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Why People Find the Bible Difficult?
熟悉聖經難以理解的事實的那些人，決不會否認有很多人發現聖經很難理解。有關念聖經時所遇到又多又廣的困難的證言是不能被輕易忽略的。
在人類的經驗裡，對很多事情，經常是一堆複雜的原因而不是只有一個緣由；我們在聖經上碰到的困難正是如此；沒有輕易的回答，那武斷的回答保證是不對的。問題不是單一而是多重的，所以努力去尋求單一的解答會使你失望。
不管如何，我還是冒險的對這問題提出一個簡短的答案；它不是個完整的答案，但它是一個主要的而且包括了牽涉到非常複雜的問題的大部分回答。我相信我們發現聖經難以理解是因為我們試著去讀它，就像我們讀任何其他的書一樣；只是它並不像任何其他的書那樣。
聖經不是寫給隨便任何一個人的，它的信息是針對一群被選上的少數人。不管這少數人到底是被神的主權揀選，或是他們符合了某些合格的條件；我留給他們每一個人自己儘可能的去決定；只要他確實了解，他的決定將會取決於他的基本信念：如宿命、自由意志、天命、和其他的相關的教義。但是任何可能在永恆裡發生過的，很顯然的也發生在時間裡：有人信有人不信；有人在道德上比較容易接受，有些人就不能；有些人有屬靈的能力，有些人就沒有。聖經是對那些信的、能的、有的人寫的；那些不信的、不能的和沒有的，會是白讀的。
在這兒，我預料到有些讀者會給我很強烈的反對意見，而且為著是不難發現的理由。現今的基督教是以人為中心而不是以神為中心；神是用來耐心的、恭敬的伺候人們的奇思異想的。目前多數人對神的印象就像一個心神錯亂的父親，在令人心碎的絕望中掙扎，要使人們接受一個他們認為沒有需要也引不起一點興趣的救世主。為了要說服這些自我滿足的靈魂來回應祂的大方的施與，神必須盡其所能，甚至用推銷員的方式，以所能想像的一位尊長最親暱的方式來說服他們。在這種看法下，很自然的，這一種宗教的浪漫想法，縱使它經常使用奉承而且有時使人受不了的語句來讚美神，不得不造就了人成了這個秀場的明星。
聖經是寫給每一個人的觀念，已經造成了教會裡和教會外的困惑。努力的想把《登山寶訓》的教導推行到世界上非基督教的國家，就是其中的一個例子。法庭上的法律和世上的軍事強權都被要求遵守基督的教訓，對他們來講，這是一個顯然行不通的事。拿基督的話語當作警察、法官和將軍們的守則，是全然的誤解這些話語，而且顯現出對神的啟示的目的完全的不了解。基督的親切的話語是對承受恩典的子女們所說的；而不是對那些選擇獅子、老鷹、龍和大熊當國徽的外邦國家說的。
神不但只對那些能接受祂的真理的人說話；而且祂對那些不接受的人，實際上隱匿了那些話語的真意。傳教士說故事使真理明白；我們的主經常藉著故事來隱匿真理。基督的寓言就是那些現代要使人明白的插畫的恰恰反例；這些寓言是“暗語”，基督明確的說，祂有時說這些寓言，使祂的門徒明白，而使祂的敵人迷糊。(馬太13:10-17 )正如摩西帶領以色列人出埃及時，火柱照明色列人該走的路，但是埃及人見到的卻是雲霧和黑暗；所以我們的主的話語在祂的百姓的心裡發光，但卻把那些自信的不信者遺留在道德不明的長夜中。
神的話語的拯救力道是預留給祂所要給的人。主的秘密是給敬畏祂的人的；不悔改的心將會發現聖經只不過是一串事實的骨架，沒有血肉，沒有生命，沒有呼吸。我們或許會喜歡莎士比亞的作品而不需要悔改；我們可以了解柏拉圖的著作，而不需相信他的一絲說法；但是悔改和謙卑再加上信心和順服是正確了解聖經的必要條件。
在自然的事物裡，信心是根據證據而來的，沒有證據就不可能有信心；但是在心靈的領域裡，信心走在理解的前頭，而不是在後頭。自然人必須知而後能信；屬靈人必須信才能知。得拯救的信心並不是從事證導出的結果；它是道德的屬性，是屬靈事務，一個對耶穌基督信任的超自然的灌輸；是一個全然從神來的禮物。
得拯救的信心依賴耶穌基督；它導向馬上全人獻身給基督，對自然人來說，是一個不可能的行為。要正確的信，就是像已死的拉撒路向基督命令的回應(死裡復活)一樣的神蹟。
聖經是一本超自然的書，所以只能藉超自然的幫助來理解這本書。
THAT MANY PERSONS FIND THE BIBLE HARD to understand will not be denied by those acquainted with the facts. Testimony to the difficulties encountered in Bible reading is too full and too widespread to be dismissed lightly.
