第01章 为何允许罪恶存在？
§1
第01章 为何允许罪恶存在？
§2
Chap. 01—Why Was Sin Permitted?
§3
罪恶痛苦是从哪里来的？是来自上帝吗？如果不是的话，为什么祂不制止呢？它会结束吗？上帝如何解决这个问题呢？关于自己的品格，祂说了什么？爱的律法既是上帝政权的基础，一切受造之物的福乐就在于他们完全符合这个伟大的公义原则。上帝所求于祂一切受造之物的，乃是出于爱心的侍奉，乃是因为充分认识祂的品德而崇敬祂。上帝不喜悦出于勉强的效忠，所以祂赐给众生自由的心志，让他们出于自愿地侍奉祂。{DD 1.4}[1]
§4
Where do evil and suffering come from? Is God responsible? If not, why doesn’t He at least stop it? Will it ever come to an end? What has God done to solve the problem, and what does that say about His character? The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love—homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service.{DD 1.4}[1]
§5
可惜有一个天使竟滥用了这个自由。罪恶便从他开始了。他原是上帝所最器重的，地位仅次于基督，在天上居民中是最有权柄最有尊荣的。他名叫“路锡甫”（译者按：赛14:12;的“明亮之星”拉丁和英文译本均作“路锡甫”，意即“明亮之星”）。在他堕落之前，他在遮掩约柜的基路伯中居首位，是圣洁而没有玷污的。“主耶和华如此说：你无所不备，智慧充足，全然美丽，你曾在伊甸上帝的园中，佩带各样宝石。……你是那受膏遮掩约柜的基路伯，我将你安置在上帝的圣山上，你在发光如火的宝石中间往来。你从受造之日所行的都完全，后来在你中间又察出不义”（结28:12-15）。{DD 1.5}[2]
§6
But there was one that chose to pervert this freedom. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and who stood highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Before his fall, Lucifer was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. “Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering.... Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”?Ezekiel 28:12-15.{DD 1.5}[2]
§7
【创造反映上帝的荣耀】
§8
路锡甫本来可以一直蒙上帝喜悦，并受众天军的敬爱，又可运用他高贵的能力来造福其他天使，并荣耀他的创造主。但先知却说：“你因美丽心中高傲，又因荣光败坏智慧”（结28:17）。路锡甫渐渐放纵了自高的心愿；“居心自比上帝。”“你心里曾说，……我要高举我的宝座在上帝众星以上；我要坐在聚会的山上……我要升到高云之上；我要与至上者同等”（结28:6;赛14:13-14）。路锡甫不愿尊上帝为至上，为祂所造之物最爱戴最忠顺的对象，反而尽力收揽他们的心来事奉并敬拜他自己。这个天使的野心竟贪图全能天父所赐给祂圣子的尊荣，并羡慕基督所独有的特权。{DD 2.1}[3]
§9
【Creation Reflected God’s Glory】
§10
Lucifer might have remained in favor with God, beloved and honored by all the angelic host, exercising his noble powers to bless others and to glorify his Maker. But, says the prophet, “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.”?Verse 17. Little by little, Lucifer came to indulge a desire for self-exaltation. “Thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God.” “Thou hast said,... I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation.... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”?Verse 6;?Isaiah 14:13, 14. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of His creatures, it was Lucifer’s endeavor to win their service and homage to himself. And coveting the honor which the infinite Father had bestowed upon His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power which it was the prerogative of Christ alone to wield.{DD 2.1}[3]
§11
天庭全体本来是乐于反照创造主的荣耀并宣扬祂的尊名的。当上帝受到这样崇敬之时，全天庭都是和平而喜乐的。但这时忽然有一个不协之音，破坏了天上的和谐。路锡甫这种事奉自己抬高自己的心意，是与创造主的计划相反的，使那些以上帝的荣耀为至上的众天使警觉到不祥之兆。天庭的议会向路锡甫作了多次的恳劝。上帝的儿子也向他说明了创造主的伟大、良善、公正、以及祂律法的神圣性与不变性。天庭的秩序原是上帝亲自设定的。路锡甫若偏离这个秩序，就必亵渎他的创造者，毁灭自己。然而这出于无穷慈爱和怜悯的警告，结果只有激起他反抗的精神。路锡甫让妒忌基督的心理得势，并且愈加顽强。……{DD 2.2}[4]
§12
