I don't think I've ever met a Calvinist who didn't think he/she was elect.
Could God change His mind about you?
:)
Of course, there is that little detail of perseverance, and I suppose I differ with some of my Reformed brethren on the point that we ought not presume and become complacent in running the race for that blessed crown. But the elect do, ultimately, persevere.
You may want to take a closer look at the spiritual life of Puritan congregations in England, Scotland, and New England during the 1600s and the first half of the 1700s, as well as what today is known as the “experiential Calvinist” wing of Reformed churches.
Reformed churches which place a strong emphasis on personal conversion typically have significant numbers of people who are in serious angst over whether or not they are saved.
Reformed doctrine begins with total depravity. It doesn't end there — after all, if it did, then nobody could ever be saved because our sin is so great that it requires unconditional election for anyone to be saved — but Calvinism certainly in history has produced a great deal of personal despair.
Some of us would consider personal awareness of our own personal sin to be a very important thing. Assurance of salvation does exist, but it certainly is not to be presumed or assumed.
A Calvinist who acts as if total depravity describes only other people may be a Calvinist in his head, but he is a Pelagian in his heart.
Fair question.
God could do almost anything. After all, He is God.
There are, of course, exceptions. Those exceptions are matters contrary to His own nature — for example, a holy and sovereign God is inherently incapable of committing sin, inherently incapable of limiting His own power, or doing some other such thing. That's why classic condundrum questions such as whether God is capable of creating a rock so heavy He can't lift it are inherently nonsensical. Sovereign means sovereign; holy means holy. An all-powerful God who is less than all-powerful is as inherently impossible as a square circle.
While God **COULD** do almost anything, we know from His Holy Word what He has in fact done.
What do we know from God's Word that He has done?
What we know includes that “the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”
This isn't just one case. The word “vessels” is plural, so in addition to Pharaoh, there must be other vessels of wrath fitted for destruction since God being “willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”
I see no way that an Arminian who wants to believe an inerrant Bible can avoid admitting that at least one human being was predestined for destruction — Pharaoh — and that there are other similar vessels of wrath fitted for destruction for the explicit purpose that God “might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”
Once the Arminian admits that, and it is crystal clear from the text, the Arminian loses the argument that predestination unto destruction somehow dishonors God.