Discussion Board
This discussion board is intended to be an extension of our fellowship as a FAMILY of GOD from all nations and to foster our desire to passionately exalt Jesus Christ as Savior, Treasure and LORD over all of life, and to express His love through the transforming power of the Gospel.
| Reflections On The Moral Will Of God by Pastor Allan |
| Friday, 20 November 2009 18:00 |
|
Reflections on The Moral Will of God
By Pastor Allan Joseph “And so from the day we heard of it, we have not cease to pray for you, asking that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Col. 1:9-10 The will of God, t?? ?e?µat?s, as used here does not refer to the whole counsel of God, but to the moral will of God (or divine command morality as it is also called) for the conduct of our lives. The context makes this clear (v.10). The result of knowing the will of God is living a life worthy and pleasing to the Lord in every good work. In a celebrated passage in Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates poses the question, “Is what is pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved?” Socrates’ query has been recast in modern monotheistic terminology as the Euthyphro dilemma: ”Is an act right because God commanded or willed it, or is it the case that God commanded or willed it because it is right?” According to the first horn, morality is dependent upon God. On the second horn, morality is independent of God: God commands or wills certain things because of moral considerations that are not dependent upon Him. The above passage of Scripture makes it clear that the moral will of God or divine commands are the epistemological basis of morality. That is to say, it is through the moral will of God that we have come to both a clear knowledge of and how to apply morality. Thus, for any action A that is morally right, we have come to understand that this is the case only through God’s commands or revealed will. This does not deny the existence of morality in the absence of God’s moral will or commands, but only that without the revelation of God’s moral will, we would not know anything about morality. This being the case, there is no difficulty in explaining present, past and future morality. Such knowledge is readily available through God’s self-disclosure of His will to us in the Scriptures. This raises the question, “Is the moral will of God arbitrary?” This is by no means the case! The moral will of God is consistent with His very nature, so that whatever God wills is good and right to do. William Ockham took liberty, even at the point of being misunderstood to underscore this point. He stated that if God were to order fornication, this would be not only licit, but also meritorious. In other words the only reason why such acts as fornication, stealing, committing adultery are not meritorious is because God forbids them. To defeat the charge that divine command morality entails that moral acts of cruelty could possibly be morally right, some have argued that divine command morality is true when certain conditions are met: when God is loving. This theory of ethics may have solved the problem of abhorrent commands, and pacify unbelievers, but most Christians know that this theory does not reflect the Biblical data. God did command Saul to exterminate all the Amalekites (1 Sam 15:1ff), and Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac (Ge. 22:2). Such so-called abhorrent commands are not abhorrent at all. God did tell Saul to exterminate the Amalekites, but that was to put an end to their wickedness. God did tell Abraham to sacrifice his son, but this was to test and strengthen him and for the progress of redemptive revelation (cf. John 3:16). Ockham is right. Whatever God orders is meritierious and positively morally charged. On the other hand whatever God forbids is illicit and negatively morally charged. As man is entirely dependent upon God, this dependence is expressed in his moral obligation. That is to say, he is morally obliged to do what God orders him to do and not to do what God forbids. This being the case, God’s commands or will is the sufficient condition of morality or for the moral rightness of an act. For example, since God commands that we should not commit murder,” then not committing murder is right. This is because the sufficiency of God’s command or will for the moral rightness of an action is rooted in the recognition of perfections of sovereignty, omnipotence, holiness, justice, etc., and what He thus, commands is so that we might walk in manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called for our joy and His glory. |
