2024春季杂志 人类心中的文化战争
文/史蒂夫·L. Porter, Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture
Even though it happened more than 15 years ago, I remember the moment clearly. Sitting over a cup of clam chowder at the local Souplantation, I waited for the perfect moment to
lob a zinger of a joke into a lunch conversation with my wife and our longtime friend. 我不记得我们的朋友说了什么, 但我记得我有一个机智的, humorous retort that mildly shamed him — just a touch over the top. 我的评论尖锐而有趣. Since we were close friends, I knew he would understand my acerbic jab as good fun.
With the joke lobbed and the jab landed, far less laughter arose than I anticipated. 我试着用我的笑声来打破沉默. My friend paused and said, “You tell a lot of jokes at my expense.我抗议道:“哦，得了吧。. 你知道这一切都是为了好玩. I only say those things because you know I love you, and I’m just kidding.我的朋友坚持说:“不，真的，史蒂夫。. 你的很多笑话都让你最亲近的人感到羞耻.”
Feeling the pressure, I glanced over at my wife with a “Honey, you’ve got my back, right?“看. 但她温柔地说:“他说得对. 你这么做.意识到我还能活着开个玩笑, 我微笑着半心半意地道歉, 然后我们继续谈话.
我内心对他们的指责不屑一顾. Although I had a mild sense that they might be right, I overrode it by concluding they were overly sensitive. 我确信这个笑话很有趣——这是我长期以来备受赞赏的幽默感的完美体现，无论他们说什么，我的幽默感都保持不变.
几周后, 我在工作时回复了一个群组邮件, 其中一封回复邮件的开头是一件严肃的办公室新闻，然后是同事之间一些轻松的交流. I thought of a reply I was certain would bring the house down. I would have to single out several people on the thread to get the humorous effect. 用吉米·法伦的精准度, 我选择了两位我认为会获得最少同情的同事，并开始构思我保证会“哈哈大笑”的回复. 准备点击发送时，我犹豫了一下. 似乎有些不对劲. 是不是打错字了? 我需要重写笑点吗? 我重读了那封邮件，为自己的幽默放声大笑. 一切都很好. 但当我去点击发送时，我又犹豫了. 然后一个想法出现了:“这并不好笑.“但这怎么可能呢? 我觉得很有趣. 这种反对意见从何而来? I never had cold feet before on these joke emails, and timing was everything! 机不可失，时不再来. 我又一次点击了发送. The thought emerged clearer this time, “Don’t send it. 这一点都不好笑.”
上帝作为个人的经验
1933年，英国神学家H. H. 法默在一篇文章中写道, "上帝的亲身经历,” that belief in God “must be more than a mere statement assented to by the mind; it must be realized with a vividness not incomparable to that with which we are aware of personality in another.”1 When we’re aware of personality in another, we know how it feels to be in that person’s presence. It’s more than a mere recognition of facts about them. 这是一个孩子相信她父亲爱她和她父亲慈爱地拥抱和照顾她的实际经验之间的区别. 据法默说, just as a child starves in a relationship with only beliefs and no experience of parental love, a child of God starves spiritually with only beliefs and no personal, 对上帝的体验意识.2
这是一个孩子相信她父亲爱她和她父亲慈爱地拥抱和照顾她的实际经验之间的区别.
“如果这一切都是真的,法默写道, “那么很明显，没有什么比我们如何能够活生生地意识到上帝是个人的更重要的问题了。.” This question becomes all the more pressing because, 农民声称, “modern” persons find “it extremely difficult to think of God as personal at all; and a great many Christians, 浸透了时代的气息, 分享残疾, with the result that their Christian experience … remains a weak and ineffective thing.”3
In a time when knowledge of Scripture and theology seem to be waning, do Christians still struggle to know God in a personal, 经验的方式? 从某种意义上说，这可能是一个长期存在的问题. I think of Peter’s response to Jesus’s question “Who do you say that I am?(马太福音16:15). “You are the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). 然而，彼得在神学考试中得到A+的答案后，在耶稣预言他会受苦之后，他责备耶稣，却得了F, 死而复活(马太福音16:21-23). 彼得正确地相信耶稣是主, but his ability to experientially trust in Jesus’s Lordship remained a work in progress. 就像那个人来找耶稣说, “主, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24), how do we allow our right beliefs about God to sink into our bones?
价值观的冲突
Farmer gives an unusual answer to this particular question. 他讨论了与人类相处的感觉, 注意到人际关系的一个基本特征是将他人视为与我们自己的价值观和目的不同的人，我们无法控制. 例如, 在不同的发展阶段，父母会惊人地意识到他们可爱的小宝贝有自己的欲望, wants and purposes that may be better or worse than what the parents desire, 想要并打算拥有它们. Farmer refers to this tension between our own will and that of another as “value-resistance”:
“在生活的各个方面，当我们感到紧张或抗拒时，我们会最生动地意识到现实，而不是我们自己。. … A person becomes an entity to us by having a purpose which meets ours and is beyond our control. … the value resistance of persons we can only overcome by something we call agreement, 和解.”4
Farmer then discusses how this value-resistance is present in our relationship with God. God’s perfectly good and loving values will almost always exist in tension with ours. 例如, we might be agitated and upset about something that God considers less serious and not worth worrying about. Alternatively, God may want us to pay more attention to what we’re devaluing and ignoring. 辨别好的选择, better and best may lead to a clash of values between us and God. We might devise a good way forward but feel a nagging sense that God has something better in mind. 使徒行传第16章, 保罗, 西拉和提摩太要往庇推尼去, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (verse 7). The Spirit had something better even though there was nothing morally wrong or sinful about going to Bithynia. 在早些时候, the Jerusalem Council seemed to agree with God’s values, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28; compare Romans 9:1).
