Question

[synderon]

Here is a simple question. How did Abraham know it was God telling him to kill Issac and not Satan? How do we ever know for sure?

Comments

[sargonepsilon]

I think that is the definition of Faith for starters, but my answer is that Abraham would never suspect Satan since he didn't know about him. As I said in a previous post of yours, Satan is a New Testement creation, and Abraham had only even known God for a decade or so at the time, and knew almost nothing about him. God literally remained nameless until the time of Moses, when he claimed the name that we usally translate as Lord, but which is actually a derivation of the Hebrew words for I am. Prior to that, he was referred to only as the God of Abraham

[synderon]

That answers it for Abraham but what about us? You rarely ever hear of people actually HEARING God's voice. Normally you just feel pushed in a certain direction. As deceitful as Satan is, how can we know if these spiritual nudgings are benevolent? I don't think it's as easy as saying it's just faith. I'm pretty sure most Christians will tell you they have felt Satan trying to do something in their lives. Is it so easy to tell what the source is?

[sargonepsilon]

For that matter how do you even know the "nudgings" are supernatural at all? If you acknowledge that they may not come from God, then you should also acknowledge that they are just as likely to come from you as Him, or any other power, Satan included. For Christianity this is where faith has to come in. You are supposed to trust that God will take care of you, despite any errors on your part in perception of his will.

That's part of why I stopped being Christian. You can never get any real answer to these sorts of questions, and the doctrine discourages curiosity about such matters because the only answer you ever receive is "just have faith and it will work out." I never was able to "just have faith." Not for an extended period anyway, and I don't think I ever could.

[mad_dog_bowers]

I at least agree with your first paragraph. This is what is meant by faith, and although I feel your view of faith expressed in the second paragraph is a bit cynical, I hae nothing at hand that I feel would sway you in particular. I would like to add though that even if you can't say this about all Christians, not that I feel you need to be able to, that you are talking to a group of Christians who faith is at least in part derived from and solidly rooted in historical understanding of the Bible.

[mad_dog_bowers]

I would be inclined to think, Biblically, that if you see the angel of God or have a similarly overwhelming experience then you would be sure of it's source. However after posting my first reply to this thread I was thinking about the Mormonism issue, and I remembered what Mormons tell you have they give you a copy of the book of Mormon to read. They tell you to search your heart and ask God it it's true. All other evidence would force me to conclude that it is not, but clearly people do believe it. So I wonder, is this action inviting Satan for a chance to trick you, or are all of our notions subject to an attack of this nature. I guess for lack of a better answer I can only continue to say that you have to trust Christ to light the way for you, but it certainly is a scary thought and something worth discussing further.

[mad_dog_bowers]

In fact maybe the lesson to the Abraham story is the very idea that if you trust God absolutely he won't let you be fooled in that sort of catastrophic way?