It would seem you have a thorough grasp on the Scriptures.
Can you elaborate a bit on how you see election/selection/choice?
Here's the way I see it, Johann. I'm afraid you may not be entirely satisfied with my answer, as I do believe the Scripture leaves some degree of mystery in regards to such things, but this is where I have come to.
The Bible gives us certain propositions, but we don't like how they seem incompatible, and it bothers us. We are constantly gravitating towards trying to understand how things harmonize to feeling emotionally and intellectually justified in our beliefs.
I accept the following statements as Biblical:
1. God loves every human being equally, died for their sins, wants the best for them and made them for heaven.
2. Not every human being receives the same amount of grace, the principle of delegation produces the principle of victimization.
3. God clearly states he chooses some particular people for callings and for salvation, which renders them more grace.
4. No one is forced to follow God, free will is sacred to God, and all grace is resistible in Scripture.
Now, for many people, they don't think those points logically harmonize,
and so they reject them on the principle of human reasoning and logic. Like many people reject the trinity, or reject vicarious atonement, or reject omniscience, or reject a sin nature as unjust—it is always the case that the reasons people reject true doctrines is trusting in their own intellect while acting on their offended and prideful desires against the truth.
I accept a mystical predestination of specific individuals, as the Bible does clearly teach, but not on the basis of God loving them more, nor on the basis of God rejecting their free will, as everyone must make their calling and election sure. Those specially elect for some calling can bring this grace to others around them who, for whatever mysterious reasons in the divine counsel, were not afforded the same graces.
I do believe the Holy Spirit is attempting to bring preceding grace to every person, but not in a manner that is universally unhindered, as the Spirit uses channels and means to go through, as Scripture explains to us in many places. This is why intercession, for example, can make a real difference, because although a person may have sufficient grace to theoretically be saved, they may not necessarily be maximally graced.
It can feel confusing when we see Calvinistic type texts yet know it cannot mean exactly what they say it means, for this impugns God's character—however, God does allow offensive things to us, because of our sin nature, and this is in fact why Calvinism was birthed, to resolve offense at what God has allowed, and find a selfish security in knowing that the unsaved don't matter and the saved can't ever be lost—both false.
I know I have received a grace that many, many others have not—but I also know it makes me responsible to use and bring that grace to others less fortunate. There is no one, in the world, that I believe Christ did not potentially die for, or who would be banned from becoming elect—yet without a doubt God has implemented a system that does not seem good, just, loving or merciful to me, in allowing victims for a reason I can't figure out, or don't find acceptable.
I can write almost endlessly on such things, and it already is long for most people, but it's super hard to condense such nuance, and the weight of how important these matters are to us, and how they affect us. I believe all false doctrines stem from wrong motivations and a distaste for some way God has chosen to regulate the world, a desire to remake him in our own image, and resolve our offenses at his ways.
I have an old post from Carm on this very topic, and I will attempt to find it in my archives and repost it here.
God bless.
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