While God impresses his values on us through Scripture, 道德推理, 他人的影响, 我们的良心, 智慧, 等., 法默关注我们的意识, 对上帝的体验意识’s alternative system of values, 偏好及目的. 他强调了我们对形势的评价与上帝的评价之间的紧张关系，并以一个名叫阿格里的男人为例，他当着妻子妹妹的面对妻子说了伤人的话:
“That night God met his proud spirit in a tremendous value-resistance. 他必须道歉，纠正错误. 很好，他会悄悄地私下做这件事. 然后上帝拒绝了. 道歉必须当着妹妹的面进行，因为她也在场，而且也参与了这件事……上帝整夜都在和阿格利的专横性格搏斗, 并赢得. At breakfast the next day Aggrey apologized unconditionally to both women, 谁, 了解他的本性, were almost in tears at such a total and humble giving away of self to them.”5
我们努力让自己的价值观与他的一致, “God actively thrusts himself into the central places of our personality and speaks to us a summoning word.据法默说, the surest sign we’re experiencing God is our sensitivity to a different appraisal of things at work in us. Perhaps we have a nagging sense that we’re in the wrong even when we think our response is justified, or a recurring thought that we need to make a different choice, or, 就我而言, a repeated check on my desire to make a joke at another’s expense.
Discerning God’s Will and the Conviction of the Holy Spirit
Paying attention to this inner resistance is part of discerning God’s will. 歌罗西书第1章, 保罗祷告歌罗西的基督徒“在一切属灵的智慧悟性上，满心知道神的旨意”, 好叫你们行事为人对得起主, 他非常高兴, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10). 在她即将出版的《ag娱乐官网》的评论中, 冬青啤酒, 韦斯特蒙特大学新约教授, 写, “God’s will here in verse 9 is able to be known through the Spirit; the Spirit gives the 智慧 and understanding that God has and that we humans need.
… Significantly, the purpose of the Spirit’s work is so that their behavior may please the Lord (v. 10) … knowledge that enables wise living and every good work.比尔斯教授继续说道:
换句话说, 这是一种属灵的门徒训练, 这对他们和我们都是必要的. On our own power we are unable to live as we are created to live; our selfishness keeps getting in the way. 然而, we can cultivate intentional dependency on the Spirit, and He will prompt and enable us to live in ways that are more aligned with God’s purposes. We can cultivate this by asking the Spirit to help us on a regular basis (on our commutes to work, 当我们运动的时候, 当我们做饭的时候), 指引我们，赋予我们力量.”
What Farmer refers to as an awareness of value-resistance in our relationship with God, 比尔斯教授很有帮助地将其定义为“有意依赖圣灵”，圣灵会“促使我们以更符合上帝旨意的方式生活”.” Farmer points out that this prompting and directing of the Spirit indicates that we’re in a relationship with God, and yet many of us have trouble cultivating this awareness.
[耶稣]试图让[基督徒]意识到他们的抗拒，所以他们打开了生活中某些封闭区域的大门，让他滋养他们.
我们意志之间的冲突, 价值观，目的和上帝的旨意, values and purposes has sometimes been called the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. 在约翰福音中, Jesus teaches that the Holy Spirit will indwell his followers, 叫世人知道罪和义, and guide his disciples into all truth (John 14:16; 16:8-15). While the Spirit’s convicting work seems directed toward “the world,” God’s perfectly loving values will make their presence known as the indwelling Spirit guides believers into all truth. 加拉太书5章17节提到了我们的价值观和圣灵的价值观之间的冲突，保罗说圣灵的欲望反对罪恶的欲望. 这是圣灵所看重的——与神同在的生命——和我们的自主所看重的——与神分离的生命之间的冲突.7
The word in John 16:8 translated “convict” also appears in Jesus’s words to the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:19-20. Jesus says, “Those 谁m I love, I convict and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 看哪，我站在门口叩门. 如果有人听到我的声音打开门, 我要进到他们那里，和他们一同吃饭, and they with me” (Revelation 3:19-20; compare Hebrews 12:5-6). We often think of Jesus standing at the door of unbelievers’ hearts, 但是在上下文中, 耶稣站在不冷不热的人门前, 一群虔诚的教徒也念. His convicting knock lovingly comes to the hearts of Christians distracted and consumed by other things. 他试图让他们意识到他们的抗拒，这样他们就会打开生活中某些封闭区域的大门，让他滋养他们.
