陈鸽 老牧师向全世界敲响警钟（全文如下）
社会不义和福音（2018-8-13）
作者：麦克阿瑟（JohnMacArthur）翻译：陈鸽
来源：https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B180813
圣经说：神地上的命立政权，为要替天行道、伸张公义，信徒理当顺服在上的权柄。“因为他是神的用人，是与你有益的。他……是伸冤的，刑罚那作恶的。”（罗13:1-4）然而人类历史上从来没有一个持守公正、完全公义的政府。其实，当保罗写这些吩咐时，罗马的尼禄王正在执掌大权，他是世界舞台上臭名昭彰、最不公不义、残忍狠心的掌权者者之一。
身为信徒，“我们知道……全世界都卧在那恶者手下。”（约一5:19）因此，历世历代，世俗的权力机构，不论从前或现在，多多少少总参杂着不义，只是程度上的不同而已。
即便美国，虽然建立在全人类“蒙创造主赋予某些与生俱来之权力”的理论基础上，但却自相矛盾地维持了那剥夺人权与自由的奴隶制度，迫使千千万万的人失去了平等追求幸福生活的机会。好几代的非洲族群，因此被合法地（却不人道地）践踏到人类社会的底层。根据1860 的统计，当林肯宣告解放黑奴时，那一代的奴隶就有四百万人之多。
美国的内战和废除奴隶制，也没有自动结束这种不义的现象，又过了一百年后，美国联邦政府才禁止在公共场所实行种族隔离，并开始认真通过立法，平等地保障所有老百姓的公民权益。在此之前，南方各州被释放的奴隶和他们的后代都被法律规划到公共汽车的后排座，而且因着他们的肤色，经常遭到轻蔑或虐待。
1960年代，在美国南部，我略尝了被欺负和受歧视的滋味。那时，我花了不少时间和我的好朋友珀金斯（John Perkins）一起在密西西比州（Mississippi）乡村布道，他是一位著名的黑人福音派领袖，在种族隔离的黑人高中里传扬福音。其中一次旅程中，当我们在一条土路上驾车时，一位当地的警官（明目张胆的狂人）好像直接从“炎热的夜晚”（美国电视连续剧）中冒出来的，把我拘留起来，关进了他的监狱，指控我扰乱治安，并没收了我的钱包。最终，他没有起诉就释放了我。我想，他认为从我那儿充公的钱，还算足够来补偿他所反感的事。
在那些日子，任何向上级提出的上诉都是白费的，而且可能适得其反，反倒激怒那个警官；我所能做的就只有退让一步了。
1968年4月，当金恩博士（MartinLuther King Jr. 美国黑人民权领袖）在孟菲斯（Memphis）遇刺时，正巧我又和珀金斯牧师（John Perkins）以及一群黑人教会领袖在密西西比州（Mississippi）一起服事。带领我们团队的其中一位是密西西比州“黑人协会”主席埃弗斯（CharlesEvers），他的兄弟Medgar于1963年被KKK党杀害了。金恩博士被杀的消息一传出，我们立刻驾车前往现场，在他遇刺后不到几个小时，就到达了洛仁旅馆（Lorraine Motel），站在他被枪杀的阳台上。我们还参观了凶手詹姆斯（James Earl Ray）站在马桶上发射致命枪弹的地点。
我痛恨种族歧视及其滋生的一切残酷与不义。我深信，消除种族仇恨与偏见，唯一持之有效的解决方法是耶稣基督的福音。唯有在基督里，人与人之间的隔墙才能拆毁，民与民中间的敌意才能化解；唯有在基督里，不同文化和种族才能融为一个新的群体（弗2:14-15）。这是民权运动期间，我与黑人领袖们所共同持守的信念。
然而，今天那些话最多、嗓门最大的福音派人士却不以为然，他们似乎对所谓的“社会公义”有截然不同的认识。无疑，他们的言辞指向了另一个方向，要求一个族群对其祖先得罪另一个族群的罪行，进行悔改和赔偿。这是法律的用语，而不是福音！更糟糕的是，它反映了世俗政治的行话，而非基督的信息。
这是一个令人惊叹的讽刺：那些原本来自于不同种族却在基督里合一的信徒，如今竟然决定在种族问题上制造矛盾。似乎，他们藐视在基督里真实的合一，宁可搞肉体的派系，也不要属灵的和睦。
我相信，近来福音派对“社会公义”的迷恋是一个关键性的转移，这个对（福音）信息的移情别恋，正在导致许多人（包括一些重要的福音派领袖）走向下滑的轨道，这是一条许多宗派和运动都曾经走过的、并且必然导致属灵毁灭的道路。
虽然多年来，我曾多次与威胁福音的思潮作过激烈的论战，但我认为，这一场突如其来、绕道寻求的“社会正义”，是迄今为止对福音最狡猾、最阴险的威胁。
在接下来几周的一系列博客文章中，我想解释一下为什么是如此。首先，我将要回顾一下：我们曾经打过的仗，这些仗都是为了保守福音的清晰、精确、与核心而打的（免得我们模糊了福音的焦点）。我们也将要看到：为什么“圣经公义”与世俗化、自由主义的“社会公义”理念南辕北辙，几乎没有任何的共通点。并且，我们也将要分析：为什么当前将种族冲突、贫富不均、等等社会问题提升到福音议程首位的运动，会对这使人和睦的真正福音信息构成如此严重的威胁。
我盼望，你们都能看清：“神的愚拙总比人智慧，神的软弱总比人强壮。”（林前1:25）尤其当我们谈论到神为他福音的传播和他国度的发展所选择的策略时，更是如此！
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原文如下：
Social Injustice and the Gospel
by John MacArthur
Monday, August 13, 2018
Scripture says earthly governments are ordained by God toadminister justice, and believers are to be subject to their authority. Thecivil magistrate is “a minister of God to you for good . . . an avenger whobrings wrath on the one who practices evil” (Romans 13:1–4). But it isalso true that no government in the history of the world has managed to beconsistently just. In fact, when Paul wrote that command, the Roman Emperor wasNero, one of the most grossly unjust, unprincipled, cruel-hearted men ever towield power on the world stage.
