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I cannot imagine a person saying to God, "I want forgiveness" and God saying to them, "Nope, you're of the non-elect." Always, always, if you want to be a Christian, you can be a Christian. God didn't give us some magical "elector-detector" to enable us to see who is going to heaven and who isn't. If that were so, I need to change my profession. Or at least become more focused in my approach.

As to my being sure about the rest of my family, hmmmm, I could say that you need to meet my family. I don't see into their hearts nor understand completely what has transpired between them and God. I just know what He has promised in the Word and so I can either believe Him, or not.

It is more important that each person come to God themselves. We each individually need to recognize that we ourselves don't measure up to God's standards (haven't you even once been disappointed with your behavior, so of course you, and I, don't measure up to God's standards?) and that we need forgiveness. That forgiveness is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. All a person, any person, need to is pray, "Lord Jesus, I need you. I recognize that I am a sinner in need of a savior. I open the door of my heart and receive you as Savior and Lord. Amen."

I cannot imagine a person saying to God, "I want forgiveness" and God saying to them, "Nope, you're of the non-elect."

If a person truly wants forgiveness, God's spirit is at work in him/her.

The problem with that argument, Jemian, is that no one comes to that point unless God reveals Himself to that person. We are incapable of saving ourselves just as a prisoner is incapable of saving himself.