goodness. Alongside the premise that "God is good" one
might adduce other premises that assert that something else
is "good," whether a person, an object, an idea or an
activity. Examples: "Joe is good." "The Bible is good."
"Christian belief is good." "Bible reading is good." Can all
of these statements be true? Yes. Are they equivalent
premises? No. Can anything or anyone else be said to be
"good" in the same sense that God is good? No! We must
not make ourself, another person, an object, an idea, or an
activity equivalent to God.
To apply mathematical logic to these premises, let "God
is good" be represented by the equation x = good. Anything
or anyone else might be represented by y = good. If so,
then y = x, anything else thus represented is equivalent to
God; y = God. Never! The two premises cannot be
maintained as equal premises. To do so is either to deify the
person or thing, or to relativize and reduce God to simply
an expedient abstraction.
When we state that "God is good," the verb "is" is used
in an essential and constitutional sense, but cannot be so
used in the other statements. What (Who) God is, only God
is! If God is the essence of goodness, then nothing or no
one else can be the essence of goodness. This might be
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