第一章 与敌戏耍

现今地球这个行星上的生活是一幅正义颠倒的绝望景象。放纵肉体与不道德的行为、言语所无法形容的歪曲变态已经招致了邪恶的结果。

媒体评论员每天都提醒着我们，每年有超过一百万的美国少女怀孕，其中每5人中就有4人是未婚的。民意测验显示，将近80%的年轻人看不出婚前性行为有什么问题。同性恋与堕胎被合法地通过，公然而行都几乎没有人表示强烈反对。敬虔的家庭与个人发现自己在一个邪恶林立的外邦世界中几乎是被围攻了。孩子们的教育问题困扰着家长，实难作出决定；该怎样保护孩子们免于接触受到许可的性教育所同时提供的使人违法放任的途径呢？

真实的基督徒们第一次开始明白耶稣的话是什么意思了，祂说，“人所尊贵的，是上帝看为可憎恶的。”（路16：15）。即便不是所有的事物都非常淫秽，但占据现今大多数美国人的时间与思想的那些事物，都倾向于体贴肉体的情欲。这光彩四射的人造娱乐世界已使许多真诚的基督徒面对一次良心的危机。；即使是那被看为无害的家常便饭之事，也正服务于撒旦狡诈地组织反对真理之活动的目的。除了色情摇滚乐外，毒品、酒精与性问题也存在于教会与世界妥协的阴暗领域里，——教会与世界安逸地彼此友爱之处。这就是“人所尊贵的”领域。在这里属肉体之子与属灵之子坐在一起观看晚间电视广播的献礼，称赞着那些扮演俗丽角色的华而不实的明星。

在这一令人兴奋的生活空间中，基督徒与非基督徒之间没有严格地划分。所有人都拥挤聚集在同样的露天看台上，尖叫着支持舞台上和运动场上偶像化的表演者。

意识形态上如此互为仇敌的双方竟安适地串通一气，我们谈论这个很重要吗？我认为是的。当圣徒与罪人喜欢同样类型的娱乐，因同样的笑话发笑时，就是有某些事出错了。我确实相信，正确理解这一明显矛盾的情况可以拯救数百万人，他们现在对这种精神同化之事竟感觉不到什么矛盾之处。本书的宗旨就是要显明撒旦对基督复临安息日会基督徒们破釜沉舟的最后攻击，必是基于教会与世界之间不适当的、热情的关系之上。

我们将要认识到，撒旦为什么那么坚决的要使上帝的子民犯罪，以及为什么他总是通过媒介来攻击他们，这媒介吸引人类最强烈的情感。雅各写道：“在上帝我们的父面前，那清洁没有玷污的虔诚，就是…保守自己不沾染世俗。”(雅1：27)。如果与上帝有真实关系的秘诀，就在于要抵制沾染世俗，甚至是最小的一点沾染，那么我们当然就需要查明“世俗”是由什么组成的，以及它为什么会是上帝的敌人。这里一点那里一点的世俗化，决不是真宗教的一部分。我们需要一种清晰完全的分别。

基督与撒旦之间，属肉体与属灵之间，教会与世俗之间的大争战已经进行了六千年。撒旦的军队多次包围圣徒的营，而目击这见证的记录者们则仔细地保存下了这些战事的潮汐。为了使我们能够学习大仇敌的战略，那些记录都被神圣地保护着。认识到要致力于毁灭我们的那一位的武器与作战计划，其重要性是前所未有的。

我们可以诚实地说圣经中首要的主题之一就是上帝的救赎计划要产生一班洁净的、顺服的子民；而撒旦的策略就是要使人不顺从。在善恶大战最初期，撒旦就控告上帝作了不可能达到的要求。律法被嘲笑为太严格了，以至堕落的人类根本遵守不了。通过这些指控，他想证明自己的不顺从是正当的。撒旦确信无论是亚当还是他的后代都永远不能胜过罪；撒旦为此颇为幸灾乐祸，他期望迫使上帝改变计划把罪带入天庭，或者承认祂的救赎计划是失败的，因为没有人能有资格进到那里去。因而，撒旦就沉迷于完成他自己所预测的，要把每个人都拘禁在不断犯罪（违背律法）的捆绑之中。

显然，于是人类就是一场善恶大战的焦点。既然上帝的公义与正直在全宇宙面前受到了挑战，那么妥善地解决这些问题就成了全宇宙所永远关注的。大争战的结果或者就将危害到亿万生灵永恒的未来，或者就将永久性地除掉所有的争论，不再质疑上帝如何安排对待其创造物。

正是你和我要在这场可怕的竞赛结果中扮演一个极其重要的角色，念及于此真是太令人惊奇了！当我们自己每一次进行抵挡试探的小战役时，就是真实地在参与那场更大的争战，争战的结果将影响上帝在生灵遍布的全宇宙中的尊严。基督与撒旦之间的善恶大争战，并不是发生在距离地球这个行星几百万光年之外的、某个遥远的大战场上的。它就发生在此时此刻，在你和我的心思意念的大舞台上。

对于个人反对撒旦的欺骗所做的这些争战产生的巨大后果，了解的人何其少啊！但是撒旦自己却完全知道那意味着什么。这是他攻击上帝的圣德与统治的最后机会；他要不遗顽固与热诚之余力，来阻止每一个生灵完全胜过罪。

Chapter 1  FLIRTING WITH THE ENEMY

　　LIFE on planet earth today is a despairing scene of righteousness in reverse. The deeds of carnal excess, immorality and unspeakable perversion have produced a baleful harvest.

