Apologetics

Ancient Christian Riddle 2 Solved

by Daniel Arturius
03/25/17
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Riddle: Why does God condemn human sacrifice but also order Abraham to sacrifice his son?

Answer: Because God’s against human sacrifice…..even though he ordered human sacrifice.

Response: You forgot your meds again, didn’t you?

No, there’s just more to the story than God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. God also commanded Abraham to stop the sacrifice. It was never God’s intention that Abraham follow through with it. The usual explanation for this is that God was testing Abraham's faith which is supported by the Biblical text. Genesis 22:1-18

This begs a question though because an all knowing God would already know Abraham was faithful so why the need for a demonstration? The answer isn’t exactly Biblical but it’s sensible. Since God already knew what Abraham would do, the demonstration of Abraham’s faith had to be for Abraham himself. God was strengthening Abraham's faith by causing him to actually live it rather than just profess it.

So you're claiming Abraham didn’t even know how faithful he was?

Abraham probably professed great faith but exercising your faith is different than just professing it. A lot of modern era Christians talk about how faithful they are but their faith hasn’t really been tested. If our faith were tested like Abraham’s and if we showed a willingness to suffer such huge loss, it would strengthen our relationship to God forevermore. This is what God wanted for Abraham because he was to be the father of the Jewish people.

Why does being the father of the Jewish people require such faith?

Because belief in God requires a lot of faith and as father of the Jewish people, Abraham was to exemplify that faith. Faith is key here because unlike other religions of that era there were no statues or images of God to look at. The God of Abraham is Spirit which cannot be seen. An invisible God is harder to believe in so greater faith is necessary. Abraham demonstrated that faith for future generations. He first showed it by following God’s command to leave his home and family to travel to a foreign land. The sacrifice ordeal came years later. Abraham’s God given destiny was to live a life that showed billions of Jewish and Christian descendants the ultimate importance of faith when dealing with God.

But why use human sacrifice as a tool for that lesson if God was also going to condemn human sacrifice? It only creates confusion.

Maybe to us in the modern era where we grow up knowing human sacrifice is wrong but things were different in Abraham's day. Human sacrifice was normal back then. When people of that era heard that God told Abraham to offer a human sacrifice it wasn’t a big deal. The big deal back then was that God stopped the sacrifice. That wasn't normal. Human sacrifice had been going on for a long time and the perception was that the gods were fully on board with it. For God to suddenly order a human sacrifice to be halted was a show stopper. God was doing more here than just leading Abraham into a position of greater faith. He was also telling the father of his chosen people that human sacrifice was wrong. The descendants of Abraham were supposed to learn from that. It was an object lesson on the importance of faith and the wrongness of human sacrifice.  

This object lesson stuff isn’t Biblical either, is it?

No, but it’s sensible and it’s also not new. There is a detailed dissertation on this included in the works of Josephus. Supposedly the Egyptians heard about the God of Abraham stopping a human sacrifice and then stopped their own human sacrifices. The Egyptians were not followers of Abraham’s God but their Pharaoh had dealings with God beforehand and they feared Him. Egypt was an influential world power back then and when word got out that they stopped human sacrifice, others nations began to follow suit.

It's still not like all human sacrifice suddenly ended though. God’s own chosen people would stray into other religions sometimes and offer human sacrifice to false Gods. And not every culture followed the example of the Egyptians by heeding the command of Abraham’s God. The command had still been given though.

But human sacrifice still goes on thousands of years later so the command and the object lesson were both a complete failure.

It’s actually a great success because human sacrifice is now the horrific exception rather than the common norm. Almost everyone on the planet is completely repulsed by human sacrifice. Ancient governments used to be huge practitioners of human sacrifice but modern governments everywhere have made it illegal, including governments with leaders that don’t even follow the God of Abraham. The object lesson started Abraham and extended to religions and nations across the globe. It clearly succeeded.

But the command was given thousands of years ago. Why hasn't it ended completely by now?

For the same reason stealing, adultery, lying and all other evils haven’t ended. We just don't listen to our Creator any better than kids listen to their parents. God commands us but he doesn't force his will upon us. Over time we learn that his commandments are good and become compliant but that’s always through our own free will. It’s not God’s fault that we learn slowly. If we want to instantly end all human sacrifice as well as all others evils in the world then we all need to instantly comply to the will of our Creator. We know that won’t happen but that doesn’t mean it’s God’s fault. Blaming God instead of focusing on our failure to comply with His will wastes time and actually slows down our moral advancement. We will still continue evolving into greater compliance with the will of God. That will happen all the faster though, if we listen to God, and work on ourselves.