Calvin’s view on Politics

I was reading Calvin and what he has written has strike me as unthinkable considering the injustice and tyranny he and his countrymen has suffered. Below is Calvin’s view in which we may be disagreeable, but it is certainly worthwhile to ponder the arguments of this great reformer. May the Lord grant more years of … Read more

圣经中的个人优先次序

因为我们的有限,我们无法同时遵守神的所有诫命,这种无能也长长带给我们一些错误的罪恶感。一篇讲道告诉我们应当花上数小时祷告,另一篇告诉我们应该为饥饿的人提供食物,另一篇告诉我们要精深的研究圣经,另一篇告诉我们要向邻居传福音,另一篇告诉我们要让孩子学习要理问答,另一篇告诉我们应该积极关心政治。这一切似乎都是建基于圣经的规范之上,但我们经常感觉到要被如此繁重的要求压垮了,我们根本没有足够的时间去做我们被劝勉去做的事。 在此有一个提醒很有帮助:当神命令我们祷告、传福音、帮助穷人等时,他首先是对教会整体说的,然后才是对我们个体所说的。这是教会所必须做的事。教会中的每一个个体都必须完成各自的使命,每个个体如何贡献有赖于他的恩赐及呼召。不是每一个人都被呼召一天祷告六小时或去按邻居的门铃传福音或开始一个政治运动。因此我们每一个人必须以祷告的心,以及在圣经的引导下,在我们团体的规范下制定我们自己的优先秩序,这种说法似乎听起来很危险,对于终极的规范而言怎么可能有“优先秩序”,并且一个人怎么能够对神的法则设定自己的优先秩序呢?我们实际上是可以做到的,因为圣经这样说,而且我们也必须这样做。(约翰·傅瑞姆) Because we are finite, we cannot keep all of God’s commandments simultaneously. Often our inability to do this produces false guilt. One sermon tells us to spend hours in prayer, another to feed the hungry, another to study the Bible intensively, another to evangelize our neighborhoods, another to catechize our children, another to … Read more

认识论与伦理学

通过把认识论视为伦理学的一个分支,我们以最明显的方式提醒自己;认知不是自主的,它乃是降服于神的权柄之下,正如人生命的其他层面。这个过程也提醒我们认知、思想、理论建立等,事实上是人生整体的一部分。(约翰·傅瑞姆) By seeing epistemology as a branch of ethics, we remind ourselves in the most vivid way that knowing is not autonomous; it is subject to God’s authority, as is all of human life. This procedure also reminds us that knowing, thinking, theorizing, and so forth are indeed parts of human life as a whole. … Read more

巴文克 Herman Bavinck

最近在阅读巴文克的著作时,我一直在问自己,为何我比较喜欢阅读他的系统神学多过于 伯克富或其它一些较古老的系统神学。我发现每当巴文克解释神学教义时,他都是带着爱心与敬畏主的心向读者们解释此教义对教会的意义是什么。他竭力解释教义所对我们的灵魂所带来的益处,他写作时安慰、医治甚至温和的警戒偏离教义的人。每当他揭发新派的不信时,他也都是带着温柔的语气揭发他们,同时又不否认他们可能作出的一些贡献。求主怜悯使我也能够成为祂的教会中的一位好教师。Recently I have put in an effort to analyse why I enjoy reading Bavinck more than Berkhof and the others. I found out that whenever Bavinck writes dogmas, he writes with passion to explain the implications to the church of Christ. He writes the dogmas to explain what benefits it brings to our souls. He … Read more