Life now

此时的生命

Life then

彼时的生命

Life after death?

死后的生命？

Today you’re in college. Somewhere between the ages of 18 and 24. But what about Tomorrow?

今日你在大学里，大概在18到24岁之间，但明天呢？

You graduate. You get a job. You get married. You have children. You go through a few more jobs. You buy a house. Okay, THEN what?

 你毕业了，找份工作，结婚、生子。换几次工作，买套住房。不错，接着呢？

You go to soccer games for your kids.You try to be a good parent and spouse. You watch your children go to the prom.Even though Yesterday they were wearing diapers. You do and say the things your parents did and said, even though you vowed you never would.

你和孩子们去踢踢足球，想成为称职的父母和配偶。看着孩子们去聚会，仿佛他们穿尿布的样子就在昨天。你的所言所行和你父母一样，尽管你曾发誓你绝不如此。

You have a mid-life crisis or two. Your children graduate from college. You become a grandparent. Someone calls you grandma or grandpa. You live out your life in leisure, drawing income from a retirement fund. You take walks in the morning. You work in the garden. You read the newspaper. You watch TV. You talk to your children and grandchildren on the phone. You travel.

你有些中年危机。孩子们从大学毕业，有了孙辈，有人称呼你爷爷奶奶。生活悠闲，定期支取退休金。早晨散散步，弄弄园艺，读读报纸，看看电视，与子女和孙辈在电话里聊聊，再旅行几次。

Okay, THEN what?

不错，接下来，又怎样？

Well, then, someday, you die. If you are fortunate, you live a relatively long life. 70 to 90 years. If you don’t get taken away prematurely by cancer or a car accident. But always, eventually,you die. Death is the Tomorrow that awaits us all, the inevitable Then that none of us can escape.

好吧，接下来的某一天，你会死。如果你幸运，比较长寿的话，会活到70-90岁。即便你没被癌症或车祸过早地夺去你的生命，但最后终归要死亡的。死亡在明天等着我们所有人，不可避免，我们无可逃避。

But is that it? Is there anything more?

但是，就那样？还会有些什么呢？

Someday you’ll be just a corpse. They’ll bury your body in the ground. Or burn your body and put your ashes in an urn.The big question is, Will I cease after that? Will there still be a conscious ME somewhere? Is there really life after death?

有一天你将变成一具尸体。他们把你的遗体埋人地下，或者焚烧后放进骨灰盒。一个大问题是，从此我就结束了吗？我在某个地方还会有意识吗？死亡后真的有生命吗？

In truth, we probably all hope there is something that comes after. Maybe in the smallest recesses of our minds, we are planning on it.

确实，我们可能都希望随之而来会有些什么事。或许在我们内心深处的某个最小的角落里，我们正期待着。

What are we planning on? A life after death of some sort. Some call it paradise. Some call it heaven. Some also talk of hell.

我们期待些什么呢？某种死亡后的生活，有人称之为乐园，有人称之为天堂，也有人谈到地狱。

Another thought that many people possess throughout life, often subconsciously, is: I’m a basically good person.Therefore, I will get to go to heaven someday.

常常在潜意识中，许多人终生会有另外一种想法，即：我基本上算是个好人。因此，我某一天会去天堂。

Is that how it works?

真的就是那样一个过程吗？

Many people think they are “good enough”for heaven. It’s an assumption we make. If we haven’t robbed a bank, or murdered anyone, or cheated on our taxes, we think we’re just the kind of folk God is looking for to populate his home. By golly, we are good enough.

 很多人想我“够好了”可以去天堂。这是我们作的假定。如果没有抢银行，没有谋杀，没有逃税，我们以为我们就是民间的神要寻找去他家的那种人。天哪, 我们够好的了。

At heaven’s box office, we bought our ticket by being basically good people all throughout our lives.

在天堂的售票处，我们以我们一生基本上是个好人作为资格买好了门票。

But what if that thinking is incorrect? THEN what? What a thing to have been wrong about! What a misfire!

但是如果那种想法是不正确的呢？然后呢？一切都是错的是怎么一回事啊! 那是一种什么样的失败!

If you think you’re good enough for heaven, there are two things to consider:

如果你觉得你好得足以上天堂，要考虑两件事情：

(1) If heaven is a place of perfection¹,how can anyone be good enough?

 (1) 如果天堂是完美的地方，有任何人足够好到可以上天堂吗？

Most of us would say we have a “skeleton in the closet.” At least one. Something we hope no one ever finds out about us.A mistake in our past. A poor decision. A moment of weakness or stupidity that we’d rather not think about.

我们多数人有难言之隐，至少有一件事情，我们希望没有人会发现。过去的错误，糟糕的决定，某个时刻的软弱或愚蠢，我们宁可想都不要想起。

That’s the extreme. But there are many other more common things we don’t really want others to know or notice about us. It might be the “little white lies” we tell. Or how we talk behind someone’s back. Or how we copy other people’s homework. Or the unkind words we say to people. Or the unkind thoughts we have about people.

