Within Calvinism God wills that some people choose to reject him eternally. He does this so that others, those that God wills to accept him eternally, will have a richer experience of his sovereign majesty because they will simultaneously experience his love and mercy as well as his wrath and justice, albeit with the latter visited out on those other poor blokes. Finally God opts to do this because on the whole the creatures’ experience of his greatness is higher on this scenario than if everyone was saved.
With that in mind, I offer the following illustration to bring this striking idea out in broader relief. Imagine an ice cream man who pulls up into the cul-de-sac on a hot summer day. Since we all believe God’s offer of salvation is a matter of grace rather than works, this ice cream man offers free ice cream cones. There are eight kids and, as it turns out, eight scoops of ice cream left in the truck. Let’s say that the ice cream man then has the following options:
Scenario 1: give all eight children one scoop.
Scenario 2: give four children two scoops and the other four children nothing.
Scenario 3: give one child eight scoops and the other children nothing.
What should the ice cream man do? Before we can answer that we need to consider that the ice cream man always acts to maximize the perception of his own goodness as an ice cream man in the children he serves. Thus he will dispense with the ice cream with that intent in mind. To put it crudely, he acts to maximize the highest cumulative score of his goodness as an ice cream man.
So then consider:
Scenario 1: all the children rate the ice cream man as a 4 = a cumulative score of 32.
Scenario 2: four children rate the ice cream man a 9 while four others give him a 0 resulting in a cumulative score of 36.
Scenario 3: 1 child rates the ice cream man a perfect 10 while the other 7 give him a 0.
The ice cream man’s mode of dispensing ice cream will be determined by the highest cumulative score and that comes in scenario 2. Thus the ice cream man opts to give the ice cream to four kids and not to four others.
And, so far as I can see, that is the way God functions on Calvinism. He dispenses the “ice cream” in such a way that it will result in the highest cumulative score of divine nature apprehension.
