Questions and Answers

Does God tempt men or not?

There is a major difference between temptation and testing:

  • Genesis 22 - refers to testing
  • Jeremiah 20 -  The prophet Jeremiah is simply complaining. He accuses God of deceiving him.
  • Matthew 6:13 - is part of the Lord's prayer, "lead us not into temptation." The prayer simply inquires of God that helps us keep our distance from temptation (hardly an example of God tempting men!!).

The only possible hope of a contradction in this set is to equate testing with temptation. But is testing identical to tempting? For example, let's say God wants to test someone's honesty and puts them in a room with a lost wallet. Is this tempting? I think not. To truly tempt, God would have to whispher, "Pick it up, keep it, no one will know, etc."

    God tempts menGod tempts no man