Is God Worthy of Worship?

It amazes me how often—even in Christian circles—I hear people downplay, or even deny, that God must be worthy of worship. Some seem so committed to defending their particular view of Calvinism, Open Theism, or some other “ism” that they end up granting the claims of certain atheists:

“Sure, maybe there’s a creator of the universe, but that doesn’t mean He’s a maximally great being or worthy of worship.”

That’s a huge mistake—and completely unnecessary, especially when Molinism accounts for all the data.

Would You Worship Loki?

Suppose the Kalam Cosmological Argument is sound (which I believe it is)—the universe had a beginning, and therefore a supernatural cause. But then imagine we also learned something about this creator: that, as William Lane Craig once put it, suppose he is “a real stinker.” Or worse—that this being is actually the unembodied soul of Loki, the Norse god of mischief.

Would we worship him? Of course not. We might fear him. We might tremble in his presence and acknowledge his creative power and authority. But we wouldn’t—and shouldn’t—adore him, praise him, or trust this deity of deception and god of mischief. Worship is not merely about recognizing power; it’s about recognizing goodness, moral perfection, and the perfect standard of love.

A Deity of Deception and a Gambling God

The same applies if the creator were, as Calvinism seems to entail, a “deity of deception” who causally determines all people—including his own followers—to hold false beliefs, to sin, and then punishes them eternally for doing exactly what he determined them to do. Why should such a being be worshipped? Why should we love and adore someone who deceives and damns us for His own inscrutable reasons?

It might make sense to fear and tremble before such a deity, but it makes absolutely zero sense to love, worship, adore, and trust him.

The same critique applies to the god of Open Theism. If this god exists, he permits unimaginable evils—like the Holocaust or the abuse of children—without knowing whether they will ultimately lead to any greater future good. At times, he sometimes causally determines the evil thoughts and actions of humans just to guarantee his prophecies actually happen! He also allows human beings to blindly stumble into natural disasters he foresees and knows will happen, like floods and earthquakes, without warning or intervention, and without any guarantee those horrors won’t turn out to be entirely gratuitous. A god who gambles on prophecy, risks failure, and permits suffering recklessly—hoping he can handle whatever happens—is not the God of the Bible and is certainly not worthy of worship.

This deity does not know the future with certainty, but hypocritically commands prophets who get things wrong about the future to be put to death (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

Is a hypocrite worthy of worship? That seems absurd.

We might pity such a god, or even appreciate his occasisional good intentions, but we would have no reason to love, adore, or trust him. The god of Open Theism is tragically (at least often) well-meaning but inept—surprised by evil, powerless to ensure redemption through it, and inconsistent in his dealings with his creation.

That is why only the maximally great God revealed in Scripture—the God who possesses middle knowledge, who sovereignly works all things together for good without violating human freedom (Genesis 50:20; 2 Corinthians 4:17)—is truly worthy of worship.

Why Worship Must Be Deserved

Christian philosophers throughout the centuries have rightly concluded that if God exists—not merely as some supernatural unmoved mover, but as the God of Scripture—then He is a maximally great being. That means He is not only perfect in power, knowledge, and presence, but also in goodness, love, justice, and beauty. And it is precisely because of who He is that He is worthy of worship.

In other words: God is not worship-worthy because we subjectively decide He is. We ought to worship God because He is, by nature, the kind of being whose greatness and perfection demand (for lack of a better word) worship. This is amazing when you think about it. His nature “demands” love and worship, but He gives us the freedom not to.

We are free to reject love—and our ultimate purpose—into eternity.

Yes—God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists. Yes, He is a conscious agent of supreme power, knowledge, and presence. But to stop there is to leave the concept of God dangerously incomplete. Power without goodness makes for a cosmic tyrant. Knowledge without love makes for a master manipulator. Presence without justice makes for an abusive despot.

That is why worship-worthiness is essential to the very idea of God. He is not just an uncaused cause, the first mover, or the mere creator of the universe. He is the Triune God, existing eternally without beginning in a relationship of perfect love. Love is more fundamental to reality than matter itself. And this perfect standard of love (1 John 4:8) created humanity on purpose—for the specific purpose of love. Jesus confirmed this when He called love for God and love for others the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37–40), and Paul echoes the same in Galatians 5:14.

The Objective Purpose of Life

This is the objective purpose of life: to reflect and resemble God’s love (as Dr. Adam Lloyd Johnson has described it), to love Him in return, and to love others as ourselves. We are free to embrace that objective purpose of life into eternity—or to miss that mark forever (which is what we refer to as hell).

If God—a perfect and maximally great being, the perfect standard of love—created humanity on purpose and for the specific purpose of love, then there are objective facts about who we are and why we exist, irrespective of subjective human opinions. That’s why objective moral values and duties exist. That’s why God ought to be loved in return—which is the greatest act of worship.

Our Creator is not merely a powerful agent. He is the maximally great being—the God of classical theism, revealed in Scripture—who is not only worthy of worship, but who truly deserves it.

Conclusion

Too many Christians today, in defending their preferred “ism,” end up surrendering to the atheist’s critique—that the deity who exists might be powerful, or knowledgeable, or even the creator of all things, but still unworthy of worship. In fact, they imply that this deity—if he exists—is a being to be resisted and rebelled against. If the God of Calvinism or Open Theism exists, I can’t blame them.

This is to concede the heart of the atheist’s critique, echoing the same flawed line of reasoning popularized by Richard Dawkins—that even if God exists, He is not worthy of worship. That’s tragic.

The God of the Kalam is far more than just the cause of the universe, the fine-tuner of constants, or the necessary being behind all contingency. He is the maximally great being revealed in Scripture and in the Ontological Argument: the perfect standard of love, justice, and goodness, the very foundation of objective morality, and the only being truly worthy of worship.

To argue for anything less is to create a god in your own image. That's idolatry.

Stay reasonable (Isaiah 1:18),

Dr. Tim Stratton