Do you think Abraham's willingness to kill his son was a meritorious act?

In Islam it is one of the biggest story in Quran. God liked this act so much (about slaughtering his son for God's pleasure) that all muslims on Eid-al-adha (EID) celebrate this. God liked this so much that He tells muslims to slaughter a sheep on this day to remember Abraham's story. As humans nowadays we don't have courage to slaughter our own sons, God made it easy and told muslims to slaughter a sheep instead. That's Islamic version. All the prophets of God went through hardships which are more than any muslim will have to face in their lives. This is a MAJOR EVENT in ISLAM.

I think you have it backwards as 99.999999999 percent of the questions on here seemed to be pointed; but what should I expect from a worldly mind?

It should be stated it was Abraham's obedience to God's commands. He was more shocked that He would ask it; for that was some of the false gods that he had been called out of to worship the one true God. He probably in his heart questioned the act and he knew that Isaac was the son of promise more than any other thing and he also knew that God would bring him back from the very dead because of that covenant declared to him that he would have a son and Isaac was that son so he as Hebrews say he figuratively received back his son from the dead, even though he did not slay the boy his heart had already done so

God provided Abraham a unique situation. He could have shown His hatred for God by continuing to be a pagan. He instead chose to show righteousness by doing what God asked of Him. His willingness to kill his son is not the meritorious act, as it is clear that it is not the death of Isaac that God wanted. It was Abraham's obedience through faith.

It was an act of obedience. God had made Abraham rich, God had made Abraham

victorious over his enemies. God had promised to make Abraham the father of many

nations. God enabled Abraham and his wife Sarah to have a child when they were

both very old. He was 100 and she was 99.

Since Abraham believed all of the other promises and blessings God had already

provided, Abraham had faith that God would keep his promise to make him the

father of many nations. God had promised that it would come through his

(Abraham's) son, Isaac, so his faith told him that if he killed the son that God

would raise him from the dead anyway.

Abraham had told the others that had accompanied them to the mount to wait at

the bottom of the mountain and he and the lad would return. He wouldn't have

told them that he and the lad would return if he didn't believe it. So it was obedience

that made him willing to do it.

No, it was wicked, and a good God would have PUNISHED him for being willing to obey such an order, even though he was stopped at the last second. And just how could Abraham know that the voice he heard was really GOD'S?!? I think it was really Satan (and yes, I am calling Yahweh Satan here, in case I need to spell it out!) Abraham SHOULD have said to himself: "God would never give me such a command! The voice must be that of an evil spirit, and I will not heed it."

- Go ahead, thumbs me down... evil is evil and I will call it that to His face!

At one point the Israelites’ forefather Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. (Genesis 22:2) What enabled this loving father to have such unbreakable confidence in Jehovah that he was immediately willing to obey? Hebrews 11:17-19 answers: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, as good as offered up Isaac, and the man that had gladly received the promises attempted to offer up his only-begotten son, although it had been said to him: ‘What will be called “your seed” will be through Isaac.’ But he reckoned that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; and from there he did receive him also in an illustrative way.”

Bear in mind that it took Abraham and Isaac three days to reach the site where the sacrifice was to occur. (Genesis 22:4) There was plenty of time for Abraham to reconsider what he had been asked to do. Can we imagine his feelings, his emotions? Isaac’s birth had been such an unexpected cause for joy. That evidence of divine intervention deepened the attachment that Abraham and his formerly barren wife, Sarah, had to God. They certainly lived thereafter in expectation of what the future held for Isaac and for his descendants. Were their dreams coming to an abrupt end, as it might seem because of what God now asked?

Still, Abraham had confidence based on the personal knowledge that intimate friends have of one another. As “Jehovah’s friend,” Abraham “put faith in Jehovah, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (James 2:23) Abraham’s confidence in Jehovah went further than just believing that God could resurrect Isaac. Abraham was equally convinced that what Jehovah was asking him to do was proper, even though Abraham did not have all the facts. He had no reason to question that Jehovah was righteous in making this request. Then, Abraham’s confidence was strengthened as Jehovah’s angel stepped in to prevent Isaac from actually being killed in sacrifice.—Genesis 22:9-14.

It certainly defined his character and his relationship to God. Meritorious??? He knew less of God than I do and less of modern psychology as well; I don't fault him. Human sacrifice existed and was acceptable then. (Are values relative to culture or not, eh.)

I do believe in the Bible but i focus on the new testimate and the red text than the old testimate.

So to answer your question.

A voice in your head telling you to murder little boys does not seem strange? It sounds like schitzophrenia to me if the event happened.

The claim is that he had direct evidence of a God. Without some way to verify that claim, I cannot adequately shape my view of his behavior. It seems deluded to me.

No. I would have told God, "Hey...bugger off", but that's just me.