那是一种极端情况。可有更多寻常琐事，我们确实不希望别人知道或注意到我们。或许是我们说的“小小的白色谎言”，或是我们在别人背后如何八卦，或是如何抄袭作业，或是出口伤人，或对人不怀善意。

Much more than a one-time regrettable event, our lives, if we closely scrutinize them, show a pattern of wrong doing.We often don’t do what we believe to be right. And we often do what we believeis wrong.

我们一生中，有远远不止一次令人遗憾的大事。如果详察这些，会显现出一种错误模式。我们往往不做我们认为对的事情，而常常去做我们认为是错的事。

All of us, even people whom we would call basically good, are also basically selfish and basically very imperfect.²

包括那些我们认为基本上算好的人，我们所有人本质上是自私且不完美的。

Everything we do is seen by God.³So that means there’s no fooling him. He’s perfectly aware of all the good we haven’t done (and yet could have), as well as all the bad we’ve done. He even knows all of our thoughts and all of our motives.

我们做的每件事上帝都看见，这就意味着没有什么可以愚弄他。他完全清楚所有我们没有做的好事（本来该做的），同样知道所有我们已经做的坏事。他知道我们所有的想法和动机。

Here’s the second thing to consider if we think we’re “good enough” for heaven:

如果你觉得你好得足以上天堂，其次要考虑：

 (2)Is it possible to be a basically good person and still have rejected God?

 (2)是不是有可能基本上算是好人，却仍然拒绝上帝？

Consider Ralph. He’s a “good” person. He was ethical in his job. He never stole even a paper clip. He was a faithful father and husband. He provided for his children. He made sacrifices for the mand for his wife (whom he never cheated on). He even gave money to many charities throughout his life.

想想Ralph吧。他是一个“好人”。在他的工作中，他是符合伦理的。他连一个纸夹子也从未偷过。他是个可靠的父亲和丈夫，为孩子和太太做出牺牲（从未骗过他们）。他终其一生都在给慈善事业捐钱。

But Ralph, though good in some sense,never “let God in.” Many times in his life, Ralph sensed God’s desire to come into his life. It was as if God were knocking on the door of Ralph’s heart. But Ralph never opened that door. He always came up with some excuse not to.Ironically, one of the recurring excuses was, I’ve been a good person all my life. I will go to heaven.

但Ralph尽管在某种意义上个好人，却从来没有让上帝进到他的生命里面。很多次他感觉到上帝要进入他生命的渴望，就好像上帝在敲他的心门。可Ralph从来没有开过那扇门，他常常会有一些不要开门的借口。有讽刺意味的是，一个反复出现的借口是，我一生都是好人，我会去天堂。

Ralph wanted to go to heaven. Everyone does. But in reality, Ralph didn’t want to know God. And he didn’t stop to analyze the huge implications of that decision (the decision to keep God out).

Ralph想要去天堂。每个人都这样想。但实际上，Ralph并不认识上帝。他不断地在分析这个决定的重大意义（把上帝关在心门外的决定。）

Think about it. Heaven is God’s home. If Ralph didn’t want to know God during his life on Earth, why would Ralph want to know God in an after life? In other words, what Ralph didn’t calculate is how much he would LOATHE heaven.

想想吧。天堂是上帝的家。如果在地上活着时，Ralph并不想认识上帝，为什么他死后就会想认识上帝？换句话说，Ralph没有预计到的是他或许会多么地憎恨天堂。

Heaven is a place where God is very present. It’s likely that every aspect of heaven will remind one of God,constantly. What a horrible place for Ralph!

 天堂正是上帝存在的地方。天堂的每一个特征会一直提示上帝的存在。这对Ralph是多么地可怕！

Ralph always assumed heaven would be a place of ultimate comfort. But he never considered how ultimately uncomfortable it would be for him, since he didn’t want to know God or have a relationship with God. For Ralph, heaven would not be heaven, but rather a type of hell.

Ralph先前一直以为天堂是一个绝对舒适的地方，但是他从未想过那里对他来说或许绝对不是舒适的地方。既然他不想认识上帝或者说和上帝没有关系。对Ralph来说天堂不再是天堂，反而是一种地狱。

Would you let someone into your home even if you knew they didn’t want to have anything to do with you? If you knew that everywhere they turned, they’d be reminded of you?

假使你知道有人不想和你有任何关系，你会让他们到你家里来吗？假如你知道在某处拐弯时他们会想到你呢？

Many people are like Ralph. They want heaven, but they don’t want God. And they don’t realize that, under those circumstances, heaven would be an awful place to be.

很多人就和Ralph一样。他们想进天堂，却不想认识上帝。他们没有意识到，在那些情况下，天堂是个可怕的地方。

Maybe the truth of the matter is that heaven is for people who know they’re not good enough to be there — but who none the less want to be there solely because God is there. They want to know God and be with him forever. The life-after-death prize isn’t heaven, but rather its Primary Occupant.

或许，事实上天堂正是给那些意识到自己不够好的人预备的，给那些仅仅因为上帝在那里，所以自己无论如何也要去那里的人所预备的。他们想认识上帝，永远与上帝同在。死亡后生命的奖励不是天堂，而是天堂的里自有永有的那位。

(1) “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful.” (Revelation21:27)
(2) “No one is good — except God alone.” (Luke 18:19);more: Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, James 2:10
(3) “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13); more: Matthew 10:26, 1Corinthians 4:5