no question about it... Calvinists are given a bad name for their
position on predestination.

predestination is a word found 6 times in the New Testament in the
NASB. its also found in Jeremiah 1:5; Isa. 49:1; Lk.1:15; Acts 13:48;
Ro. 9; and numerous other places by way of example.

to deny that God has predestined all of the events concerning the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of His people, ( Acts 2:23 )
and the salvation of His people ( Eph. 1:3-12 ) is to call God a
liar...

(... and that is a serious matter, because those who are saved are
those who believe the Word of God. )

the Calvinist is all about Sovereign grace alone as God's only means
of saving a people to His name.

what the Calvinist means by Sovereign grace is that he believes in
his heart what the Scriptures say about his hopelessly lost condition
as Paul explains in Eph. Chapter 2.

he knows that he is one " having no hope and without God in the
world. " ( Eph. 2:12 ) in his unregenerate state. he knows that
" every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually " ( Gen. 6:5 ) he knows that salvation is " not by the
will of man " Joh. 1:13

he knows that he can not initiate eternal life in himself because he
is compared in Scripture to Lazarus... who could not come forth from
among the dead except the Lord first, calls him to come forth.

this leaves the Calvinist to only one hope... that the living God
draws him unto Jesus Christ and gifts him with grace unto salvation as
in Joh. 6:44

he knows he can not gain nor contribute to his own salvation by
making a decision for Christ... because that, is not in Scripture.
he knows he did not believe in Christ by his own wit and wisdom...
by his own ' free will .' he knows that believing unto salvation is a
Sovereign act of grace bestowed on him as the Scriptures say :

" as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed." Acts 13:48

he agrees whole heartedly with Jesus Christ who said that believing
is God's work, not man's, as in Joh. 6:29

he knows that among men it is impossible to be saved... Mt. 19:25,26
because " salvation is of the Lord " Ps. 3:8

he is ' blessed ' because while in rebellion again God he was raised
from among the spiritually dead and given life by the Living God
simply because it pleased the Maker of all things to act with
undeserved merit towards him. Eph. 1:5

" Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts." Ps. 65:4

he is ever thankful to God that by God's gracious mercy he was taken
away from his former spiritually dead life and made to be a new
creation in Christ.

he knows that there was no such thing as faith in his heart before
he came alive in Christ for that would mean he believed by some wit
and wisdom of his own all the while dead, without hope and without God
in his world of rebellion.

the Calvinist knows " the Scripture shut up all under sin, so that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who
believe " Ga. 3:22

it is the " faith of Jesus Christ " that saves and it is a gift of
God, and not some sinner's prayer, or ceremony, or decision made that
brought him out of the spiritual grave, Eph. 2:8. the spiritually
dead do not initiate life in themselves any more than the physically
dead.

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Sovereign grace is the simple belief that the Bible teaches we sinful
men are beyond all self help and without God in the world as far as
our relationship to God is concerned.

we are wholly dependant on the Lord making the first move in our
sinful rebellious state and thereby removing our heart's of stone and
giving us a heart of flesh unto salvation.

this belief makes him different from everyone who trusts in some
sinners prayer or in some decision he has made.

" He made us alive together with Christ " for he is saved solely by
grace... Sovereign grace... the same hand of the Father who raised
Christ from among the dead also raised us while we were dead.

this grace, or unmerited favor, is said to be Sovereign because the
Bible teaches that God in under no compulsion from any source other
than Himself... " according to the purpose of Him who works all things
according to the counsel of His own will " ( Eph. 1:11 ) it was God
who framed the world and sustains it... all good things come from
" the Father of Lights " ( Ja. 1:17 ) ... salvation included.

this is what Paul means when he says :

" Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in
the Beloved. " Eph. 1:5,6

it is not an accident that the Apostle Paul should write the things
he did concerning the grace of God towards His elect, for God guided
his hand to write exactly what he did... just as the rest of Holy
Scripture. 2 Tim. 3:6

Sovereign grace excludes every device of man to enter the courts of
the Most High by any other means ( Isa. 65:4 ) ... as if to enter the
sheep fold by climbing over the fence. Joh. 10:1

for God's act of gracious kindness towards us while we were yet
sinners, raising us up with Christ from among the dead, we give
unceasing thankfulness. we exult His Name as we endure the wrath
hurled at us from those who hate us for being saved by grace apart
from works.

the glory for the doing goes entirely to God in Christ, unlike the
glory which the boastful desire for themselves as they claim the
credit for the doing by some act of their free will which moved God to
save them.

it is the will worshipers who try to make a case for themselves in
order to uphold their position of self-salvation through the wit and
wisdom of man that the Calvinist parts company with all those of a
different gospel... and that gospel always seeks man's glory.

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" believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved "
Acts 16:31

" and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed."
Acts 13:48