sdguy2005 wrote:
> Hi everyone. I thought some of you might be interested in reading this
> article that was posted at TheologyOnline.com called, "A Christian
> Answer to Euthyphro's Dilemma."
> http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47024
This was answered a long time ago by St. Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologica I.6.3
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1006.htm#3
Whether to be essentially good belongs to God alone?
God alone is good essentially. For everything is called good according
to its perfection. Now perfection of a thing is threefold: first,
according to the constitution of its own being; secondly, in respect of
any accidents being added as necessary for its perfect operation;
thirdly, perfection consists in the attaining to something else as the
end. Thus, for instance, the first perfection of fire consists in its
existence, which it has through its own substantial form; its secondary
perfection consists in heat, lightness and dryness, and the like; its
third perfection is to rest in its own place. This triple perfection
belongs to no creature by its own essence; it belongs to God only, in
Whom alone essence is existence; in Whom there are no accidents; since
whatever belongs to others accidentally belongs to Him essentially; as,
to be powerful, wise and the like, as appears from what is stated above
(3, 6); and He is not directed to anything else as to an end, but is
Himself the last end of all things. Hence it is manifest that God alone
has every kind of perfection by His own essence; therefore He Himself
alone is good essentially.
--end quote--
All things that are "good" are good only by participation in the
essential Good, which is God. Therefore, since God alone is Necessary
essentially good, any act He orders His contingent creation is also good
essentially.
As Rube said, to obey God is always good. So if God orders the
Isrealites to slaughter people, that is not a violation of His eternal
command to not kill, since He orders such a slaughter, and so it is
good. Were the Isrealites to have gone and slaughtered people on their
own decision, it would have been evil, since without a second divine
command, the command of "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is always in force.
Quite often, the "God committed murder via the Isrealites" folks are of
the world socialist order crowd, who often seem to forget that their
pantheon of heroes (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh) are responsible for
the mass slaughters of literally hundreds of thousands more people than
the God they criticize. This slaughter is either overlooked as "a
mistake" or perhaps breaking a few eggs to make the omlette (a phrase
attributed to French Revolutionary Robespierre, yet another
"Freethinker" who caused mass slaughters.)
Atheists and socialist utopians are bigger mass murderers than God ever
could be, yet we hear nary a bad word said about these folks. I wonder
why?
Dan
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