God and good
I recently heard of something called the Euthyphro Dilemma in Plato's Dialogue, which paraphrased, asks the question, "Are morally good acts good because God commands them or does God command them because they are good?" The dilemma is designed to somehow separate God and "religion" from morality, and basically suggests that morality is independent of religion. I know this is wrong, as I understand that everything God commands is perfect and holy. I am just wondering what a good counter argument to this dilemma is.
Any discussion of “good” starts and ends with God. Jesus explained, “There is only One who is good” (Matthew 19:17). “Good” does not exist because God says so. There is good in the world because God is good. The “counter argument” would focus not on the words of God but the essence of God.
Our Great Heritage addresses your question this way: “The question has been asked: Does God decree the good because it is good? Or is the good good because God decreed it? The answer must be: Neither. God is not subject to any standard or idea of good over and above himself; nor does he arbitrarily decree that anything should be good, while he might perhaps just as well declare the very opposite to be good. Rather, God, who is, is perfection in every respect.” (Volume 1, page 498)