Would you kill your child if God told you to?

Question

A month ago someone asked this question concerning the story of Abraham being ordered by God to offer his [Abraham's] son in sacrifice:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArqnqwUIG3ljK8tcrG.Fl35IzKIX?qid=20070629060052AAJRxQJ

Abraham had the kid on the alter, knife poised for the strike, when God backed out of the demand.

Interestingly, a number of people answered, [paraphrased] "Yeah, I'd hate to do it, but what the hell."

As a person not too impressed by the Judeo-Christian God, this seems a bit extreme to me. I have a lot of respect for faith, almost any faith.

But it seems to me when a person begins hearing voices from God telling him to draw and quarter his kid, it might be time to draw the line and indulge in some self-doubt.

Could this willingness to listen to voices and believe they're God talking, no matter what they demand, be the explanation for a lot of bloody events in Christian history?

Answer 1

they believe in a god that is into blood offerings...I guess they would kill their kid.....they wonder why we don't want them around our kids in school!

Answer 2

Well for a start, in the time of Abraham, sacrificing your children to your god was common place. (I want to say the god they sacrificed to was Baal, but I'm not 100% sure.)
However, I believe that when Abraham heard in his spirit, (when God speaks to someone it's a sudden sense of knowledge, and not a literal voice) he recalled that God had promised that through THIS child He, (God) would bless all nations. (Meaning that someday Jesus would come into the world through this very blood line.)
Now think about it for a moment.
By the time this is supposed to have occurred, mankind had proven itself to be a savage brutal species. As already mentioned sacraficing your own children was common at that time for example.
How can you expect to believe that a superior being of great power and wisdom would even so much as look upon such a vile and evil sort of beings as we and NOT require some kind of evidence that we are willing sacrafice what we consider most precious in order to have a relatioship with Him?
Also think of this:
God knew that someday His son was going to offer up His OWN life as a sacrafice for the redemtion of mankind.
I believe this act spoken of in Genesis shows us that God always provides for our every need; only because He loves us and not because we have some how earned it or bought it from Him.

Answer 3

The fact of God telling me today to kill my child is nill.
God tests our loyaltiy to Him today by our obedience to Him and doing His will, not by of killing our kids in a sacrafice.
God's test for Abraham was to prove that God was first in his life and that is what God wanted to hear. So to say God backed out, is err. God already knew that Abraham would listen to God, the rest is history.
Many problems arise today because people don't know the real voice of God is. God tells us His sheep hears His voice. A person really have to be grounded and rooted in the Word of God to know that they know it is God talking to them. There is no if's and but's. Alot of bloody events in Christian History was because of man's interpretation of what God said to do or not to do. Not good when man takes things into his own hands.
As for Judeo-Christians God, it might be true that there are respectul but in all fairness, just because there if respect does not mean that they backed up or agree with other faiths who believe in other gods, wrong doctrins, false teachings and beliefs etc etc.

Answer 4

an consumer-friendly answer is not any, i don't have the super faith that Abraham had, and that i in no way as quickly as claimed to be a suitable Christian. What I do have is Jesus as Mediator and Saviour, so isn't that adequate??? The above answer from Ludwig did no longer take the context into attention, in Hebrews 11:39-40 it explains what the massive faiths that those super adult men alongside with Abraham have carried out... Hebrews 11:39-40 (New international version) 39These have been all counseled for his or her faith, yet none of them gained what were promised. 40God had planned some thing extra valuable for us so as that throughout basic terms including us could they be made suitable. there is in basic terms one super Promise that the outdated testomony Prophets in no way gained, and that became Jesus to place away their sins and Mediate for the souls into salvation and redemption!

Answer 5

No I would not kill my child because I think it is not God's instruction it is only satan's instruction.Allah the only one God had instructed Abraham prophet for killing Ismael prophet his own beloved son born by his second wife Sarah.Allah instructed him to do that was only Allah's testing for his devotion.In fact at that time Allah saved the life of Ismael by replacing him with a goat.This event has been God's instruction for all muslims who have enough money for slaughtering goats,camels,buffalos or cows and give its meat to the poor at Iedul Adha day.God is merciful so it is not logic if God instructed someone to kill his own child...Children are innocent and they are like white papersThey have no sins untill they are grown up who will take their own responsibility..

Answer 6

What an insane question.
We've all heard of men but more particularly women suffering post-natal depression obeying the voices in their heads and killing their kids and they've been judged insane as they should be.

Who would kill their kid cos Invisible Sky Critter delusions spoke to them?
The same insane cowards who get elected twice and send other mothers' sons to war.

Answer 7

Like George Carlin said, look at how seriously the religious people take thou shalt not kill. The more devote they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. We have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhist all taking turns killing each other because "GOD" told them it was a good idea.

I can tell you this, the more devout somebody is about their faith, the more they see everything they do as ok, because it's all for the good of God.

Answer 8

I sort of agree... Abraham (the Muslim prophet ~Ibrahim) did cut off his foreskin at the age of around 80 by reason of those little voices in his head .... Christians are not the only religion that originated from his madness.

Answer 9

God actually didn't want Abraham to kill his son. He wanted to test Abraham's faith and wanted to see who was more important to Abraham because he wanted Abraham to father the line that would bring Jesus into the world. God was basically testing Abraham and once Abraham proved he would do anything for his Creator God told him to stop and not to hurt a hair on the child. His reward for his unwavering faith was he got to father the line that led to Jesus Christ not to mention such close personal contact with God himself.

God actually punished cities that hurt children. A lot of Pagan religions back then use to burn their children as sacrifices to their gods and that angered God. The only child God ever allowed to be sacrificed by his own doing was his own son Jesus (who was an adult and willingly took the responsibility for all of man kinds sins) and Jesus was the one and only sacrifice needed to save us from a definite death. So before you judge God so quickly please read the surrounding text in the bible so you know what is really going on!

Answer 10

God did not make a practice of telling any other individual in the Bible to Kill their child.. as mentioned it was a Test of Abram's faith.
How would you be able to determine whether it was from God or Satan.? Today if that Request was made of me.. I would have to say it was coming from The Devil or any of his Demonic forces.

Answer 11

There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.