Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The Problems with Jesus' Temptation

The temptation of Jesus is one of the more well known stories of the new testament, but once you analyze it you will see the doctrine of Jesus being God highly conflicts with the story. Also the temptation story is riddled with many flaws.

Here are the 3 versions.
Mark 1:12-13 - No real story here Jesus is tempted and angels attend to him.
Both Matthew and Luke have pretty much identical stories. Considering the Q-Document theory, this story was most likely pulled from that source.
Matthew 4:1-11
Luke 4:1-13

Before analyzing the the story, going back on the subject of Jesus' divinity... If Jesus is God... and God can't be tempted(James 1:13), then it can be deducted that Jesus can't be God in the sense.

If we take today's current version of divine Jesus(100% God and 100% man, in nature), when being tempted God would have to "hide" Himself or "separate" Himself from the man nature of Jesus. Therefore Jesus is left alone as man not in "one" with God. If God is one with Jesus then He would have been deceitful in allowing the temptation attempt.

Furthermore, if Satan knew Jesus was God he wouldn't have tempted him in the first place. Especially with power over God's own creation.

Analysis:
1) So right in verse one, in Matthew we read "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness...". According to Matthew Jesus was led by the Spirit, putting Jesus and the Spirit separate. But Luke felt the need to add that Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit". 

2) The devil tempts Jesus in using his God given powers(Jesus claims alone he can do nothing) to change the stone into bread. Here Satan is tempting a hungry man into abusing his God given gifts. Humans get hungry, God has no need for food.

3) The devil takes Jesus to the highest of the temple and tempts Jesus to jump and quotes scripture.
Now interestingly enough if we take a look at this scripture in full context instead of just these 2 verses we find something that stands out. Psalm 91:1-16 If you look at the last verse... "With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”
Not only will God protect him, he will satisfy him with "long life". If dying in your early 30's is a long life even in ancient times then something about this scripture conflicts. Immediately afterward Jesus acknowledges this scripture and quotes his own, telling the devil don't test God. Because if Jesus were to jump it would be God who would have to send his angels to save him, not Jesus saving himself.

4) Satan takes him to the highest mountain and shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the "world". Unfortunately Matthew and Luke still believed in a flat world, because there isn't a place on earth or even in the universe that you can see all the kingdoms of the world, even in the 1st century.
What does Satan tempt Jesus with? Power. Power over God's own creation. God has no need for worldly things or power over kingdoms. But if Jesus were a mere man and a prophet of God, this would be a temptation indeed.
Satan offers this up in return Jesus must bow down and worship Satan. If Jesus were God... then Satan(who knows God) wouldn't tempt God with his own creation and absolutely wouldn't ask God to worship him.

5) Jesus denies Satan his temptations with one last scripture. ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Jesus doesn't tell Satan to worship himself, he tells him to worship the Lord your God.

Summary of the Facts:
1) The temptation account is riddled with verses that conflict with the doctrine of God Jesus.
2) The temptation would be a farse if God had to hide himself to let Jesus be tempted.
3) Other than the flat earth & the assumed long life(Which conflicts either way)... If Jesus was just a man and prophet of God, there is no conflict.

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