Well, I remain hopeful, that some Calvinist will at least provide some information for me to contemplate...
I guess the bottom line of my question, is, is everything we do, everything we say, every single action we take, every thought that we have, predetermined to be such as it is...in other words, was I, were you, was everyone on this thread, made in such a way, so that we could do nothing other than what we do....was it predetermined, that I would be wearing a red shirt today, was it predetermined, that we are going to order pizza out tonite, because it is too hot to cook..was it predetermined that the dog next door, would almost drive me mad, with his incessant yapping?
I mean, I have read Calvinists points right here on FR, tho years ago, which stated exactly that...that every single thing, was predetermined in advance, and that nothing at all whatsoever, could occur, other than the way it was predetermined that it should occur...
So then, like you, I wonder if this predetermination is such as I perceive it to be, than truly what use would prayer be...if prayers for a sick person are offered, but it was predetermined that the sick person was going to get well anyway, why were the prayers necessary...or were the prayers predetermined as well?....and if this is so, then if everything, absolutely everything, is predetermined, it just appears to me, that each of us, fulfilling our predetermined roles, are doing nothing more, than fulfilling the roles of actors, acting according to a written script...
Perhaps I am in error here, which is why I have asked for clarification from anyone who is a Calvinist, or someone who correctly understands the Calvinist viewpoint, because obviously I dont understand it..I say I dont correctly understand the Calvinist viewpoint, because I can hardly believe that anyone who loves God, also believes that God has given us each a predetermined script and watches as we play out those roles...so I ask for someone to show me where I have erred in my thoughts and to point me towards the correct understanding...we shall see what happens...
A helpful understanding of predestination is given by the Westminster Confession of Faith.
I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold,[1] direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,[2] from the greatest even to the least,[3] by His most wise and holy providence,[4] according to His infallible foreknowledge,[5] and the free and immutable counsel of His own will,[6] to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.[7] II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly;[8] yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.[9] III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means,[10] yet is free to work without,[11] above,[12] and against them,[13] at His pleasure. IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extends itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men;[14] and that not by a bare permission,[15] but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding,[16] and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends;[17] yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceeds only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.[18] V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;[19] and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.[20] VI. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, does blind and harden,[21] from them He not only withholds His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts;[22] but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had,[23] and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin;[24] and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan,[25] whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others.[26] VII. As the providence of God does, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it takes care of His Church, and disposes all things to the good thereof.[27]
I. God has endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined good, or evil.[1] II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God;[2] but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.[3] III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation:[4] so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good,[5] and dead in sin,[6] is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.[7] IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage under sin;[8] and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good;[9] yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he does not perfectly, or only, will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.[10] V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.[11]
Of Providence
Of Free Will
Scriptural proofs found at the site.