Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of God, Part 19.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Last time, we looked at the first of God's moral attributes, the holiness of God, and I articulated a non-volunturistic

divine command theory of ethics, according to which God is himself the highest good and is so

essentially, and his nature expresses itself toward us in the form

of divine commandments, which then constitute our moral duties.

I suggested that this not only gives a satisfactory account of objective moral values and duties as grounded

in God, as the highest Court of Appeal, but also enables us to understand in a consistent

way the otherwise very troubling examples in Scripture of where God commands people to do things, which, if done under

their own initiative, would have been sinful.

And I suggested that in cases like this, God has the ability to command a person to do

something which had he not commanded it would have been wrong. But given

God's commandment, it becomes that person's moral duty to carry out. And I suggested that these

commandments are always consistent with God's own perfectly loving and compassionate and just

nature, so that we don't need to fear that God might completely

upend the moral law and make hatred good and love evil, for example.

Now, are there any further comments or questions about this before we look at some application of this attribute?

Okay, George.

Bill, I had to ask you last week one question about the different statements in Scripture that God is not partial toward one person as compared to another person.

And that's a theme, I think, that you see throughout Scripture.

It's in several places in the New Testament and the Old Testament also.

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