The bible teaches both free will and election but not Calvinistic election where individuals were supposedly chosen unconditionally apart from God's word, apart from man's volition.
I think you are confusing terms, friend. Of course, you are right: Reformed theology teaches that we are
elected apart from the Word of God and apart from our own volition. After all, how does one go about "choosing to be elected"? That's like me saying to you, "By my own volition I choose that you elect me." That would be absurd, wouldn't it?
Where the confusion comes in is as follows. You reason that, because Reformed theology teaches that we are
elected apart from God's Word and our own volition (a correct assertion), Reformed theology therefore teaches that we are
saved apart from God's Word and our own volition. This is directly and constantly denied by Reformed theology. Election is
not salvation; election is
unto salvation (a huge difference). Confusing these two terms makes one arrive at the conclusion to which you have arrived. That is why the
ordo salutis is so important in soteriological debates.
I am staunchly Calvinistic, yet I affirm strongly that we are
saved (not
elected) by grace alone, but this salvation is worked
through (not
by) the Word of God and my own volition. No one is ever saved who does not will it, and no one is ever damned who wills to be saved.
BTW, the title of this thread creates a false dichotomy. Calvinists believe in free will.
Absolutely. From
The Second Helvetic Confession, ch. 9, ¶ 3:
MAN DOES EVIL BY HIS OWN FREE WILL. Therefore, in regard to evil or sin, man is not forced by God or by the devil
but does evil by his own free will, and in this respect
he has a most free will.