All heaven had rejoiced to reflect the Creator’s glory and to show forth His praise. And while God was thus honored, all had been peace and gladness. But a note of discord now marred the celestial harmonies. The service and exaltation of self, contrary to the Creator’s plan, awakened forebodings of evil in minds to whom God’s glory was supreme. The heavenly councils pleaded with Lucifer. The Son of God presented before him the greatness, the goodness, and the justice of the Creator, and the sacred, unchanging nature of His law. God Himself had established the order of heaven; and in departing from it, Lucifer would dishonor his Maker, and bring ruin upon himself. But the warning, given in infinite love and mercy, only aroused a spirit of resistance. Lucifer allowed jealousy of Christ to prevail, and he became the more determined....{DD 2.2}[4]
§13
【大骗局】
§14
从此他那卓越的智力便完全用在欺骗的工作上，为了要博得那些曾经受他指挥之天使的同情。他甚至歪曲了基督警告并劝诫他的话，来遂行自己叛逆的阴谋。对于这些忠诚爱戴他并与他发生最密切关系的天使，撒但声称自己受了不公正的裁判，并声称他的地位没有被重视，他的自由将要受限制了。他起先只是歪曲基督的话，后来索性狡赖强辩，直接撒谎，诡称上帝的儿子蓄意在天上居民之前侮辱他。他也设法在自己与忠心的天使之间无事生端。凡他所不能勾引来支持他的天使，他便诬告他们不关心天庭众生的幸福。他把自己所正在进行的工作抵赖到那些仍然效忠上帝的天使身上。为要证实他所说上帝亏待他的话起见，他歪曲了创造主的言语和作为。他的手段是用狡猾的论据，使众天使对上帝的旨意发生怀疑。他给每一件简单的事物加上一层神秘的色彩，并用巧妙的曲解，对于耶和华最明显的指示提出疑问。他那崇高的地位既与上帝的政权有那么密切的关系，他的诡辩就格外有力，结果有许多天使受迷惑与他联合，同谋反叛上天的威权。……A?{DD 2.3}[5]
§15
【The Master Plan of Deception】
§16
All the powers of his master mind were now bent to the work of deception, to secure the sympathy of the angels that had been under his command. Even the fact that Christ had warned and counseled him was perverted to serve his traitorous designs. To those whose loving trust bound them most closely to him, Satan had represented that he was wrongly judged, that his position was not respected, and that his liberty was to be?abridged. From misrepresentation of the words of Christ he passed to prevarication and direct falsehood, accusing the Son of God of a design to humiliate him before the inhabitants of heaven. He sought also to make a false issue between himself and the loyal angels. All whom he could not subvert and bring fully to his side he accused of indifference to the interests of heavenly beings. The very work which he himself was doing he charged upon those who remained true to God. And to sustain his charge of God’s injustice toward him, he resorted to misrepresentation of the words and acts of the Creator. It was his policy to perplex the angels with subtle arguments concerning the purposes of God. Everything that was simple he shrouded in mystery, and by artful perversion cast doubt upon the plainest statements of Jehovah. His high position, in such close connection with the divine administration, gave greater force to his representations, and many were induced to unite with him in rebellion against Heaven’s authority....?{DD 2.3}[5]
§17
【反叛延续到地上】
§18
直到这一场斗争在天上告一段落之后，这个大篡夺者还是强辩自己有理。及至上帝公布撒但和一切同情他的天使将要被逐出天庭之后，这个叛逆的魁首就大胆表示蔑视创造主的律法。他再度声明，天使无需受管束，却应当有自由随从自己的心意，而这心意必能永远引导他们行义。他抨击上帝的律法为一个抑制他们自由的轭，并宣布他的宗旨乃是要废除律法，以便众天使可以达到更崇高，更光明的生存境地。{DD 3.1}[6]
§19
【The Rebellion Continued On Earth】
§20
