Christians if your god asked to you kill your child in his name, with no other reason, would you do it?

Question

He's done this before according to the bible, so why not again? Isn't this potentially possible then? What would you do?

Didn't see LabGrrrl's question before I typed mine....

Stop hedging....

Yes or No?

Answer 1

Absolutely Not! If there is a God and it's that sick and twisted I'd rather burn in hell then hurt any of my babies. Or anyone elses for that matter. That kind of God should destroy itself.

Answer 2

Abraham's circumstance was a little more defined. For instance, God had promised that through Isaac, his promise would be fulfilled. Then God asked him to go and offer Isaac. Well, that puts Abraham in a bind. Formerly, he had thought he would find an heir that would make him the father of many nations through his own effort (Ishmael). However, from the biblical account, God was not pleased with Ishmael and miraculously let Sarah bear a son to Abraham herself. Isaac is this promised child. Abraham knew that he was the one through whom the line had to come, God had said so. Thus, if Abraham was going to offer Isaac, God had something else he was going to do in order to maintain his lineage through Isaac. In fact, Hebrews 11 implies that Abraham believed that God would vivify his son after he offered him. Thus, what God did was testing Abraham's faith in the promise God had made with him.

I do not think I have such a promise from God over my child's life, nor do I claim to possess faith like Abraham's. I do not think I would go through with it because I personally believe this is wrong. However, as others have noted in their responses, the conundrum in the text disappears because Abraham never really did kill his son and therefore never violated God's desire to not have a man kill another.

In response to SuperAtheist's observation about the general who sacrificed his daughter when he came back from war: the story occurs in the book of Judges. First, the book of Judges is a picture of what happens when everyone does according to what "is right in everyone's eyes." It is written as a polemic so people would actually follow the law and be faithful to the covenant they had made with God in Deuteronomy. Second, the text does not indicate that it was a good thing for him to sacrifice his daughter. It seems like the implication of the text is that this man made an exceptionally rash vow (He promised to sacrifice whatever walked out of his house first... hmm.... maybe he was thinking of the family chicken? He obviously lacked some foresight). If it teaches anything it is that one should beware of what kind of a vow one makes and whether one is able to keep it, or whether there are some vows that one should break. There is a lot of space in the text written about how the daughters of Israel mourned for her and how they continued to do it every year. To me, this seems to indicate some regret. Third, this is a historical book. It is not prescribing action, but merely describing action. It should be read as a narrative, not as a "Do This" List. This book is to be contrasted with the following historical period (1Samuel-2 Kings) where David leads his country to be faithful to the Lord and there is much peace in the land as a result.

Answer 3

During Abraham's time, God had not yet established his commandments, including "Thou shalt not kill", through Moses, but more to the point, Abraham did seem to suspect that God would not allow him to sacrifice his child, because he told his son that "God will provide the sacrifice" and he also knew that God would not break his promise to establish a nation through Isaac. Nonetheless, he was willing to do what God told him to do. Perhaps he had his doubts and was puzzled, but then God did indeed keep His word.

"SuperAtheist": God had no part in that man killing his daughter. Some of the stories told in the Bible are of men and women, who, as good as some of them may be, do some extremely stupid things. Nowhere in these cases does it say that God condoned these actions.

Answer 4

Some answerers are saying God would never follow through with such a request - never really make someone sacrifice their child.

But wasn't there a military general in the Bible, who promised God that in return for a victory in the forthcoming battle, he'd burn alive the first person to greet him when he returned home?

And of course, he won the battle with God's help.

And when he got home, the first person to greet him was his daughter.

And nobody said 'stop' this time, so he barbecued her.

Perhaps a Bible scholar can fill in the details...

CD

Answer 5

No, because God would never ask me to do that. The situation with Abraham and Isaac was to test Abraham's faith. This was before the 10 commandments were given.

Answer 6

Oui, such ignorance of the character of God!

God is not into human sacrifice. NO, NO, NO - He would never ask it.

What God does request is that you are willing to lay your life down for him - don't kill yourself or anyone else. You lay down your life to Him while you are living. (John 15)

You have no right to lay down someone elses' life!

EDIT: Note to superatheist. He didn't burn his daughter. She lived her life without every marrying - and no where in the Bible does it say that God told him to do it! It was a foolish, bold promise he made and he fulfilled it by not allowing her to marry.

Answer 7

Your question can't be sensibly answered unless you say how god asks you anything. How do you positively identify him ? Will you have a signed - witnessed order ?
A superstitious mind can come up with more weird garbage in its imagination than we can keep track of.
Whenever "god" speaks to anybody, you can be sure it's not "god".

Answer 8

The question you should ask. Is he the god you thought you followed for so long if he asked you to do such a horrible act?

Sadly...most would. :(

Answer 9

Yeah they probably would but then right after that they would say OMG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING111!!1SHIFT @B0R+TION IS LYK MURDER!!

P.S.:Why are you all avoiding the question? It's a yes or no answer.

Answer 10

God would never tell a person to kill their child.
That is of Satan but they blame it on God after they pull out the mental illness card..