Mankind is not a puppet of God but a creature with a fallen nature who freely chooses sin. God rescues a people to Himself for His own purposes, not because of anything good in them. Everybody God passes up is going to hell and God cannot be blamed for refusing to rescue all sinners who willingly rebel against Him. Those who are saved are *granted* salvation by God. They are not obtaining salvation by following a careful procedural blueprint determined by Rome, but because God has regenerated the nature of the people whom He had set aside before time for His own purposes and glory (not because they could earn it). Rome even acknowledges that God must grant the cooperation they imagine is needed for salvation, and therefore that gift of cooperation is not provided evenly or based on performance, but because God Himself has set aside a people for Himself.