To the very close of the controversy in heaven the great usurper continued to justify himself. When it was announced that with all his sympathizers he must be expelled from the abodes of bliss, then the rebel leader boldly avowed his contempt for the Creator’s law. He reiterated his claim that angels needed no control, but should be left to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right. He denounced the divine statutes as a restriction of their liberty and declared that it was his purpose to secure the abolition of law; that, freed from this restraint, the hosts of heaven might enter upon a more exalted, more glorious state of existence.{DD 3.1}[6]
§21
撒但和他的全军异口同声地把自己叛逆的罪完全归咎基督，并声称祂若没有责备他们，他们是决不会叛变的。他们就是这样的存心不忠、顽梗不化、大胆无礼、妄图推翻上帝的政权，同时还说自己是专制暴力之下无辜的牺牲者；如此，这个大叛徒和他的同党终于被逐出天庭了。{DD 3.2}[7]
§22
With one accord, Satan and his host threw the blame of their rebellion wholly upon Christ, declaring that if they had not been reproved, they would never have rebelled. Thus stubborn and defiant in their disloyalty, seeking vainly to overthrow the government of God, yet blasphemously claiming to be themselves the innocent victims of oppressive power, the archrebel and all his sympathizers were at last banished from heaven.{DD 3.2}[7]
§23
这在天庭发动叛乱的同一个精神，现今还在地上鼓动叛乱。撒但从前在天使身上施用什么手段，今日他在世人身上也施用什么手段。撒但的精神现今在悖逆之子心中作主。他们像他一样，设法废除上帝律法的约束，并应许人可以藉着干犯律法而获得自由。斥责罪恶的人现今还是会惹起憎恨和反抗之精神的。当上帝的警告感动人心之时，撒但却叫人自以为义，并设法使别人同情他们的罪行。他们不但不改正自己的错误，反而挑唆众人去反对那斥责罪恶的人，令众人看他们为造成困难的唯一祸根。从义人亚伯的日子起，直到我们现今的时代为止，世人向一切胆敢指责罪恶之人所表现的都是这一种精神。{DD 3.3}[8]
§24
The same spirit that prompted rebellion in heaven still inspires rebellion on earth. Satan has continued with men the same policy which he pursued with the angels. His spirit now reigns in the children of disobedience. Like him they seek to break down the restraints of the law of God and promise men liberty through transgression of its precepts. Reproof of sin still arouses the spirit of hatred and resistance. When God’s messages of warning are brought home to the conscience, Satan leads men to justify themselves and to seek the sympathy of others in their course of sin. Instead of correcting their errors, they excite indignation against the reprover, as if he were the sole cause of difficulty. From the days of righteous Abel to our own time such is the spirit which has been displayed toward those who dare to condemn sin.{DD 3.3}[8]
§25
在驱逐撒但离开天庭的事上，上帝声明了自己的公义，并维护了祂宝座的声誉。但及至人类屈服于这叛逆之灵的欺骗而犯了罪之后，上帝竟牺牲了自己的独生子来为堕落的人舍命，作为祂慈爱的证据。上帝的品德在基督为人赎罪的事上显明出来了。十字架的有力论据向全宇宙说明：路锡甫所自取犯罪的途径是决不能归罪于上帝的政权的。{DD 3.4}[9]
§26
In the banishment of Satan from?heaven, God declared His justice and maintained the honor of His throne. But when man had sinned through yielding to the deceptions of this apostate spirit, God gave an evidence of His love by yielding up His only-begotten Son to die for the fallen race. In the atonement the character of God is revealed. The mighty argument of the cross demonstrates to the whole universe that the course of sin which Lucifer had chosen was in no wise chargeable upon the government of God.?{DD 3.4}[9]
§27
【救赎人类的计划】
§28
撒但对于上帝品德和政权的诬告，这时才显出它的实质。他曾指摘说，上帝要受造之物顺从祂，目的不过是要高抬自己；他又宣称，创造主要求万有舍己为人，而祂自己却没有舍己为人。但现在可以看出：为要拯救这堕落有罪的人类，宇宙的主宰已经作了爱心所能作的最大牺牲；因为“上帝在基督里，叫世人与自己和好”（林后5:19）。 此外，还可以看出：路锡甫因贪图尊荣和高位而打开了罪恶的门，但基督为要除灭罪恶起见，竟谦卑虚己，顺命至死。{DD 4.1}[10]
