Dominic Bnonn #fundie bnonn.thinkingmatters.org.nz

The non-Calvinist might also say that the unfairness of Calvinism is in God creating Booker for the purpose of sending him to hell. In other words, under Calvinism, God actually wants Booker in hell—which seems unloving—whereas under a non-Calvinist view God lovingly wants him in heaven but is limited by what Booker himself will do.

I’ll talk about why the idea that God cannot create a world in which Booker chooses salvation is absurd some other time. For now, let’s suppose that’s true. How does that help the non-Calvinist?

Is it loving or fair for God, under freewill theism, to create Booker, knowing he will suffer eternal conscious punishment? What does it even mean to say that God wants Booker to be saved? Given that the choice is between creating him for eternal death, or not creating him at all, isn’t the only loving option to not create him?

Now of course, the non-Calvinist is welcome to say that God has some overriding reason to create Booker. The world in which Booker goes to hell, perhaps, is overall a better world than one without him, or one where he is saved. But that mimics the Calvinist’s argument! Under Calvinism, it is better that God be glorified through Booker’s reprobation than for Booker to be saved or not exist at all. The end for which God creates Booker is not reprobation itself. He does not want Booker in hell for its own sake, but rather for the purpose of revealing his perfection. A non-Calvinist might disagree about God’s ultimate goal, but his position remains functionally identical to Calvinism, and therefore offers no justification whatsoever for thinking that double predestination is unfair or unloving.

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