本文以改革開放以來的中國基督教《天風》雜誌為原始資料，探討這一個時期的中國三自教會領袖為何、以及如何詮釋和挪用不同類型的聖經文本，以論證愛國主義的正當性。第一部分探討愛國主義在《天風》中呈現出「民族愛國主義」、「文化愛國主義」與「政權愛國主義」這三種不同內涵，而後分析在政治和宗教的雙重處境下中國基督徒如何面對「愛國」與「愛教」看似「兩不調和」的糾結，繼而論證三自教會領袖嘗試從「經訓」上尋找愛國主義的正當性與中國基督教「唯獨聖經」、甚至「唯聖經主義」的「底色」有關。第二部分則重點探討三自愛國運動中最受關注的「政權愛國主義」議題。三自教會領袖將新約的使徒行傳和書信中關於「順從人」和「順從神」之爭的文本與舊約中關於外邦君王「古列」的文本相結合，更根據他們對當下政權與執政黨之性質的判斷，得出中國基督徒必須順服和擁護當下政權的結論。最終得出擁護「政權愛國主義」之結論的關鍵，並不在於對新約聖經和舊約聖經相關文本的詮釋，而在於對政權性質的判斷；政治判斷是甚麼，就已經決定了三自教會領袖作為詮釋者時「讀入」聖經文本的結論是甚麼。

The article, taking as primary sources the magazine of Tian Feng, the organ of the Chinese Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement, examines why and how Chinese Three-Self Church leaders in Reform China after 1980s interpreted and appropriated different biblical texts in order to argue for the legitimacy of Christian patriotism. The first part discusses firstly three types of patriotism reflected in Tian Feng, that is, “national patriotism,” “cultural patriotism,” and “regime patriotism.” It is argued then that Chinese church leaders’ searching for the legitimacy of patriotism from the biblical teachings had much to do with Chinese Christians’ prevalent belief in the doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” or even in “Biblicism.” The second part focuses on the most controversial issue of “regime patriotism.” The New Testament texts about obeying either God or men, together with the Old Testament texts about the gentile emperor Cyrus, were re-interpreted by Three-Self Church leaders. Bearing in mind these texts as well as their judgement of the nature of the current regime and ruling political party, Three-Self Church leaders argued that Chinese Christians ought to obey and even support the socialist China. The key to make this conclusion, however, laid not in the interpretation of related biblical texts, but in their judgement of the nature of the regime; this judgement has determined beforehand what they as interpreters would read into the biblical texts.