A few reasons why Calvinism doesn't glorify God

Here are a few reasons why Calvinism doesn't glorify God:
(Disclaimer: While I believe the Scriptures utterly and clearly demolish the tenets of 5-point Calvinism, this is not an exegetical piece, but a theological piece designed to flesh out the implications of this particular theological system).

1) It's not glorious to determine all things. Even I can set up a scenario in which I determine all things to happen according to my every whim. Is this what it means to be God-like? If so, that's not very impressive. Causally determining all things to occur is hardly praiseworthy; if anything, it conveys a lack of sophistication and an inability to govern wisely and creatively. Only a God who can work with genuine human freedom is worthy of worship, glory, and praise.

2) It's not glorious to cause people to love you. Laying aside the point that creaturely love must be chosen to be real love, it's really not that glorious to causally determine "people" to embrace you and bow at your feet. That's more akin to an inordinate love of oneself than a genuine love of a creature for His Creator. Only a God who can tenderly and graciously win over genuinely free creatures to His love is worthy of worship, glory, and praise.

3) It's not glorious for God to need to depend upon creation and sin to achieve His highest good. At the end of the day, Calvinism entails a denial of divine aseity, for "to be God" means to display your wrath at sin. Therefore, God needs sin. Without sin, God cannot be God. And without sin, God cannot acheive His highest good of "glorifying" Himself through the display of His "wrath." Only a God who doesn't need sin to be fully glorified or to achieve His highest good is worthy of worship, glory, and praise.

4) It's not glorious to use people as means to your end. While the Bible declares that love is not self-seeking, apparently God's love is the cosmic exception to the rule. He uses people as means to His end of "loving" and "glorifying" Himself. Only a God who treats people as ends and loves them accordingly is worthy of worship, glory, and praise.

5) It's definitely not glorious to causally determine sin solely to display one's ability to do so. While Calvinists often say that God's goal is to display all of His attributes, it really just boils down to showing off His power to unconditionally damn much of mankind. Why is this so? Well, is it loving, merciful, and gracious to cause someone to rebel against you, hang them within an inch of their life, then come in "to the rescue" to save them? How would you feel if someone you knew did that to you? Would you praise him? And is it just and holy to cause people to sin, hold them responsible, then unconditionally damn them for all eternity? You see, at the end of the day, all of God's attributes are sacrificed on the altar of sheer divine omnipotence. They are redefined to the point of unintelligibility. Apparently, if God can do something, He should, and He probably will. Nothing within His character will stop Him - except perhaps for the obligation He has to maximize His glory quotient through an optimal display of divine power. Really, Calvinism is just drunk with omnipotence. Only a God who is truly loving and holy and who exercises His omnipotence accordingly is worthy of worship, glory, and praise.


Yes, I am zealous for God's glory, and that is precisely why I am not a Calvinist. For all of the nice-sounding rhetoric about God's glory being the supreme concern of Calvinism, at the end of the day, consistent Reformed theology does everything but glorify God. The intractable problems of Calvinism in terms of the glory of God demonstrate quite clearly the human origin of this theological system.

Props to my friend and former Calvinist Ramon for giving me the inspiration for this entry. :)