[Forest Keeper]

Dear God in heaven, please, please, please do NOT "insure my autonomy." Keep me in the covert of your wings, in which I trust.

AMEN, Dr. E.! I wouldn't want to ever be anywhere else. As soon as men start puffing out their autonomy it inevitably leads to man saving himself. NO THANKS, I'll pass. :)

[AmericaUnited]

Well according to your theology, YOU have to "believe", YOU have to do this, SO it's possible that YOU can get puffed up, because YOU are saved because YOU "believed". If you were truly preselected, you would not have to do ANYTHING WHATSOEVER, otherwise, it would be an "action/effort' on YOUR part, and we know what COULD happen.

The one thing that is so very self evident is that your #1 reason why men don't have a free will is that they then "COULD" get puffed up. Men "COULD" get puffed up over anything, but that does not prove or disprove why something is true.

I'm willing to be that if a poll was taken of all those on FreeRepublic who do not beleive in Calvinism, 99% of them would say they are saved by grace and grace alone, and not by their works. Matter of fact, I've met probably thousands of people in various churches over the last many years, and I've NEVER heard anyone say/think other than that salvation was gift from God, according to His great mercy. So your unhealthy obsession with what "could" be is just that.

And another thing, if you have no autonomy, then praying ("Dear God in heaven, please, please") is just flat out ridiculous, since, then you are acting as if something YOU can do matters. It does not remember? Be consistant, you are just a programmed robot.