On a purely personal level the whole notion that I am being controlled in some way by anyone or anything is abhorrent.
This does cause a problem with a certain view of Scripture. Did Paul believe that God deliberately control the minds of fallen Jews? Yes. Does that mean that God does? NO. I do not think that Paul had that connection God or that God reveals that to anyone. It is quite common for Old Testament writers to claim that God is manipulating individuals or even whole Nations to His will, from specifics like Cyrus or the Babylonians to the two people walking on the road to Emmaus. It is simplistic, trite and naïve to just take these things at face value.
The ultimate question here, it seems to me, is whether we take a literal view of Scripture and hold it above everything that we see around us, know about God, and believe about the world that God made.
If you want to worship a manipulative, selfish, (human?), God with no care for the individuals He manipulates, curses (or blesses) then bully for you. I could not.
I know Scripture and believe that the lessons it teaches are not simplistic, nor is it dogmatic. The God it reveals does not conform to this cruel and uncaring vision promoted by callous uncaring Christians who are more concerned about their own salvation than the Great commandments of Love and respect.
If you read the bible as a whole instead of trying to dissect it into short citations or rulings. (Sentences that taken out of context do not mean what people claim) you will get a completely different view of God and realise that these selfish and manipulative notions are being superimposed by the writers to put across their personal view of God. And that view of God is not consistent throughout Scripture. The understanding of God is revealed slowly despite what conclusions people jump to both at the time and looking backwards.
Christ preached a God of Love and self sacrifice which does not gel with the ideas of manipulation which is why many seem to think that Paul was preaching a different Gospel. But that is only because people seem to need to take every idea personal belief of Paul as Inerrant and “God Breathed”. You only have to read the middle passages of his letter to the Romans to realise that Paul was agonising over his people and desperately trying to find some excuse for them not accepting the Good news of Christ. His conclusion: God must be stopping them!
So we “Box” people into categories of “Calvinism”, Dispensational, "Charismatic, Non Conformist, Fundamental, Universal, Lutheran, Catholic, Christian, Heretic, and so on. And so .each one is ether saved or condemned by the rule of what we individually believe to be correct. And, surprise, surprise, God is completely silent on the matter! (Unless you insist that you know 100% what is written and meant by Scripture!)
Gnosticism was seen as a curse because it dared to question, and maybe, like all revolutions it takes its revolt too far, but…
Steven Hawkins claims that we worship the God of our own making and looking at some of the doctrines promoted on (so called) theological forums you can see why.
It seems to me that the only conclusion to be made is to throw out corrosive Theology and Doctrines and try and concentrate on what we agree… that there should be harmony and accord amongst all humans. Leave the specific judging to God who has all the information that we do not.
Free will? within the obvious limitations of Personalisation and circumstance? Of Course. Anything else would make God intolerable and not worthy of our worship. (IM not so HO}
Richard