Is God Immoral?

The charge that God is immoral is usually trotted out in response to the supposed moral atrocities he condones and even commands in the Old Testament. The Israelite conquest—God’s command to wipe out the Canaanites from the promised land—is a classic example.

In this roundtable discussion, Bryan Chapell, J. D. Greear, and Mike McKinley consider street-level objections to the moral character of God. “Any kind of pat, simplistic answer is going to be unhelpful,” McKinley admits, since, well, there are none. Nevertheless, orthodox Christians have invariably believed that the Judge of all the earth will always do what’s right. Always.

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J. D. Greear (MDiv, PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. His latest book is Everyday Revolutionary: How to Transcend the Culture War and Transform the World. His previous books include 12 Truths and a Lie, Essential Christianity, and Just Ask. He serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition and served as the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 through 2021. He hosts Summit Life, a 30-minute daily radio broadcast and weekly TV program, as well as the Ask the Pastor podcast.

Dr. Bryan Chapell (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary; PhD, Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is a founding Council member of The Gospel Coalition and President of Unlimited Grace Media, daily broadcasting messages of grace across the U.S. as well as offering pastoral training in many nations through conferences and internet resources available at unlimitedgrace.com. Nationally, Dr. Chapell is Director of the Christ-centered Preaching Institute of Metro Atlanta Seminary, a ministry of Perimeter Presbyterian Church, where he also serves on the preaching staff. Dr. Chapell is President Emeritus of Covenant Theological Seminary, Pastor Emeritus of the historic Grace Presbyterian Church, and the retired administrative coordinator of the Presbyterian Church in America. He is the author of many books, including Unlimited Grace, Each for the Other, Holiness by Grace, The Multigenerational Church Crises, and Christ-centered Preaching, a preaching textbook now in multiple editions and many languages. He and his wife, Kathy, have four adult children, and a growing number of grandchildren.

Mike McKinley is the senior pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. He is the author of Church Planting Is for Wimps (Crossway, 2010); Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011); Did the Devil Make Me Do It? (The Good Book Company, 2013); Passion (The Good Book Company, 2013); and The Resurrection in Your Life (The Good Book Company, 2015). His most recent book, co-authored with Mark Dever, is 90 Days in Ruth, Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians (The Good Book Company, 2016).