That must have been a seriously awkward walk back down the mountain

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son,"
Abe said, "Man, you must be putting me on."
God said, "No", Abe said, "What?"
God said, "You can do what you want Abe, but
Next time you see me coming, you'd better run"

It's just a prank, bro!

I've been thinking about that particular event. Leonard Cohen has a song about it as well that put me on this track.

Now, as a historical fact, back in those days, sacrificing ones children was a not uncommon thing to do. The old testament god in several places tells the israelites NOT to put their children to the fire, as the term was. But if you read the texts you find that the israelites weren't very good at following commands, and one could guess that god knew that.

So he puts his favorite follower through the worst nightmare imaginable, demanding that he sacrifice his beloved son. Put him through the ringer, of doubt, despair, fear, and sorrow, let it sink in what it actually means to sacrifice a child. Then stop him. It's basically show don't tell. Put the experience of the evil of that action into his heart, and vaccinate him against such ideas. And while Abraham took that lesson to heart, I'm reasonably certain that Isaac took the lesson even more, and taught it well to all his descendants.

Is it a shit thing to do? In one man's perspective, yeah. But to set a people on a path away from human sacrifice, I'd say it wasn't a very high price to pay.

And that's if you take the story and all literally. If you take it figuratively, as a demonstration of what is the path to goodness, to people in a bronze age culture, I'd say the story carries the message across exceptionally well.

I'm a history teacher, and the first thing you learn is that history must be understood by its own time and standards, not by ours. The story of Isaac is a great example of what in our modern eyes is pure malice, but to its original culture it was a story that had the function of making a culture better.

Wait.. this is just a holiday on the med

More evangelicals should be this loving, they should be sacrificing themselves more often.

What is that self?

infallible

Hahahahaha. Christians wish the bible could be that consistent. He expressed regret many times throughout the bible. How does an unchanging being regret something when they not only knew exactly how it would play out, but even created all of the circumstances that lead to it? Sounds like things didn't go how he planned it to.

I think we can all agree Hitler goes to hell, but what I never understood is how my friends could go to hell because they swore or disrespected there mother

My understanding is that the trinity from the nicene creed is a political document (not truthful nor religious) and it was designed to be universal(a translation of catholic) so that natives in each land (Christians and pagans) could have lip service that "we believe what you do" by the political catholic clergy who were the only ones allowed to interpret scriptures (or you had a Heretic death penalty) until the political power was secured, and after power was secured, a creed and rosary was enough to keep free thinking in line.