§29
【The Plan To Redeem Humanity】
§30
Satan’s lying charges against the divine character and government appeared in their true light. He had accused God of seeking merely the exaltation of Himself in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, and had declared that, while the Creator exacted self-denial from all others, He Himself practiced no self-denial and made no sacrifice. Now it was seen that for the salvation of a fallen and sinful race, the Ruler of the universe had made the greatest sacrifice which love could make; for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”?2 Corinthians 5:19. It was seen, also, that while Lucifer had opened the door for the entrance of sin by his desire for honor and supremacy, Christ had, in order to destroy sin, humbled Himself and become obedient unto death.{DD 4.1}[10]
§31
上帝已经显明祂对于叛逆的痛恨。从撒但所受的制裁和人类所蒙的救赎这两件事上，天庭全体已经看出上帝的公义。路锡甫曾说，如果上帝的律法不能更改，犯罪的刑罚也不能取消，那么，一切犯罪的人就必永远不能蒙创造主的喜悦。他又声称，犯罪的人类已无救赎之望，所以他们已经成为他的合法俘虏。如今基督的死乃是为人类所作的辩证，是不能被推翻的。律法的刑罚已经归在那与上帝同等的基督身上，人类便得到自由可以承受基督的义，并藉着悔改和自卑的生活胜过撒但的权势，正如上帝的儿子得胜一样。这样看来，上帝是公义的，同时祂也可以称一切信耶稣的人为义。{DD 4.2}[11]
§32
God had manifested His abhorrence of the principles of rebellion. All heaven saw His justice revealed, both in the condemnation of Satan and in the redemption of man. Lucifer had declared that if the law of God was changeless, and its penalty could not be remitted, every transgressor must be forever debarred from the Creator’s favor. He had claimed that the sinful race were placed beyond redemption and were therefore his rightful prey. But the death of Christ was an argument in man’s behalf that could not be overthrown. The penalty of the law fell upon Him who was equal with God, and man was free to accept the righteousness of Christ and by a life of penitence and humiliation to triumph, as the Son of God had triumphed, over the power of Satan. Thus God is just and yet the justifier of all who believe in Jesus{DD 4.2}[11]
§33
【上帝的律法得到维护】
§34
基督降世受苦受死，不单是为要成全人类的救赎，而也是要“使律法为大为尊”（赛42:21）。不单是要叫地上的居民心中对于律法存应有的尊重，而也是向全宇宙的诸世界显明上帝的律法是不能改变的。如果律法的要求可以作废，上帝的儿子就不必来舍身为违犯律法的人赎罪了。基督的死证实律法是不能更改的。圣父与圣子由于无穷之爱的激励为救赎罪人所付的牺牲，向全宇宙证明──况且除了这救赎的计划之外，别无其他证明──公义与慈悲乃是上帝政权和律法的基础。{DD 4.3}[12]
§35
【God’s Law Is Sustained】
§36
But it was not merely to accomplish the redemption of man that Christ came to the earth to suffer and to die. He came to “magnify the law” and to “make it honorable.” Not alone that the inhabitants of this world might regard the law as it should be regarded; but it was to demonstrate to all the worlds of the universe that God’s law is unchangeable. Could its claims have been set aside, then the Son of God need not have yielded up His life to atone for its transgression. The death of Christ proves it immutable. And the sacrifice to which infinite love impelled the Father and the Son, that sinners might be redeemed, demonstrates to all the universe—what nothing less than this plan of atonement could have sufficed to do—that justice and mercy are the foundation of the law and government of God.{DD 4.3}[12]