According to Hebrews 11 Abraham's willingness to murder his son is an example of faith for christians to emulate.
Why did God test Abraham?
by jws 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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jws
Domi wrote:
Isaac was Abraham's only son. Isaac was still with, and under his father. Abraham's other son was off, and on his own, not under his father.
Sorry, Domi. Your trees topic intriquied me and the fact that you're supposedly an "author" gave you some credence, but I'm losing my faith in your mental abilities.
Isaac was Abraham's ONLY SON because his OTHER SON was off????? OTHER SON and ONLY SON? These 2 phrases do NOT go together. And you're supposed to be an author? (Of what? A blog?) It does not say Isaac was Abraham's only son living at home. It says he was Abraham's only son.
And you keep avoiding the question from your post regarding this topic. You say you cannot be more compassionate than God. Would you ask somebody to kill their son? Who's more compassionate? You or god?
Please Domi. Look at these things. The Bible is far from flawless and could not have been written by a superior being. If it were, we would not question any of these meanings, would we? An all-powerful God would anticipate the confusion and author a book that leaves no confusion.
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NotNew
Aroq: God knows before hand everything
So then...Jehovah knew the outcome of what would happen in the garden of Eden?
**if so then he's an evil pos..! he should not be worshiped, he should be ashamed and ask for forgiveness. Then make it right!
It now appears to me that these are all stories made up by humans to control others! F-them
SW
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transhuman68
LOL, all the stories in Genesis are complete fiction- written many hundreds of years after the age they describe; so the real question is- what was the writer trying to say? Much of Genesis is describing the Jewish people- who they are, and their relation to the other nationalities around them. In this case, Ishmael ended up in the wilderness of Paran, which is... Mecca! He is even today claimed to be the father of Islam, and those people. So in a way he wasn't Abraham's son, as he was unimportant to the rest of the story of the Jewish nation. So why did Abraham nearly sacrifice Isaac? Who knows, but the point is they all lived happily ever after- it's just a fairy tale.
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Cold Steel
It wasn’t merely a test, but a foreshadowing of the coming of the Son of God. To wit, Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
The same thing is true regarding all sacrifices; that’s why God implemented it. In an extrabiblical account, an angel confronts Adam: “And then the angel spake, saying: ‘This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.’”
Animal sacrifices were introduced by God as a teaching implement: to teach His people about the ultimate sacrifice by the Savior, Jesus Christ. We see this throughout the scriptures. Note, for example, the prophet Zechariah speaking of the battle of Armageddon:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
In the day of their salvation, when the Beast Daniel and John spoke of, Jesus will appear to the Jews. To them, it’s the coming they had been waiting for for generations. In the midst of their tribulation, the Messiah appears in great glory (which is how the Jews have always expected the Messiah to come). They had hoped it would happen in the days of the Romans, but according to scripture, they were dispersed to the four corners of the earth. In the last days, however, they gather to the lands of their inheritance. And when their enemy is about to destroy them, they are delivered. Note the reference to the fact that the Messiah will be “pierced.” And the Jews will ask, “What are these wounds in thy hands,” and the Messiah will say, “These are the wounds I received in the house of my friends.” (See Zechariah 13) Then the Jews will realize who their Messiah is and the entire land will go into a state of mourning.
Not only does Zechariah say the Jews will mourn for their Messiah “as one mourneth for his only son,” he says they will be in bitterness “as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” So you have two prophetic references in relation to the Messiah: 1) the only begotten Son of God and 2) the firstborn Son of God. This was written hundreds of years before Jesus, and yet in the prophecy we see a teaching that relates to Jesus.
God knows the choices we’ll make in life, but unless we actually make those choices, we don’t grow. He also knows what each of us will do in our lives and whether we will receive eternal life or lesser glories. People say, “Well, if He knows how it will turn out, why does He make us go through it?” It’s for the same reason a Navy Seal recruit knows he’ll make the grade, but he has to do it. Our experiences on Earth determines how and where we spend eternity, but we have to go through them for our own growth.
