at all — the very gift of life, and stamped His image on that piece of dirt and gave them life. He said, “The soul that sins shall die.“
All sin was viewed in creation as a capital offense. ……Is there anything wrong with that God extinguishing a creature? Who has the audacity to challenge God’s authority to rule His creation? Have you ever stopped to consider what is involved in the slightest sin? It terrifies me in our culture that people do things like abortion and say they have the moral right to do it. If I know anything about God, I know God never has given anyone the moral right to do something like that, and I shudder to think of what will happen when a person stands before God and says, “I had the right to do that.” Where did you get that right? But even the slightest sin, never mind a heinous可耻的 sin like abortion, in the slightest sin (what we could call a peccadillo), in that sin I defied the authority of God. I insult the majesty of God. I challenge the justice of God. But we are so accustomed to doing that and so careful to justify our disobedience that we have become recalcitrant in our hearts. Our consciences have been seared烧焦, and we think it no serious matter to disobey the King of the universe. I call it cosmic treason.
But God did was this, as Dr. Kuhn points out when he says that instead of destroying mankind in the moment of that act of revolt and rebellion of God’s authority, God reached forth and extended His mercy. Instead of justice, He poured out His grace, and the history of the Old Testament, beloved, is the history of repeated episodes of the manifestations of God’s gracious forbearance and merciful forgiveness towards a people who disobeyed Him day in and day out. And Kuhn speculates. He said, “Now granted， I don’t know the secret counsel of God. I can’t read the deity’s mind, but,” he said, “I wonder why we find periodically in Scripture this swift and sudden exercise in justice. Perhaps God finds it necessary to interrupt His normal pattern of long-suffering, forbearing, grace, and mercy to remind us of His justice. He himself complains that His forbearing mercy is designed to give us time to repent; but instead of repenting we exploit it, and we come to think that God doesn’t care if we sin, or even if He does care there’s nothing He can do about it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we become so accustomed to God’s normal patterns of grace and mercy that we not only begin to take it for granted, we begin to assume it, we begin to demand it, and then if we don’t get it we’re furious.
