Have you thought about what if you really aren't one of the elect? You love Jesus with all your heart but he may have decided your fate was hell before He created you and there is nothing you can do about it. He already made up His mind before you could know Him. Would you feel differently then if you weren't just talking about "those people" and it was affecting you personally?
CD what special reason would God have to bestow UNmerited favor upon us? I believe His reason is, as the Bible states, His own good Will. What do you think?
Would you feel differently then if you weren't just talking about "those people" and it was affecting you personally?
This does affect me personally. I have many, many family members who have been told and shown the Gospel. They have rejected it over and over. So odds are, though not 100%, that a whole slew of them will be in Hell when they die. They aren't "those people" to me.
And yet knowing that, I can still praise God for what mercy He has shown in my family. God doesn't owe me anything and He doesn't owe my family anything. I take that back, He owes us Hell. The fact that He doesn't let us all have what He owes us makes Him wonderful beyond comparison.
As far as my own Election all I can do is trust what He has revealed in the Bible. I have put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I love Him and have a compelling desire to serve Him. He has promised that those who believe on His Son will not perish. That is the definition of who one of the Elect are: one who believes on the Son of God.
Arminians, like Roman Catholics, think they have a hand in their salvation. Calvinists believe, as did the giants of the Reformation, that "Salvation is of the Lord."
It's a difference in perspective, and not a small one.