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I'm struggling a bit with your repsonse. As far as I can tell you agree the argument is logically valid but disagree that the statement reflects your religious view - is that correct?


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The various premises can be stated as follows:

1. All mankind is guilty because of sin.
2. God is just.
3. Justice requires punishment.
4. God will, in justice, punish the guilty because of sin.

You conclude that God is immoral. Therefore you disagree with 2 and/or 4. Either He is not just (which basically redefines God) or God will not punish. You could also disagree with 1, but that doesn't seem to be your approach.

We could also look at premise 2 as the conclusion of another set of premises.

1a. God is perfect in all His attributes.
2a. Perfect justice requires punishment for sin.
3a. God will punish sin.
4a. Therefore: God is just.

You could now question 2a. Then we get into trying to define justice. At some point there will be a fundamental disagreement about a premise. I get my premises from Scripture. You are contesting the premises. You are stating either that God is not just or that justice doesn't require punishment. As to not punishing, that also doesn't seem to be your approach.

That leaves you questioning God's justice. Again, not an issue of logical reasoning but premises. So where do you get your premises? You refer to your moral sense. Let's assume you mean your standard of morality, which either you invented or refer to from someone else. Either way, you set this standard above God and judge Him by it. That means that God can't be absolute, but must Himself refer to a standard outside and above Himself. That means He isn't really God. Do you see that if the God of the Bible exists and is Who it says He is (and the goodness and justice of God are repeated throughout the Bible), that His Word about morality is right? If you deny this then you are just setting yourself up as God's judge. The Bible is also very clear about who will win this debate.

There is another important point. I believe that the character of God will be vindicated in the end. He is not a despot Who simply enforces whatever He wants in a capricious or evil way. His goodness and justice are not foreign to us. What we think about those concepts applies to God. But there is much more to Him than just our flawed idea. He is perfect in all His attributes and they all work together. All of His judgments are in accordance with His character and He is light, goodness, love and justice. There are many horrible things that have happened in the world and will continue to happen. The last judgment, whatever it is, will not be pleasant for unbelievers. None of us Christians like the suffering we see or that which will come. We also believe God doesn't like it either but has decided to allow it because somehow it's better than not. The only way to accept this in the face of "the horror, the horror" is through trust in Him.

One other point on God's justice. The Bible says that in Christ God is "Just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ". God's justice is satisfied for those who believe because Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice. "He bore our sins in His own body on the tree". So it isn't unjust for God to declare unjust sinners to be justified because the penalty was paid by Christ. God's love is satisfied because He has provided the sacrifice for us, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. "He shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us".