Forgive me Thadeas, perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. I said specifically that I was not giving a detailed answer to all of your other questions because of space constraints and, out of respect for the thread starter, not hijacking this thread to answer questions already being debated rather heatedly in several other threads.
Your specific question about 2 Timothy 2:10 is not that difficult. Pages could be taken to answer it in-depth or simply in only few words. I will try to fall into the second category to avoid hijacking the thread, but still take the time to sufficiently answer the question.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2 Timothy 2:10
I already partially answered this question in my very first post by quoting
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:10-11
God already made clear that he called, chose, elected, predestined, etc. Those are all Bible words. I didn’t make them up, I simply believe them. The question could be asked; Why make your calling and election sure? If God has chosen you then it’s a done deal right? Same question as; why endure anything for the elect’s sake if God is going to save them anyway? Different sides of the same coin. It also falls in the category of why preach the gospel at all if God has already chosen those that will be saved and promised to bring them in and preserve them. The short answer is, Because God said so. When you really get down to it, if it is completely up to the free will of every human being to choose based on the evidence, and arguments presented to them, then preaching is the most logical method you could devise to win the lost. Not just any preaching, but very well educated, extensively researched, eloquent, tailor made sermons. Not that I’m against any or all of those aspects, in and of themselves, but the Bible says that preaching in order to save the lost is foolishness.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1 Corinthians 1:21
Both the method and the message is counted foolishness to human reasoning, but we preach because God commanded us to go into all the world and preach. We preach because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those he pre-ordained to salvation. We endure all things for the elect sake because we know that the power is in God to save them.
If God told me today who I would someday marry, it wouldn’t matter if that person was an absolute heathen, someone I simply someone I didn’t get alone with, or an absolutely beautiful and amazing woman of God to the point of being out of my league (doesn’t take much). I could, by faith in God’s promise to give her to me as a godly wife, endure all things for her sake. I could by faith, wait on and possible be a vessel in facilitating her salvation. I could learn to get alone with her (whether by God changing her, me or both). Or I could, by faith, have confidence that God would make me a better man of God, and turn her heart toward me. My ability to endure any and all circumstances is not based in her having free will and me having to work everything out to convince her. My ability to endure all things is based solely in the knowledge that God promised to work it out and allows me to be a vessel in bringing about his eternal plan.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Absolute free-will proponents could stand to do a good study of Jonah and Nebuchadnezzar.” God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah said no. If God respects our free will and allows us to make the choice then that should have been the end of that conversation, and God would have moved on to the next person to see if he could get a yes from the next option and so on and so forth until he found someone “willing” to go. Instead we have the amazing story of God doing everything it took to turn Jonah around. Truth be told, that was the plan all along. The storm and whale was not plan b but what God had in mind all along to show us his divine sovereignty. The awesomeness of God is that he can give us a will, and intellect to use our will in a proper fashion, and yet still work in our circumstances to bring about his eternal will in our life, no matter how we feel about it initially. He can even give us “the desires of our heart.” When God gives us desires then our hearts desires are not the desires of his heart reproduced in ours. God pre-ordains all of our steps and yet we carry all of those out to the tiniest detail by our own choices.
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Nebuchadnezzar is also an interesting story but I’m already getting too long in this post. The Parable of the lost sheep is also really amazing. My apologies to the thread starter if I’ve allowed the topic to stray to far from the original intent in the question that started this discussion. Back when I discussed and debated predestination more frequently and was still becoming grounded myself, I bookmarked over 300 verses for use in such discussions. Since then I’ve run across many more in various other studies and personal devotions. Not saying that to brag or lift myself up, just making the point that this topic could be discussed in depth for pages upon pages and still barely scratch the surface. Indeed, countless books for centuries even millennia have been written and it all comes down to this; without God giving us understanding of his word, nobody will ever truly learn anything. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth is the scripture phrase that comes to mind. I’m not casting that out as an insult or rebuke to anyone here as I have many times been discussing a topic and convinced that I was right and the other side wrong only to have my understanding opened to the plain sense of scripture afterwards and see that I was in the wrong.
This is one reason I appreciate that this issur is so cut and dried when we simply humble ourselves to recognize the theme all through scripture: God is everything and in charge of all, while I am nothing and can do nothing apart from him. I can take no pride in wisdom that allowed me to see grace as amazing, to see myself as a horrible wretch, and to be granted heartfelt repentance. On the contrary, I had mental knowledge and respect of God’s power my entire life, but when God truly got a hold of me was when I was running the opposite direction, daily increasing my wretchedness. Praise God that he didn’t respect my choice to not obey him, but instead, like the good shepherd, went as far as it took, as long as it took, no matter what it took, to break me and bring me to repentance. No, I don’t question the methods of God and his grace; I simply praise him for it. I wouldn’t have picked me. I would have given up on me ages ago. Instead I live as a testimony to the unspeakable, longsuffering, grace of God.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
John 15:16
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
John 6:29
For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
1 Corinthians 4:7
Praise God for him choosing me when I was saying no to him. Praise God for him doing the work in my heart to bring me to a saving belief and not mere mental ascent. Praise God that he has done all and left me with not the slightest thing of which to boast. Not my free will. Not my mental capacity to understand. Not my soft heart. All of him and none of me; Glory be to God!