Well, diversity has never been in short supply in the Portestant movement. Protestants always have a choice of siding with Arminius or Calvin.
Were they predestined to fall away and go to hell? No, that is not what the LCMS (or any) Lutheran Synod teaches
So, the Missouri Synod does not teach that God predestines some to slavation?
So to say that those who have (or appear to) fall away are damned is something we can't say
Doesn't your Synod teach sola fide? Doesn't that mean that man is saved by faith alone and nothning esle?
Where does free will come in and for what reason?
Portestant=Protestant
slaveation=salvation
And yes we do believe in Sola Fide. Faith in God is what saves, but that doesn't mean you just say “I have faith” and do nothing else. If you truly love and fear God, you will try to do his will. In other words, you can't say you love God and live your life as if you don't. It isn't the works that save, but the love and faith from which the works come from. There was a Catholic Freeper some time ago that I debated round and round for a while on the subject of Justification/Sanctification. At the end, we both realized while our views are not the same, they are close.
Free will is something I probably can't explain in the short amount of time before work that I have. In short, we have a limited free will. As I said before, God has to make the first move, but we can reject His grace. We are responsible for our own actions, and when we sin it isn't because that is what God wanted us to do, but our own choice. You can't blame God for being a drunk or an adulterer, you made that choice.