Good for Goodness's Sake (a prologue)

So last week, I asked a question that I sincerely believe deserves an answer.

Everything God does is right, right? Maybe not pleasant, but it's RIGHT.

If that's correct, why is what God does right? Is it because everything God does is right because God did it, and therefore it is right, or is it because God did it and God only does things that are right?

And if what God does is right because He's God, what impact does that have on our morality? And if what God does is right because God only does right, what then? What does that say about who we are meant to be?

I feel a little silly about quoting myself, but it bears some reflection, I think, because if we are meant to pursue a lifestyle that reflects the very nature of God, then it really helps to understand the nature of God as much as we possibly can. This is very similar to a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks understanding the full history and total sociological impact of the industrialized coffee trade, but still, it helps us to understand where we're coming from as well as where we're going in order to make the journey as smooth as possible.

So let's lay this out.

Here's what I personally believe. If you disagree, hey, that's fine, but here's what I believe.

Everything God does is good - not in the sense that every thing that God does makes us all happy, but that each act God carries out moves the universe one step closer to a complete understanding and realization of His Will. So "good" might not be as good of a word as "right."

So... everything God does is right. Everything God does is correct.

But why?

Is everything that God does correct and good and right because God did it, and no matter what God does, the fact that God did it makes it right?

Or is it all good because good is the only thing God does?

Is goodness dependent upon the will of God for its definition, or is goodness itself a part of the nature of God?

I personally believe that we have been given a fairly clear picture in Scripture that God does what is right because what is right is what God does. God, in His very nature, cannot do or be wrong, because God Himself is the definition of all that is right and good. Everything that is - all of "is," as well as "was" and "to be" - exists because of God. God's creation was pronounced Good. Everything since then has been mankind getting in the way.

So in trying to reconcile ourselves to that original goodness - trying to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:16, quoting Leviticus 11:44 among others) - we have to be able to understand what that goodness looks like. Is it a static, unmoving, consistent "THIS IS WHAT IS GOOD"? Or is it fluid, tied only to whatever God felt like doing?

From what I understand, the two schools of thought I'm addressing here are called Platonism and Ockhamism. Again, I will readily confess that I may not be fully understanding what I'm talking about here, but from the reading I've done, I've come to understand that Ockhamism is the belief that whatever God does is right because God does it, while Platonism says that God does what is right because that's what God does, in accordance to His Nature.

And it is from that understanding that I can say that I fall firmly in the Platonism camp. What God does is right because God only does what is right. It is who He is. Everything that God does is right because He is the standard and definition of right. What is right does not change because God does not change.

I believe Job backs me up on this (chapters 38-42), as well as verses 5-10 of Isaiah 45:

I am the LORD, and there is no other;

apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,

though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

"You heavens above, rain down righteousness;

let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,

let salvation spring up,

let righteousness grow with it;

I, the LORD, have created it.

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,

to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter,

'What are you making?'

Does your work say,

'He has no hands'?

Woe to him who says to his father,

'What have you begotten?'

or to his mother,

'What have you brought to birth?'

We are not in a position to question the rightness of God - He is, after all, God - but we can understand what that rightness is by knowing that God Himself is the standard of rightness, and He will not break from His own standard.

So where does that leave us?

Our mission in life is to Love God and Love our neighbor. In showing our neighbors God's Love, we are told to bring them all into His flock, into His church, into His presence.

I want to know how to better do that.

And I think that there are certain rules of engagement that have to be understood before we can really cover a lot of ground towards what really matters. If you're trying to bring someone to Christianity who doesn't accept the existence of God, quoting the Bible is not going to be a very effective way to engage them in the conversation. If someone doesn't believe in God, why would that person believe in what the Bible says about God?

If we are going to get anywhere, we've got to understand that it is possible to have a conversation about God - even about our own personal Father Yahweh God - outside of the Bible. It is possible to discuss Truth without Scripture, because Truth is not defined by Scripture. Rather Scripture, in its nature, is True, just as God, in His Nature, is right.

Consider this: if there were no laws on the book against theft, would you just steal whatever you wanted? You, personally, as a Christian... Would you just take things that didn't belong to you?

Of course not. You know it's wrong. It's not just wrong because God said it's wrong in the 10 commandments, it's wrong because it violates someone else's property, it takes away from their work, it hurts them... And that's not Love. As a Christian, you know that your singular mission in life is to Love others. Stealing isn't Love. Stealing is inherently wrong, whether there's a law down against it or not.

And that leads me to some places that I'm gonna need a few posts to discuss. I'm going to write about morality, about perception of morality, about Love, about lust, about good, about evil... It's gonna be a trek. I hope you'll come back for it and take part in this discussion with me, because it's an important one to have, I think.

I also hope I have a single clue as to what I'm really talking about.