Here I thought putting labels on people divided people, lol. I belong to neither group but have been accused of both sides of belong to both groups. I go to the largest Christian school in the world also it is a baptist school which makes it the largest baptist school in the world. We study both sides but I would not say we belong to either group, why we say we are baptist is mainly because we believe the person has to know what it is before doing it and understand what they are doing. and going under the water is the best way as it is being buried in the grave, but in so cases where this is not possible pouring of water is ok. I think it may have been Paul but could be wrong who baptized the Ethiopian in a puddle. It is hard to image any puddle being deep enough to go fully under the water.
The fact is there is only truth and one of the two sides has to have their salvation in question. There is only one truth.
Some people like to laugh at free will and that is just not biblical. God told cain he had a choice to make if he did good he would be excepted but evil knocked at his door. That is a perfect example of God letting man uses his free will with out interfering. How do you explain it if there is no free will God said make a choice. We argue this in school all the time. The simple fact is Calvinist make God out to be a hypocrite who plays Games. Why would God say choice if there is no choice.
So the basic of the arugement come down to this and this is the heart of it. They say because God knows all things there is no choice because God already knew what you would do. This logic is not logic at all and is flawed in so many ways. First if I know some one is going to steal and I tell him not to but do not stop him does that mean I made him steal? They aruge its not the same because God is all knowing, that is not logical either. It is just the same with things it is possible for me to know. They will argue and say but you can not be certain where God is certain, but i could argue you can not be certain about anything so how do you know that is the case? Many have gave this solution of timelessness. Simply That time has no effect or meaning to God, so when God saw you do it it is happening in real time for God, but this is flawed to God because it takes away God's all knowing and makes Him a being which simply reacts to things instead of have a plan and writing the story of life. All this is Philosophy BTW. The simple answer is knowing about something does not mean cause that thing to act or do something, that is logic. People say nothing can go against God's knowledge. it real is simple. Before you were created God looked at your whole life and saw everything you would do. He just went in to that time as he exist in all times. He saw everything that would happen if he created the world the way He did. and God chose to do it and wrote His story of salvation into creation for His glory and to show us how much He loves us. Some people can not even begin to understand this as it is all spiritual, maybe that is what you call mystical, but the two are not the same. Spiritual is in the Bible as God is spirit. God also speaks of a spiritual world and to worship God in spirit. There is no great big mystery as God reveals to His children. the mystery is to those who it has not been revealed.
In fact God gave a choice to Adam and Eve. Then there is also the argument that God is an unjust God if there is not free will. People love to use the verse who is the clay pot to say to the potter why did you make me for the Trash and why is that one for food. God makes who he will. Phrasing but that is the point of the passage. This is actually an answer to why God let evil people being in the world in the first place if He knew what they would do before He brought them to the world. The passage is Romans 9:20 and it is about atheist and evil people who say why did God create me if He knew I would go to Hell. It goes on to say Jacob I loved but Esau i hated. when looking in to the translation it is better translated as Esau I rejected. It was not based on good deeds or any works. It was based on the person they would become. Jacob was a peaceful man, although a trickster, Esau was a warrior a hunter. Which of these two men was more like Jesus?
God favors the peaceful man over the man's man. The hunter the killer the warrior. He favors the man who has nothing as opposed to the privileged. God is the opposite of this world. That is why God said make a friend of this world make an enemy of God. The world favors the privileged over those who have nothing. It favors the mans man. It favors the war Hero.
Paul is hard to understand. He was the most educated out of all the new testament prophets, and maybe out of the whole Bible. Paul was simply speaking to Jews who most would be lost and they would say why did you create me if you knew i was going to Hell. To which God answers for my Glory, so I could show my mercy and for the others which are His children. In essence God allowed evil people to be born and live so that His children might have free will. If the only choice you have is to do Good then you never know what free will is. You do good because that is all there is. With out the opposite in choice such as evil there is no free will. So you see free will is written in to God's whole master plan whether you accept it or reject it. If you reject it it really does not explain why why there is evil. So you see it is an issue of salvation, and it does matter. So one side is either children of God and has it right and one side is not children of God for they do not even understand Salvation and what it was about. But some will say we are all evil, yes we are all have fallen short, but some chose to reject evil and come back to God while others rejected God cause they were never from God.
I am sure people will pick at this most will not read it all the way through, they will say I disagree with this or that with out looking that I have already addressed those points and given an answer. This is why we have teachers which guide a student in scripture before they go out and preach. It's been done this way sense Jesus came and before that by God's Spirit, and is also done by way of The Holy Spirit always.
Not editing this it took over an hour to write it and I don't care about grammar its the truth in it that matters, so deal with it.