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[Newbie]

The Euthyphro Dilemma: If God commands murder, then murdering one’s son would be ethical. God being the basis of morality implies divine command theory. Divine command theory says something is morally good/bad because God commands it to be so. As Socrates phrased the dilemma in Plato’s Euthyphro: “Is it good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good?”

But I've also heard: "God's commands are good not merely because God commanded them, but because they reflect his perfectly good nature." Could you explain this to me? I've heard it, but it never made sense to me.

[jimwalton]

Socrates posed a dilemma in Plato's "Euthyphro": Is it good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good? The first is known as the divine command theory: things become morally good because God commands them, in which case ethics is totally arbitrary. The other choice in the dilemma is that good exists independently of God, meaning that God is not the basis of ethics, but is obliged to discover them and follow them, just as we are.

Neither of these alternatives (posed as the only two choices) are what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that one aspect of the nature of God is goodness/righteousness, and that morality emanates from his character. Ethical good is not a reality outside of his being to which he must subscribe, nor can he act in a way that is self-contradictory and command anything contrary to his nature, viz., that which is morally bad. In other words, it is impossible that God commands something that is immoral, for he can only act in a way consistent with his nature, meaning good. Rather than his commands being arbitrary (he can command whatever he wants and it automatically becomes good), all of his commands originate in his righteous nature. God commands us to love our neighbor because God is by nature love. It is God's nature that is the root of all goodness, and everything that derives from that nature is ineluctably good. God's nature, then, is the basis of morality (what would be called the Divine Nature Theory as opposed to Divine Command Theory).

But, you may wonder, can God still command anything, such as rape? The argument might go as follows:

If God were the basis for morality, and he is a sovereign being with free will, then it is possible for God to command rape or murder. Thus, it is possible, under those circumstances, that rape or murder might be ethical. But rape cannot possibly ever be ethical. Therefore God is not the basis of morality.

But this argument contains a false premise. The second premise contradicts the end of the first premise: If rape can never be ethical, then it's not possible for rape to be ethical. If the basis of morality cannot command rape, than commanding rape is not something God can do. Because of the laws of non-contradiction, it is impossible that God commands actions that are unethical. Instead, if rape or murder (a la Gn. 22) cannot possible be ethical, then it follows that God has an unchangeable righteous nature such that He can never command immorality. God can only command what is consistent with his nature.