#23──其他天體──Other Heavenly Bodies

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第二部分：可見的創造系統

四、天體：第二十三章 其他天體

摩西寫下創世記19:23-25，宣稱「羅得到了瑣珥、日頭已經出來了。 當時耶和華將硫磺與火、從天上耶和華那裡、降與所多瑪和蛾摩拉、 把那些城、和全平原、並城裡所有的居民、連地上生長的、都毀滅了。」³³¹對所多瑪和蛾摩拉的人來說，一定是這種景象：前一刻，還有吃有喝；下一刻，就是一場聞所未聞的大災難。「全平原」都被上帝將硫磺與火從天而降給摧毀了──這事發生在亞伯拉罕與他們交戰並殺敗、搶劫了他們，且將其中的十分之一交給了住在撒冷附近的貧窮祭司王麥基洗德之後。亞伯拉罕和他的侄子羅得早已知道這些城市的腐敗，羅得甚至還住在那裡。當然，在埃及犯下錯誤之後，羅得明白要避開邪惡…，但他沒有，因他學得不快。

事實上，挪亞、閃和亞伯拉罕是同時代的人，這真是叫人吃驚。我們不知道亞伯拉罕是否曾花時間和挪亞在一起，但可以肯定的是，亞伯拉罕即或不是真正的認識他，但也會知道他。亞伯拉罕絕對知道天上的窗戶曾打開所引發的大洪水，羅得當然也是知道的。但從大水由天而降至硫磺冰雹降下之間大約有400年左右，人們可能早已忘記耶和華的憤怒是多麼的大而可畏，所多瑪和蛾摩拉的人絕對就是這樣。但挪亞、他兒子閃、他兒子亞法撒、他兒子沙拉 、他兒子希伯、他兒子法勒、他兒子拉吳、他兒子西鹿、他兒子拿鶴（亞伯拉罕的祖父）和他兒子他拉（亞伯拉罕的父親），他們都仍然活著這事，這真叫大部分人吃驚。挪亞是亞伯拉罕的曾-曾-曾-曾-曾-曾-曾-曾-祖父³³²，他們都是同時期生活在一起的，理應有人告訴他們、警告他們、向他們解釋：上帝的憤怒是多麼的大而可畏。

對於那些曾在信仰中花了一段時間的人來說，把智者從東方引領到耶穌出生之地的那顆大星，幾乎不需要解釋了，但且讓我們花點時間細查一下：「當下希律暗暗的召了博士來、細問那星是甚麼時候出現的。就差他們往伯利恆去、說、你們去仔細尋訪那小孩子．尋到了、就來報信、我也好去拜他。他們聽見王的話、就去了．在東方所看見的那星、忽然在他們前頭行、直行到小孩子的地方、就在上頭停住了。他們看見那星、就大大的歡喜。」³³³ 智者知道──這星出現的確切時間、這星在他們前頭行、這星在孩子所在之地的上頭停住了──這三個觀察點讓我們發出許多疑問。他們知道這星首次出現的地點和時間應該不算為奇蹟，但這星再度出現、引領他們、然後停住了？ 這本身確實是個奇蹟，但至今我們沒能得到任何的解釋，這可能是來自上帝聖靈的「Shekinah 榮耀」³³⁴。我們不知道它是否起源於宇宙論，只知道它是因宇宙學而產生出來的。

兒童故事家霍華德．J．奇德利 (Howard J. Chidley) 說：「彗星是流蕩的星，它們拒絕被束縛，於空中漫遊著。」³³⁵。霍華德所說的大部分內容與聖經有出入，但在這一點上他卻是正確的。談到彗星或行星，猶大是這麼說：「是海裡的狂浪、湧出自己可恥的沫子來．是流蕩的星、有墨黑的幽暗為他們永遠存留。」³³⁶ 譯者對 「流蕩的星」所使用的詞是：“ἀστήρ” 或 「一顆星星」和 “πλανήτης” 或「流蕩者」，基本上星星的第一個詞 (“ἀστήρ”)，就是「星」的意思──它在希臘的文本中出現了24次這個「星」字。而能引起我們注意的，是第二個詞 (“πλανήτης”) ³³⁷──即希臘文中的 “planétés”一字，它只在猶大書中使用了一次。有趣的是，”πλανάω”（或planaó）這個字的字根，在新約中被使用了39次，它的意思是被「欺騙」四十次──我們被警告說要警惕流蕩的騙子。而在第40次（因為猶大是最後一個引用這個詞的），我們則被警告說，甚至眾星本身也可以是流蕩的星，是以星星的形態而展現的。如果我們聽從了上帝的警告──讓我們不要被欺騙了，彗星、行星或小行星都是漂浮在太陽周圍的髒冰塊。

