With this view, even a yell from the darkness of our sins, for help, won't bring about the new creation promised in II Corinthians 5:17
Some confusion could be eliminated if both sides of the argument, both Arminian and Calvinist, were understood. Natural man, in his fallen condition, does not cry out to God for mercy. Jesus said, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." [John 3:19] The natural man loves darkness rather than light, and God must impart spiritual life to the dead sinner. Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans, "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." [Romans 3:11] If God waited for sinners to come to Him according to their own will, God would be alone throughout all eternity while all mankind suffered for their own sins. Paul wrote in his second epistle to the Corinthians, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." [II Corinthians 5:17] Paul did not mention the will of man in this text.
The only way out of this situation is for a human being to hear the Gospel and look toward Heaven, as it were, and accept the free gift of everlasting life.
Where does the Bible state the Gospel is the power of God to anyone except to the saved?
Sovereignty does not mean that God runs everything and determines the final destiny of every person. I might say clearly, that He does run all major events such as when the Rapture, Second Coming, the Binding of Satan, the Millennium will take place, etc.
Paul wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" [Ephesians 1:11] Again, Paul does not mention the will of man. God not only controls all major events, but even the smallest ones down to the falling of a sparrow. Jesus said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." [Matthew 10:29]
Clear teaching does not allow for 'an earthly, puppet show' manipulated from the courts of glory.
Solomon wrote, "Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?" [Proverbs 20:24] I worship a God who works all things after the counsel of His own will, and He does not need to consult with man in order to get His decress approved.
God's sovereignty allows Him the option of giving human beings a free will, just as He did to Adam and the archangel--now the fallen Evil one.
The only thing man was free from before salvation was righteousness. Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness." [Romans 6:20]
I'd say it would be more consistent to shrug and say, some babies are elect, some aren't, since it's nothing to do with anything in us...
A baby at conception is as guilty as a lost aged man. Both are under the condemnation of the law. The psalmist wrote, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." [Psalms 51:5] If either one gets to Heaven, it will be by grace alone. The infant is as unclean as its mother. Job wrote, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." [Job 14:4] If the baby is not a sinner, Jesus did not come to save the little one because Jesus came to save sinners.
