I'm still not sure how to subscribe to the thread. Oh, well.

Anyway, that being said, I am sorry if my answers were a bit imprecise. I sometimes reply in haste.

However, the free agency of man is different from saying that man acts independently of God's sovereign control. Libertarian free will insists that the will is not determined by anything, including grace, a depraved/corrupt nature, or anything else.

Determinism is the Calvinist view, not Arminianism or any of the other views that insist on "free will".

I'm troubled by the fact that you think that determinism means that men are "robots". That's a caricature of the Arminians and the semi-pelagians. Determinism does not remove human responsibility to God. Far from it. In fact, if so then you would need to toss the doctrine of total inability. The law of God, the moral law, tells men what they ought to do. Simply because they are unable to obey it perfectly is no excuse before God. They remain fully accountable for their choices.

But the bottom line here is what Calvin says. Nothing God does is wrong. So if God chooses to harden some men and grant an effectual call to others we have no room to accuse God of injustice, which is basically what you're saying when you say that such a view makes men "robots". It's another way of saying that you think God would be unfair if He determines men's moral actions and thoughts without violating their wills. In fact, that is the biblical view. There is no way around it. Calvin insists the same thing as the quotes I gave clearly show.

Without determinism there would be no accountability, in fact. If choices are not determined and every choice is simply a choice between two equal choices, there would be no basis for morality or ethics and there would be no reason for God to judge those who disobey His law. Evil is in fact revealed by God's moral law. (Romans 3:20; 7:7).

Gordon H. Clark comments on this:

Quote
The aim of this article is, then, to show that determinism is consistent with responsibility, indeed responsibility requires determinism.

The arguments on both sides are fairly well known. They so lack originality as to discourage new attempts, including this one. The determinist position is stated as well as anywhere in the article by George Stuart Fullerton, entitled “Freedom and Free Will.” His aim was to show that on the basis of indeterminism moral conduct in general, in so far as free or indeterminate, would lose all ethical value. The indeterminist holds that certain actions are not adequately explained, i.e., determined by preceding causes. Then, if benevolence for example is a free action, it is not determined by a benevolent personality but happens carelessly. If the will were free absolutely, then a knowledge of one’s own respectable character in the past brings neither hope nor consolation. Ordinarily we consider a determining factor, and a moral man does not become immoral except for some other determining factor. But free will allows a man to become a criminal for no reason at all.
From: Determinism and Responsibility

The fact of the matter is that there are no contingencies in God's mind. He never learns anything. He knows everything. Therefore, if God knows the future moral actions of any man, then these moral actions are certain. And if they are certain, it follows that God has determined them. And in fact, that is what the Bible says on almost every page.

Quote
For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD had commanded Moses. (Joshua 11:20 NKJ)

As for your conjecture that I am confusing predestination/election with man's ability or inability to "make choices", I don't believe that follows since I've already said that man is a free moral agent. But that is not the same thing as having "free will". Luther and Calvin both denied it and so does Scripture on almost every page. Do you really believe that Judas Iscariot or Pontius Pilate could have chosen to do other than what God had foreordained by His predetermined and set plan?

Quote
"Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; (Acts 2:23 NKJ)

"For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 "to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. (Acts 4:27-28 NKJ)

For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJ)