認識神學 01 - Dr.Gerald Bray

Thank you for your welcome. I hope that you understand what I am saying, and if you do not, please say no. I am not offended. The worst thing somebody can say to me is, “that man is so intelligent. I didn’t understand anything”. If you have a teacher that you do not understand, this is not a good teacher, because the teacher has to comunicate to the student. So if Iam not communicating to you, you must tell me. Okay?

I’ve come to talk tonight about how to understand theology. The reason I want to talk about this is that many people are afraid of theology. People do not understand why we have theology in the church. And I think the reason for this is that they do not understand what theology is. If you ask people about this, they will say theology is a kind of philosophy. But this is not true, because philosophy is a system of ideas, and it does not matter whether the idas are part of the experience of the philosopher or not. Because philosophy is an abstract system, and if the system, looks good, it is fine, no problems. But thology is not like this. Theology is a description of experience. And our experience as Christians is experience of God.

As Christians, we have a personal relationship with God. And in any personal relationship, there are things that you will know and things that you do not know. And this is true of every relationship, even relationship with people that we know very well. For example, two or three years ago, a friend of mine asked me, “How did your mother meet your father?” And I said, “I don’t know.” And they said to me, “Why don’t you know?” I said, “Well, I wasn’t there at that time. You know, I don’t remember.” And they said, “Don’t you want to find out?” And I said, “Well, I must ask my mother. My father is dead. But I must ask my mother one day how they met.” But you know, I never do ask her this. And why not? Because we are always talking about something else, you know. I am asking if her health is okay. And she is asking me if I’m eating properly. We are living in a different way and how she met my father is not a major question. So I never ask. Now, it must have happeed. Because I am here now, so I know it happened. But it is a mystery to me.

Now I say this because theology is like this. We know that God made us. God tells us this. But if we ask, “Why did God make us”, ther is no answer to that question. And if you ask, “why not”, the answer mis,” theology is not a philosoph”. Theology is an experience of a relation ship. And the relationship is a real one even if we do not understand how it started. You see, it makes no sense for me to sk my mother, “Why did you have me as a baby?” We can’t change this now. We live with this because this is the reality of our life. And for me, the important thing is to live in that relationship and not ask theoretical questions that will make no difference to my life. And this is how we have to understand theology.

Now as Christians, we have the Bible. And the Bible is a guide to our experience as Christians. And of course, we need this to knwo whether our experience is authentic or not. But we must be very careful about this because, unforunately, it is possible to have the Bible but not the experience. And now if you have the Bible and you read the Bible but you do not know God in your life, you may have a lot of information, but it has no practical application to your life. Let me give you another example. When you get married an you decide that you’re going to have a baby, some people, they got out and buy a book about babies. And they read the book and they learng fro the book what the baby is going to be like. And then the baby is born. And suddenly, the parents understand for the first time the baby has not read the book. The baby lives in a differnet way from what is written in the book.

Now the people who write these books, of course, they are describing the experience of other people. And they are telling us what to expect. And they will say, you know, this is normal and this is not normal. And they will encourage you to go in one direction and warn you of another. And this is very important. But the book is there to help us with our experience. If I have a baby, then the book about baby may help me. But if I have the book and no baby, there is no point; there is no reason to do this. So we must understand this, that when we read the Bible, we are reading about an experience of God and this experience of God must be your experience and my experience and not just an idea in the head. And theology is about the experience and not about the idea. This is where we must start, because the first question you must ask about any theology is “does it correspond to real life?” If it is just a theology with no application, then it is bad theoloy. So I want you to understand that for the first thing.

Now, what does the Bible teach us? What do we learn about God? The first thing we learn about God is who He is. And the second thing is what He does. And these two things belong together. Because what God does shows us who God is. And then we learn that because He is who He is that He can do what He does. We learn that God sent His son into the world to save us, which is what he has done. Why has He done this” He has done this because of who He is. And who is He? He is our creator and He loves the thing that He has created. You see God loves you and me, even if we do not always love ourselves. It is not because God does not think that we do wonderful things. It’s not because God thinks we are wonderful people. He knows what we are like. But He loves us and He has acted in our lives in order to make us the kind of people He wants us to be.

To love another person is not the same thing as likig them. I can like somebody but then I see them doing something that I do not like, and I turn away from them. But when God sees us doign things that He does not like, He does not turn away from us, becasue He loves us and He’s determined that He’s going to make us His children. So what He has done in sending His son reveals to us who He is, what He is like in Himself. God is love. And this is why He has acted in the way that He has.

But becasue He is also God, He can do what He wants to do in our lives. When I look at another person, another human being, I may see problems in that person. I have been a teacher ally my life. So of course I have seen many problems, they are called students. And every student is a problem and I have to see, “Well, can I solve this problem? Can I make this student the kind of person I want him to be?” And sometimes the answer is “yes”. And sometimes the answer is “no”.

Now, this is very sad. But sometimes, you just have to say to somebody, “I have tried very hard. I want you to learn. I want you to change. But I cannot do this, because I do not have the power to change you.” And then I realize the greatness of God because God does have the pwer to change you and me. And it’s because He loves us that He does this for us.

To me, the biggest mystery of our faith is that God wants you and me to live with Him in heaven in eternity. I tell my students, “You are very lucky that Iam not God,” because after an hour in the classroom, I don’t want them in eternity. If I were God, I would close the door, put my feet up and watch television forever. Why invite these terrible people into my life? But this is what God has done for you. This is what God has done for me. And this is what our theology is all about. This is the meanging of our theology. Because it is our attempt to explain to people why we believe what we believe.

Now, I can explain my faith. And I can explain my experience of God, but I cannot give my experience of God to you. You have to have your own experience of God. So, you see, when I explain theology to you, I am really explaining something that you know already. You know it because you have experienced it. It’s sometimes very difficult to explain our experiences. We know that something ahs happened to us. And we know that it has changed our lives. But if we have to say why, we don’t know the answer.

(to be continued…)

多謝各位蒞臨，希望大家能明白我即將說的，若有不明白，請別客氣提出來。我最怕有人指著我說：「他的話太淵博了，我完全不明白。」如果一個老師所說的話，你不明白，這表明這位老師並不是好老師，因為老師必須能和學生溝通。所以，如果我和你不能溝通，請告訴我，好嗎？

我今晚會講解如何認識神學。我之所以要講這個題目，是因為有很多人很怕神學。很多人不明白為何教會要有神學，而他們不明白為何要有神學，是因為他們不明白何為神學。如果你問問別人何為神學，他們會告訴你神學是一種哲學。這是不對的，因為哲學是一個思想系統，而這思想未必和實際經驗有關，因為哲學是一個抽象的系統，若這系統看上來很好，那就沒問題了。但神學並不是這樣，神學是對經歷的描寫，是我們基督徒對神的經歷。

每一個基督徒都和神有個人的關係。在每一段個人關係中，即使你和對方有多深入的認識也好，都有你所知和所不知的東西，這個是真的。在兩三年前，我有位朋友問我：「你媽媽怎樣認識你爸爸？」我回答：「我不知道。」他再問：「為何不知道？」我再答「我當時不在嘛，怎會記得。」他：「你不想知道嗎？」我：「那我要問我媽媽，因為我爸爸已經死了。我要問媽媽到底他們怎樣認識。」但我從來沒有問過她，為甚麼？因為我們常常講其他的話題，例如我問她的身體好嗎，她問我吃飽了沒有等等，我們有自己的生活，她怎樣結識我爸爸並不是個大問題，所以我從來沒有問過，但起碼我知道，她必定認識了我爸爸，不然我也不會在這裡，所以我知道這事曾發生過，只是對我來說是一個謎。

神學正是這樣，我們知道神創造我們，因為神告訴我們。但如果我們問：「神為甚麼創造我們？」我們則沒有答案，如果我們問：「為何沒有？」那答案便是：「神學不是哲學。」神學是關係上的經歷，即使我們不知道一個關係如何開始，我們也知道這個關係是真實的。正如如果我問我媽媽：「為何當初會有了我這個嬰孩？」你就知道，這個問題是沒有意思的。現在已經不能改變啊，這個是事實啊。對我來是，最重要的是在這個關係中活著，而不是對生活無關痛癢的神學問題，這就是如何認識神學。

