If God commands me to kill someone...

[RC1970]

If God is not subject to His law why did He send His son to die? All He had to do was to ignore His own law.

The Divine nature of Christ is not subject to the Divinely given law, but the human nature is subject to the law.

 

[RDKirk]

If God is not subject to His law why did He send His son to die? All He had to do was to ignore His own law.

Scripturally, "law" means "covenant between two parties." What came first, God or covenant? If a covenant existed before God, what two parties was it between? If God existed first but there was no second party, who was His covenant with?

All covenant relationships--all law--is a creation of God and out of God.

Plato asked the question: Is a good act loved by the gods because it is a good act, or is a good act good because it is loved by the gods? Or to put it into Christianese, is righteousness or unrighteousness an inherent characteristic of the act itself and God merely recognizes its inherent characteristic, or is an act righteous or unrighteous because God dictates it so?

 

[LionL]

Depends on the context.

Is the man your average Joe Blow or is he a the father of many nations who bore sons who would become the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel?

Neither. He's a mythical person who never existed so it doesn't matter. The trouble with basing our own behaviour on that of mythical people is that we end up killing our children in the misguided belief that God wanted us to do it.

 

[anonymous person]

Neither. He's a mythical person who never existed so it doesn't matter. The trouble with basing our own behaviour on that of mythical people is that we end up killing our children in the misguided belief that God wanted us to do it.

Lol, do you have any reason for saying Abraham was a mythical person or that I base my behaviour on mythical people?

 

[LionL]

Lol, do you have any reason for saying Abraham was a mythical person or that I base my behaviour on mythical people?

Do you have any reliable and checkable proof that Abraham really existed?

 

[Elder 111]

The Divine nature of Christ is not subject to the Divinely given law, but the human nature is subject to the law.

So God can and does lie?

 

[RC1970]

So God can and does lie?

Non sequitur.

 

[RDKirk]

Do you have any reliable and checkable proof that Abraham really existed?

More evidence than Plato existed.

 

[RDKirk]

So God can and does lie?

That is a non-sequitur, but God certainly has used tactical deception in combat, which is no more against His law than combat itself, when He has commanded combat.

 

[anonymous person]

Do you have any reliable and checkable proof that Abraham really existed?

You have shifted the burden over to me instead of furnishing your argument for why you maintain that Abraham was a mythical character.

 

[Lazy_Proverb]

Should I do it?

Clearly, God has not (no worries), but it's a thought experiment I've been struggling with.

Is morality absolute?

One of the defenses of murderers is, God told them to.

Why would God need you to take life when he gives life and can therefore take it as he wills?

I agree, if you hear God telling you to kill someone for him, commit yourself to a psychiatric hospital and ask for a consult with clergy there.

 

[RDKirk]

Neither. He's a mythical person who never existed so it doesn't matter. The trouble with basing our own behaviour on that of mythical people is that we end up killing our children in the misguided belief that God wanted us to do it.

I know people who base their behavior on Star Trek.

 

[ReesePiece23]

Yes JGG, you should. Whatever God commands is what we are obligated to do.

Oh my goodness...

I hope that this post doesn't fall into the WRONG hands. Some of you REALLY don't think before you hit 'Post Reply'.

You're not Abraham, and this is not the Old Testament, and if you kill someone - regardless as to whether you think God told you to or not, you'll get twenty five years minimum.

 

[anonymous person]

Oh my goodness...

I hope that this post doesn't fall into the WRONG hands. Some of you REALLY don't think before you hit 'Post Reply'.

You're not Abraham, and this is not the Old Testament, and if you kill someone - regardless as to whether you think God told you to or not, you'll get twenty five years minimum.

He asked a very simple question and I gave a very simple answer. Our moral obligations stem from God's divine commands. What is moral or immoral is determined by God's command.

The question was not "in this day and age, does God command people to kill others?", but rather, "If God commands me to kill someone, should I do it?"

The question is a hypothetical in which God issues a command. The answer is yes of course. We are obligated to do what God commands.

 

[JGG]

One of the defenses of murderers is, God told them to.

Why would God need you to take life when he gives life and can therefore take it as he wills?

Is it up to us to question God?

I agree, if you hear God telling you to kill someone for him, commit yourself to a psychiatric hospital and ask for a consult with clergy there.

What if I hear God telling me to attend a particular church, or take a particular job, or vote for a particular political candidate?

Should I also have myself committed in those instances?

 

[JGG]

More evidence than Plato existed.

Actually, I disagree with this. Both existed, albeit not in the way we think we know. Someone had to have been the earliest ancestor of nations. That person was Abraham. He may not be the man in the bible, but such a person must have existed.

Someone thought up and wrote down the ideas of Plato. Whomever that was is essentially Plato.

Both clearly existed, but not necessarily in the way we assume.

 

[Lazy_Proverb]

Is it up to us to question God?

It is when God asks a lesser being to do what he can do himself. I want to expand on this first response.

What it boils down to is, it is not a matter of actually questioning God.
It is a matter of questioning the individual who claims God told them to kill someone.

In a world of duality, antagonist-protagonist energies, spirits, it would I think be incumbent on the Christian to assess the question through the vernacular of scripture wherein we are told we cannot murder.

What if I hear God telling me to attend a particular church, or take a particular job, or vote for a particular political candidate?

Should I also have myself committed in those instances?

An extraneous diversion from the OT.

 

[ReesePiece23]

He asked a very simple question and I gave a very simple answer.

And in my opinion, a thoughtless one.

What if someone (who's not looking at this from a philosophical stand point) reads this, and then later on down the road, they get the idea in their head to go out and top someone because they thought that 'God had commanded them to'. People are known to misread God's signals ALL of the time, and this is no exception.

There's also A LOT of psychopaths out there, and they could use something like this as a justification to carry out their interpretation of 'God's will'.

I'm looking at this in the most black and white way possible. Don't even entertain the possibility, because it could potentially start somebody down a very precarious road. You have no idea who's reading this - or who could be reading this in the future. In case you hadn't noticed, this is a rather large community.

Maybe I'm being too careful, I don't know...

 

[graceandpeace]

God commanded Abraham to kill Isaac. God commanded Moses to murder. God commanded the Israelites to commit genocide. God would not command murder or genocide again?

Everything must be read & understood in light of Jesus Christ. Since murder is inconsistent with the revelation we have in him, we cannot do it.

The Old Testament is not a literal, factual account across the board. Many stories are myths designed to teach us something theologically or to otherwise fill in some background for Israel. The stories reveal Israel trying to understand God, but not everything written is factual or spoken by God. Jesus is the one who shows us how God is actually like, & that is why the Christian focus should rest primarily on his example.

 

[Tina W]

Should I do it?

Clearly, God has not (no worries), but it's a thought experiment I've been struggling with.

Is morality absolute?

NO! I say no because of the simple fact that there is no way for you to truly know if you are seeing/hearing things, hallucinating or imagining it. I would rather you err on disobeying what you think you hear from God than to kill someone. Period. In this day and age God would NOT tell anyone to kill anyone unless it's self defense, kill or be killed. How things were in the old testament was a different world than we live in today, God would NEVER tell anyone to do anything like that today because like someone said, if that happened today, Abraham would have been locked up and barred from ever seeing Isaac again, and even then God did not actually make Abraham go through with it, He stopped him at the last minute, so no, a person should not kill anyone if they think God is telling them to because it would not be God telling them to do that.