Benefits of Temptation; Risks of Anti-temptation

Anti-temptations sound like unambiguously good things. They draw people toward God. How could anyone resist the appeal of God? But, they are risky.

Temptations are obviously bad, but can have a non-obvious benefit. When we are tempted, we can decide, out of our own personal will, to reject the temptation. Maybe we reject it in the moment by not acting on it. Or, after we give in, we reject it retrospectively by regretting giving in and turning back to God. The stronger the temptation, sometimes, the stronger the rejection of it. That rejection can harden our hearts against sin and drive us into loyalty to God. So actually temptation can enable willful people to get closer to God than they might without it. With their willfulness they reject the temptation to turn against God, and in so doing turn toward God more firmly, truly, and permanently.

If a willful person is exposed to anti-temptation, they might reject God, out of willfulness, as the opposite of what happens when exposed to temptation.

Someone exposed to anti-temptation might become "inoculated" to God, enjoying the pleasantness of the anti-temptation without connecting to the real person of God underneath. They also might only be able to love an appealing God, or appealingness itself in its divine mode.

When we feel good about God, we may be feeling good about a false image of God. So do we really love God? A true anti-temptation tries to connect us with the real God, but we may willfully misunderstand what the anti-temptation is talking about. It offers something real, but we missee it and thus refer, de re, to something else.

Also, when we are feeling good about God, we may make motions of dedication to him, and may offer a generous portion, perhaps 95% of our hearts to him. But for us to be saved, we need to give 100%. Having drawn so close to God with the 95% that we have given, perhaps we start to harden in that state, ignoring the 5% we keep away from dedication to him, and the 5%'s size and undedicated status can harden. A hardened 5% of sin is worse than a rough and obvious 50% or more of sin that we know is sin and is still uncommitted enough for us to change.

For these reasons (I think maybe in contradiction to what I might have said or implied earlier), "throwing anti-temptation at the problem" (like "throwing money at the problem") is imperfect and potentially dangerous. Anti-temptation is a valuable part of people's experiential diets, but temptation is also needed for many people. Maybe it's worth stressing that "anti-temptation can't replace your decision to come into tune with God."