我們基督徒有的是聖經，聖經是基督徒經歷的指引，當然我們要檢視我們的經歷是否可靠，但不幸地，有時我們會只有聖經而沒有經歷，這是我們須要小心的。如果你有聖經，也讀聖經，但在生活中並不認識神，你有是只是一堆資料，而不是在生命中有實際的應用。

來讓我給你另一個例子：你結婚以後，準備要生兒育女，有些人會買一些關於嬰孩的書籍，他們會從書籍中知道嬰兒是這樣那樣。好了，嬰兒要出世了，父母才突然間醒覺，他們的寶寶沒有看過這些書啊，所以寶寶的行為和書中所寫的有很大出入。

當然，這些書的作者是在描述其他人育嬰的經驗，他們會告訴我們一些期望，他們會說哪些是正常，哪些是不正常，也會指示你要該做何事和不該做何事，但這些書都只是在幫助我們經歷。如果我有嬰孩，那些關於嬰孩的書可能會對我有幫助；但如果我有這些書，但沒有嬰孩，根本就沒有意思，沒有理由要看這些書吧。所以，我們要知道一件事，當我們讀聖經，我們是在閱讀如何經歷神，而這對神的經歷必須成為你和我的經歷，而不只是一些空談的理念。我們要從這裡開始，因為我們要問的第一個神學問題是：「這和我的生命有甚麼關係？」如果這只是一個神學理論而沒有實際應用，這是很差的神學。所以，這是我要你們明白的首件事。

現在要談，聖經教導我們甚麼？我們要學習神些甚麼？我們要學習神的首件事是－－祂是誰；第二件事是－－祂作了何事。這兩件事是要放在一起的，因為神所作的事顯明了神是誰。而我們之所以要學習這些，是因為祂是祂所是，亦因此祂能作要作的事。我們知道，神差祂的獨生子到這世上來拯救我們，這是祂已經作了的事。祂為甚麼要作這事？因為祂是祂所是，祂是誰？祂是我們的造物主，祂愛祂所創造的一切。你看，神愛你和我，縱然我們不太愛自己。這不是因為神不認為我們能做大事，也不是因為神認為我們很厲害，祂知道我們如何。是因為祂愛我們，祂在我們生命中工作，要使我們成為祂心目中的模樣。

愛別人和喜歡別人是不一樣的，我可以喜歡一個人，但如果我見他做了我不喜悅的事，我會離開他。但神看我們常做祂不喜悅的事，祂沒有離開我們，因為祂愛我們，並且定意要我們成為祂的兒女。所以，祂所做的就是差祂的獨生子來展明祂是誰，祂是怎麼的模樣。神是愛，所以才做祂所做的事。

因為祂亦是神，祂能在我們的生命中作祂要作的事。當我看其他人的時候，我會發現他有很多問題。我當老師一輩子了，所以我看見很多問題，這些問題叫做「學生」，每一個學生都是一個問題，我也要問自己：「我能否解決這個問題？我能否使他成為我心目中的學生？」有時候，答案是能的；有時候，答案是不能的。

很可悲，有時你必須要對某人說：「我已經很努，我想你學好，我想你改變，但我不能夠，因為我沒有能力去改變你。」我便知道，神是多麼偉大，因為祂有能力去改變你和我，祂這樣做也是因為祂愛我們。

對我來說，信仰中最大的奧秘是神要你和我與祂一同住在天堂直到永遠。我告訴我的學生們：「你們要慶幸，我不是神。」因為過了一小時之後，我不想他們留在永恆。如果我是神，我會關上門，腳遙遙地看電視直到永遠，為甚麼要讓這班恐怖的人進入的的生活？但這就是神為你所做的，為我所做的。這就是一切神學的根本，這是神學的意義，因為我們要嘗試向人解釋為甚麼我們相信我們所信的。

現在，我闡述一下我的信心，我也可以闡述我對神的經歷，但我不能把這個經歷給你們，因為你們需要自己去經歷神，所以，我向你們解釋神學，其實是在解釋一些你們已經知道的事情，你能知道明白，是因為你有所經歷。有時候我們真的很難去闡述自己的經歷，我們知道有些事情發生在自己身上，改變了自己的生命，但如果堅持去問「為甚麼」，我們不會有答案。

．．．待續


原著編評：Gerald Bray @ R.E.M POST
中文編譯：小火車 @ 基督教果園