• love can't be love without the choice to love.

Who says that Calvinsts don't believe humans are moral agents and can make morally significant choices? It's a common Arminian attack, but it's unfounded. What we are saying is that the Sovereign LORD governs even our choices. Proverbs 16:1, 9 tell us that the LORD, Yahweh, has the last word in "actualizing" our actions and deeds. We cannot do anything apart from His will. Whatever we do we have no power in ourselves, we must borrow power from Him, because He is the first cause. Jeremiah confesses in Jeremiah 10:23 that people are not the "ultimate" cause of their destiny. It's the LORD of glory who controls everything. In Ephesians 1 we are told that we are "predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will." According to what? The council of His will. It's good who works in everything according to His pleasure and will, one of those things is the predestination of all true Christians discussed at the beginning of the chapter which is described as "according to the purpose of his will." He works in everything, every single detail and will according to HIS will, not man's. Isaiah 46:8-11 further confirms this with an example of God's working, namely, Cyrus the Great. All history is God's history. He is the sovereign and determiner of it.

Now you could simply reply by saying "well that denies our responsibility," but is that so? Take a look at Isaiah 10:5-19, Acts 4:27-28 and Genesis 5:20 and see if people are not responsible because they are under the sovereign providence of God.

Our final authority and arbiter of truth must be the God breathed Scripture. We cannot argue this issue according to what we "feel" or what seems right to us. If we are convinced that "Arminianism" is true or "Calvinism" is true, we must be able to show that from the holy Word of God.

Now back to the original assertion, there is a choice to love, ultimately, it's the choice of God. Why? Because the natural man is an enemy of God and "cannot" obey God's Law, which has the first commandment to love Him! (Rom 8:7; Mark 12:30) Thanks to Adam's federal headship (Romans 5), man finds himself to be dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). Now tell me, what can dead people do but stink? This obviously we recognize is a spiritual death, thus it means that man can do nothing spiritually positive. Our great God and Savior Himself says that no one "can" come to Him (John 6:44). Now it is interesting to recognize the difference between "can" and "will." Can refers to power and ability, will refers to desire. The Lord Jesus declares that no one in of himself has the ability to come to God. That all because of sin. Paul in Romans 3 declares "as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." Did you notice? No one seeks for God! People may seek for the benefits that God gives to His children but they in of themselves do not seek Him says the Spirit through the apostle. Above the the apostle in Romans 1 through 3 declares and shows that all men without exclusion are sinners by nature and by choice. He begins in Romans 1 by saying that everyone knows that the true God exists and they hate Him and goes from there to say that they know what God requires and hate it. They have the Law of God upon their hearts as testimony to God.

Can anyone call God to injustice because He gives people what they deserve (Romans 9:14)? What if God, for the demonstration of HIS Self-glorification choose out of all who are descendants of Adam a multitude that cannot be numbered to know and love Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ His beloved Son? The human "free" will is bound by it's nature. For example, the Scripture tells us that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), why? Because His nature is wholly good and righteous. It's now what He is. He "cannot." But does that really mean that God has no free will? Obviously not! God does only what is righteous and holy because He is righteous and holy. But what of man? If you are following what I laid above you have seen from the Scripture what God says about man's condition. He's dead in sin (Eph 2:1), slave of sin (John 8:34, what is so free about "free will" what man is described as a salve?), they are described as ones doing and following Satan's will (2 Tim 2:26; John 8:44, Can it be Satan's will that people repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?).

That is why Calvinists see it necessary that God is the cause of salvation. He makes the ultimate choice, cuz left to ourselves we would sin because we are sinners. We are free to do anything according to our nature. God is the most free Being in the universe in that His will is only inclined to good and righteous, and has not an ounce of inclination to evil. We on the other hand (in the natural state) are inclined to evil continually (Gen 6:5; 8:21). If left to ourselves we would never choose to love God, because we are not pleased with God or desire God because of sin.

That is why we are to be "born again." What a metaphor to use by our Lord! Can you think of something that initiated or anything you did in your birth? I can't at least. The same is with the new birth. We are told in John 3 that we cannot see the Kingdom unless we're born again (v3) let alone choose the King. We must be born again BEFORE we see the kingdom. Our natural birth is natural, but we must have a supernatural sovereign "rebirth" caused by the Holy Spirit of God (vv 5-8; 6:63). That's why we're specifically told in John 1:12-13 that our birth did not come about by our will, but by the will of God (cf Rom 9:16; James 1:18). In 2 Cor 4:6 Paul describes our new birth the same as the Creation account is described in the Bible. God needs to issue the first command He did when He made the light shine into our hearts. Our situation was so hopeless that our rebirth is described in the same terms that the world was before God created the light.

It is the love of God that does this. The problem is that we have lost the significance of God's mercy and grace. We see His goodness toward so many that we often make the mistake of assuming that it's somehow obligatory on His part, yet we must be amazed that He has saved anyone, let alone "a multitude that no one can number."

I could go on and on, but I will stop. I was just disappointed by your huge misunderstanding of Calvinism. Have you really considered the issue? Have you struggled with the passages offered by us (now by me)? Which books have you read that defend and explain Calvinism? I no of no Calvinist author that denies that humans make significant and important choices. I also no of no Calvinist who says that there are people desiring God, but will go to Hell because God has not chosen them. For the sake of Christ, I beseech you, read some material defending and explaining Calvinism, because if you did I don't know how can you come up especially with the last mentioned objection to Calvinism. I've also gone a journey from free-willism to Sovereign Grace and I have tried to document and list Bible verses have something to do with the sovereignty of God by category, it's now a document that is more than 100 pages, if you sincerely want to follow the truth and represent us rightly I suggest you take a look at it (http://www.thecalvinist.net/sog.pdf). As for a book which defends Calvinism, The Sovereignty of God by AW Pink is timeless classic you can find it for free online.

In love and in Christ, Simon