〈聖經與自由〉，《聖經論》/ 柯志明教授

「為現代民主國家奠基的John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau都是歐洲的基督徒（雖然信仰情況不同），他們的作品都深受聖經啟發，也清楚地連結於聖經。作為現代民主國家之代表的美國是以英國清教徒為主建立的國家，其開啟現代權利意識的《聯邦獨立宣言》清楚明白地宣稱『我們認定這些真理是自明的：凡人都被造而平等，他們都被他們的創造者賦予了特定不可剝奪的權利，這些權利是生命、自由與追求幸福』。顯然，對美國的立國先輩而言，人類的創造者才是人享有基本人權的根源，然後整個民主制度的基本目的就是要保障人的這些不可剝奪的權利。這些都是現代民主發展史上的事實」（柯志明，〈聖經與自由〉，《聖經論》， 252-253頁）。

“John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who laid the foundation for a modern democratic country, are all Christians in Europe, their works are deeply inspired by the Bible and clearly linked to the Bible. As a representative of modern democracies, the United States is a country founded mainly by the British Puritans. Its Federal Declaration of Independence, which opened the awareness of modern rights, clearly stated that ‘[W]e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ Obviously, for the founding fathers of the United States, the creators of mankind are the roots for people to enjoy basic human rights, and then the basic purpose of the entire democratic system is to protect these inalienable rights of people. These are facts in the history of modern democratic development” (Immanuel Chih-Ming Ke, “The Bible and Freedom,” Bibliology, page 252-253).

（英文部分為版主試譯，仍在修改中）