re: “No, I believe because God has given me the “gifts” of faith and repentance. It has nothing to do with me.”
But what guarantee do you have that you are really exercising the “gifts” of real faith and repentance? You don’t know because according to Calvinism, it is God who decides who is saved and who isn’t, even though you may “think” you are, you may be mistaken.
People can believe they believe, but are not one of the elect. How do you know that you are one of the elect? Just because you think you believe in God or in Christ? It has nothing to do with you - it is all God’s sovereign choice, right? Maybe you just think you believe, but are deluded. You have no assurance that you are one of the Elect because the decision is outside of anything you think, feel, or believe. It is all God’s sovereign choice and you have no access to that information according to the Calvinist view.
You may think you’ve been given the gift of faith from God, but since all of that is outside of anything you do or think or “think” you believe, you have no assurance that that means you are one of the Elect.
I’ll quote Luther....Away from me Satan, I have been baptized.
The objective v. the subjective. I’m more concerned with understanding Gods greatness than I am with my assurance. I don’t know why it’s such a big issue for you but I believe so it’s not such a big issue for me. The question is why do I believe? I believe because God has given me faith. Praise be to God.