Wes,
There seems to be a human realm of real culpability, suffering and etc,that we as humanity go through and what Jesus experienced, which is a total mystery in respect to God’s sovereignty. Pilgrim thinks I am ignorant of this fact, but the paramount thought is that God’s high decrees usurp the human realm in regards to the plans He put forth before the earth was created. The supralapsarian believes that the Fall was determined as part of that plan, thus Adam was destined to fail. The infralapsarian believes that after the Fall, the elect were actively intervened upon by the Holy Spirit, while the reprobate were and are passively left in their sins, which is a very palatable view in respect to God’s sovereignty and the accusation of “fatalism”. I believe there is much Holy Scripture to support that the elect and reprobate were decided before the Fall, but this view is I admit is undesirable in most Calvinistic circles. Yet, according to Henry Bavinck , “though infralapsarianism deserves praise because of its modesty- it abides by the historical, causal order-and though its shows greater consideration for the demands of practical life, it fails to give satisfaction. It is just as difficult to conceive of reprobation as an act of God’s justice as it is thus to conceive of election. Faith and good works, to be sure, are not the cause of election, but neither is sin the cause of reprobation; God’s sovereign good pleasure is the cause of both; hence, in a certain sense, the decree of reprobation always precedes the decree to permit sin (pg. 386 The Doctrine of God)”.
This may sound like “fatalism”, but on a human realm, we have an innate understanding of our responsibilities. With my very limited understanding, I accept man’s responsibility as well as God’s total sovereignty of everything that transpires on this earth. As Martin Luther once said, I believe in his book “Bondage of the Will”, “All things happen out of necessity, but not out of compulsion”. I am pretty sure Martin didn’t fully understand his own statement, but Scripture like Romans 11:36 and Eph. 1:11 support his thought.
On a human level we are responsible for our behaviors, thus I accept the apparent paradox of God’s high decrees, until Glory comes and I understand things better.
Geomic