昔日真理報 -

各位晚安!
Good evening!

當我上台作見證之時，我覺得自己是不配的。如果你是基督徒，你必須明白，你能為神作見證其實是一種祂所賜予的特別恩典。因為我們本來就是全然敗壞的人，是憑主神的恩典、是單單憑著神的恩典被祂拯救的人。你是什??麼人？你憑什麼用你這雙手事奉全能的上帝呢？你有什麼東西可獻給上帝呢？全地都是祂的，一切都是祂造的，榮耀頌讚本來就都是祂的。

Whenever I am giving my testimony on stage, I think of myself as someone unworthy. If you are a Christian, you need to understand that it is a privilege for an individual to share a testimony for God. Who are we? We are totally depraved; it is by God's grace and grace alone that we are saved. What make us to be worthy to serve Lord God Almighty? What makes us to be worthy to offer something to the Lord God? The whole earth is His and everything is created by Him. It is Him who is worthy of all the praises. His name alone should be glorified.

我記得我十四歲半，我家裡人把我送到了紐約。那時候我母親在那裡接觸了教會。很多的新移民都知道從教會裡可以得到很多方面的幫助，尤其是心靈上的。我母親在教會裡找到了一份溫暖。在我十五歲的時候，她在紐約的教會裡受洗。於是，她也就吩咐我要去教會。然後，我在想說，母親第一次用她母親的權柄（她平常都很溫柔），第一次用吩咐的。我想這個一定要聽，我就去教會了。

When I was fourteen, my mother sent me to New York City. At that time, she joined a Christian church. Many new immigrants got their spiritual and practical needs met there, including my mother. She felt warmly welcomed in the church. When I was fifteen years old, she was baptized, after which, she commanded me to attend her church. Before this, she was always very gentle; she had never used her authority as a mother. I thought I must listen to her first commandment, ever. As a result, I went to the church.

當我走進教會的時候，很驚訝那裡的人讓我感覺到跟其他地方的人很不一樣。我對紐約的印象是，那裡的人都是非常現實，企圖心很強的。而教會裡的人卻不是這樣。

To my surprise, a Christian church was very different from everywhere else I had encountered. My impression was that New York City was very goal-oriented. However, what I felt in church was different from this.

在台灣時，我也上過一段學。從小學開始讀到國中，我一直覺得社會上的人都是很現實的——在學校裡，每個人都想成為成績優異的好學生，這樣便能得到同學的尊重和老師的欣賞；而那些功課不好的，就被老師忽視，也被同學看不起。可是在教會不一樣，大家者很友好，我發現同一個高中的學長、輔導老師，都很親切和善。我發現基督徒對待人的態度與其祂人不同，所以我很樂意聽他們的話。

When I was in Taiwan, I had attended school for some time. From elementary school to junior high, I had always felt that people around me were very realistic. In school, everybody wanted to be a top student who was respected by schoolmates and favoured by teachers. On the other hand, those who did not succeed academically were dismissed and ignored. This was not the same in Church. People in church treated each other well. Both the seniors from my high school and counselors in church were very kind. Their attitude was so different from other people. As a result, I felt I should listen to Christians.

基督徒都說要讀《聖經》，他們告訴我，不要從舊約創世紀開始，因為那對我來說可能太難懂了，而要從馬太、馬可、路加、約翰福音開始。他們建議我先從《馬可福音》開始讀，因為那一篇最短，最適合初學者。
They talked about why people should read Bible. I was told not to start form the book of Genesis in Old Testament because it was too difficult for me to understand. Instead, I started from the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Particularly, I was also told that the Gospel of Mark was the shortest, which made it to be suitable for beginners.

那時候我是從《馬太福音》開始讀的。我媽媽說如果遇到諸如耶穌家譜之類比較難懂的，就先跳過去。記得我第一次讀《聖經》，我發現《聖經》中所講的事情，特別是《新約聖經》中的話語，都是非常有力量的。跟我以前所讀過的書籍，不管是《論語》、佛經還是《可蘭經》都大不相同。《聖經》所講的道理很有力量，就好像真的在對你講話一樣。而且，它裡面所講的事情和它的作者馬太、馬可、路加、約翰不像是編出來的。他們所寫的東西就好像他們站在旁邊所看到的，耶穌基督叫一個人從死裡復活，是他們親自看到了，就把記下來。換言之，他們都是那些事件的目擊證人。
So I began reading form the Gospel of Matthew. My mother told me to skip whatever was hard to understand, such as Jesus' genealogy. When I read it for the very first time, I discovered that the Bible, especially the words of The New Testament, were very powerful. It was different from the books that I had read before, including the Analects of Confucius, Buddhist classics or The Koran. The Bible spoke to me more profoundly. Moreover, its content did not seem like something made up. According to the narrative of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I could tell they were standing next to Jesus Christ when he made one man rise from death. In other words, they were eyewitnesses of Jesus — what they were writing down was what they had seen.

