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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the poster at 23:11, and it was asked subsequently, "Where did Abraham say Jesus was to come and be His Savior, though?"

I will also answer this as though it's a straight-up question. The Bible does not record God saying verbatim to Abraham that he must believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. But Abraham believed God, and the Bible is clear that in the Old Testament, there were many believers in the LORD God who looked ahead to the promise of the Messiah, and the New Testament records this faith as what saved before the advent of Christ.

If you can suspend your desire to shout, "That's cosmic child abuse!" try reading Genesis 22 and glean from it the lesson that it is meant to provide. This is the recounting of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. This was done to illustrate the level of faith that Abraham had in the promises of God, which I demonstrated Scripturally in my previous post is held up as an example for all of mankind that we are made right through God by our faith. I for one am extremely grateful for this illustration that provides part of the confidence I have in my own salvation in Christ.

Regarding the sacrifice of Isaac, when Abraham was taking his son up the mountain, Isaac asked where the sacrifice was, and Abraham responded that "God will provide himself" the sacrifice. And if you recall that God had promised that Abraham would have many descendants through Isaac, the Bible in Hebrews 11 states that though Abraham was leading his son up to sacrifice him, "Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead" and thus keep His promise to him.

In short, Abraham thought he was heading to sacrifice his beloved son, whom he expected God to raise from the dead.

If you can't see in this story a foreshadowing of God's sacrifice of His own Son and of the resurrection of Christ, then you are willfully looking the other way.

Incidentally, when God did provide the sacrifice -- a ram on the top of Mount Moriah -- so that Abraham did not actually sacrifice Isaac, the ram was found in a thicket of thorns. This foreshadows the crown of thorns that was thrust on Jesus's head before the crucifixion.

The Bible is truly a beautiful book.[/quote]

This is a beautiful example of how people can make the bible mean anything they want it to mean.  You'd think God could have found another way of foreshadowing the crucifixion that didn't disgust and confuse so many people.   You'd think he'd find a way to save humanity besides the crucifixion -- sacrificing his own son, but it sounds like sacrifice was his thing -- as it was for so many ordinary mortals during those times. [/quote]
No, the problem is that your post is a beautiful example of what happens when you read parts of Bible out of context. Read as a whole, it's pretty hard to miss what Bible says this episode is meant to prefigure and describe. The entire Bible is about Christ.[/quote]

Have you mentioned this theory to any of your Jewish friends?[/quote]
Actually, yes. And I have Jewish friends who are Christian. The entire New Testament (with [i]perhaps[/i] the exception of Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts) was written by Jews. Jesus was a Jew. The first believers at Pentacost were Jews. Much of the early church was composed of Jews. According to the Bible, which, again, was written by Jews, Christ is the fulfillment of the Jewish law and the foretold Messiah. Those who are Jewish and reject Christ are no different than anyone else who rejects Christ in terms of their unbelief. Paul, who was an influential Jewish religious leader who persecuted the early church until his conversion (Acts 9), wrote in 1 Corinthians 1: "For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Gentiles search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

The question you posed doesn't mean too much from a Biblical standpoint.[/quote]

But it means something to a lot of present day Jews, who I don't think would agree with your analysis.  What do your non-christian Jewish friends think of your theory?   [/quote]

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