The Bible is a manual on how humans use themselves.
The Bible tells us God’s word and God’s absolute command. The Bible tells us that truth is God’s word, and Jesus said that I am truth.
On the other hand, the Bible repeatedly reminds people that people are always in a state of finiteness, guilt, and ignorance. Therefore, people must accept the fact that people are just human beings, and they must learn to doubt themselves.
What is important is that the Bible, after stating these two great orders, does not throw people into emptiness and despair, and does not hide the existence of human beings, but gives a methodology.
“If you don’t believe it, you won’t be able to stand firm.” (“Isaiah” 7.9)
Augustine pondered this sentence and discovered the epistemological methodology:
“God is with us, and He will make us understand what we believe, because we know that we are in the state described by the prophet: “Unless you believe, you cannot understand.” We believe that everything that exists is From this God, I also believe that God is not the cause of sin. (On Free Will, Volume 1, p. 73, Shanghai Century Publishing Group)
So we must remember that faith is a prerequisite for understanding. Faith is the starting point of human epistemology. Faith is both wisdom and method, and it is the simplest method, applicable to everyone.
Understanding is such a fascinating word. But how many people really understand. Realizing this problem, I suddenly had more respect and admiration for John Locke’s “human understanding”. His meticulous understanding is based on his simple belief.
What I want to say is that all the problems stem from the lack of understanding, and the lack of understanding stems from the lack of faith in God. Because Chinese scholars did not hear God’s words, or were unwilling to listen to God’s words, they simply did not find the object of human mind’s understanding, and could not push their understanding deeper at all. In the absence of cognitive objects, all scholars started from trying to understand chaos and trying to talk about chaos, so they didn’t even establish a basic epistemological order.
In this case, how Chinese scholars comfort themselves has always been a joke: the first is to emphasize the particularity of culture, and the second is that several scholars praise each other and seek vanity among people. The third is that everyone regards the governance of the country and the world as the first mission in life, so that everyone has an illusion of being in the wild as in the dynasty.
Go to see Descartes. Pascal was 29 years his elder, but he went to visit Pascal who was ill, but Pascal still did not let go of Descartes’s thinking loopholes. Leibniz had great respect for Locke, but he squinted his nose and eyes on Locke’s theory of human understanding. It was not until Locke’s death that Leibniz said that since people are no longer there, I will not fight harshly. As for Locke’s way of understanding, it is even more straightforward. His “On Government” begins with a discussion of God’s Word with his opponent, Sir Philmer, and emphasizes that his understanding of God’s Word is different from his opponent’s understanding. What’s interesting is that Sir Philmeister also firmly believes that God’s Word is the truth. He is only different from John Locke in the dimension of understanding: the existence of two people is manifested in the diversity of thoughts, but both people have one and only one. truth.
If you carefully examine the lives of these people, you will find that these outstanding scholars living under the traditional Christian order in European and American society have been working hard to understand God’s word throughout their lives.
It is sad for people who don’t try to understand. For example, “Judgement” in the Bible is a strictly defined term, while the Chinese “judgment” is too vague. Therefore, many Christians take this vague term. On the one hand, they lack the ability to understand and lack the courage to discuss issues to cover up. On the other hand, they accuse those who have the courage to understand and debate issues. This lack of understanding has caused many Chinese churches to be permeated with anti-intellectual tendencies, and they have also found themselves a reason for humility.
What is judgment, its main significance should be whether a person is saved by God. Regarding this, it is true that all authority is in the hands of God. But for the too much ignorance, too much laziness, too much ignorance of common sense, too many lies, too much killing, people must bravely speak out, and must work to change the obvious evil and Unrighteous. This is a two-dimensional problem consciousness, which can only be grasped by people with broad understanding. Augustine saw the essence of the problem. He said that the secular laws of mankind do not solve all things. Some ultimate essence of the law must and can only be solved after a person dies. And the revelation of Jesus’ words is even more profound. He said, let God belong to God, and Caesar should belong to Caesar. Man is a finite man and a sinful man, so he is in the order of division of labor from the beginning.
If a God’s chosen people understand this, they will believe that they will enter God’s court sooner or later, and usher in the true ultimate judgment; if a God’s chosen people grasp this, they will not give up his presence here. The world’s responsibility and passion for doubt and criticism. This is our great work to manage the world. When I am still alive, I have to remember that God has said that you should be strong and courageous and don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God is always with you. Christianity is not the belief of “hiding in a small building to form a unity”, it is not the belief that Buddhism has thought about it, nor is it the belief that Taoism sits to death in the mountains and old forests. Christians must go into the crowd, spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, be dexterous as a snake, be tame as a dove, and carry the cross to death.