In human experience there is usually a complex of causes rather than but one cause for everything, and so it is with the difficulty we run into with the Bible. To the question, Why is the Bible hard to understand? no snap answer can be given; the pert answer is sure to be the wrong one. The problem is multiple instead of singular, and for this reason the effort to find a single solution to it will be disappointing.
In spite of this I venture to give a short answer to the question, and while it is not the whole answer it is a major one and probably contains within itself most of the answers to what must be an involved and highly complex question. I believe that we find the Bible difficult because we try to read it as we would read any other book, and it is not the same as any other book.
The Bible is not addressed to just anybody. Its message is directed to a chosen few. Whether these few are chosen by God in a sovereign act of election or are chosen because they meet certain qualifying conditions I leave to each one to decide as he may, knowing full well that his decision will be determined by his basic beliefs about such matters as predestination, free will, the eternal decrees and other related doctrines. But whatever may have taken place in eternity, it is obvious what happens in time: Some believe and some do not; some are morally receptive and some are not; some have spiritual capacity and some have not. It is to those who do and are and have that the Bible is addressed. Those who do not and are not and have not will read it in vain.
Right here I expect some readers to enter strenuous objections, and for reasons not hard to find. Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims奇想 of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Savoir of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show.
The notion that the Bible is addressed to everybody has wrought confusion within and without the church. The effort to apply the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to the unregenerate nations of the world is one example of this. Courts of law and the military powers of the earth are urged to follow the teachings of Christ, an obviously impossible thing for them to do. To quote the words of Christ as guides for policemen, judges and generals is to misunderstand those words completely and to reveal a total lack of understanding of the purposes of divine revelation. The gracious words of Christ are for the sons and daughters of grace, not for the Gentile nations whose chosen symbols are the lion, the eagle, the dragon and the bear.
Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not. The preacher uses stories to make truth clear; our Lord often used them to obscure it. The parables of Christ were the exact opposite of the modern "illustration," which is meant to give light; the parables were "dark sayings" and Christ asserted that He sometimes used them so that His disciples could understand and His enemies could not. (See Matthew 13:10-17.) As the pillar of fire gave light to Israel but was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so our Lord's words shine in the hearts of His people but leave the self-confident unbeliever in the obscurity of moral night.
The saving power of the Word is reserved for those for whom it is intended. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The impenitent heart will find the Bible but a skeleton of facts without flesh or life or breath. Shakespeare may be enjoyed without penitence; we may understand Plato without believing a word he says; but penitence and humility along with faith and obedience are necessary to a right understanding of the Scriptures.
In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know. The faith that saves is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a moral thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural infusion of confidence in Jesus Christ, a very gift of God.
The faith that saves reposes in the Person of Christ; it leads at once to a committal of the total being to Christ, an act impossible to the natural man. To believe rightly is as much a miracle as was the coming forth of dead Lazarus at the command of Christ.
The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.