Picking up on this idea of Jesus’s convicting “knock” by his Spirit, 亚伯拉罕﹕, 荷兰改革宗神学家, 写道:
“Who that is not a stranger to his own heart does not remember how many years it took before he would yield a certain point of resistance; how he always avoided facing it; restlessly opposed it, 最后，他想在自己和圣灵之间安排一种暂时休战的方式来结束这件事? 但圣灵并没有停止, gave him no rest; again and again that familiar knock was heard, 那熟悉的声音在他心中呼唤. And after years of resistance he could not but yield in the end…”8
人类心中的文化战争
This discussion of value-resistance as the convicting work of the Spirit is particularly relevant for us.
首先, we need to realize that one way we experience God personally is when the Spirit lovingly confronts our values. 任何谴责的气息都表明，要么不是圣灵，要么是我们把自己的声音或其他一些判断的声音混在一起. 让信念在我们的生活中发挥作用, 我们必须逐渐将神对我们完美的爱内化(约翰福音4:18)，并且认识到那些在基督耶稣里的人不会被定罪(罗马书8:1)。. Coming to grips with God’s gracious forgiveness and acceptance will bring down our defensiveness. 当这种情况发生时, feeling the pressure of conflicting values in your life is like learning your car tire is flat. 虽然听起来很难，但你很感激知道这一点.
第二, while we may experience God’s presence in a variety of ways, awareness of conflicting values plays a vital role in our ongoing formation in Christ. Sometimes the areas of our life we think we need to change can merely be symptoms of a deeper problem. Sensitivity to value resistance invites us into the root places where the sanctifying Spirit works.
In his book “Hearing God: Developing a Conver- sational Relationship with God,” Dallas Willard discusses four forms of God’s personal presence:
(1) the mere belief that God is present without any experience, (2)体验上帝同在的感觉, (3) experiencing God through the effects of his work, (4)上帝传达他的思想, 通过圣经向我们传达价值观和目的, 创建的顺序, 其他的人, cir -境界, 幻象与梦境, 还有我们自己的想法.9 Our awareness of how our values conflict with his represents one way God speaks to us in our thoughts.
第三, the practice of solitude and silence offer important assistance in recognizing how we resist God’s values. 亨利·大卫·梭罗说, "随着我们内心生活的失败, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. 你可以放心, that the poor fellow 谁 walks away with the greatest number of letters, 对他的广泛通信感到自豪, 好久没有他的消息了吗.如果梭罗知道邮局现在可以放在我们的前口袋里，每天提醒我们几十次“信件”，他会说些什么呢? We need silence and solitude to have space to meaningfully pray “Search me, O God, and know my heart! 试试我，了解我的想法! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!(诗篇139:23-24).
Our awareness of how our values conflict with his represents one way God speaks to us in our thoughts.
最后, this culture war in our hearts — between ourselves and God — has priority over the culture war in our country. 我们心意的更新使我们不效法这世界的模式，“叫你们借着试验，可以知道神的旨意是什么”(罗马书12:2)。. 事实上, 基督徒没有意识到个人转变的重要性，这从根本上导致了我们无法在今天的文化中成为有效的盐和光(见马太福音5:13-16)。. 在我们能够提供文化批判之前，我们需要与上帝的价值观达成实质性的一致. 耶稣教导我们要先去掉自己眼中的梁木，再去看别人眼中的刺(马太福音7:3-5)。. “日志第一, 斑点第二,” might be a helpful refrain before entering into any contentious conversation.11
I’ll never forget that not-so-funny joke I lobbed over my bowl of clam chowder at Souplantation. It kicked off my growing awareness of the difference between God’s values and mine. I’m grateful that my friend and my wife confronted my demeaning sense of humor. I’m also grateful that the Spirit of God continues to show me how his sense of what’s funny contrasts with mine. I fear I still tell jokes at others’ expense, but far more often, I decide not to tell the joke. 我听到那熟悉的轻轻的敲门声. Thanks be to God that he loves us enough to lovingly knock on the many closed doors of our hearts. May we cultivate an intentional dependency on the Spirit and look for him to prompt, guide and enable us to live lives worthy of the Lord.
1 H. H. Farmer, “Experience of God as Personal,” Religion in Life 2 (1933): 237. 在这里看到的
2 The Regent College theologian and Puritan scholar, J. I. 封隔器, 在他的著作《ag娱乐官网》(IVP)中，著名地区分了ag娱乐官网上帝的知识(命题知识)和ag娱乐官网上帝的知识(经验知识), 1993).
3农民，240.
4农民，242-243.
5农民，245.
6 Dr. 比尔斯对《ag娱乐官网》和《ag娱乐官网》的评论即将出现在她为贝克学术出版社共同编辑的《ag娱乐官网》评论丛书中. 经许可使用.
7 For more on this struggle between the “flesh” and the “Spirit,参见我的《ag娱乐官网》,忒米利俄斯39.3 (2014): 470–483. 在这里看到的
8 亚伯拉罕﹕, The Work of the Holy Spirit (Eerdmans, 1900), 530.