God Can't Be Tempted?

The following article is from *The Skeptical Review*, 1995 January/February:

by Farrell Till

Proponents of the perfect-harmony theory have another problem on their hands. If we are to believe James 1:13, God cannot be tempted: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone." Yet if we are to believe other biblical passages, God can indeed be tempted.

To establish this, let's first notice that (according to the inerrant word of God) Jesus was God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1). The 14th verse of this passage states that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Obviously, John meant for us to understand that Jesus was the "Word" who was with God in the beginning and was himself God. Therefore, if Jesus was God and if God cannot be tempted, then Jesus could not have been tempted.

This, however, is not what the Bible teaches. After Jesus was baptized, he "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1-2). There is no need to discuss the particulars of this incident in the life of Jesus, because his temptation is a story that all Sunday school students have heard many times. In anticipation of possible inerrantist quibbles, however, we should notice that the gospel accounts of this story do not say that the devil tried to tempt Jesus and failed; they plainly say that the devil tempted Jesus: "Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan" (Mark 1:12-13).

The writer of the Hebrew epistle certainly agreed that Jesus had been tempted: "For in that He Himself [Jesus] has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (2:18). In fact, the Hebrew writer didn't just say that Jesus had been tempted but that he had been thoroughly tempted: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are" (5:14-15).

So Jesus was God, God cannot be tempted, but Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. In the face of flagrant contradictions like this, inerrantists persist in proclaiming the Bible perfectly harmonious from cover to cover.

Go figure!