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One of the things that amused me in the story was that the son was let go and a sheep was sacrificed instead. How could the the sheep and human be equivlent? I spent many a sleepless night pondering this. Then, this story appeared a couple of days ago of a car thief turning into a goat and the police arresting the goat:
Newspaper claims suspect transformed into a goat - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_fe_st/odd_goat_thief - broken link)
So, sheep/goats and humans must be equivalent. I understand at least a part of the story. And it still sounds as ridiculous as the one linked above.
So, I'm just curious. If god told you to sacrifice your son/daughter via a knife into the chest cavity....would you do it ?
If you noticed your neighbor strapping his son/daughter to an alter in the backyard and raising a knife to kill him/her...what would you do ? Would you accept his explanation that god told him to do it or would you call the authorities and rant about the demon possessed crazed man next door that attempted to kill his kid ?
Just questions I've always wanted to ask of someone who thinks this story in the bible is true and believes god would do this type of thing.[/quote]
I assume by your response, you don't believe in God.
I do believe in God, so we're speaking different languages here, and any response I give will not answer your question.
Why would you assume from what I said that I don't belive in god ? It seems bass ackwards to me that because I would question a parent killing a child on an alter in the backyard I don't belive in god....wow, please explain your thinking here.
If you can't answer the qustion, thats fine, but I just don't see how me questioning something in the bible means I can't believe in god. I just don't happen to believe this story is literal. My whole point is that man wrote the bible, inspired at times, probably not at other times due to misunderstanding things a bit.
I fail to see how questioning things means I can't believe in god. I do admit however that the story is so evil it's unbelievable to me.
The answer to this is found in the book of Hebrews. In Abraham's mind he had already concluded that God could raise Isaac from the dead. It was an act of faithful obedience. Today God does not talk aduibly so I would stop the person in the backyard from killing their child.
If you read the whole bible you might get some of your questions answered, but only if you really want the answers.
One of the things I was taught as a child in church is that god does not change....he's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
That being said, assuming god does not talk audibly anymore, he does still communicate with you right ? So why would the mode of communication matter whether it was audible or you were inspired by god to do any given act.
How did the folks who wrote the bible get inspired ? Was that audible or by quiet inspiration ? Why would it matter as long as you get the communication right ?
Believe it or not, I'm not trying to be nasty here....these are questions that have been festering in my mind since I was 10 years old....and I would really like someone to answer them. The answer of last resort always seems to be "god works in mysterious ways".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jasper1372
One of the things I was taught as a child in church is that god does not change....he's the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
That being said, assuming god does not talk audibly anymore, he does still communicate with you right ? So why would the mode of communication matter whether it was audible or you were inspired by god to do any given act.
How did the folks who wrote the bible get inspired ? Was that audible or by quiet inspiration ? Why would it matter as long as you get the communication right ?
Believe it or not, I'm not trying to be nasty here....these are questions that have been festering in my mind since I was 10 years old....and I would really like someone to answer them. The answer of last resort always seems to be "god works in mysterious ways".
How does ANYone know that it's God telling them to do something? A man gets an idea..."kill your wife because she is possessed"...so, does this man know it is God giving him this idea or is it Satan or is he just having angry thoughts and no one is responsible except himself? (I choose door #3)
The men who wrote the Bible, OT & NT, got their "inspired" thoughts from stories and tales going back many thousand of years, to Sumarians and Mesopotanians. The story of Jesus and all he said and preached and taught had been passed down and changed and altered to fit the occasion. It is really hard to believe in Divine Inspiration when this Divinity has been giving inspiration (to suit the times) to men for thousands of years before the Christians ever saw a star. And the Divine Message has changed dramatically with each new religion.
this is one of those stories in the bible that i really had a hard time with, especially after i had children of my own.
i have been told a lot of the same things about faith that he would be raised from the dead, and that God knew abrahams heart and would never have asked him (or any of us) to do anything more than we are capable of.
i have come to accept that this, as well as most all of the bible, i written by man, (i wont debate the divinely inspired part) for man, from the perspective of man.
i just cant understand how a man could do this. as a woman, i dont care how much faith my husband has, if he takes one of my kids out to sacrafice, (especially after going thru everything sarah went thru to have a baby) i'm moving heaven and earth to protect that kid. and nice story that it is, when hubby and son come home and i find out what happened, its going to be a long cold day in h*** before hubby gets around my kids again.
as a woman- i want to know saras side. i would find it inspirational to know how she handled this. i think her part took a lot more faith than abrahams. but as i said, i have come to accept that the bible isnt written with women in mind.
and so we are clear- i do believe in God. i believe the bible is a great book, but i do not find it my only source of knowledge and comfort.
These kind of passages from the Bible makes me think of a cat toying with a mouse before he finally kills it. It just seems incredibly cruel and brutal, I see no vision of a loving God in so much of the Bible.
I know this story is hard for a nonbeliever to understand, but God tested Abraham not to trip him, and watch him fall, but to deepen his capacity to obey God and develop his character. Just as fire refines ore to extract precious metals, God refines me through difficult circumstances. I love how Abraham said in Genesis 22:8 "God will provide......oh to take that much faith! And like I said earlier, Abraham knew his son would be ok, he said in verse 4 when they left, WE will be back.
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. I understand at least a part of the story. And it still sounds as ridiculous as the one linked above.