我們可以在本章中討論所有其他的天空現象，我們可以討論彩虹、天上的窗戶（水閘）…，但我們在本書的其他部分會有更多詳細的介紹。如果我們走得太快，可能會錯過一些東西，就是那不靠機器而飛行的想法──我們很容易在我們的思想上蹦出在漫畫或電影裡會飛的人；甚至印度的《摩訶婆羅多》(Mahabharata) 也在公元前 200 年左右提到飛行城市、飛船和戰車；由奧維德 (Ovid) 在公元前5年左右寫成希臘傳說中的故事伊卡洛斯 (Icarus) ，它講述了一個或許人類可以通過自己的設備來飛行的概念──伴隨這些神話而來的，是建立在它們之上的其他神話，最終我們有了Kal-El (譯者注：超人原名Kal-El）³³⁸──在《最後的氪星之子》(the last son of Krypton) 的電影裡 ³³⁹，作為一個敵基督的假彌賽亞。我已厭倦了寓言，想尋求瞭解飛人這事的真相，所以我轉向神所默示的話語。

那麼這個呢？從摩西平淡無奇而又完美精確的筆下，我們看到雅各在創世記第28章中說：「夢見一個梯子立在地上、梯子的頭頂著天、有　神的使者在梯子上、上去下來。耶和華站在梯子以上…。」³⁴⁰ 首先，讓我們千萬不要忽略──大地是堅定不動搖、頭頂上方是天，在其上的就是上帝。梯子──就是從天到地的主要交通系統，事實上，這個裝置、這個機器，是我們看到天使用來往返天地間唯一一個的工具。聖經中一次又一次地提到只有一個「上 去」和一個「下來」，這難道不有趣嗎？讓我們不要忘記以利亞和火旋風、火馬和火車！這些到底是怎麼回事？

但我講得有點超過了，這是這本書第二部分的結尾──［可見的創造系統］──而這裡我要講的是不可見的東西… 是這本書下一部分的主題。所以，我將離開並進入下一部分。

註

³³¹ JPS Tanakh 1917

³³² 創世記10

³³³ 馬太福音2:7-10

³³⁴ 出埃及記13，出埃及記33

³³⁵ 《對男孩和女孩的五十二個故事講座》作者：霍華德．J．奇德利 (Howard J. Chidley)，2005年

³³⁶ 猶大書 1:13

³³⁷ 關於「流蕩的騙子」的更深入解釋，請見本書第11章。

³³⁸ Copyright 2008 by DC Comics/Time Warner and Jerry Siegel.

³³⁹ 同上

³⁴⁰ 創世記28:12,13a

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購買英文版 Buy the book online: Biblical Cosmology Paperback

Part Two: The System of Visible Creation

IV: Celestial Bodies──Chapter 23: Other Heavenly Bodies

“The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar. Then the LORD caused to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” Declares Moses, writing Genesis 19:23-25.¹ It must have been some sight for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. One moment, there’s eating and drinking, and the next moment, a cataclysm of the like no one had ever heard of. “all the plain” was decimated by burning sulfur, that God had sent from the heavens. This was after Abraham had defeated them in battle and robbed them blind, and gave a tenth of it to the poorly priest-king Melchesideck, who lived in the neighboring town of Salem. Abraham and his nephew Lot had known all about the corruption of the cities. Lot even lived there. Surely, after the mistakes made in Egypt, Lot would have figured out to steer clear of evil… But no. He was not a quick learner.

