Here is a major reason why I do not believe in Calvinism, if anyone will follow my logic.
I did believe in Irresistible Grace; because love never fails, and the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth (1 Corinthians 13:8 and Revelation 19:6).
This doctrine means that either Limited Atonement is the reality or else Universalism. With Irresistible Grace, if Jesus died for everyone, then Universalism is the reality. Yet Universalsim is false (Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 13:49-50, Matthew 25:46). Which would indicate that Jesus could not have died for everyone. Yet this is also false (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:4, 1 Timothy 2:6, 1 Timothy 3:9-10, 1 John 2:2, John 3:16-17).
This created an incontrovertible contradiction in the Bible for me. I asked my wife what she thought the solution was: and she said that it had to be that God has given man free will. But free will is out because of the first two verses that I referenced in this post. Unless I somehow misinterpreted those verses to mean something that they don't really mean.
What does the Omnipotence of the Lord mean, and the fact of His love never failing, in light of the fact that there is no middle ground between Universalism and Limited Atonement in the Bible, if Irresistible Grace is a reality it is one or the other; and biblically it is neither?
The answer is that
love will not fail to offer every man a decision in the matter, of whether he will choose to believe or disbelieve concerning what Christ did for them on the Cross.
God, being Omnipotent, chose not to force the issue of salvation on anyone, but decided to give every man a free choice in the matter.
The crux of the gospel issue is not that God predetermines salvation; if you make this the crux of the gospel, you do not have the biblical gospel and are in fact preaching a different one; and therefore Paul wrote to let you be accursed and not to try to save you (Galatians 1:6-9, Romans 16:17). The crux of the biblical gospel is as following:
1Co 15:1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1Co 15:2, By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1Co 15:3, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4, And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
In a nutshell, it is this:
Jhn 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.