As a former "Traditionalist", I'll offer this, David...
The contradiction is many-fold:
1) If God decides to save some and not offer salvation to all, then that makes Him a respecter of persons.
2) If
God chooses to save men, then He is not being gracious to everyone... Grace would be allowing
men to make the choice.
3) If Jesus died only for the elect, then "world" does not mean every man woman and child in 1 John 2:2.
4) If God loved Jacob and hated Esau
literally, then He is again, a respecter of persons.
5) If God decides a person's fate, then He did not give them a chance to repent.
6) If God chooses who to save, then man does not have
free will.
7) If the Lord
appoints sinful men to destruction ( 2 Peter 2:12 ), then He is violating their free will.
8) If He makes them born again without their permission, then He is violating their free will.
9) If man is "totally depraved" and unable to obey God, then he is not responsible for his sins.
10) If God's grace is "irresistible", then God violates man's free will.
11) If Jesus died only for God's children, then that makes the offer of salvation null and void, and makes Him not the Saviour of all men ( 1 Timothy 4:10 ).
12) If God loves one and hates another, then He will not have
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth ( 1 Timothy 2:4-6 ).
13) If God hates one man and loves another, then He is not love ( 1 John 4:7-8 ) and does not love the world ( John 3:16 ).
14) If men have to persevere in the faith to be saved, then that is works.
15) God giving men the chance to repent and believe makes salvation 100% of God.
16) God created men with free will, otherwise they are pre-programmed robots.
Those are a few that I've heard over the years.
As I see it, thinking in "Traditionalist" terms and having been taught them from the pulpit for almost 3 decades, helps to understand the position.
