There’s one other thing to keep in mind, and I’ll let you go. There’s one other thing to be kept in mind.

还有一件事要记住，我就让你走了。还有一件事需要记住。

This has tremendous apologetic application as well. It’s not just because of Jehovah’s Witnesses or anything else.

这也有极大的护教学应用。这不仅仅是因为耶和华见证人或其他任何原因。

It has tremendous apologetic application. Here’s why.

这有极大的护教学应用。原因如下。

Most Christian apologists present a method of defending the faith that basically says what you do is you get together with the unbeliever and you say, I’ll tell you what, let’s stand on this neutral ground and let’s just reason together.

大多数基督徒护教学者所提出的护教方法基本上是这样说的:你要做的就是与非信徒聚在一起，然后说:「我告诉你吧，让我们站在中立的立场上，一起来讨论推理。」

I will lay aside my presuppositions. You lay aside your presuppositions.

我要放下我的预设。你也放下你的预设。

Let’s just come together on neutral ground and we’ll just reason with one another.

让我们在中立的地方相聚，彼此心平气和地讨论。

And I will demonstrate to you the reasonableness of believing that there is a God.

我要向你证明，相信有一位神是合情合理的。

That’s a very, very common perspective, a very, very common approach.

这是一个非常非常普遍的观点，一个非常非常常见的方法。

But think about it for just a moment. If this is true, if Jesus Christ as the Son, the eternal Son of God, created all things, could someone explain to me how you can find anything that’s neutral ground in what He Himself has created?

但请你仔细想一想。如果这是真的，如果耶稣基督作为神的儿子，永恒的圣子，创造了万物，那么请问，在祂所创造的万物中，怎么可能找到任何中立的地方呢？

Because if it exists, it exists because He made it. If it’s a fact, it’s a fact because He defines it.

因为如果它存在，它之所以存在是因为神创造了它。如果它是事实，它之所以是事实是因为神定义了它。

And so any Christian who pretends there’s such a thing as a neutral ground upon which to stand is actually being deceptive.

因此，任何自称立足于中立立场的基督徒，实际上是在自欺欺人。

I mean, if I follow that through, what I’m saying is, okay, we’ll stand on this neutral ground, but I really don’t believe there is any neutral ground.

我的意思是，如果我把这个想法贯彻到底，我要说的就是，好吧，我们站在中立的立场上，但我真的不相信有任何中立的立场。

But I’m going to try to bring you along and pretend that there is, but eventually somewhere we’re going to get down the road and I’m going to have to start telling you about who Jesus really is. And you might end up actually reading this.

但我会尽力带领你，假装真有这么一位，但最终在某个时候，我们会走到那一步，我不得不开始告诉你耶稣真正是谁。而你可能最后真的会读到这些。

And if you read this, you’re going to go, wait a minute. If this is the Jesus you’re trying to convince me I need to bow the knee to and believe in, you lied to me back at the start because you said, oh yeah, I can lay aside my presuppositions.

如果你读到这里，你会说：「等一下，如果这就是你要说服我需要屈膝相信的耶稣，那你一开始就骗了我，因为你说我可以放下我的预设。」

Here’s some neutral ground, but you don’t believe there is such a thing as neutral ground because if Jesus is actually the creator of all things, there is no neutral ground and you lied to me. And I don’t ever want to have that happen.

这里有一些中立的立场，但你不相信有所谓的中立立场，因为如果耶稣真的是万物的创造者，就没有中立的立场，而你欺骗了我。我不想让这种事情发生。

I don’t ever want to be in a situation where someone comes to me and says, you deceived me.

我绝不愿意有人来对我说：「你欺骗了我。」

You held back part of what you actually believe just to try to get me to come along.

你没有完全说出你真正相信的，只是想设法让我跟你一起去。

That’s why I can’t engage in that kind of apologetic.

这就是为什么我不能参与那种护教学。

And that’s why the Bible actually says in Romans chapter 1, what is mankind doing?

这就是为什么罗马书第一章实际上说，人类在做什么？

Is mankind really in a situation where, well, I don’t know if God exists. I’m not sure. There’s this and there’s that.

人类真的处在这样一种境地吗？就是说，我不知道神是否存在。我不确定。一方面如此，另一方面又如此。

What does Romans 1 say? God has made his existence clearly known through what has been made so that man is unapologetus, without an apologetic, and that man is suppressing that truth. He’s holding that truth down.

罗马书第一章说了什么？神借着所造之物，将自己的存在清楚地显明出来，叫人无可推诿，没有辩解的余地。人却抑制这真理，将真理压制下去。

That doesn’t mean every person has as clear an understanding or suppresses in the same way.

这并不意味着每个人都有同样清晰的理解，或以同样的方式压制这种理解。

There’s religious suppression. There’s pagan suppression. There’s elitist scientific suppression.

有宗教压迫。有异教压迫。有精英科学压迫。

There’s different ways of holding the truth down.

压制真理有许多不同的方式。

But the fact is when you bring facts to a rebel who’s already holding other facts down, they’re just going to suppress that fact as well.

但事实是，当你把事实摆在一个已经压制其他事实的叛逆者面前时，他们也会同样地压制这个事实。

You’ve got to be dealing with their rebellion first and foremost.

你首先必须应对他们的叛逆。

And so there’s a lot of implications. There’s a lot of results from understanding the radical nature of the Christian claim.

因此，这里有许多深意。明白基督教主张的根本性，会带来许多结果。