Michael Horton, author of the new book For Calvinism, responds to Roger Olson’s charge that Calvinism’s logical leads to God being a “moral monster” indistinguishable from the devil.
Any view that makes God the author of sin does indeed turn the object of our worship into a moral monster.
However, any deity who merely stands around reluctantly permitting horrible things for which he has no greater purpose in view, is equally reprehensible.
In the one, God is sovereign but not good; in the latter, God is neither.
Once you acknowledge that God foreknows a sinful act and chooses to allow it (however reluctantly) when he could have chosen not to, the only consolation is that God never would have allowed it unless he had already determined why he would permit it and how he has decided to overcome it for his glory and our good.
Mercifully, Scripture does reveal that God does exactly that. Roger agrees that God “chose to allow” suffering and sin (72). The Calvinist says that God chose to allow them for a reason. It’s permitting rather than creating, but it’s permission with a purpose. Permission without purpose makes God a “moral monster” indeed.
You can read the whole post here.
