但聖靈降臨在你們身上，你們就必得著能力
...直到地極，作我的見證。基督徒的教會，
其首要責任是把福音傳揚到地極，
這個普遍的觀念是錯誤的！
她首先的責任乃是，在靈性上，
配得上去傳揚福音。
我們的主說"你們要去"，但祂也說"要等候"，
等候必須要先於去。假如門徒們在五旬節之前，
就以宣教士的身分出去，那將會是一場極大的
屬靈災難，因為他們所能做的只不過是，
按著他們自己的樣子，使人改變信仰，
而且那將會改變整個西方世界的歷史，使其更糟，
並帶下其後果，貫穿著將要來臨的各世代。
理論上，種子就是神的話語，
應該會產出同樣的果實來，
無論撒種之人的屬靈光景如何；
然而事情卻不是那樣運作的！
完全相同的信息，
藉由不同敬虔程度的人，
向不信的人們傳講，
將會產生出有差別的悔改者，
並且帶來品質呈現差異的基督教，
根據著傳講者的清潔與權能。
基督教將會一直複製，並各從其類。
一個世俗化、缺乏靈性的教會，
當她跨洋過海，向其他語言和文化的人民
作見證時，必定會在彼岸，
帶出一個非常像她自己的基督教。
But ye shall receive power, after that
the Holy Ghost is comeupon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto me...
unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The popular notion that the first obligation
of the Christian Church is to spread the gospel
to the uttermost parts of the earth is false!
Her first obligation is to be spiritually
worthy to spread the gospel.
Our Lord said "Go ye" but He also said "Tarry ye,"
and the tarrying had to come before the going.
Had the disciples gone forth as missionaries
before the day of Pentecost it would have been
an overwhelming spiritual disaster, for they could
have done no more than make converts after
their own likeness, and this would have altered
for the worse the whole history of the Western world
and had consequences throughout the ages to come.
Theoretically the seed, being the Word of God,
should produce the same kind of fruit
regardless of the spiritual condition of those
who scatter it; but it does not work that way!
The identical message preached to the heathen
by men of differing degrees of godliness will
produce different kinds of converts and
result in a quality of Christianity varying
according to the purity and power
of those who preach it.
Christianity will always reproduce after its kind.
A worldly minded, unspiritual church,
when she crosses the ocean to give her witness
to peoples of other tongues and cultures,
is sure to bring forth on other shores
a Christianity much like her own!
- 陶恕 (A. W. Tozer, 1897-1963)
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