BTW, there are a number of extrabiblical accounts indicating that Abraham suspected that God would either stop him or, if he sacrificed his son, God would raise him up. The scriptures indicate he was a “friend” of God, and I suspect Abraham knew God well enough to know that Isaac would be delivered.
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jam
Jesus saw a crowd chasing down a woman to stone, he approached them.
"What's going on here, anyway?" He asked. This woman was found
committing adultery and the law says we should stone her!!
"Wait", yelled Jesus. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone".
Suddenly a stone was thrown out of the sky and knocked the woman
on the side of the head.
"Aw, c'mon Dad...," Jesus cried, "I'm trying to make a point here!"
So God was making some kind of piont, what point I have no idea.
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problemaddict
While I personally am still on my own personal journey.....like most things, there is something here that reminds me of the Simpsons.
There was an episode where Homer starts a blog with crazy conspiracy theories as "Mr X". He ends up getting drugged with the family and taken to "the island" by a man named number 2. There they reveal that since he knows too much, he must stay there in a perpetually drugged state.
He asks, which thing I wrote about ended up being true.
Number 2 "That flu vaccines have mind control additives that whip peple into a shopping frenzy right around the time of the holiday season!"
Homer: "Of course! Its so simple!........wait......no its not......its needlessly complicated.
Number 2 "Yes......Yes it is."
That is the way I feel about this account.
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designs
In Judaism the story is actually a condemnation of human sacrifice. This is one reason the Christian Messiah is rejected by Jews.
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Cold Steel
It's just a foreshadowing of the Messiah. It's not needlessly complicated, nor is it difficult to understand. But that's the way the scriptures were designed -- to be understood by those who sought understanding and to be confusing to those who lack the desire.
Josephus quotes Abraham's explanation to his son:
“Oh, son, I poured out a vast number of prayers that I might have thee for my son; when thou wast come into the world, there was nothing that could contribute to thy support for which I was not greatly solicitous, nor anything wherein I thought myself happier than to see thee grown up to man's estate, and that I might leave thee at my death the successor to my dominion; but since it was by God's will that I became thy father, and it is now his will that I relinquish thee, bear this consecration to God with a generous mind; for I resign thee up to God who has thought fit now to require this testimony of honor to himself, on account of the favors he hath conferred on me, in being to me a supporter and defender. Accordingly thou, my son, wilt now die, not in any common way of going out of the world, but sent to God, the Father of all men, beforehand, by thy own father, in the nature of a sacrifice. I suppose he thinks thee worthy to get clear of this world neither by disease, neither by war, nor by any other severe way, by which death usually comes upon men, but so that he will receive thy soul with prayers and holy offices of religion, and will place thee near to himself, and thou wilt there be to me a successor and supporter in my old age; on which account I principally brought thee up, and thou wilt thereby procure me God for my comforter instead of thyself.” (Antiquities of the Jews, I:13:3.)
We don't know the source of this account, but it's significant in more than explaining Abraham's reasoning. Josephus was not a Greek, but a devout Jew. In the above account, which is clearly Jewish in nature, we see what the Christian and the Jews taught. First, that God is the Father of all men, not just the creator. Second, it soundly belies the doctrine that the souls of men sleep when they die. The author of the above, whoever he was, clearly believed that had Isaac suffered death, his soul would return to God and be near unto Him, and that he, Isaac, would be a "successor and supporter" to him after death. Thus, Isaac's spirit would return to God, the Father of all men, and there be able to watch over his father in old age.
The Adventist doctrine of soul sleeping is therefore dealt a decisive blow because the source of the above came from a Jew who was quoting it from an earlier Jewish source. It thus proves that the concept of man's having a spirit is not a Greek invention. And that proves that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is dead wrong on one of its CHIEF doctrines.
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kassad84
" But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."