Gods will, not mine. There is a difference.

Hi tee, God did not take Abraham's son. It was a test of his faith. Because of Abraham's great faith, God rewarded him and blessed him. We also have to remember that Satan is very real...just as real as God is. Many people use God to try and justify their evil. Satan has a way with human nature. There are many people today who are demon-posessed. The Lord Jesus healed many posessed people and He still does today. God is a holy and just God. He cannot tolerate sin in any form. He hates sin because it destroys us and He loves us. Jesus Christ came to be the Ultimate Sacrifice for our sins and He paid the price. I put my faith in the Lord, not in this world. I pray for everything. I seek God's perfect wisdom and perfect guidance for my life. Since I gave my life to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells within me and I know what is truly from God and what is not. If you do not know the Lord, you can't understand it because the Holy Spirit is not within you. You cannot grasp Who God really is and His nature. The only way to God the Father is thru His Son, Jesus Christ. God bless you and have a great day!

who knows.. maybe god was speaking.. or maybe it was something else. a test of the persons humanity? their common sense and decency? i truly do beleive that the bible was handed out as a test.. to see who would and who wouldnt do the discpicable things it dictates in order to be rewarded with the riches of heaven. and that all those who heed to such atrocities aganst their fellow man are in fact dooming themselves to this hell they fear so greatly. an example of illogical irrational behavior as dictated by this "god" : a woman i used to know.. her sister became pregnant without the benefit of a marriage certificate.. and as dictated in the bible, this child was condemned to hell, as well as all of their descendants.. being "god fearing GOOD christians", her family confined her inside their home, keeping her prisoner so that no one ever saw that she was pregnant.. and when the time came she began labor.. they dragged her to the basement, bound and gagged her so no one could hear her screams of pain.. and swiftly threw the newborn infant into the furnace to purify its soul and send it to god and "save" it and possible future descendants from an eternity in hell. by gods command.. yeah, such a loving god..

I would have to say no. I believe I have a pretty good relationship with God, but I still have my morals. I wouldn't hurt any one. I can see what you are saying though about who are we to question others.

I find it hard to believe that you are considering that these people who hurt there kids are actually hearing from God. In the case of Abraham there were many factors and none of which the out come was Abraham hurting his child. Many things were taking place here in this story. Only few can my pee wee brain was smart enough to figure out when I read the story. One God was building Abraham faith and two that God was Abraham's provider. From that day forward Abraham new without a doubt that God would provide all his needs no matter what they were. He could have faith in God no matter what the hardship. You see God had already provided for that sacrifice on the mountain and he had no intentions of using Abraham's son but he did use this as a lesson to teach Abraham. Okay like I said that is what I got out of it when I read the story. I am sure people who have read the story many times over or are scholars of the word can tell you more about the meaning of that bible story. God would never want anyone to kill their children. These people do have a mental illness and what ever else the explanations could be; but those reasons are not of God. God tells us to abide by the laws of the land we are not exempt from anything. If anything I would have to say we are more accountable then the rest as we know the truth of God.

112aTee My relationship with God goes right well with my basic human morality. I do not hear voices and would seek mental help if I did,but my consciene speaks loudly when it thinks I might do something wrong.

Isn't it a bit unfair to blame God for whatever insane idea human minds generate? As a believer I'm convinced that nothing whatever that results in harming emotionally or physically other persons, can be ascribed to God's influence. I do not reason about his plans and motive but for God, definetely, the purpose does not justify the means. This would be amoral, and an amoral God is no god at all. I know, the Old Testament describes many supposed interventions of God, inviting the Hebrews to genocide. But to me, these details in the Old Testament are no necessarily God's will but human understanding of God's will, put down by the authors. No wonder that prophet Jonas was so annoyed when sent to Ninive to save the enemy, that was not in his people's interest! In the New Testament, as the place where Jesus' teaches his ethics, God asks from us to act with the highest morality possible, his own, even when this would defy or exceed normal human laws. To answer bad with good, to love the enemy and sacrifice yourself for his best... that's the teaching and the example God gave when he lived among us.

