As an "ism" follower, you would rather follow the teachings of a man who was born 1500 years after Christ was crucified. Instead of following the teachings of the man we are called to follow, the One crucified. God Himself.
An "ism" follower is a person who follows the teachings of men instead of our Creator, Savior, and Author of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.
You would rather hang your salvation on the false doctrine that God created some of us for salvation, and others for damnation. I disagree.
I do not believe God is cosmic rapist. We are not "Chatty Cathy" dolls that He created. He created us with a free will, so that we would love him willingly.
That is what this whole life thing in the world is about. One chance to love Him or reject Him. Those who accept His love and love Him back will receive the righteousness of Christ. Those who reject His love, won't. "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous" Psalm 1:5
If God did not want us to have free will to chose or reject Him, then He would have no reason to make the world with sinful men to populate it. If we are chosen with no choice, then He had no reason to become a man who would be brutalized and murdered on a cross for sins He did not commit. After all if, as Calvin taught, we have no choice in the matter of whether or not we would love Him, then there was no reason for Him to do all He did.
That being said, the best way I can debate your misguided thinking is to prove you are wrong by using the scriptures that speak of man's free will in choosing to follow God, or to reject God.
What follows are various Scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments where the Word of God tells us that man has a free will to accept or reject His love, and ultimately Salvation.
“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. 1Chron28:9
"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." (Gen. 4:6-7)
"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." (Deut. 30:19)
"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:15)
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa. 1:16-20)
"Seek the LORD while He may be found ,Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. 55:6-7)
"Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you." (Hos.10:12)
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good." (Jer. 18:11)
“Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." (Jer. 21:8)
"Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you." (Jer. 26:13)
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live." (Ezk. 18:30-32)
"But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way andfrom the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." (Jon. 3:8-10)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Matt. 23:37)
"I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Lk. 13:3)
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”(Jn. 3:18-21)
"And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation."(Acts 2:40)
"Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." (Acts 10:34-35)
"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)
"But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." (Rom. 6:17)
"Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Co. 7:1)
"Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work." (2 Tim. 2:21)
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." (Jas. 1:21)
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." (Jas. 4:7-10)
"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit[a] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart." (1 Pe. 1:22)
"And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." (Rv. 22:17
“Ultimately you, being a follower of Calvinism, means you reject the idea that men have been created by God to have a free will.”
Notice that you spent more time explaining how I am an evil Calvinist than actually taking the time to answer a single thing I said. Either the scripture contradicts itself, or your position is false. Why should I regard your insults, or the things you provide, when you haven’t even gone through the trouble of exegesis? Do you think that you can magically make the scriptures go away that prove that faith itself is the gift of God? But to touch upon your error:
What Christian ever denied the command: “unless you repent, you will surely perish?” Or that a person must believe and turn to Christ? We simply affirm with Christ that “no one comes to me, unless it is given to them by my Father.” It is certainly true that a man believes, and he repents, and he acts by his own agency (though what is acting upon that agency is not by the control of man). As God does not control us like robots, but rather works within us, empowering us, giving us a new heart that desires both to will and to do of His own good pleasure:
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
We certainly both will and do, but how does one come to will and to do if not by God’s working? Is there a single good thing in man that can do God’s will of its own accord? The scriptures says that there is “none good,” there are none who understand or seek after God. So what is there in man that can do this good thing? What spark of goodness is there in man that you can offer me to prove your argument?
Joh 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
Is there a single thing on this Earth we can affirm came from our free-will, and not from above?
And is God a “rapist” for working in us “both to will and to do of His own good pleasure?” If a man is a slave to his sin, is it “rape” for someone to release them from their bondage? Would you rather have the free-will to freely live your slave life and die according to your good pleasure and purpose? For that is what you do, unless God brings you to Himself with infallible power:
Joh 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Joh 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
The commands of God do not imply a moral ability of the hearer to obey them. After all, among those commands are “sin no more,” and “be ye perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect.” And yet we are told that “if we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us.” We are not told to be perfect because we can be perfect, but so that we should covet being perfect, and oppose the evil, because “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And the knowledge of sin is the “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” It is not in the power of man to do anything good by his own free-will, as has been said before, but depends on the mercy of God who tells us that we ought to covet a new heart, but at the same time promises to provide us that heart so that we should believe in the first place:
Jer_24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
There is no fear here, no danger of damnation for the elect. No reason to fret of not being “good enough” for God, for whom God predestinates He also calls, and whom He calls He justifies.
But shall we cast away these scriptures just to hold on to a vain religion, no different than Romanism, and every other religion in the world, which puffs up man’s Free-Will over the wonderful power of God which calls on us all to lean on Him and not on ourselves? An accursed religion it is which claims that man is good, or has some spark of goodness in him, with which to merit his salvation. But our God tells us the truth, that we are dead and are bones exposed, and can never meet any condition for salvation. But blessed be the God of heaven who brings flesh to our corpses, a new heart for our chests, and breaths a new spirit into our bodies, so that we may live and be fruitful, with good fruit abiding forever.
Joh_15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.