RE: God is love. God is just. God is merciful.
October 4, 2014 at 8:15 am
(This post was last modified: October 4, 2014 at 8:21 am by Thumpalumpacus.)
(October 4, 2014 at 5:27 am)Michael B Wrote: So I would say the love of God reflects God's desire for goodness for us, God's justice reflects fair judgement of our actions, and God's mercy allows for justice to be tempered in response to genuine contrition by the guilty.
God didn't want humans to know about good and evil, according to Genesis; he forbade them to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. So how can he have desired goodness for us? He did not want us to know what good even is.
God's fair judgement includes holding us guilty for our flawed human nature (that he himself created) giving into temptation to Satan (whom he himself created) and doing evil (which he himself created). How is it justice, unless he punishes himself for his own actions in that chain of events -- or is subject to a higher moral authority than himself?
As for mercy, Hell puts paid to that notion.