**Tozer
熟悉聖經難以理解的事實的那些人，決不會否認有很多人發現聖經很難理解。有關念聖經時所遇到又多又廣的困難的證言是不能被輕易忽略的。
在人類的經驗裡，對很多事情，經常是一堆複雜的原因而不是只有一個緣由；我們在聖經上碰到的困難正是如此；沒有輕易的回答，那武斷的回答保證是不對的。問題不是單一而是多重的，所以努力去尋求單一的解答會使你失望。
不管如何，我還是冒險的對這問題提出一個簡短的答案；它不是個完整的答案，但它是一個主要的而且包括了牽涉到非常複雜的問題的大部分回答。我相信我們發現聖經難以理解是因為我們試著去讀它，就像我們讀任何其他的書一樣；只是它並不像任何其他的書那樣。
聖經不是寫給隨便任何一個人的，它的信息是針對一群被選上的少數人。不管這少數人到底是被神的主權揀選，或是他們符合了某些合格的條件；我留給他們每一個人自己儘可能的去決定；只要他確實了解，他的決定將會取決於他的基本信念：如宿命、自由意志、天命、和其他的相關的教義。但是任何可能在永恆裡發生過的，很顯然的也發生在時間裡：有人信有人不信；有人在道德上比較容易接受，有些人就不能；有些人有屬靈的能力，有些人就沒有。聖經是對那些信的、能的、有的人寫的；那些不信的、不能的和沒有的，會是白讀的。
在這兒，我預料到有些讀者會給我很強烈的反對意見，而且為著是不難發現的理由。現今的基督教是以人為中心而不是以神為中心；神是用來耐心的、恭敬的伺候人們的奇思異想的。目前多數人對神的印象就像一個心神錯亂的父親，在令人心碎的絕望中掙扎，要使人們接受一個他們認為沒有需要也引不起一點興趣的救世主。為了要說服這些自我滿足的靈魂來回應祂的大方的施與，神必須盡其所能，甚至用推銷員的方式，以所能想像的一位尊長最親暱的方式來說服他們。在這種看法下，很自然的，這一種宗教的浪漫想法，縱使它經常使用奉承而且有時使人受不了的語句來讚美神，不得不造就了人成了這個秀場的明星。
聖經是寫給每一個人的觀念，已經造成了教會裡和教會外的困惑。努力的想把《登山寶訓》的教導推行到世界上非基督教的國家，就是其中的一個例子。法庭上的法律和世上的軍事強權都被要求遵守基督的教訓，對他們來講，這是一個顯然行不通的事。拿基督的話語當作警察、法官和將軍們的守則，是全然的誤解這些話語，而且顯現出對神的啟示的目的完全的不了解。基督的親切的話語是對承受恩典的子女們所說的；而不是對那些選擇獅子、老鷹、龍和大熊當國徽的外邦國家說的。
神不但只對那些能接受祂的真理的人說話；而且祂對那些不接受的人，實際上隱匿了那些話語的真意。傳教士說故事使真理明白；我們的主經常藉著故事來隱匿真理。基督的寓言就是那些現代要使人明白的插畫的恰恰反例；這些寓言是“暗語”，基督明確的說，祂有時說這些寓言，使祂的門徒明白，而使祂的敵人迷糊。(馬太13:10-17 )正如摩西帶領以色列人出埃及時，火柱照明色列人該走的路，但是埃及人見到的卻是雲霧和黑暗；所以我們的主的話語在祂的百姓的心裡發光，但卻把那些自信的不信者遺留在道德不明的長夜中。
神的話語的拯救力道是預留給祂所要給的人。主的秘密是給敬畏祂的人的；不悔改的心將會發現聖經只不過是一串事實的骨架，沒有血肉，沒有生命，沒有呼吸。我們或許會喜歡莎士比亞的作品而不需要悔改；我們可以了解柏拉圖的著作，而不需相信他的一絲說法；但是悔改和謙卑再加上信心和順服是正確了解聖經的必要條件。
在自然的事物裡，信心是根據證據而來的，沒有證據就不可能有信心；但是在心靈的領域裡，信心走在理解的前頭，而不是在後頭。自然人必須知而後能信；屬靈人必須信才能知。得拯救的信心並不是從事證導出的結果；它是道德的屬性，是屬靈事務，一個對耶穌基督信任的超自然的灌輸；是一個全然從神來的禮物。
得拯救的信心依賴耶穌基督；它導向馬上全人獻身給基督，對自然人來說，是一個不可能的行為。要正確的信，就是像已死的拉撒路向基督命令的回應(死裡復活)一樣的神蹟。
聖經是一本超自然的書，所以只能藉超自然的幫助來理解這本書。
THAT MANY PERSONS FIND THE BIBLE HARD to understand will not be denied by those acquainted with the facts. Testimony to the difficulties encountered in Bible reading is too full and too widespread to be dismissed lightly.
