Does God Love Everyone? The Heart of What's Wrong with Calvinism

This monograph presents a sustained philosophical and theological critique of Calvinist doctrine, specifically targeting the Reformed tradition's understanding of divine love and salvation. Walls advances the thesis that Calvinism's doctrine of unconditional election fundamentally contradicts the biblical affirmation that God loves all people and desires their salvation. The work systematically examines what the author identifies as the central moral and conceptual problems inherent in Reformed theology's treatment of divine sovereignty, human freedom, and eternal destiny.

The argument proceeds through careful analysis of key Calvinist texts and theologians, including John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and contemporary Reformed thinkers. Walls demonstrates how the doctrine of double predestination—wherein God eternally decrees some for salvation and others for damnation—creates insurmountable tensions with scriptural passages affirming God's universal love and salvific will. He argues that Calvinist attempts to reconcile these tensions through distinctions between different types of divine will or love ultimately fail to preserve the moral character of God as revealed in Christian scripture.

Central to Walls's critique is his examination of compatibilist theories of freedom employed by Reformed theologians. He contends that Calvinist compatibilism cannot adequately account for genuine human responsibility, particularly regarding eternal damnation. The work engages extensively with philosophical arguments about free will, moral responsibility, and the conditions necessary for meaningful love relationships. Walls argues that authentic love requires libertarian freedom—the genuine ability to choose otherwise—which Calvinist determinism necessarily excludes.

The monograph also addresses Calvinist responses to the problem of evil, analyzing how Reformed theology's emphasis on divine sovereignty exacerbates rather than resolves theodicy concerns. Walls examines historical and contemporary defenses of Calvinism, including appeals to divine mystery and the greater good, arguing that these strategies ultimately render God's love meaningless or deceptive.

Throughout the work, Walls employs both philosophical argumentation and biblical exegesis, drawing on the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition as an alternative theological framework. He demonstrates how this tradition better preserves both divine sovereignty and human responsibility while maintaining the coherence of God's universal love. The monograph contributes significantly to ongoing debates about divine election, human freedom, and the nature of God's relationship with humanity, offering a comprehensive challenge to Reformed theology's central tenets while defending a libertarian understanding of human agency and divine-human relations.