Tom,

Yes, I had the impression you hadn’t understood my position about the impulses implanted by God, which, of course, are present in all human beings. What can be removed is the imbalance some have in these impulses, that is, immorality, gluttony, evil temper, etc.

Mike,

It’s not that I no longer want to participate, it’s just that I think I’ve said everything I could say. Of course there are some areas of disagreement among us, but I just wanted to make sure you and Tom understood correctly my position.

I haven't understood your position regarding Christ's being sexually tempted. Before your post (not including this last one) I would have said your position was that Christ could not be sexually tempted. Now I'm not sure. I'd like to know.

Thank you.

Tom,

If Christ was a human being, He could be sexually tempted. When we discussed this, however, I pointed out that, first, Christ closed all doors to temptation by being occupied the whole time, and second, that He had one great objective in life that absorbed all His time and energies. You will admit that when you are tired or greatly absorbed in something, sex doesn’t pose a temptation. It was the same with John the Baptist and Paul, for example.

Rosangela, do you agree with the following observation (extracted from my last post):

quote:

---

However, I also believe the electrical impulses [generated by our organs] are intercepted and perverted by our fallen nature. They are converted into unholy conscious thoughts and feelings. With the mind of the new man we may, by the grace of God, recognize and resist them unto the honor and glory of God.

Our sinful flesh nature will never stop perverting the innocent and legitimate needs produced by our body. We are stuck with it until the day Jesus returns and replaces it with a sinless one, like the one Adam and Eve possessed before they chose to eat the forbidden fruit.

---

Rosangela, please let me know if I am understanding you correctly.

I understand you are saying that as a human being, it was theoretically possible for Christ to have been tempted sexually, but He was never actually tempted sexually. Am I correct?

Mike: It seems to me that there are a number of points we are in agreement on, and I'd like to clarify a point it seems we might not be, and see if you think what I'm thinking doesn't make sense.

I agree that the fallen nature continues to "generate and communicate unholy thoughts" as you put it, but would add that this is not the only source of temptations we have as believers. We've also committed sin, and these bad habits we've formed remain in our nervous system as much as the fallen nature does. God gives us power to overcome these bad habits, and at times He may actually perform miracles to where one loses the desire to do certain things (i.e. an alcoholic loses the desire to drink, or a smoker to smoke -- also the loss of these desires may happen without a miracle being performed) but this is by no means universally true.

So in brief what I'm saying is that not only does our fallen nature contribute to our temptations, so does past sins we have committed.

Christ was able to be tempted in all points like we are because He both took our nature upon Him, and took our sin. Just one or the other would not have been sufficient.

In the temptations in the wilderness, you will see, for example, that the Spirit of Prophesy points out that what made Christ's temptations so difficult was His taking the sin of the world upon Him.

Mike,

My position is that there are bodily impulses (for food, water, sex, etc.), but that there are also impulses originated in the mind, which have nothing to do with the body (for instance, the impulse to lie, love of money, pride, etc.). So I think our position differs here.