Theo’s Thoughts

In this brand-new sec­tion of the Bethel Bea­con, the beloved Pro­fes­sor Theo Williams re­sponds to ques­tions sub­mit­ted by stu­dents to of­fer in­sight, per­spec­tive, and good clean fun. With a healthy bal­ance of wit and wis­dom, Theo loves to share his opin­ions and in­ter­pre­ta­tions in re­sponse to se­ri­ous and en­ter­tain­ing ques­tions alike.  

Theo has been re­spond­ing to ques­tions from se­niors as a guest speaker in the Se­nior Ex­pe­ri­ence class for sev­eral years, and his time there has al­ways proven to be a stu­dent fa­vorite. His ex­pe­ri­ences at Bethel as a stu­dent and pro­fes­sor com­bined with his ex­pe­ri­ences in min­istry as a mis­sion­ary and pas­tor have given him a wide field of knowl­edge and em­pa­thy to draw on, and the Bea­con is ex­cited and grate­ful he is will­ing to take the time to share with stu­dents in this way.  

Feel free to sub­mit a ques­tion for Theo at any time by send­ing the Bea­con a di­rect mes­sage on In­sta­gram @bethel­bea­con or by email­ing us @bea­con.bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu. The next edi­tion of “Theo’s Thoughts” will be in­cluded in the fi­nal print edi­tion of the Bea­con near the end of the se­mes­ter. Keep an eye on our so­cial me­dia for up­dates! 

Ques­tion #1: What is Theo's fa­vorite "I want to eat, but I'm not hun­gry" snack? 

Theo’s thoughts: This is a great ques­tion be­cause it is so spe­cific. It does not sim­ply deal with my fa­vorite snack in a vac­uum, but one that I go to when I am not even hun­gry. Through­out my life this has dif­fered. Cur­rently, I am try­ing to stick to healthy snacks. How­ever, I will not bore you with those.  

So, I will go with my most re­cent “fix.” That would have to be my home­made ket­tle corn. I make it my­self be­cause I am fru­gal and try to save money when­ever I can, and I must ad­mit that it is pretty good. Some­times it is too good. It is the per­fect blend of sugar, salt, fluffi­ness and crunch­i­ness all at the same time. It even pos­sesses some hu­man-like abil­i­ties, such as be­ing able to call my name and reach out to me. The ket­tle corn be like, “Theo, where are you?”  I of­ten try to ig­nore it, but it just does not stop. “You know you want me!” I do want it, so I snack, snack, and snack on it some more. The only thing that would make me stop was the fact that it would not last long.  

Why does­n’t it last long? Be­cause it hap­pens to be one of my wife’s “I want to eat, but I’m not hun­gry snacks” also. Be­tween the two us, ket­tle corn rarely stands a chance. It is so ad­dict­ing. That is one of the rea­sons why I am cur­rently try­ing to fo­cus on healthy snacks. I must ad­mit that do­ing so is a lot dif­fer­ent. Car­rots do not seem to call out to me like ket­tle corn once did. If I am be­ing hon­est, this has me feel­ing a cer­tain way. #Car­rots­Don’t­Care­About­Theo. 

Ques­tion #2:  If Je­sus was tempted by Sa­tan, does that mean he was ca­pa­ble of sin­ning and sim­ply chose not to? 

Theo’s thoughts: I will an­swer this based upon my un­der­stand­ing of scrip­ture. We clearly read that Je­sus was tempted by Sa­tan (Mt. 4:1-17; Lk. 4:1-13). We also read that Je­sus is a re­lat­able High Priest be­cause he was in all ways tempted like us but with­out sin (Heb. 4:14-16).  If we rely upon those scrip­tures alone, we may con­clude that Je­sus had to be ca­pa­ble of sin­ning for us to con­sider the temp­ta­tion, as well as Je­sus’ hu­man­ity, to be gen­uine.  

How­ever, we get more in­sight when we also con­sider James 1:12-15. This high­lights a dis­tinc­tion be­tween the temp­ta­tions we face and those faced by Je­sus. We are tempted in­ter­nally by our own fleshly de­sires/​sin na­ture. Je­sus was tempted ex­ter­nally by Sa­tan in a very real way, but He ex­pe­ri­enced no in­ter­nal temp­ta­tion or de­sire to sin be­cause He did not share our fallen na­ture. Most im­por­tantly, it is made clear in verse 13 that God can­not be tempted to sin. This is im­por­tant be­cause Je­sus, al­though fully hu­man, was still fully God, mean­ing He pos­sessed all the at­trib­utes of God.  

So, Je­sus be­ing God (al­beit in hu­man flesh) was not ca­pa­ble of sin­ning. Some be­lieve this means that Je­sus’ hu­man ex­pe­ri­ence was not gen­uine, thus He can­not fully know our strug­gle. This fails to rec­og­nize that sin was never in­tended to be a req­ui­site part of the hu­man ex­pe­ri­ence. Fi­nally, God is all know­ing, so Je­sus can know us in every way pos­si­ble with­out hav­ing to go through every­thing that we go through.  In con­clu­sion, Je­sus was truly hu­man, truly tempted, and yet was in­ca­pable of sin be­cause He was truly God.