According to the Bible God cannot be tempted:
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone (James 13:1)
Jesus however according to the gospels was tempted, and more problematic is that he was tempted by none other than the devil:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
What’s interesting is that while Jesus is being tempted by the devil he also says that God cannot be tempted, this alone is sufficient to show how Jesus is not God.
Other points in this narrative that also clearly show that Jesus is not God is when Satan tells Jesus to worship him, and Jesus replies by saying only God is to be worshipped, Jesus is clearly referring to God as someone else, and not in reference to himself. For example Jesus doesn’t say “Only I am to be worshipped” instead he says only God is to be worshipped in reference to someone else, thus Jesus is clearly distinguishing himself from God, that they are certainly not one in the same.
If we are to assume that Jesus is God as some Christian apologists and missionaries would contend, then this whole episode is very problematic indeed. For starters we have already raised two issues that display how this incident proves Jesus is not God, but the problems simply do not end there.
Just imagine it for a second, that Jesus is literally God and yet there he is all helpless and being tempted by none other than Satan, Satan his creation whom he banished from the Garden of Eden is now trying to tempt him. Satan is telling God to worship him, and telling God that Satan will grant him all authority and power over the kingdoms, the whole thing sounds mightily absurd if we are to believe Jesus is God.
Another problem is that if Jesus is indeed God, then Satan is tempting him with things he already owns. After all God has all authority over all kingdoms, and not just kingdoms but practically the entire universe. So why would Satan tempt ‘god’ with something he owns, where’s the appeal behind it? This temptation does however make a lot of sense if Jesus is not God and is a mere mortal human being, then the appeal of becoming the absolute ruler and having the absolute authority makes sense and one could potentially be tempted by it, after all humans crave power and this is what Satan was trying to tempt Jesus with.
Another issue with this incident is that Satan himself doesn’t seem to think that Jesus is God, when he’s tempting Jesus he tells Jesus “if you are the Son of God” then throw yourself down, Satan references Jesus as the son of God rather than God. And as we all know the term son of God does not mean God, and it certainly did not mean God during the time of Jesus when Satan called him the son of God, and even before the time of Jesus. The term son of God denoted someone who was a servant of God, someone who was close to God, and did not denote any of the new meanings and definitions that were invented by Christians later on that son of God meant divinity and an actual literal relationship with God the Father.
All in all the temptation of Jesus is clear evidence that Jesus is certainly not God.
Categories: Christianity
The Muslim Debate Initiative 
QUOTE:
AJ says:
Temptation itself is NOT a sin, it’s dwelling ON the temptation and acting it out, Neither did Jesus actually do. The comparison to Superman to be honest is unwarranted and is not even a relevant comparison.
No…the comparison is to someone like me being tempted to fly around like Superman. The schoolyard bullies could taunt me to fly all they wanted. If it’s impossible for me to do it, they’re just being extremely irrational and it wouldn’t make much sense to say I was actually being tempted to fly. They’d be more likely to taunt me to stick my tongue to a cold pole because that’s something I could actually do. It would be extremely irrational for Satan to attempt to tempt Jesus if he knew he was the Christian god who could not even possibly sin. Satan would then sound like a complete buffoon every time he opened his mouth in the story. It would also be irrational for the story author to construct a story such as we have where the plot device of tempting the untemptable is taken for granted. Hence, it makes more sense if the author(s) believed that Jesus could actually sin and was actually proving something. Hence there’s the logistical possibility in Christian mythology that Jesus could have sinned and messed salvation up for all of us. That is…if we let the context speak for itself. And then we add in the evidence I’ve been talking about.
Who writes awful articles lol! You guys need to be taught man. I don’t want to write on the whole article but I will say the following. The understanding of Jesus being God or not is not based on what christians say. We should allow the bible to speak for itself. While muslims cant accept the bible because it is corrupted and has only partial truths and can only be validated truth when filtered through the quranic theology, that has copied, changed and added stories from different sources, and, pretends to say christians changed it while the quran itself is quilty of adding new, changes to the biblical stories, or quilty of not giving what it says was lost (confusion). And now muslims act as teachers of the bible to tell us, how we should understand scripture (utterly crazy)! With this in mind I will say: the whole bible is about Jesus. If you study it from Genesis to Revelation you will discover its all about Jesus. Even in the old testament you can find Him (that is if you really know the old testament) and hence Jesus said scriptures they testify of Me! He didn’t say God! He referred to all scriptures reffering to Him the Me! Either a true or a false statement. Either a bold statement or just plain silly. Any researcher of the bible must conclude the bible is all about the Messiah. All about Jesus! How dare a human being receive so much attention, glory and praise if He isn’t God. Jesus said clearly: I Am. So many times! Reffering the exact way Yehova spoke in the old testament. The people tried to stone him but he replied: why then do you stone me? They said: not for your good works but because You being a man, put yourself equal to God. When Jesus spoke out like this manner they always tried to kill him. If Jesus was not God then he had to correct them right away. Either He said the truth or jesus lied. It is one or the other! And because He didn’t correct them (lets say if they misunderstood him) then he would be as fuilty because he allowed mankind to perceive something of Him thst was a lie. And the Jesus I know would’nt do this! Hence again to all the muslims. Either Jesus is a liar or He told the truth. Now in regards to Jesus, He is both Man and God. But the bible says that God took on human flesh. he emptieth Himself and became as low as a servant. This means God empieth all what makes Him God and took on human flesh. Hence Jesus now in human bosy must speak as a human for the Example for humanity. Hence baptism, prayer, all his actions must be seen with the knowledge that they are lessons for mankind to emulate. As a human being Jesus have to face all we face. When Satan tested or tempeth Jesus, it was always done so that Jesus might use His divine power. Had Jesus used his divine power he would cease to be our example, and the lamb that taketh away all sins. So muslims must learn to understand why Jesus was tempeth and by this experience we as children of God can also say like him when we are tempteth: it is written. Again all these issues are clear when you read with the understanding that Jesus was truly human! God bless.