Then there is the punishment part. How can we be held accountable for what we do or don't do if we were given no choice? It just doen't make sense to me.
That's cuz you're not God....or a Calvinist. The difference between the two referents is slight, but noticeable. Mainly by the ability to move mountains and save humanity in the first case. Though the second group manages to move mountains of paper and rail against humanity.
Well, either God decides or man decides.
And I doubt anything God does is "random." The God of Exodus who explained Himself to Moses as "I AM that I AM," sounds pretty definite to me.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." - John 10:27-29.
How can we be held accountable?
Each man is responsible for his own actions. And everyone will end up where their nature's take them.
"Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why has thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" - Romans 9:20-21
We are all fallen and none is deserving of heaven. Yet through His mercy some are brought to repentance and faith, their sins paid for by the gracious gift of Christ's sacrifice.
But none of this is a surprise to God. He wrote the script.
CD, the following is something I wrote up a while ago on the predestination question ...I believe in God's predestination of the events of the world, including the response of men (and women) to the truth of His Gospel.
It is fully reasonable that God, Who created all as He pleased in the beginning, ... and Who, can see the end of such a creation from the beginning ... has, therefore, fashioned His creation such that His will should be accomplished through the culmination of that creation.
On an individual basis, this means that ... God knows, ahead of time, ALL of my choices in this life, including my choice as to the acceptance of the truth of His gospel, ... AND ... has caused the conditions of creation to be such that ... when I would come to be, ... in the course of the outworking of His creation, ... I would make the exact choices in this life that I have.
So, I do not see how we can possibly escape the conclusion that God has predestined the events of this world, ... once again, ... including the response of every man (and woman) to the truth of His gospel.
That said, ... I do not see that God could not do such as I have outlined above ... AND ... at the same time, allow men and women to choose between the GOOD and the EVIL.
I would note that one man who ... we would agree ... CLEARLY had the capacity to actually choose between GOOD and EVIL ... was ADAM in the garden.
I also understand that ADAM's failure to choose the GOOD over the EVIL has had the result that we, ... his descendents, ... come into the world with a SINFUL nature (i.e. one which is bent toward SIN).
I am also willing, for the purposes of this discussion, to tentatively agree that our state is such that we cannot now CHOOSE the GOOD ... and that, for us to CHOOSE the GOOD, our state must be CHANGED (by GOD) such that we are given such a capacity.
I also believe that we agree that God does work a change in the hearts of those He calls to accept His gospel.
What I am not convinced of ... is that this work which God performs in the hearts of those He calls mandates a CHOICE for Him (i.e. GOOD).
Could not God restore us to the state of ADAM, who could truly CHOOSE between the GOOD and the EVIL, such that we could, individually, make the same choice ?
I pose the preceding because my understanding of the Scriptures has left me with the CLEAR impression that GOD does, indeed, place such a CHOICE before us.
All throughout the Scriptures, God commands the sons of men to ... choose, come, believe, receive, etc ...
This would all be so much of a delusion if man, indeed, has not ever the power to choose.
The gospels record that JESUS expressed anger at the obstinacy of the Pharisees (as well as others) in rejecting Him and His message.
Why would He be angry if He knew that they had not the ability to CHOOSE to believe ?