　　We are daily reminded by commentators that over a million American teenage girls become pregnant each year, and four out of five of them are unmarried. Polls reveal that almost 80 percent of young people see nothing wrong with premarital sex. Homosexuality and abortion are legally approved and publicly practiced with a minimum of outraged protest. Godly families and individuals find themselves almost beleaguered in an alien world of entrenched evil. Perplexed parents wrestle with decisions about their children's education, and how they can be protected from permissive sex education which also provides the tools for illicit indulgence.

　　For the first time true Christians are beginning to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:15. Even though all is not grossly obscene, there is a fleshly flavor to those things which occupy the time and thought of most Americans today. The glittering, artificial world of entertainment has confronted many sincere Christians with a crisis of conscience. Even that which passes for innocent family fare is serving the purposes of Satan's artfully structured campaign against truth. Beyond the rock-porn music, the drugs, the alcohol and the sex, lies a shadowy realm of compromise in which the church and the world carry on a cozy camaraderie. This is the sphere of the "highly esteemed." Here is where the children of the flesh and children of the spirit sit together to watch the nightly offerings of the television networks, and to applaud the glittering stars in their tawdry roles.

　　In this exciting dimension of life, there are no restricted sections for Christians and non-Christians. All crowd the same bleachers to scream support for the idolized performers on the stage and field.

　　Is it important that we talk about this comfortable collusion between such ideological enemies? I think so. Something is wrong when saints and sinners enjoy the same brand of entertainment and laugh at the same jokes. Indeed, I believe that a proper understanding of this paradox can lead to the salvation of millions who now perceive no inconsistency in such congeniality. It will be the purpose of this book to show that Satan's last-ditch attack against Seventh-day Adventist Christians will be based upon an incongruous, cordial relationship between the church and the world.

　　We shall learn why Satan is so determined to make God's people sin, and why he always attacks them through the medium which appeals to man's strongest emotions. James wrote: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this ... to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27. If the secret of a true relationship with God is to resist even the smallest contamination of the world, we certainly need to find out what the "world" consists of and why it is such an enemy of God. Spots of worldliness here and there cannot be a part of true religion. A clean separation is required.

　　A great controversy has been raging for six thousand years between Christ and Satan, the flesh and the spirit, and the church and the world. Eyewitness reporters have preserved careful accounts of the tides of warfare as Satan's army has repeatedly laid siege to the camp of the saints. Those records have been divinely protected in order that we might be able to study the tactics of our great enemy. Never has it been more important to recognize the weapons and the battle plans of the one who is committed to our destruction.

　　We can truthfully say that one of the chief themes of the Bible is God's salvation plan to produce a holy, obedient people, and Satan's program to make man disobey. Very early in the conflict Satan charged God with making impossible demands. The law was ridiculed as too strict for fallen man to obey. By these accusations, he sought to justify his own course of disobedience. Convinced that neither Adam nor his descendants would ever be able to overcome sin, Satan gloated over the prospect of forcing God to change His plan and take sin into heaven, or else to concede that His plan of salvation was a failure because no one could qualify for entrance there. Thus was born Satan's obsession to fulfill his own prediction, and to keep every human being under the bondage of continued transgression.

　　Clearly then, the human race is the focus of a tremendous controversy. Since the justice and integrity of God has been challenged before the universe, the issues to be settled are of eternal cosmic concern. The outcome of the conflict will either jeopardize the security of an ageless future for billions of beings, or it will eternally remove all grounds for questioning ever again God's dealing with His creatures.

　　What a staggering thought it is that you and I are to play a crucial role in the outcome of this awesome contest! Every time we fight our own little battle against temptation, we are truly a part of that larger conflict, the results of which will affect God's honor throughout the inhabited universe. The great controversy between Christ and Satan is not being fought on some faraway galactic battlefield millions of light-years from planet earth. It is taking place this very moment in the arena of your heart and mind.

　　How few there are who understand the vast consequences of these personal struggles against Satan's wiles! But Satan himself is fully aware of what is involved. This is his last chance to attack God's character and government, and there is no lack of determination and zeal to keep every soul from claiming a total victory over sin.