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I can see & accept Child's points - but only if LotR is read in the light of the Legendarium (my usual way, admittedly). But in a recent conversation it was suggested that LotR is Tolkien's 'secular' novel. If we read LotR on its own, we don't get any sense of God being an active participant in the action. Gandalf is not 'an incarnate angel' to us, but a Wizard. Frodo's going into the West may (as Tolkien suggested in one of his letters) be read as an 'allegory' of death.
Remove his 'Christian' Eru from LotR & what do we get? Frodo sacrifices himself for others & dies. A 'reward' of some kind may be his, or it may not. Thus, it is the great 20th century novel to my mind & Tolkien is, in Shippey's phrase the 'Author of the Century' - he laid out our situation as human beings in a world where there is no hard evidence of an all powerful, loving God, where events like Gollum's fall may be seen as divine intervention or simple accident.
If Eru 'demands' Frodo's sacrifice He may be a Deity with both Light & Dark aspects, but nonetheless, He is a Deity the actually exists. What is the alternative? No Eru at all (which may be the case if we only read LotR) or an Eru who, in Gilson's words 'Canst only be glorified by man's own suffering & the supreme pain.' If Eru offers 'hope' to his Children it is hope which may only be found 'beyond the circles of the World', not within it. Hope, if it exists, exists with Eru, outside the World, yet LotR takes place within the World.
In short, if we include Eru in our understanding of LotR, make Him a player, we have to accept that he is 'inscrutable' (Gilson again), that he will allow suffering, if not actually require it, & that any 'reward' He gives to those who suffer for His (& other's) sake, is not recieved in this life. Neither does he deign to reveal even enough of himself to offer the smallest degree of reassurance to those who suffer for him that they suffer for a purpose. Eru kills the corrupted Numenoreans, but allows Sauron, their corrupter, to continue his existence in the world. The direct result of this is that Frodo will have to sacrifice himself to bring about his end.
If Eru 'chose' Frodo as Ringbearer, He also chose his ultimate fate. Eru's decision, way back before time, to allow Morgoth the freedom to alter the Music & then to enter into Arda, required Frodo's suffering. Frodo is destroyed because of Eru's choice - in other words, Frodo has to put right what Eru permitted.
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