return to religion-online

Helmut Thielicke was Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Hamburg. Translated by Rev. C.C. Barber, M.A., D. Phil. Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1958, 1960, 1961, 1962). Published in Great Britain by Oliver and Boyd Ltd. Edited for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.

Preface to the Third German Edition
This book was written just before World War II. The author reissues it after the War and he states: "One who dares to hope that he has seen the hour of all hours and has raised his voice to indicate it, may at the same time cherish the hope that it may be proclaimed both before and after the catastrophe; not because he over-estimates the permanent value of his little piece of literature, but simply and solely because the same judgment and the same promises still hold good."

Chapter 1: Prelude - Bread, Temple Pinnacles, and Shining Lands in the Desert Sands
The author speaks satirically of the times and the threat of tyranny in Germany (1938): "By himself confronting the Evil One, Jesus shows you how to recognise the dangerous crisis in your life and where to seek salvation."

Chapter 2: The First Temptation: The Reality of Hunger
In these four little words, ‘Thy will be done’, therefore, I say exactly what the Saviour says in the desert, when he says: I live by the word of God; I live by his promise, no matter how that promise may be fulfilled -- whether the stones become bread, or whether they remain stones, and whether or not help unexpectedly arrives in time of need.

Chapter 3: The Second Temptation - The Alluring Miracle of Display
The joyful news amid the terrors of the End is that we always know who will win this fight, and that is the divine refreshment which strengthens us against the hoof-beats of the apocalyptic horsemen. (The writer admits much satire in his writing [Germany, 1938].)

Chapter 4: The Third Temptation: Jesus’ Kingdom of This World
God’s grace is defenselessness, and not power; it is the cross, and not the glory; it is the still small voice, and not fire or earthquake (I Kings 19.11ff); it is to be ‘believed’, and not to be ‘seen’, it is a gift of the Spirit, not an open demonstration (John 20.24-9).

Epilogue
Because he is tempted as we are, he has probed our lowest depths. But because this temptation was not a sign that an abyss yawned within him, and that Satan lay hidden in him somehow already -- because this temptation came upon him, the pure, the sinless one, and he passed through it, untouched, as later through the mob that wished to seize him; because of all this, he is the Lord over temptation, the royal victor.

Viewed 33254 times.