God Qualities

A good God, the one we now worship, gives us the opportunity to live a great mortal life, followed by an even greater eternal life.

awitch said:

Inspired by another thread, I thought it might be interesting to ask, "What qualities make a god good or evil?"

(And if anyone says "loving", I'll ask you to explain exactly what that means in detail.)

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If any qualities make a god evil, then he is no god to begin with. Good qualities don’t make a god good. True God is good no matter what qualities He has.

awitch said:

So if the true god tells you to kill all the children you see, then that's a good god?

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Yes.

Question asked out of context, and answered out of context.

As I was spending some time this morning in fellowship with the living God, communing together, the Lord gave me a new illustration that I had never thought of before. One of the greatest good things that came to mind this morning was the forgiveness of our sins & wrongdoings through the death & resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

Part of a devotional time with the Lord is in seeing if there are things hindering my ability to commune with the Lord & that is usually where I have wronged God or another person. To have one's relationship with another, be it friend or spouse or the Lord, with nothing in between, brings sweet communication that just flows.

This is a good confession that I use frequently & did this morning:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word & deed, by what we have done & by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry & we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us & lead us, so that we may delight in Your will & walk in Your ways, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

Two verses in the Bible came to mind.

Psalm 103:11,12 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.


Eph 3:14-21 for this reason I bow my knees before the Father,a 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of His love, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.


When God forgives us of our sins as far as the east is from the west, it leaves a vacuum and the love of God fills that vacuum, the heighth & depth & width & breadth!

Hallel YAH.

awitch said:

We see people who do and don't have the opportunity to live great mortal life who may or may not worship that god. Does a good god play favorites?

And there are people whose only serious offense is not worshiping that god who get the worst eternal life.

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Not to worry. (Our) God "isn't willing that any should perish but that all (will) come to repentance", and thus to eternal life. For most this will occur in the second resurrection, during the millennial reign of Christ.

awitch said:

Inspired by another thread, I thought it might be interesting to ask, "What qualities make a god good or evil?"
(And if anyone says "loving", I'll ask you to explain exactly what that means in detail.)

Click to expand...

Qualities of God are attributes and there are so many attributes and names of God I couldn't count them here but direct you to a site to explore them:

Names of God

And there are at least four kinds of love that I'll cite here:

"Love is only of the four kinds that I have explained. (a) The love of God towards the identity of God. Christ has said God is Love. (b) The love of God for His children—for His servants. (c) The love of man for God and (d) the love of man for man. These four kinds of love originate from God. These are rays from the Sun of Reality; these are the Breathings of the Holy Spirit; these are the Signs of the Reality."

Paris Talks | Bahá’í Reference Library

What if a god's neither? More like a entity indifferent to this world the same way you and i are indifferent to the microscopic world (but at a greater extent).

As I said in the other thread, "good" and "evil" are relational value judgments - and thus, often more counter-productive than helpful.
Infact, those with the strongest faith in the righteousness of their own cause and the greatest conviction of the evil of their enemies will almost inevitably be the people who commit the most grievous crimes against humanity (see: extremist violence).

Some apologists try to exempt their deity from such moral value judgments by pointing to the vast difference between mortal men and divinity - after all, do we spare a second thought before swatting a fly, which is that much closer to us than we are to a transcendent creator entity?
But that approach necessitates that we refrain from positive value judgments as well.
Likewise, we may not concern ourselves much with the fate of creatures that seem much less significant and meaningful to us, but would a wasp not be justified in judging us evil if we were to try to destroy its nest? Would its sting not be justified, even if we have no qualms about putting our own safety above that of an insect?

awitch said:

So if the true god tells you to kill all the children you see, then that's a good god?

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Yes, I already said it. True God is good no matter what. He is the sovereign authority and his wisdom is perfect.

awitch said:

Would it make more sense to ask what qualities would belong to a god that is generally worthy of being honored?

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There is a thought that all Good is from God and all evil is from our own selves. Thus Love is of God, all that is not love is from our own selves. Likewise Mercy is of God, all that is not mercy is from our own selves.

We are asked to find God within, with His laws, in that way we do away with our selfish ways, find and reflect the virtues.

Now it is tge same with all Virtues, they are all from God, all that is not thise virtues are from our own selves. We are good or nit good by choice.

Regards Tony

awitch said:

So if the true god tells you to kill all the children you see, then that's a good god?

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It would not be God talking, one would need to seek help.

Regards Tony

awitch said:

Inspired by another thread, I thought it might be interesting to ask, "What qualities make a god good or evil?"

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I think qualities about God like good or evil are human made constructs that don't really say anything about God. They do though say a lot about how Human Beings think and relate to life.

awitch said:

Would it make more sense to ask what qualities would belong to a god that is generally worthy of being honored?

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God is worthy of honor irrespective of his qualities because He is God, the sovereign authority.