You brought it up. Once you start claiming that Calvinism is the correct doctrine, you better be ready to defend it.
I am sorry, but when you have 50 people attacking you, it is not very easy to do so, particularly in such a complex doctrine as Calvinism.
Here is a summary of the main points of what I believe about salvation right now:
1. The fall caused man to become totally depraved. Because of this, our will is slanted toward evil and is "desperately wicked."
2. Since our will is bent toward evil, and we are spiritually dead, we can't do a spiritual action like see anything good or praiseworthy in God, much less accept Jesus Christ of our own accord.
3. Therefore, God has to initiate the salvation process in order to accomplish reconciliation. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it..." (Phil. 1:6).
4. Since God never fails, if God initiates the process, he saves a person. And, since not everyone is saved, he does not intend to save everybody.
5. But, out of the sheer grace that he has for a people who hate him, he chose to save some.
6. How? Well, Scripture mentions predestination and Christ dying as a ransom for many etc. Other verses cause concern because they seem to indicate otherwise, but I personally have come to the conclusion after a couple years of really fighting against it myself that predestination is Scripturally true.
7. Since predestination is true, what is it based upon? Well, not anything in me or it could cause me to boast and it would not be true that salvation was a gift and not of works. It is based on God's good pleasure.
8. Once we are predestined, we still have to be called to faith because predestination only marks us out, it does not save us or change our depraved hearts in any way. God would still look upon us as evil if all he did was predestine us. But, God sent the Son to die for those he predestined and chose to be saved. The Cross purchased our salvation. The cross was what allowed us to be seen as guiltless when we confess Jesus Christ. The Cross reconciled us to God and was the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate act of faithfulness of the Second Adam, which allowed us to be seen as having perfectly lived an obedient life in God's eyes as well.
9. Then, the Holy Spirit comes to save us and change us. Salvation occurred when we first accepted Christ by the working of the Spirit, but it also is a process; we won't finally be saved until we are in heaven and have ran the race of this life. The Holy Spirit helps us to resist sin and temptation and to come to love Jesus more.
10. When we leave this Earth, we are present with the Lord and sin no more.
11. We will be raised up again bodily with new glorified bodies at the Day of the Lord.
That is what I believe and partly why I believe it. It all fits together in a tight system.
I took more and more steps once I had to accept a new aspect of my belief, and I ultimately accepted what is commonly called Calvinism, but which really is just what I believe to be the truth, or the closest to what the Bible teaches. I may be wrong on some matters, and I pray God works in my heart if I am.
But, I trust in Jesus Christ and believe in his act on Calvary on my behalf. He is my Lord and savior. How can you say my faith is not real?
I apologize for misconstruing your meaning of faith.
I understood what you meant until toward the end and then I thought you were talking about my salvation for some reason.
Sorry.
Get some rest if you are tired, brother.