Was Devil's temptation of Jesus real?

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“This ia a bit starnge. Nowhere, not in the OT and not in the NT is there any precedent for such a thing happening.”

This is exactly my OP. Even the parting of the sea in Exodus don’t invoke such oddness.This foolish Devil taking Jesus to the temple roof…
 
I agree. Especially considering that Scripture is divinely inspired. Interesting point: the whole episode is about the devil twisting the interpretation of Scripture known at the time. So there’s no twist, God simply allowed the devil to take Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple and tempt him. Period.
 
Cirdan_XII said:
Did the devil honestly believe that Jesus was going to accept his suggestions and do those stupid things?
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Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Humans can be tempted, so the human nature of Jesus was vulnerable to temptation. Jesus chose to go through the exercise of wrestling with temptation in order to set an example for humans. Jesus went through many experiences, such as human grief and human death, that he didn’t really have to experience but chose to do so.

The devil has a gigantic ego and after all, he was the smartest and most beautiful angel in the heavens before he chose evil. Of course the Devil is going to try to bring down God’s human son. What a coup that would be, and the Devil is not going to just hang back and not try.
 
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Cirdan_XII said:
So in other words, if Jesus ahd actually thrown himself down, God would indeed have sent angels.

This ia a bit starnge. Nowhere, not in the OT and not in the NT is there any precedent for such a thing happening.
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Huh?
Jesus didn’t throw himself down, so we have no idea what God would have done, but God certainly doesn’t need “precedent” in the OT or the NT in order to do something.

Also, God sent angels to help Jesus at other times, such as to comfort him in the garden, or to explain to his friends that he wasn’t in the tomb. It wouldn’t be odd for God to send angels to help Jesus in this case. But Jesus realized that the important thing was to not succumb to the devil’s temptation and put his Father on the spot of having to step in and save him. He knew God didn’t want that. So he didn’t do it.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Also, God sent angels to help Jesus at other times, such as to comfort him in the garden, or to explain to his friends that he wasn’t in the tomb. It wouldn’t be odd for God to send angels to help Jesus in this case. But Jesus realized that the important thing was to not succumb to the devil’s temptation and put his Father on the spot of having to step in and save him. He knew God didn’t want that. So he didn’t do it.
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God typically sent angels as messengers, to tell Mary she was going to have a child, to tell Joseph to take his family to Egypt, to tell Jesus’ friends at the tomb that he had been resurrected and everything was OK. These angels don’t actually act and cause or prevent physical things. When miracles happen, whether in the OT or NT, there is never any mention of angels being present to help. the only possible exception I can think of is Paul being freed from prison by an angel, but even there, the angel only tells Paul to open the door, the angel does not do that for him. So I would say it was God that unlocked the door and the angel was only sent to tell Paul about it.
 
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Cirdan_XII said:
So I would say it was God that unlocked the door and the angel was only sent to tell Paul about it.
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Angels don’t have any power on their own. It doesn’t matter if God unlocks the door and the angel just tells about it, or if the angel unlocked the door because God working through the angel gave angel the power to do so.

Angels also do things other than deliver messages. For example, St. Michael the Archangel fights Satan. When St. Michael the Archangel fights Satan, he’s not doing that under his own power. He’s doing it “by the power of God”, as the Prayer to St. Michael says.

Whenever God sends anyone as a messenger, or to actually do some task, whether it’s an angel, or an apparition of the Virgin Mary, or an apparition of a saint, God is the one with the ultimate power to do whatever task needs to be done, and anything the angel, Virgin Mary, or saint does is “by the power of God”.

I’m not sure why people always seem to have concerns with an angel/ Mary/ saint doing something, as God is ultimately in charge every time.
 
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Yes,this is what I also said.Anglels as such do not do anything unless ordered to do so by God.But humans do things on their own and are under the control of themselves only.So except to the extent that angles are close to God,they can’t be said as a more intelligent or superior creature than humans.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Angels don’t have any power on their own. It doesn’t matter if God unlocks the door and the angel just tells about it, or if the angel unlocked the door because God working through the angel gave angel the power to do so.
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So you agree with me that the reference to the angels preventing Jesus from hurting himself was a red herring, because God could have done that directly?
 
As Christopher West has famously said, ”the devil does not have his own clay.” What this means is, all the devil can do is twist and manipulate creation, as he does not have the ability to create himself.

When we doubt the power of the devil’s temptations, we give him power. The devil is most powerful when nobody believes he exists
 
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