Only an Evil God would ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac

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I have heard from atheists that only an evil God would ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac. They say i"magine what Issac was thinking,"

How can I explain this passage to atheists?
 
shaka said:
I have heard from atheists that only an evil God would ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac. They say i"magine what Issac was thinking,"

How can I explain this passage to atheists?
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It’s simple really, God needed to test the faith of Abraham fully, before giving him the real beginning of full Revelation. God doesn’t allow Abraham to sacrifice Issac once Abraham passes the test. He tests abraham’s faith in order to find out how integral and faithful he is.
 
A few points:
  • Isaac wasn’t sacrificed - God spared him
  • God didn’t have many other options as to valuable posessions that Abraham could sacrifice to show his devotion - he’d already gone the animal route before
  • Isaac didn’t punch Abraham’s lights out or run away (think about it, Abraham was ONE HUNDRED years his senior, if Isaac had been upset he’d definitely have tried it)
  • Isaac wasn’t even miffed at God, he certainly stayed faithful to him as Abraham had
  • Human sacrifice was hardly unheard of in the area at the time - on the contrary. It’s one of those cultural things that seems more horrific to us than it would have to Abraham or Isaac
 
read this story in the context of its time, when human sacrifice, particularly child sacrifice, was a key feature in the pagan religions of that time and place. What is the outcome? God condemns child sacrifice, communicates this to both Abraham and Isaac, and teaches them what true faith consists of: submission of one’s own will, mind and heart to God. He takes them to a whole new level of faith, trust and relationship with him, as a family and a clan. He prescribes how animal sacrifice will take the place of propitiary sacrifice until some unspecified time in the future of the clan founded by Abraham, when God himself will supply the victim for the Perfect Sacrifice, which the sacrifices of the Jews foreshadow.
 
Puzzleannie,

Your post, in my opinion, “hit the nail right on the head”. Thank you for our insight.

I just would like to place a thought - but in no way to add to anything you wrote. In several of his writings, our Holy Father points out the importance of the sacrifice God asked of Abraham and Abraham’s response with the life and sacrifice of our Blessed Mother. This is just a point to ponder.
 
One of the things of Abraham’s view:
A) God has promised him numerous descendents through Isaac.
B) God wanted him to kill Isaac
C) Abraham trusted God to fulfill point a, even if Isaac was sacrificed.

Therefore, Abraham beleived in the Resurrection of the Body. This is something that Jews had no grasp of at the time of Abraham, for this theology only began to develop after the 5th century BC (give or take a couple of hundred years).
 
God forknew that Abraham would pass the test, and supplied an alternate sacrafice for him to make. Also, read Hebrews 11, Abraham fully believed that God would raise his son from the dead. It is possible that his son also believed his father that God would raise him from the dead too.
 
Daniel_Marsh said:
God forknew that Abraham would pass the test, and supplied an alternate sacrafice for him to make. Also, read Hebrews 11, Abraham fully believed that God would raise his son from the dead. It is possible that his son also believed his father that God would raise him from the dead too.
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Being that the son was a teenager and Abraham was in his 90’s (or is it 100’s by this time?), yes, I would say that Isaac also believed Abraham.

The alternate sacrifice was nothing more than symbolic. That’s why Abraham named the mountain, “God WILL provide”, for he knew that God would provide the Sacrifice on the same mountain 2000 (or so) years later.

Interesting note: Weren’t Abraham and Isaac gone for three days before God stayed his hand. Doesn’t this pre-figure our Lord being in the tomb for three days?
 
And yet God gave His son for Sacrifice, carrying the wood(as Isaac did) . God provided sacrifice(as Abraham told isaac when he asked what will we sacrifice). It’s a lot deeper than an athiest would realize or know.
 
maryj said:
And yet God gave His son for Sacrifice, carrying the wood(as Isaac did) . God provided sacrifice(as Abraham told isaac when he asked what will we sacrifice). It’s a lot deeper than an athiest would realize or know.
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Did you get that thought from Fr. Larry Richards 😉
 
This is one of the greatest Archtypes in the Bible.

It was a foreshadowing of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary.

Look at the paralles.
  1. God asks Abraham to go to Mt. Moriah. Calvary is ON Mt. Moriah.
  2. The Son carries the wood of the Sacrifice. Christ carried the wood of the Cross.
  3. God offered for sacrifice, a Ram, it’s head caught in a thicket of thorns. God offered His own Lamb, whose head was also ringed with thorns.
It’s almost a billboard advertisement for what God was going to do for His own Son.

God asked Abaraham to Sacrifice his only Son so that the world might recognize what God was going to do with His own Son.
 
TOME said:
Puzzleannie,

…
I just would like to place a thought - but in no way to add to anything you wrote. In several of his writings, our Holy Father points out the importance of the sacrifice God asked of Abraham and Abraham’s response with the life and sacrifice of our Blessed Mother. This is just a point to ponder.
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Thanks. Had never thought before about the parallel between Abraham and Mary.
**Sir Knight **Again, did you get that thought from Fr. Larry Richards?
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Who’s Fr. Larry Richards?

Nita
 
shaka said:
I have heard from atheists that only an evil God would ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac. They say i"magine what Issac was thinking,"

How can I explain this passage to atheists?
Click to expand...
Note that God did not ask Abraham to do something he himself was not willing to do. the differecne being that Abraham was stopped from Sacrificing his son-God let his die on a cross.
 
John 8
56 Abraham your father rejoiced that** he might see** my day: he saw it, and was glad.

Jesus outlines the process of the revelation of His Day. Rejoicing before the revelation is complete, and gladness afterwards.

Genesis 22
2 He said to him: Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest,** and go into the land of vision:** and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee.

I look at Abraham’s act of faith through the lense offered by Christ when He revealed that what Abraham was shown was His Day. Abraham saw Our Lord’s Day. If we take that another step in the same direction we can speculate that what was revealed to Abraham was the Resurrection through which the Eternal Day is offered to humanity.
I see this as reason to believe that Abraham’s faith in the resurrection was being tested through his willingness to offer Isaac.

I’m thinking Abraham believed that Isaac would be resurrected.
 
Benadam said:
John 8
56 Abraham your father rejoiced that** he might see** my day: he saw it, and was glad.

Jesus outlines the process of the revelation of His Day. Rejoicing before the revelation is complete, and gladness afterwards.

Genesis 22
2 He said to him: Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest,** and go into the land of vision:** and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee.

I look at Abraham’s act of faith through the lense offered by Christ when He revealed that what Abraham was shown was His Day. Abraham saw Our Lord’s Day. If we take that another step in the same direction we can speculate that what was revealed to Abraham was the Resurrection through which the Eternal Day is offered to humanity.
I see this as reason to believe that Abraham’s faith in the resurrection was being tested through his willingness to offer Isaac.

** I’m thinking Abraham believed that Isaac would be resurrected.**
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[sign] Amen!! [/sign]
 
shaka said:
I have heard from atheists that only an evil God would ask Abraham to sacrifice Issac. They say i"magine what Issac was thinking,"

How can I explain this passage to atheists?
Click to expand...
An **Evil **God would have let Abraham go through with it.
 
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