Does Calvinism Offer a Basis for the Assurance of Salvation?

So be repulsed then...

Read my response again. I am fascinated that YOU would be repulsed by God's total sovereignty.

Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Do you think that represents a problem for Calvinism? Not at all.

So how does that work with you guys??? God picks you to be saved...God then tells you to repent of your bad stuff so you can actually get saved afterward...What if you don't repent enough??? What if you decide it's too much work on your part???

Not completely following you here, but let me take it bit by bit:

God picks you to be saved

Yes, God elects some for salvation. That was done before the foundation of the world.

God then tells you to repent of your bad stuff so you can actually get saved afterward

You skipped a step. God regenerates the elect, i.e. changes their heart, so that they are able to respond to His call to repentance and faith. That regeneration is a unilateral act of God, done while the person is still an enemy of Him.

What if you don't repent enough??? What if you decide it's too much work on your part???

That's the beauty of the Doctrines of Grace. God assures us in scripture that once He starts a work, He will finish it. He doesn't regenerate us then leave us on our own. None of us will "repent enough" on our own. His grace is the only way we will persevere to the end in repentance, faith, good works, etc.

Or maybe if God picks YOU, you're going to become a saved Christian whether you want to or not???

Brother, the glorious truth of the gospel of Christ is that anyone that is saved is saved AGAINST HIS WILL. We are all born God-haters. None of us, in our base sinful state, want to be saved. Anyone that cries out to God for mercy has already been regenerated by God. Repentance and faith do not "trigger" regeneration; repentance and faith are fruits of regeneration which, again, is a unilateral act of God.

And God brought your parents together, and their parents and all the parents before them, so they could create the unique you who God chose before the foundation of the world???

Absolutely and gloriously true. Of course God is completely sovereign in His creation! As the recently deceased reformed theologian R.C. Sproul put it, “If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

I know I'm a born again Christian...I called out to God and he saved me, and before I repented of anything...

Brother, when you "called out to God", He had already regenerated you. The unregenerate heart is dead in trespass and sin, scripture is clear. Dead hearts don't call out to God. The heart must first be regenerated, i.e. "born again".

Am I missing anything?

It seems that you are imagining a good person so I'd say that what you are missing is what the word of god says about good people. There aren't any.

SO then there is Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

This seems to echo what you were imagining but even here it still says there are no good people.

God gave dominion of the earth top man. It hasn't been rescinded as of yet.

I'm not sure how that is relevant to the discussion. Man's dominion on the earth is stewardship delegated by God; He still has ultimate sovereignty. Man's dominion has nothing to do with salvation

If God is totally sovereign, then HE is responsible for every act of evil and sin in the world

Everything that happens, good or evil, is ordained by God. God allows evil for His purposes, but He is never the author of evil. Evil is always carried out by secondary means. Read Job. God allows evil to befall Job, specifically allowing Satan to carry it out. As far as responsibility for evil and sin, man still is responsible for his sin. How can man still be responsible for his sin if the sinful act was ultimately ordained by God, you may ask? You would be asking the same hypothetical question that Paul presents in Romans 9:19:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Notice that the question regarding the apparent conflict God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is never answered. It is a mystery that just needs to be accepted. As Charles Spurgeon put it:

“That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory, but they are not. The fault is in our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and I find that in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.”

It takes a big view of God to believe in His total sovereignty. That is my view because it is scripture's view.

and we are all no more than puppets on a string some programmed to *love* God and others programmed to *reject* God

Again, God is not "programming" a morally neutral group of people. We are all "programmed" by the fall to be God-haters. A deficiency in the understanding of the doctrine of total depravity inevitably leads to this error.

Yes, you are... the sovereignty of God over all things including salvation. Which would you rather depend upon, your own ability to “keep” your salvation or God’s love and mercy?

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. KJV

Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. ESV

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