http://www.puritanboard.com/f48/need-he ... orn-34399/
My answer: That God might display the glory of His justice and wrath.
Om dit antwoord in het Nederlands op te sommen, deze vraag is een strikvraag van arminianen en semi-pelegianen, daar ze zelf ook voor dezelde vraag staan. Maar zoals John Piper ook aanwijst, is het Godsbeeld dat we hebben heel belangrijk. God heeft de mens tot Zijn eer geschapen. God is een zelf-liefhebbende, jaloers God, die alles alleen voor Zijn welbehagen doet. De zaligheid of verdoemenis van de mens is niet het doel op zichzelf, maar de grotere eer van God is het doel. Enig ander godsbeeld is in wezen een (af)god te hebben naar onze eigen making.Interestingly, this question is often presented by Arminians in an attempt to trick the Calvinist when in reality, they themselves are bound to face the same problem. Because the Arminians do not deny the foreknowledge of God, they must conceive that God created many men whom He knew would choose to reject the gospel and damn themselves. This question is essentially part of the motivation that Open Theists have for denying the foreknowledge of God in some areas. They argue that a loving God could not possibly have willed the damnation of any of his creatures.
Besides, if the Semi-Pelagian will argue that God created man to save him, my response to him would be: "Why did he allow mankind to fall?" It would be stupid for God to make the salvation of a creature as an end in itself. Now, the same is true for damnation, it would be stupid for God to create man to damn him, thus making damnation an end in itself. The only reasonable and rational response we can provide, (and that even the Arminian must eventually admit) is that God uses salvation and damnation as means to an end, and not as ends in themselves. Now the only end that would be consistent with the revelation of God in Scripture is His glory. The Arminian will typically object to this, pointing out that this would make God selfish. To this, our response is that it is in the intrinsic nature of God to be selfish, self-centered, and jealous, since for Him to do otherwise would be a denial of His deity, as John Piper rightly points out. If there could be anything that God loves more than Himself, it would be proof that He is not truly God, but rather a god, as this would imply that there is another being or creature that is more admirable, beautiful and glorious than Him. There is nothing shameful with this. God creates man for His glory, whether it be fulfilled in his damnation or salvation. To deny this truth is to devise for ourselves a god to our own liking, a god who is powerful but not all-powerful, loving his creatures more than himself, desperately carried away by his creation rather than ruling his creature.