The fact that Noah and Shem and Abraham were contemporaries surprises people. We don’t know if Abraham ever hung out with Noah, but we can be sure that Abraham knew about him, if not actually knowing him. Surely Abraham had known about the great deluge in which the floodgates of heaven opened. Surely Lot knew this as well… But in the 400 or so years between the events of the waters coming down from heaven, and the brimstone & sulfur hail coming down, people just may have forgotten about how great and terrible the wrath of YHVH is. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah certainly did. But the fact that Noah, his son Shem, his son Arphaxad, his son Eber, his son Peleg, his son Reu, his son Serug, his son Nahor (Abraham’s grandfather) and his son Terah (Abraham’s father) were all still alive is astonishing to most. Noah is Abraham’s great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great-grandfather,² and they all lived together at the same time… Someone should have told them, warned them, explained to them, just how great and terrible the wrath of God was.

The great star that led the Magi from the east to the place where Jesus was born needs little explanation to those who have spent any time in the faith. But let us examine it for a minute. “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and learned from them the exact time the star had appeared. And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.”³ They knew the exact time the star appeared. The star moved ahead of them. The star stood over the place where the child was. These three observances of the magi leave us much to question. That they knew where and when it first appeared should be no miracle, but to have it reappear and lead them and then stop?! This is indeed a miracle in itself. We have no explanation to date. It may have been the “Shekinah glory”⁴ from the Holy Spirit of God. We do not know if it was cosmological in origin, only that it was cosmological in effect.

“Comets are tramp stars. They refuse to be tied up, and they ramble about all over the sky.”⁵ Says Children’s story-teller, Howard J. Chidley. Much of what Howard says is in disagreement with the Word, but in this he is correct. Jude speaks of comets, or perhaps, planets in this way: “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”⁶ The word the translators use for “wandering stars” are: “ἀστήρ” or, “a star” and “πλανήτης” or, “a wanderer” the first word for star is basically “star” – it means what it means in the 24 occurrences in the Greek texts. It is the word: “star.” And that is that. It is the second word that draws our attention.⁷ – It is the word “planétés” in Greek. It is only used once here in Jude. What is interesting is that the root word: “πλανάω (or planaó)” is used 39 times in the New Testament. It means: “To deceive” Forty times we are warned about wandering liars. And on the fortieth time (because Jude is the last reference of the word) we are warned that even the stars themselves can be wandering liars in the form of stars. If ever we heeded a Godly warning… Let us not be deceived that comets, planets, or asteroids are dirty chunks of ice floating around the sun.

We could talk about all the other sky-phenomenon here in this chapter. We could discuss rainbows, or the floodgates… But we have them in greater detail in other parts of the book. There is something that we might miss if we went along too quickly, and that is the idea of flight without machine. Too readily in our minds spring the ideas of flying men from comic books or movies. Even the Hindu Mahabharata mentions flying cities, dirigibles, and chariots around 200 BC. The story of Icarus was written by Ovid around 5 BC, and it dealt with the idea that perchance, men could be able to fly by their own devices. With these myths come other myths that built on top of them, and eventually we have Kal-El⁸, the last son of Krypton⁹ as an anti-Christ false messiah. I am tired of fables, and seek to know the truth of the matter of flying men. So I turn to the inspired Word of God.

What about this then? From the unimaginative and perfectly precise pen of Moses, we see Jacob in Genesis 28: “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it.”¹⁰ First of all, let’s be sure not to miss the earth as a fixed place and the heaven directly above it. And above that is God. This was the main transportation system from Heaven to Earth. Indeed, this device, this machine as it were, is the only object we see angels using to transport themselves up and down from Earth to Heaven. Isn’t it interesting how there is only one “up” and only one “down” mentioned time and time again in the Word? And let us not forget about Elijah and the fiery whirlwind, the fiery horses and the fiery chariots! What in the world are those about?

But I jump ahead of myself. This is the end of Part Two of this book. The System of Visible Creation, and here I am going on about invisible things… Which is the topic of the next part of the book. So, I will leave off and move on into that next part.

Footnotes

¹ JPS Tanakh 1917

² Genesis 10

³ Matthew 2:7-10 BSB

⁴ Exodus 13, Exodus 33

⁵ Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls by Howard J. Chidley, 2005

⁶ Jude 13, KJV

⁷ For a deeper explanation on “Wandering Liars”, see chapter 11 of this book.

⁸ Copyright 2008 by DC Comics/Time Warner and Jerry Siegel.

⁹ Ibid

¹⁰ Genesis 28:12,13a KJV

──Biblical Cosmology by Pauly Hart
Permission for VineMedia to use

SUPPORT – Pauly Hart

Buy the book online: Biblical Cosmology Paperback

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