>>”Repent and believe the Good News”, “Love the Lord your God,” “Choose Life”-— glory to God, He means exactly that.
“Choose life” is only found in Deuteronomy and it is irrelevant to this discussion.
But the other two are very Calvinist.
Repent and believe the Good News. Yes. You were chosen. Not just for salvation after death. You were chosen to KNOW and be DRAWN toward God. Not to some man-made church with priests who tell you want to think and act as intercessors. Not to be drawn to saints who can talk for you. YOU were called. That is Christianity (until about 500 AD and then after 1517).
Love the Lord your God. Absolutely. But, if you KNOW God, how could you NOT love? Do you believe that you are so powerful that you can ignore the love of the greatest being in the universe when he smiles down upon you? That is arrogant! You believe that your ways are God’s ways. That is not true.
But without actual choice, everything is irrelevant.
How so?
God told them to choose. How or why would He have commanded that they choose unless He gave them that option?
Joshua 24:14-15 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
And so God is going to command people to do something He rendered them incapable of doing and then damn them for not doing it?
Yes, God draws us, but He draws ALL men.
John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”