Thank you P-Marlow for your generosity of spirit in this discussion.-
I think the point I was making is in danger of being lost. Abraham was a sinner- that is why he needed to be justified. I am not trying to impute any particular sin to Him, I think I have valid grounds to believe that He, being one of the Fathers Joshua referred to,”Your fathers...”- was an idolater.
I see why you can infer that he wasn’t guilty of that particular sin. This is one of those things that inferences can go either way- True the scripture doesn’t say “Abram bowed down to Marduk”, not does the scripture say “Abraham’s father and brothers worshipped Idols but he always knew better than to do that”-
I think Joshua is telling us that Israel’s Fathers worshipped idols, and yes I did state that Abraham was an idolater. In the Romans 1 sense every sinner is an idolater, so I dont see what the point would be of trying to exonerate Abraham of sin before he believed in God.
I am not going to say that this is authoritative, because it isn’t but there are many evangelical theologians who also say on the same basis, that Abraham was an idolater- AW Pink comes to mind, but there are others.
This is one of those issues where equally sincere Christians can disagree about what they think they see in Joshua 24 and it dosn’t really matter much. The point is that the conversion of Abraham is a prototype of the conversion of us all- thank you- and God bless you-
Indeed, even Calvin came to that conclusion, but that doesn't make it so. I think we need to differentiate between what the scripture says and what it implies. If it implies something then we need to make sure that when we make an assertion based on the implication that we don't state it as a fact but as an opinion. I think we can state as a fact that David was an adulterer and a murderer and that his justification was by faith.
There are several sins of Abraham that are quite clear in the scripture. The most obvious was his lack of faith in God's promise that Sarah would bear him a son who would be the father of many nations. The world itself is still suffering from the effects of that sin, but Abraham was justified by his faith in being willing to sacrifice Issac and believing that if he did, that God would raise him from the dead. His disobedience is the sin of Abraham that we should focus on and not some vague reference to idolatry that may or may not have happened.
JMHO :-)