In human experience there is usually a complex of causes rather than but one cause for everything, and so it is with the difficulty we run into with the Bible. To the question, Why is the Bible hard to understand? no snap answer can be given; the pert answer is sure to be the wrong one. The problem is multiple instead of singular, and for this reason the effort to find a single solution to it will be disappointing.
In spite of this I venture to give a short answer to the question, and while it is not the whole answer it is a major one and probably contains within itself most of the answers to what must be an involved and highly complex question. I believe that we find the Bible difficult because we try to read it as we would read any other book, and it is not the same as any other book.
The Bible is not addressed to just anybody. Its message is directed to a chosen few. Whether these few are chosen by God in a sovereign act of election or are chosen because they meet certain qualifying conditions I leave to each one to decide as he may, knowing full well that his decision will be determined by his basic beliefs about such matters as predestination, free will, the eternal decrees and other related doctrines. But whatever may have taken place in eternity, it is obvious what happens in time: Some believe and some do not; some are morally receptive and some are not; some have spiritual capacity and some have not. It is to those who do and are and have that the Bible is addressed. Those who do not and are not and have not will read it in vain.
Right here I expect some readers to enter strenuous objections, and for reasons not hard to find. Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims奇想 of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Savoir of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show.
The notion that the Bible is addressed to everybody has wrought confusion within and without the church. The effort to apply the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to the unregenerate nations of the world is one example of this. Courts of law and the military powers of the earth are urged to follow the teachings of Christ, an obviously impossible thing for them to do. To quote the words of Christ as guides for policemen, judges and generals is to misunderstand those words completely and to reveal a total lack of understanding of the purposes of divine revelation. The gracious words of Christ are for the sons and daughters of grace, not for the Gentile nations whose chosen symbols are the lion, the eagle, the dragon and the bear.
Not only does God address His words of truth to those who are able to receive them, He actually conceals their meaning from those who are not. The preacher uses stories to make truth clear; our Lord often used them to obscure it. The parables of Christ were the exact opposite of the modern "illustration," which is meant to give light; the parables were "dark sayings" and Christ asserted that He sometimes used them so that His disciples could understand and His enemies could not. (See Matthew 13:10-17.) As the pillar of fire gave light to Israel but was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so our Lord's words shine in the hearts of His people but leave the self-confident unbeliever in the obscurity of moral night.
The saving power of the Word is reserved for those for whom it is intended. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. The impenitent heart will find the Bible but a skeleton of facts without flesh or life or breath. Shakespeare may be enjoyed without penitence; we may understand Plato without believing a word he says; but penitence and humility along with faith and obedience are necessary to a right understanding of the Scriptures.
In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know. The faith that saves is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a moral thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural infusion of confidence in Jesus Christ, a very gift of God.
The faith that saves reposes in the Person of Christ; it leads at once to a committal of the total being to Christ, an act impossible to the natural man. To believe rightly is as much a miracle as was the coming forth of dead Lazarus at the command of Christ.
The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.
**Tozer
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