這些就使這本書顯得非常信實可靠。閱讀《聖經》讓我對耶穌感到十分驚奇，祂的偉大超乎我的想像。到一個地步，我說，耶穌基督真是好啊，祂真全然美善，如果祂是上帝，我一定要相信祂。祂是讓瞎眼的看見，瘸腿的行走，祂叫死人也復活。祂做的都好，祂講的話都純正，祂的智慧超越一切。那時候我想，他們怎麼可以殺死祂？這些人在幹什麼？可是，正當我以祂已死去之時，祂又復活了。哇，這不是小事情哦，復活了！我想要弄清自己是否真正了解了這事，於是我回去問我的輔導老師，就是我已經非常信賴，覺得氣質非常出眾的那位。我信任他，是因為他跟我以前在學校裡遇到過的老師都不一樣，他是一位基督徒老師，臉上總是帶著慈祥的笑容。我尊敬這位老師，相信他不會騙我。
All these things together made the Bible trustworthy. After I read the Bible, I was amazed by the personality of Jesus Christ. His greatness was beyond my understanding. I told myself, " If Jesus is God, I want to believe in him. " Everything in him was good. He made blind to see, the lame to walk, and He made the dead to be alive again. Everything he did was good; His words were pure, and His wisdom was above all. But then, they killed him. I thought to myself, "How could they kill Him? What were these people doing ？" However, just when I thought that he was dead, he resurrected. Wow! This was huge! Resurrection! I wanted to make sure I understood it correctly, so I asked a reliable and special teacher in church. I trusted him because he was different from all the other teachers in my school years: he was a Christian. He always wore a smile on his face. I respected him as my teacher, and I believed that he would not lie to me.

我問他:"老師，《聖經》說耶穌基督就是上帝，這是真的嗎？"他說："當然是真的啊！"他說是真的，就是真的，就這樣，我就相信我所讀的《聖經》是不會錯的。我心裡對《聖經》的感受是吻合的。事實上，這就是真理，耶穌基督不是上帝誰是上帝？
I asked him, "The Bible said Jesus Christ is God, is that true ？" "Of course, it is true", he replied. In my opinion, if he said it was true, it must be true. Therefore, I believed that the Bible I read couldn't be wrong. This conclusion matched the true feelings in my heart. In fact, it was the truth, for if Jesus Christ was not God, then who was God?

而且，當我繼續讀《聖經》的時候，又發現上帝真是全然公義的。在我讀了《出埃及記》的時候，那裡面有上帝所頒布的律法，祂所命定的事，祂對公義的標準，都表明祂真是一位公義的神。祂是如此地聖潔，就算祂給人的一切刑罰，都是因為祂的公義。這樣一位上帝是不會有錯的。

As I continued reading the Bible, I discovered that God was truly righteous. I found this to be the case after I studied the book of Exodus, where God made his divine laws known. Through this process, I discovered that he was indeed righteous. For example, his instructions and His standard of righteousness proved what a just God He is. He is so holy that even his punishments towards people were based on righteousness. Such a God like this cannot be wrong.

還有一件事情就是上帝一定不會說謊，祂說真神只有一位，別人卻說還有很多的神。既然有了相互矛盾的陳述，那麼其中必有一個是謊言。我的結論是，我所信的上帝不會說謊，那麼那些人說的就是虛假的。事情就這麼簡單: 耶穌基督是上帝，我所信的上帝才是真神。祂是真的上帝，祂有能力，祂所寫的話語也有能力。這是真實無疑的。到此為止，一切聽起來都很好。

Another fact was that God cannot lie. He said there is only one God, but other people say that there are many gods. Because the statements contradict each other, the logical conclusion is that one of the statements is a lie. I concluded, " My God cannot lie, so the others must be the false teachers " . It was pretty simple: Jesus Christ was God, my God was God. This God is the real God. He has power, and the words in His book also have power. Therefore, it was real. Up to that moment, everything sounded great.

可是，當我讀到《啟示錄》的時候，情況有點不同了。以前，我在台灣時就聽說過《啟示錄》。喜歡看漫畫書的年輕人可能都知道，有些日本作家和漫畫家很大膽，敢在他們的漫畫中使用《聖經》裡面的一些經句、例子。其中，我就看到過有用《啟示錄》來作題材而創作的漫畫。當時，對其中所講的關於末世的事情，我就感到很可怕。後來，在我真正讀《啟示錄》的時候，我覺得更可怕，因為那裡面所講的都是真的，上帝所說的事都一定會成為現實。當我讀到"那時候看到他們痛苦得煙要往上冒，直到永永遠遠"（啟示錄14:11）的時候，害怕得要死。因此，過很久以後我才敢再去看一次《啟示錄》。因為看的時候我覺得太恐怖了。些聖經中表達的觀念，在我十五、六歲的時候就已留在我的意念中了。（未完待續）
And then, I began reading from the book of Revelation. I had heard about the book of Revelation back in Taiwan. Those of you who enjoy reading comics will know that Japanese writers and cartoonists are very bold, even to the point of using Bible verses and stories in their comic strips. One of the comics that I read was based on the book of Revelation. Even then I was horrified by those scenes about the last days. When I later read the book of Revelation, I was even more horrified to discover that everything I read was real and whatever spoken by God was about to happen. I was scared to death as I read "the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever (Revelation 14:11)". It took me a long time before I dared to read the book of Revelation again. I felt horrified whenever I read that book because these basic biblical concepts had been in my mind since I was fifteen or sixteen years old. (To be continued ...)