The Creation Dilemma: Does the Triune God Truly Will the Greatest Good of Every Person?

In The Creation Dilemma, Hayden T. Carroll confronts one of the most difficult and rarely examined questions in Christian theology: How can a God who is perfectly loving, all-knowing, and fully free knowingly create individuals who will experience eternal loss?

Drawing from classical Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theology, Carroll carefully examines the traditional claims that God creates from nothing, foreknows every human destiny, and freely chooses whom to bring into existence. When these doctrines are placed side by side, a troubling tension emerges:

If God knows in advance that some will be eternally lost, and could refrain from creating them, how can He honestly be said to will their good?

Through clear reasoning and accessible philosophical analysis, this book evaluates the most common Christian responses to this problem, including:

• The Free Will Defense
• The Greater Good Defense
• Appeals to Divine Mystery
• The Doctrine of Divine Permission

Each is examined with charity and rigor—and found wanting under classical assumptions.

In the second half of the book, Carroll introduces a radically different Christian framework drawn from Latter-day Saint theology. By affirming eternal intelligences, premortal agency, and expansive redemption, this model reframes creation as invitation rather than origination—and dissolves the moral tension at the heart of the dilemma.

The result is a comparative theological study that asks a deeper question than mere doctrinal correctness:

Which vision of God is morally worthy of worship?

Written for thoughtful believers, skeptics, and seekers alike, The Creation Dilemma challenges readers to examine whether their understanding of divine goodness is coherent, defensible, and worthy of trust.

This book is not an attack on faith.
It is an invitation to take faith seriously.