Don't we walk by faith and not by sight? I wouldn't go strictly on what I see around me. And even if I did, there are many people who never hear the gospel and many who further reject the message. Why Bob becomes a Christian and not Joe can only be explained that God wanted Bob to become a Christian. Otherwise He would have done whatever He needed to to get Joe to accept Christ. I trust we both would agree that if God wanted Joe to be a Christian, Joe would be a Christian.
The Calvinist method - deducing experiential data from theology reminds me of errors long ago of deducing astonomical data from theology.
LOL!!! In my mind to deny the "chosen people" is essentially denying the entire Bible which is written about the "chosen people". I personally think that a big "DUH!".
I was speaking quite literally about our sense data. If we cannot trust our senses - and even further our experience of making choices and decisions - then all argument must cease. It's been reduced to: It could all be a dream, all an illusion.
Of course existence COULD all be a dream. But if this is taken as a truth statement that we cannot trust our basic experience of reality, then actual productive discussion must stop. We can no longer trust the instruments of our minds or senses and our 'delusions' of reality are equally invalid.
We do not deny that God chooses people.
We do not agree on who constitutes the chosen.