***If you can believe that God does not love everyone, just specific people, and that Jesus only died for a predetermined few, then you won’t have any problems justifying a belief in predestination.***
Your words.
God’s words, as found in John10:22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, [1] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them." -- John 17:9-10"I pray for them: I pray not pray for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Here John confirms that the eternal God of all creation loves you, Irish, and you, Mark, and me with an extraordinary, individual, personal, preordained love that God declared from before the foundation of the world -- before we could do anything good or evil to "earn" our redemption by Jesus Christ...
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth" -- Romans 9:11