But why did he choose David? Did being chosen mean David didn't choose also? If David didn't have free will, why would God choose for him to commit murder and adultery? All who are in Christ are chosen for salvation. Calvin, who wasn't a very good example of a decent human even, believed everything was ordained by God, even rape and murder. I guess it was a good way to salve his conscience about burning people alive, perhaps, but not biblical. God allows everything and knows everything which isn't the same as causing everything. Does God have the freedom to give real choices to his creation? Fatalism is also part of the Muslim religion BTW.

God chose David due to his heart not his mind. The mind makes you stupid, the heart is true. David made mistakes but came back to God and repented each time. God knew what kind of man David was going to be, and what kind of heart he would have. I believe God gives you choices a or b, but you choose which you want. Each choice has a consequence good or bad. Each mistake you made, you repent this doesn't mean you won't have a consequence after repentance, just means you have God grace to cover it up. If you live the light, you won't want to make the mistakes, doesn't mean you won't fall short time to time. It's not that God can't make you choose christ, it's God wants you to choose christ. If some one chooses for you, like when your a kid, your not 100 percent about it, may go along with it to make your parents happy, if you choose your heart is in to that decision and in this case will let the light of christ shine through to spread the word of what he has done for you, to feed his sheep.

If God made people do what he wanted, we all be perfect, eve wouldn't have ate the apple, the flood wouldn't have been needed, Jesus wouldn't have needed the cross and the end days would never come. Heaven on earth.

So the clay tells the Potter what to make and how to make it?

JStaton if I understand you correctly it is your opinion that Adam & Eve and everyone since is telling the Potter what & how to make them when they sin rather than it being an act of them choosing to go against the will of God?
From Romans 9: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? From the idea of God using a hardened Israel to shower his grace upon the gentiles. Yet among the people being spoken of, it came down to a personal decision as many Jews were saved, and are saved. Grace was intended for all peoples and that is how God chose to spread it.

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man": James gives us more: "but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

You have the opportunity to choose to be a vessel to honor or to dishonor. Choose wisely. Your decisions lead to your life and your eternity. Just as runners in a race know the prize for winning before the race begins (this part is pre-determined and made known), we are given opportunity to enter the race and receive the prize. The winner is not chosen, but the rules and rewards are laid out before. So run that ye may obtain.

2Peter3:9 The Lord "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentence." Why would Christ offer hope to all, if only select, pre-determined ones were eligible (those he "foreknew"? Would that not be a false hope?
The Alphabet gang (LGBTQ....) like to say "God made me this way, therefore he must want me this way." Wrong. They make a decision daily to walk in the path they do. It's just easier on the conscious (salve the conscious as someone earlier stated) to blame it on God than to make hard life decisions. Following Christ is a decision of all our parts: mind, body & spirit. "Lovest thou me more than these?"

If God controls or pre-determines your decision, then it is no longer a decision, but the manipulation of a robotic response. It is no longer free will but a formality for an inevitable outcome. A Russian election rather than election of grace.
Pre-destination is pretty simple: The "saved", born-again, Christians, etc go to Heaven. The "lost", un-Godly, sinners (pick your label) do not. This eternal outcome has been pre-determined, so if salvation by and through the complete, finished work of Christ is not enough for you, then there is no other sacrifice that will work. It's Christ alone.
God has known, but has not determined the decision for you.

What the Potter does depends on what the clay does.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.


The verses you reference confirm free will.

I don't believe anyone is saved without going through the Refiners fire. Old things are passed away and all things become new. There's a process to it but you're instantaneously passed from death unto life. For a moment the believer is a lump of pure gold and his garments are white. For a moment.

It's all of the Holy Spirit, start to finish.

What I'm trying to say is in my finite mind it is all free will but in God's omniscience, emphasis on God's "mind", it's all predetermined. I guess what I'm saying is God ain't surprised. If that makes sense.

Perfect sense. Never an oops, woops, uh-oh, or "Oh wow, I didn't see that coming" coming from His side. Me on the other hand? All the time.

O the depth of the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out. Rom11:33

Thank you sir for sharing this good news.

Who are you trusting, yourself or God?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not parish, but have ever lasting life. John 3:16
And old
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. PSALM 37:3