In the story of Abraham God was testing him but stopped him before he actually killed his son. The story is to show how righteous Abraham was, not to encourage people to sacrifice their children. Having been a mental health professional I have know people who heard voices and/or had delusions that led them to do harm. There is a very different quality to the psychotic acting out than that of a truly pious person. It might seem the same to the untrained eye, but people who hear voices have a pattern of hallucinations, not a one-time event - usually. I often had this discussion with colleagues about whether hearing voices always means one is psychotic. I know people who talk to God and hear the voice of God and they are not psychotic. Otherwise we'd have to lock up a lot of fervent religious people! The difference is the content of the message. God does not control people as if they had no choice but to obey. Psychotic people, however, don't have the ability to chose to ignore the voices commands. They may be able to restrain themselves but then the compulsion continues to build until they are compelled to act on what they hear. It is really quite sad to observe their struggle. Often medication can lower the compulsion without eliminating the hallucinations. But many people do not respond to medication and act out in ways that are harmful to themselves or other.

I, also, am not a Christian. Although I do favor freedom of religion. There are zealots in every manner of faith, so I don't think its right to allow someone to worship their version of our Creator based on what we hear or think we know. I was raise Catholic, studied Buddhism and the Torah in high school and college, and converted to Fundamental Baptist in my early 20s. I don't know everything about any one religion, but I do have a lot of information on quite a few to make me wonder about the Bible. That being said, my answer to your question is more of a question. If the Christian God is all knowing and all powerful, omnipotent and omnipresent, why is he jealous and why would he feel the desire to "test" someone is such a manner? I would die for my kids, and I couldn't harm them intentionally because I believe God told me to. There is enough sickness and evil in this world, too many people harming kids in all manners from mentally to physically to sexually. To think that my all loving God would want me to join in is pretty disturbing.

Hi Tee, The story of Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, because he believed that it was what God required, is an excellent example of the difference between the way people thought at that period in History, and the way we think today. It is also a good reason not to take the Bible literally. Apparently, it was a common occurrence for the people among whom Abraham lived, to sacrifice a child to their Gods, so it really isn't strange that Abraham felt that he also had the same call. The fact that it was that special son that he had waited all his life for is not strange either, the idea was that you always gave the best to your God. Most people don't realize that The Old Testament was written for and by the people of that day. The things that God told them to do was what they expected to hear, because that was the way they thought. There are certainly people not much further advanced today, but if Abraham tried that today, at least in the western world, he would be locked away for a long time. Sorry I took so long on this, and I want to get on to your question, who are we to question the motives of God? This is where I believe we have be realistic. If God spoke to people six thousand years ago, or even two thousand yearsago, he still speaks to people today. To say that we have to believe that communication has ceased is nothing more than a cop-out. We have advanced( at least I hope so), beyond the beliefs of Abraham's time, and we no longer believe that God would ask up to kill a child as a sacrifice to him. If I awoke in the middle of the night with the feeling that my brother who lived alone a few blocks away was in trouble, and I went there to find him ill, and unable to call anyone, I'd feel that someone had conveyed a message to me. That to me is the difference in today's world and that of Abraham. Most people of that day also appeared to believe in a God who was sort of a superman, and while some may think that way today, their numbers are declining. Blessings.

I shudder to think of the unspeakable things that have been done in God's name. Lots of times God and the devil have been convenient excuses for something done by human beings and I believe that there is a bit of craziness involved somehow. In every human being's heart beats a longing for something greater than himself and many crazy things have been done to assuage that longing, including animal and human sacrifices.

good day... with that kind of notion then no one can be held accountable for their action. Every rape, every murder, every infanticide, every genocide can be justified by a person when he/she would just say God told me to do it t expel the devil or anything like that. Do we need that kind of justification. Would we just accept the "God told me... thing". I won't would you?