Opinion: Temptation? Could it be Satan — <i>and</i> God?

To the editor: The pope overlooks God’s role in temptation. (“Pope Francis suggests rewording the Lord’s Prayer. The problem? ‘Lead us not into temptation,’” Dec. 8)

In the book of Job, it is a joint process between him and Satan. Even after God tells Satan, “You incited me against him, to ruin him, for no reason,” he agrees to further tempting.

We can see something of the same in the New Testament. After Jesus is baptized, the Spirit drives him into the desert where he is tempted by Satan. Paul prays three times to be delivered from the “angel of Satan,” but God replies that his grace is enough for him. It serves a good purpose, to keep him from pride.

At the Last Supper, Jesus tells Peter that Satan requested and received permission to test him and the other apostles further, but Jesus intervened to mitigate it. Something similar seems to be at play in the Lord’s Prayer. The last line means “deliver us from evil” by not permitting too much testing.

Henry Ansgar Kelly, Pacific Palisades

The writer is a distinguished research professor of English at UCLA and the author of multiple books on the biblical Satan.

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To the editor: How can Pope Francis say that God does not tempt man?

Who made food taste good to us, tempting us to gluttony? Who made us need to eat in order to live so that we cannot avoid exposure to that food?

Who made sex pleasurable, tempting us to engage in it beyond what is needed for procreation? Who gave us testosterone? Who made alcohol intoxicating? Who put opioid receptors in our brains?

I find it ironic that humankind must often turn to science to find forgiveness of “sins” for which Christianity — that supposed font of forgiveness — unfairly blames us.

Carol Wuenschell, Arcadia

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