>>It’s my belief that there has been a 100 plus years of efforts among the evolutionists, Scientists and any number of new age religions and educators to convince people that they have NO FREE WILL.
>>I have questions for the Calvinist that would suggest that GOD has a plan for me?
No real Calvinist would say that there is no free will. Those are words put in our mouths by Arminians who believe that God is impotent and desperately needs THEIR input on things.
What a Calvinist say is that humans, in our natural state, are sinners who cannot understand God without God’s help. The Arminians agree with us there because they believe in Prevenient Grace, which precedes all justification, salvation, and sanctification.
We say that God chooses who will receive that grace to help us understand who he is and to give us the desire to seek him.
They say that even though God has called you, and given you grace to know him, he can still fail and you can decide “Nah. Not interested.”
Think about that. You allegedly know and understand the omnipotent CREATOR of the universe, who can do anything and know everything, and you just dismiss him and say, “Not interested.” Arminians think pretty highly of themselves, don’t they?
Meanwhile, the Calvinist admits that God is sovereign and great beyond our imagination and that when he calls, we come. Period.
Free will can be summed up as this: when Alice reached a fork in the road, she didn’t know which road to take. She saw the Cheshire Cat and asked him, “Which road is the right road?”
He replied, “Where are you trying to go?”
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go, does it?”
We come to a fork in the road. Some don’t know where they are going, so they have the free will to choose either road. Others know their destination, so one road is wrong and the other road is right. Sure, you can take the wrong road, but eventually, you will have to stop and turn back so you can take the right one.
Also, the person who proudly has all that free will reaches the fork and looks left and looks right, and decides, “I choose to go UP.” Well, you can’t because of gravity. So, your free will is limited by your surroundings too.
I used to be an Arminian/Wesleyan who hated the idea of Calvinism because it diminished MY greatness. Then, one day I discovered how great God is and I had questions. My pastors and people I looked up to gave answers that talked in circles. Then, I asked an actual Calvinist to see what he believed (instead of hearing the Arminian version of what he believed) and it all made sense.