The Greatest Illusion

1999-1-14 10:36:00

John asks about the organizations to come? I cannot tell you now. It would become a major distraction for us. After the book becomes more widely distributed and I am able to devote my full time to the spiritual endeavor then the preparation you are undergoing here shall bear fruit and the dreams of those who have a desire to serve shall be fulfilled. But all shall not happen at once, but one step must lead to another.

Let us again quote the scripture under consideration:

5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. [Matthew 4:5-7]

The Question is: Would God have broken His word if He would have not saved Jesus if he had jumped from the temple? Explain your answer.

Glenys came very close with the following answer:

"The scripture that the devil quoted came from Psalm 91 and talks about God's protection of one who puts his trust in Him. It says in v.14, "Because he has loved Me therefore I will deliver him..." Now there is no doubt that Jesus loved God but I think that if he had 'tested' God by jumping off the cliff he would have been killed (unless, as I said earlier, he was saved by an act of grace)."

Let us go a step farther and consider this:

If Jesus had tested God and jumped off the pinnacle of the temple and fell to the temptation of the illusion He would have not been able to fulfill His mission as the Messiah and would have either been replaced by another or try again in another life. Since He would have no longer been the designated Messiah then the scriptures about the Messiah would not have applied to him.

Thus if the non-Messiah Jesus had jumped off the temple and died the promises made for the Messiah would have still been intact and God's word would have still been true.

Imagine the shock he would have had if he had accepted the illusion and hit the ground and died? He would have had a rude awakening as a non-Messiah in the world to come.

Because Jesus saw through the illusion He was able to go ahead and do the work of the Messiah and as such the scripture did apply to him and his life was saved again and again until He gave it of His own free will.

Now we go to the final temptation:

8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. [Matthew 4:8-11]

Earlier we mentioned about the coming forth of a new translation of "The Gospel of the Nazirenes" which evidence suggests was the earliest Gospel written in the first century. It does seem to be more accurate than the regular scriptures.

In this translation Satan adds:

"All this power will I give you, and the glory of them; and to whomsoever I will, I will give it: for it is written, thou shall have dominion from sea to sea, so thou shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with mercy, and make a full end of oppression. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be yours."

According to this earlier Gospel the adversary again tempted Jesus with both scripture and reasoning. Since he was the "god of this world" then to him was given power to grant the kingdoms of the beast. Satan reasoned with Jesus that if He is to fulfill the scripture He obviously would have to go through him.

Now most of us would think that any temptation that involved worshipping the devil would have been a no brainer, but this is an illusion by itself. The question is: Why was this temptation actually the most powerful of the three? How did illusion (not glamour) make this so appealing.

Hint: Even though the adversary asked Jesus to worship him the act was not pictured in the temptation as devil worship as we see it today. It corresponds a little more to the Allies during World War II making a pact with the evil Stalin to defeat the even more evil Hitler.