Can any religious scholar justify this?

Question

Hypothetically, if you had a dog and it was so smart that it could literally understand everything you said. One day you dog gives birth to one puppy. You say to your loyal animal “Dog, take your puppy in your mouth by the scruff of the neck and throw it upon the fire because the final squeal of a dying puppy is pleasant to my ears and the smell of a burning puppy is pleasant to my nose."

Your dog with big tears in it’s eyes takes it’s lone puppy and heads for the fire. At the last possible second you say “Wait dog, take instead the neighbor’s cat who has used my yard as a litter box instead and throw it upon the fire”

Now my question is this, even though the look of terror on the cat’s face is priceless, don’t you think playing such a trick on your dog is kind of sick?

Answer 1

Not just kind of sick ...

And then, how about you wait many generations until the there are countless descendants of you beloved creation - and then you drown all but 2 of each kind?

Or, how about this - put them all in the stationwagon, take them out in the desert and abandon them. Then come back after 40 years to retrieve the few that are still alive?

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edit -

Oh yeah, I forgot about the part where you torture and kill your own dog. Cool stuff, huh?

Answer 2

Can any religious scholar justify this?

i hope not bc yes I

think playing such a trick on your dog(or the cat) is evil 'n mean

Answer 3

Yup. But Christians justify it by saying Issac "understood" or that it taught a grand lesson. Sure! "The end justifies the means." Great moral lesson!

Nice analogy.

I always thought Issacs story would be interesting to hear from HIS point of view.

Answer 4

Animal sacrifice is pagan. Read Isaiah 66.
The term blood is symbolic for ones personal spiritual power.
They used to transfer negative energies into animals with words of power, and then destroyed the animal and released the negative energies.
This actually polluted our world and the upper levels closest to us. Which is why Christ had to die as He did, in order to purge
our world of these types of negative influences, like from violence, and reopen the doors to Spirit.

Answer 5

Yes, its sounds very cruel. But for a better understanding you have to know what God wanted us to know.

"And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me," (Gen. 22:12).
Does this mean that God did not know for sure what Abraham would do until He saw the raised knife? Does it also mean that God did not know whether or not Abraham feared Him as the verse states?

We might note that Gen. 22:5 says: "And Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you.'" Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son and he expected the Lord to resurrect Isaac. This is what it says in Heb. 11:19, "He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type." So, God knew that Abraham was completely trusting in the Lord. Why then did God still need to test in Abraham?

God makes statements often designed to reveal to us a truth that needs to be presented. He already did this with Adam.

The Son, Isaac, is offered on wood, on a hill after a three day journey. Jesus, the Son, was offered on wood, on a hill, and was in the grave for three days.

In fact, Jesus said in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." The day that Jesus is speaking of is the day of Christ's sacrificial death. God ordained that the gospel be revealed in the Old Testament just as it says in Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets."

God is doing two things: First, God is revealing the gospel in hidden form. Second, God is speaking for Abraham's benefit; that is, it was Abraham who needed to hear that God was acknowledging that Abraham feared Him. The test was not for God, but for Abraham and the words "Now I know" were not for God, but for the man who needed to hear God affirm his faithfulness. Abraham is a man locked in time. The act of sacrificing Isaac was important prophetically. But it was also important to us as a testimony of faithfulness to God.

I hope this helped for your understanding. Many things have to be considered by reading the Bible. Read with an open mind.

Answer 6

What's your point? Animal are animals, what I know of you Americans have sent a lot of your children to the fire through abortion. Don't you have a soft spot for the innocent suffering children?

Answer 7

Its an allegory used by ancient Semitic authors to justify the abandonment of human sacrifice.

Answer 8

Whats a religious scholar?

Answer 9

You miss the whole point of that story. It is called faith. Now we had a dog that killed 3 of her pups. She had like 9 of them and she killed 3 instead of making them suffer and starve to death.

Answer 10

well they cant talk so we are justified to do so, we have animals on this earth so that we may survive.