When Abraham was setting out to sacrifice his son...?

Question

a) Did he know that that God would stop him, in which case it was all theater? or

b) Did he not know that God would stop him, in which case he was a would be child murderer?

In either case what a contemptible paranoid creature! What good did he do in his life?

Answer 1

Franco...think about it. If he knew that G-d would stop him then yes, it would have been theatrics. But if he didn't know then he acted with a faith in G-d that could not be paralleled. And since this was early along in the Bible, G-d had not established himself in the minds of man yet. Abraham was not considering the fact that he would be a child killer, he was brokenhearted at the fact that his son had to die. It was his leap of faith that G-d wanted, not his sons life. You asked what good did he do in his life, only ever thing in the mind of Abraham. It allowed Abraham the one thing that modern man can only believe in. Where Abraham had empirical truth.

Imagine you were Abraham...and you witnessed an act of G-d such as this. Would you still be so closed minded to the concept of religion?

Answer 2

This God who tellin him to kill his child was the God of the death.

The one who stop him, was God of life.

Answer 3

That story is just to show that Abraham was extremely faithful to God, to the extent of almost sacrificing his only child by Sarah.

I would say B up to the comma. Back in those days, it was not uncommon for first born children to be sacrificed to the gods.

Answer 4

He believed based on the promise God made him, that God would either stop him or resurrect Isaac right after-wards.

Answer 5

He was showing utmost obedience to the creator. So

a) He was fully prepared to sacrifice his son.

b) He wouldnt have 'murdered' his son, as he was carrying out a command from God.

Answer 6

This is what amazes me about Christians, they don't see it as child abuse!.

If we are supposed to get an example from the bible, that is what they say, the bible is Holy and perfect, why then if a person today says" God told me to kill my son, like Abraham was asked to, they would think he was insane, but Abraham was not?

How can they justify HIS CHILD ABUSE?

Why Christians don't see this as child and animal abuse and evil?

The story of Abraham ready to kill his son Isaac in a sacrifice as a test of his faith, but at the end an angel shows up and says"just kidding, burn an animal instead".

1. Only an evil God would ask to kill a son, even if at the end Abraham did not carry that out , the fact of asking to KILL is wrong and EVIL.

2. Only an evil  father would be willing to kill his own son .

3. God orders to KILL an animal instead.

Even if you can rationalize all this sick stuff, they don't even take in consideration the psychological state of the child that was about to be executed, a child with a knife on his throat ready to be slaughtered!!

How can they not see how wrong that is?

Answer 7

Any man willing to kill his own child is ill not religious.

Hence if he had killed his child I would assume he would have been stoned not worshipped and the fact he didn't was probably because his brain overuled his mental illness to brief reality.

Answer 8

Under polytheistic mythology, Abraham would have expected to have his son sacrificed as an offering.  However, he know that God was the real things and not polytheism created by humans.  No, it was not all theater--you are missing points in your *question*.  Why bother with such drivel as your *question* if you don't believe?  

Answer 9

B; he knew how it must have felt since his dad tried to sacrifice him; and look at it from his point of view- he had prayed for years to have a son.  He finally gets one and God tells him to kill him?!  He didnt want to do it, but he knew that Whatever God tells him to do must be right.  We cant see all the possible outcomes so how can we ever know what is really "right" or "wrong?"

Answer 10

And it's from Abraham that we get all our Abrahamic religions. Contemptible...paranoid....  Coincidence?  I think not!

Answer 11

This is what the writer of Hebrews tells us:

"By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. "

Hebrews 11:17-19

So you see Abraham knew he had God's promise and God could not lie; so even if Isaac were to die, he knew God would raise Him from the dead.

The thing to note is God did not require Abraham's son from him, but God did give His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world.

Answer 12

The Lord wants us to trust him with all our heart, and lean not on our own understanding.  Few would pass such a test, but the Lord does prove people from time to time.  Abraham's own father tried to sacrifice Abraham when Abraham was but a child.  An angel appeared and stopped him.  It had to be on his mind.

Answer 13

Please read Genesis 22 1-39, this is the answer that you are asking