We convince ourselves that we are just there to ‘hang out’. We are trying to stop drinking, but we go to a party where we know there will be alcohol. When we crave what is wrong, we tempt ourselves. When we place ourselves in situations where know that there will be temptation, we are tempting ourselves. The devil loves this because he doesn’t have to waste time tempting us, nor do we waste the time of his demons. Imagine that, we literally tempt ourselves! Desire gets pregnant and gives birth to sin, which gives birth to death. James 1:13-15 tells us that God doesn’t tempt us, but rather we are drawn by our own desires and enticed.
Before we jump into the details, remember that this is pure speculation, and the way that I personally think of temptation.ģ- We will start with the lowest tier. No one has to be stuck in one level completely. They can be tempted by demons in some cases, and then tempted by their own desires in relation to other sins.
People can fall into multiple tiers at the same time. These are people who are tempted by Satan himself (Level 1). Only 0.1% of all Christians are so valuable that they make up the Devil’s hit list. We will say 39.9% are tempted by various demons (Level 2). This simply means 60% of people are tempted by their own desires (Level 3). In this we are going to say that half of the population falls into the first level. That’s all the bell curve means, that most people are around the normal. Think of these levels as being normally distributed on a bell curve: most people fall in an around the average. I think of temptation in three tiers, or levels:ġ) Ways the Devil Himself Tempts us (Active)Ģ) Ways Low rank or high rank Demons tempt us (Active)ģ) Ways we tempt ourselves by our own desire (Passive) The prime example, of course, is Christ when the devil directly tempts Him in the wilderness. So there are some targets who are so high priority that the devil himself will tempt them. We know Peter, he was a high value target so the devil was willing to see to it personally that he was harvested. Think about how Jesus said to Peter that Satan had asked for him, that he might sift him as wheat. People who are the most valuable to God are the targets for the devil. The devil has a hit list where he keeps the most valuable Christians. I have an analogy that I think about with regards to how the devil tempts us. If we are not tempted, we are not valuable.Īnd these temptations do not give us mental ease or a constant emotional high. That does not reflect the ease taught in these popular “gospels”. He said we would have to take up our cross and follow him. Jesus said he would not bring peace but a sword, and that he would bring division and set relatives against each other.
That’s not what we are told in the Bible. One problem with these types of gospel is that they all seem to emphasize ease of living and mental ease or peace of mind. Or the emotionalism gospel, which again places the focus on oneself and one’s emotions. Primarily certain genres of Christianity like the “Health-Wealth Gospel”, which put the primary focus on the individual instead of on God. Remember to take everything with a Grain of salt, and always think for yourself.Ĭhristianity is becoming more popular over time. You can read more about him here.The Devil’s Hierarchy of Temptation. It is believed that his real name is Mohammed Salah al-Din Zaidan, while Saif al-Adel, a pseudonym, means "Sword of Justice". One of them is that of Saif al-Adel, according to the Middle East Institute, a non-profit think-tank based in Washington DC.īorn in the early 1960s, al-Adel is one of the most experienced military professionals in the global network of Islamists. Nevertheless, there are a few names that are already making the rounds with respect to the leadership question. It's yet to be seen who will fill the leadership vacuum in al-Qaeda now, given al-Zawahiri's brutal track record. His death poses a major problem for al-Qaeda because after bin Laden's assassination, he was seen as the obvious successor. That appears to be his last major contribution. In 2022, he hit the headlines in India after praising a girl named Muskan Khan, a Karnataka student whose video went viral after she raised slogans of Allah-hu-Akbar in response to being heckled by a mob of Hindu students shouting slogans of "Jai Shri Ram."