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Because God ordains both the end and the means to the end. He has ordained repentance and faith as the means to salvation. I find it fascinating that someone would find the concept of God's complete sovereignty so repulsive.

Really??? So be repulsed then...

Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

So how does that work with you guys??? God picks you to be saved...God then tells you to repent of your bad stuff so you can actually get saved afterward...What if you don't repent enough??? What if you decide it's too much work on your part???

Or maybe if God picks YOU, you're going to become a saved Christian whether you want to or not??? And God brought your parents together, and their parents and all the parents before them, so they could create the unique you who God chose before the foundation of the world???

I know I'm a born again Christian...I called out to God and he saved me, and before I repented of anything...

So be repulsed then...

Read my response again. I am fascinated that YOU would be repulsed by God's total sovereignty.

Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Do you think that represents a problem for Calvinism? Not at all.

So how does that work with you guys??? God picks you to be saved...God then tells you to repent of your bad stuff so you can actually get saved afterward...What if you don't repent enough??? What if you decide it's too much work on your part???

Not completely following you here, but let me take it bit by bit:

God picks you to be saved

Yes, God elects some for salvation. That was done before the foundation of the world.

God then tells you to repent of your bad stuff so you can actually get saved afterward

You skipped a step. God regenerates the elect, i.e. changes their heart, so that they are able to respond to His call to repentance and faith. That regeneration is a unilateral act of God, done while the person is still an enemy of Him.

What if you don't repent enough??? What if you decide it's too much work on your part???

That's the beauty of the Doctrines of Grace. God assures us in scripture that once He starts a work, He will finish it. He doesn't regenerate us then leave us on our own. None of us will "repent enough" on our own. His grace is the only way we will persevere to the end in repentance, faith, good works, etc.

Or maybe if God picks YOU, you're going to become a saved Christian whether you want to or not???

Brother, the glorious truth of the gospel of Christ is that anyone that is saved is saved AGAINST HIS WILL. We are all born God-haters. None of us, in our base sinful state, want to be saved. Anyone that cries out to God for mercy has already been regenerated by God. Repentance and faith do not "trigger" regeneration; repentance and faith are fruits of regeneration which, again, is a unilateral act of God.

And God brought your parents together, and their parents and all the parents before them, so they could create the unique you who God chose before the foundation of the world???

Absolutely and gloriously true. Of course God is completely sovereign in His creation! As the recently deceased reformed theologian R.C. Sproul put it, “If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

I know I'm a born again Christian...I called out to God and he saved me, and before I repented of anything...

Brother, when you "called out to God", He had already regenerated you. The unregenerate heart is dead in trespass and sin, scripture is clear. Dead hearts don't call out to God. The heart must first be regenerated, i.e. "born again".