Is God's Moral Law Arbitrary?

[Josh]

Begging the question. This starts with the disputed premise that there is some set “common-sense-moral-standards”. Where did these standards come from? What is their basis? The Christian worldview would say that these so called “common-sense” morals are actually the conscience that God designed and built into His moral creatures (made in His image) and therefore originate from Him, not nature, or social necessity. Of course you don’t have to buy that, but it does no good to make arguments from a premise that is a major part of the very thing that is being debated.

Chris and Mo, as a side note, but important, there is some disagreement among christian philosophers/ theologians about how morality is "built in". Some think these values are arbitrarily assigned [divine command theory] but others see them (at least most of the primal moral values) as natural and necessary moral outgrowths of the foundational reality of the universe. I'm definitely in the second camp as there are certain philosophical difficulties with the "God arbitrarily deciding what is good and bad" theory... going way back to Plato.

I'd lump God's moral law into two general categories (but I'm thinking aloud here):

a) the self-evident moral law (non-arbitrary)- these are laws that make sense- "thou shall not murder" "thou shall not steal" "honor your parents" that almost all cultures agree on. I'm arguing that God didn't just randomly decide things should be this way after creating the universe. The reality of the universe He created is inextricably bound to these moral truths.

b) moral laws with specific purposes or outcomes- these would be moral laws that aren't universal, but that God has employed for specific purposes: "honor the Sabbath" plus many of the cultural/civic/preistly laws we find in the bible (mainly Old Testament). God decreed these laws to a specific people at a specific time for specific reasons or outcomes.

Of course, there are probably many moral laws of whose placement on this spectrum we might have disagreement (okay, I've reworked that sentence several times, but it's not going to get any better today )

[christopher]

Honestly, I'm not familiar with the two theories that you posed. Actually, my view on this isn't all that sophisticated. But I in no way believe that morality is an "arbitrary" choice God made when He created everything. I believe its dictated by His very nature. The only valid law is the law of love, in which all God's moral laws flow from. John says:

1 John 4:8
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
NKJV

and

1 John 4:16
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
NKJV


As such, God made man in His own image (Genesis 1) and part of that image is the moral nature of love which, if uncorrupted, guides all decisions. But that nature was corrupted and so the moral law of love must be restored. Paul says:

Col 3:8-10
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him...
NKJV

also..

Rom 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son
NKJV


Anyway, my view may be simplistic, but I usually don't try to figure out why God is perfectly moral and loving, I just know that He is. This spills over to the topic on God's character as a Father that Mo brought up which I'm hoping to get to soon.