Is 40 days without food the best choice?

by John Aquila 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  John Aquila

  In chapter 4 of Luke it says Jesus went into the wilderness and he ate nothing but fasted forty days and forty nights.

  Now I don’t know about any of you but I once got on a 5 day liquid diet and only lasted 2 days. I was so hungry that even when I fell asleep I started dreaming a hot brunette was handing me a couple of slices of pizza. And the pizza was my first choice.

  I also did some research and some estimates say that a person can last between 28 to 40 days without food depending if you look like Family Guy or Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith show.Either way, you are going to come of sick and deluded after being without food for that long. 

  Also, by the third week or so, you will start hallucinating and your mind will start playing tricks.

  Now I noticed that at the beginning of the Book of Luke it says this:

  (Luke 1:3) I resolved also, because I have traced all things from the start with accuracy

  So my question is: If Jesus was alone in the wilderness fasting and talking only to the Devil, how do they know this happened? Did Jesus tell his apostles: "Hey, I talked to the Devil"

  If I disappeared for 40 days and was close to starvation and I finally came home and starting telling everyone that I talked to the Devil and he told me to turn some stones into pizza but I refused because man must not live on pizza alone, would anyone believe me? Could I write a book about my experience? Would people buy my book? Or would they just haul me away in an ambulance straight to the hospital?

  And how would fasting prepare you for any type of test? Even kids are told to have a good breakfast before a hard morning in school. Isn’t the best thing a person can do before a test, a marathon, or a fight, is to load up on carbs? How does starving for 40 days help one become ready for a fight with a bunch of crazy people that will want to kill you?

  I can’t believe I never thought of this.
• 

  cappytan

  He prayed a lot. Prayer is magic. 
• 

  Simon

  If I disappeared for 40 days and was close to starvation and I finally came home and starting telling everyone that I talked to the Devil and he told me to turn some stones into pizza but I refused because man must not live on pizza alone, would anyone believe me? Could I write a book about my experience? Would people buy my book? Or would they just haul me away in an ambulance straight to the hospital?

  Sorry, that's not quite unbelievable enough to base a religious belief on. You need to make yourself a deity that impregnated his own virgin mother with himself before killing himself and bringing himself back to life. See, it needs to be so out of the ball park whacky that it couldn't possibly be made up (<- into the mind of a theist).

  But I like that you included pizza ... I think the bible would be better if it had more chapters focusing on pepperoni.
• 

  rebel8

  If Jesus was alone in the wilderness fasting and talking only to the Devil, how do they know this happened?

  • The same way we know Moses was handed the 10 Commandments from jehoopla when he was on the mountain alone
  • The same way we know jesus was resurrected with no one being witness to the actual event
  • The same way we know he was immaculately conceived
  • etc.
    
• 

  Jonathan Drake

  Just as a note on the topic of fasting - and I'm not trying to say this is what happened...

  But! not every fasting period meant you literally ate absolutely nothing. It's been suggested by some that Christ essentially ate nothing but that he was able to eat whatever little edible things he found while out in about fasting. Anything he found would have been next to nothing and not taken away the pangs, but it's suggested he likely ate these things.

  personally I'm not sure about this. I mean it says he ate NOTHING. But who knows, maybe it was an error in translation.
• 

  Simon

  Many fasts just mean not eating during the day. He could have been going to the 24 hour McDaniel's for all we know.
• 

  Mandrake

  He ordered some McPeyote Nuggets at McDaniels 
• 

  opusdei1972

  I have the answer: It did not happen. It was a tale that Luke took from  a story teller, and the author of Matthew  used too. Otherwise the earth would be flat:

  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.... (Matthew 4:8)
  

  
  
• 

  prologos

  he ate the same 'nothing' that also gave birth to the universe, seething with energy. Luke was a doctor, which says a lot about the state of medicine at the time, 40 days without food? doctored data.  
• 

  smiddy

  Didnt I  read somewhere that the number 40 comes up a lot in scripture ? Bible writers seemed to have a thing about that number.

  smiddy