"Brother A:
In your letter in regard to the temptations of Christ, you say if He was one with God He could not fall.
Imagine, if you can, yourself in Christ's stead in the wilderness. There is no human voice you hear, but you are surrounded with demons under deceptive pretensions as angels from heaven in the most seducing attractions presenting Satan's wily insinuations against God, as he did to our first parents.
His sophistry is most deceiving and artful in
*undermining your confidence in God,
*destroying your faith and your trust,
*and keeping your mind on a constant strain so that he can get one clue that he can use to his own advantage to allure you into a controversy, as if reading your thoughts to which you will not give utterance, just as he did to Eve.
He could not obtain from Christ one word to lead him on. The word, "It is "written," was spoken" from point to point as he tested Him.
His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam
and Eve passed through. His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own. He was passing over the ground where Adam fell.
He was not the Father but in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and yet He calls to a suffering world, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30."
--Letter 8a, 1890, pp. 2, 3. To M. J. Church, July 7, 1890, E.G.W.
In your letter in regard to the temptations of Christ, you say if He was one with God He could not fall.
Imagine, if you can, yourself in Christ's stead in the wilderness. There is no human voice you hear, but you are surrounded with demons under deceptive pretensions as angels from heaven in the most seducing attractions presenting Satan's wily insinuations against God, as he did to our first parents.
His sophistry is most deceiving and artful in
*undermining your confidence in God,
*destroying your faith and your trust,
*and keeping your mind on a constant strain so that he can get one clue that he can use to his own advantage to allure you into a controversy, as if reading your thoughts to which you will not give utterance, just as he did to Eve.
He could not obtain from Christ one word to lead him on. The word, "It is "written," was spoken" from point to point as he tested Him.
His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam
He was not the Father but in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and yet He calls to a suffering world, "Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30."
--Letter 8a, 1890, pp. 2, 3. To M. J. Church, July 7, 1890, E.G.W.
