Peeking Into the Devil’s Playbook

Meet the Puritans

By Robert Spinney - Posted at Meet the Puritans:

Temptation is an issue that Christians rarely talk about these days. Even the word itself has quietly slipped out of religious use, becoming instead a term used to boost sales of perfume and chocolates. Attempting to create an electrifying name that would attract big audiences, television producers titled a reality show "Temptation Island." I know of no musical groups called The Blasphemers or The Compromisers, but one of Motown's most famous groups was named The Temptations. One grocery store chain called its new line of gourmet cookies—you guessed it—Temptations.

The word temptation once evoked a sense of seriousness and caution, much as did the words tuberculosis and heresy. To brand something a temptation was to give it the kiss of death. No respectable person would knowingly flirt with temptation. Now it is a word we say with a twinkle in our eye.

It would be bad enough if the word temptation had simply dropped out of common use, but it is worse than that. Temptation is no longer seen as a devilish strategy for encouraging Christians to sin. By losing the biblical concept of sin's enticing appeal, we have also lost (at least in part) the biblical diagnosis of how and why we sin.

Few subjects are as practical for the Christian as temptation. In all likelihood, you will be tempted to sin at least several times today. If you are a believer, then you know from experience that sin's seduction is frequent, unrelenting, and more successful than we would like to admit.



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