Christians, would you do as Abraham did and obey God's order to murder your only child?
For those who aren't familiar, the story goes like this:
God: Hey Abraham, take your miracle baby Isaac and go kill him on an altar for me, k? Abraham: Will do, Lord✌
So Abraham gets up early the next morning, grabs Isaac and they start making the long journey to Moriah where God wants Abraham to murder his only child.
Isaac: Hey Dad? Abraham: Yes, my dearly loved son? Isaac: Uh....we didn't bring a sheep or anything to sacrifice. Abraham: Don't worry about it, kiddo😉
They finally arrive at Moriah whereupon Abraham builds an altar...
Isaac: Great altar, Dad! Now where do- wait what are you doing?!
...and ties Issac down onto it. He then takes his sacrificial knife and prepares to kill the son whom he loves dearly. But at the last moment an angel appears!
Angel: Hey Abraham actually stop tho. This was just a test, bud! Great Job! Abraham/Isaac: ..... *visibly traumatized*
And then Abraham spotted a ram caught in some bushes and cut that bad boy up for the Lord. Hurray! And lo, the walk home was pretty fucking awkward.😓
It sounds pretty horrifying to any parent and the immediate reaction is how can a loving God ask something like that? Like everything in the Bible context is important.
In Genesis 17:4-7 God promised to make Abraham fruitful. Nations and kings were to come from him. There was a name and identity change in keeping with the challenges that would come. God established an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his generations after him.
God also knew that all of that would be challenging but God doesn't make mistakes with the people who he calls to do special things. He chose Abraham because of his strong faith.
Abrahams faith was so strong and he knew that God would have had a plan that was infinitely greater, so when God called Abrahams name, he responded. "Here I am"
Where our Bibles say "Here I am" The Hebrew word used is "Hineni". The true meaning gets a little bit lost in translation. When Abraham responds to God with "Here I am" The closer meaning is "Here I am, with unconditional readiness, no matter the cost"
How many of us can say we are unconditionally ready to follow God no matter what it costs us?
There's a lot to unpick from these Bible passages. Especially when we think about the fact that, through Jesus death on the cross, God made a unconditional sacrifice for each and every one of us. 🙂
what i think youre missing is an understanding of the power of God. you might not believe what he can do to a person or make him do. maybe you will never find out. maybe he makes you the way you are for a reason. you never know. just saying.
@Pikachu i have read that story but i cant really rememeber why he wanted to do it, lik eif he was scared shitless or not lol. but from my experience in life God can be miraculous even if its by his way of force. id say more but i just woke up and cant think straight.
There's not a lot of detail. It just says god told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham is lie "Bet". No description of inner turmoil, fear of repercussions or anything.
I think most Christians get upset at this question because they cannot imagine killing their child even if god commanded it and that makes them uncomfortable since they profess absolute loyalty.
Christians, would you do as Abraham did and obey God's order to murder your only child?
As I've said countless times, all of the stories in the Old and New Testaments illustrate one or more of the real Ten Commandments. Therefore, if you don't know what the real Ten Commandments are, the stories don't make sense.
The story about the despicable Abraham sacrificing Issac illustrates the real 4th Commandment =
Exodus 34:19-20 (ERV)= "19 “A woman’s first baby always belongs to me. Even the first animals that are born from your cattle or sheep belong to me. 20 If you want to keep a donkey that is the first born, then you can buy it with a lamb. But if you don’t buy that donkey with a lamb, you must break the donkey’s neck. You must buy back all of your firstborn sons from me. No one should come before me without a gift."
Issac was Abraham's and his sister Sarah's first baby. His first son Ishmael didn't count, even though he had been circumcised, because his mother wasn't one of Abraham's relatives.
Read the story closely and you will see that Isaac didn't walk home with Abraham. It was only Abe and his two servants. You never see Isaac with Abraham again until Isaac and Ishmael are burying their father.
@Pikachu We discussed that story in the class I teach a couple of weeks ago, and we decided that's what Isaac did. We also decided we would tell God to find somebody else; we weren't killing our child.
Abraham believed God could raise his son back from the dead.. and quite frankly he can and he will raise everyone back from the dead. anyway God doesn't require that in fact he forbids it he was just testing him
Yeah, yeah. Christians like to say that to excuse the cruelty of the test. But aside from the fact believing a miracle would occur after the fact would do little to reduce the trauma of deciding to stab your son to death/watching your father about to stab you to death.....you haven't answered the question. Go ahead and do that now.
Soooo no, you refuse to answer the question. Duly noted😘
lol it's just a hypothetical. It's rather telling that you'd rather make excuses for why this scenario wouldn't happen rather than answer a simple question if it did happen. My guess is that for all your performative piety, you don't think you'd be faithful enough to follow an order like that and that makes you uncomfortable. But instead of sitting with that discomfort and thinking about what it means...you attack me. And you're the only one attacking here. I didn't try to discredit god's word. I didn't tell you that you were wrong for believing in god...all i did was ask if you had the faith that Abraham had and it's rather odd that this has made you so angry. Pray on that
WELP, i think we're about done here, sweetheart. Unless you were gonna grow a pair and just answer the question😏 Anything you'd like to add?
@Pikachu if Jesus appeared before you just like the Bible says He appeared before Paul, would you obey him and repent and change your life just like Paul did? Hypothetically of course.