As believers, “we know . . . that the whole world lies inthe power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), so worldlypower structures are—and always have been—systemically unjust to one degree oranother.
Even the United States, though founded on the preceptthat all members of the human race “are endowed by their Creator with certainunalienable Rights,” incongruously maintained a system of forced slavery thatwithheld the full benefits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness frommultitudes. Many generations of people from African ethnicities were thuslegally (but immorally) relegated to subhuman status. According to the 1860census, there were about four million in the generation of slaves who werebeing held in servitude when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Civil War and the abolishment of slavery did notautomatically end the injustice. A hundred years passed before the federal governmentbanned segregation in public places and began in earnest to pass legislationsafeguarding the civil rights of all people equally. Until then, freed slavesand their descendants in Southern states were literally relegated by law to theback of the bus and frequently treated with scorn or incivility because of thecolor of their skin.
I got a small taste of what it felt like to be bulliedand discriminated against in the American South in the 1960s. I spent a lot oftime traveling through rural Mississippi with my good friend John Perkins, awell-known black evangelical leader, preaching the gospel in segregated blackhigh schools. During one of those trips, as we drove down a dirt road, a localsheriff—an openly bigoted character straight out of In the Heat of the Night—tookme into custody, held me in his jail, and accused me of disturbing the peace.He also confiscated (and kept) all my money. He ultimately released me withoutfiling charges. I suppose he considered the money he took from me an adequatefine for doing something he disapproved of.
In those days any appeal to higher authorities would havebeen fruitless and possibly counterproductive. All I could do was try not toantagonize him further.
I was again ministering in Mississippi with John Perkinsand a group of black church leaders in April 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr.was assassinated in Memphis. One of the men leading our group was CharlesEvers, head of the Mississippi NAACP. (His brother Medgar had been killed in1963 by the KKK.) When news of Dr. King’s murder broke, we drove to Memphis—andliterally within hours after Dr. King was assassinated, we were at the LorraineMotel, standing on the balcony where he was shot. We were also shown the placewhere James Earl Ray stood on a toilet to fire the fatal shot.
I deplore racism and all the cruelty and strife itbreeds. I am convinced the only long-term solution to every brand of ethnicanimus is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ alone are the barriers anddividing walls between people groups broken down, the enmity abolished, anddiffering cultures and ethnic groups bound together in one new people (Ephesians 2:14–15). The blackleaders with whom I ministered during the civil rights movement shared thatconviction.
The evangelicals who are saying the most and talking theloudest these days about what’s referred to as “social justice” seem to have avery different perspective. Their rhetoric certainly points a differentdirection, demanding repentance and reparations from one ethnic group for thesins of its ancestors against another. It’s the language of law, not gospel—andworse, it mirrors the jargon of worldly politics, not the message of Christ. Itis a startling irony that believers from different ethnic groups, now one inChrist, have chosen to divide over ethnicity. They have a true spiritual unityin Christ, which they seem to disdain in favor of fleshly factions.
Evangelicalism’s newfound obsession with the notion of“social justice” is a significant shift—and I’m convinced it’s a shift that ismoving many people (including some key evangelical leaders) off message, andonto a trajectory that many other movements and denominations have taken before,always with spiritually disastrous results.
Over the years, I’ve fought a number of polemical battlesagainst ideas that threaten the gospel. This recent (and surprisingly sudden)detour in quest of “social justice” is, I believe, the most subtle anddangerous threat so far.
In a series of blog posts over the next couple of weeks,I want to explain why. I’ll review some of the battles we have fought to keepthe gospel clear, precise, and at the center of our focus. We’ll see why biblicaljustice has little in common with the secular, liberal idea of “socialjustice.” And we’ll analyze why the current campaign to move social issues likeethnic conflicts and economic inequality to the top of the evangelical agendaposes such a significant threat to the real message of gospel reconciliation.
I hope you’ll see that “the foolishness of God is wiserthan men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25)—and that’snever more true than when we are talking about the strategy God has chosen forthe spread of the gospel and the growth of Christ’s kingdom.
JohnMacArthur
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