God is not all-powerful because He is sovereign; He is sovereign because He is all-powerful. His omnipotence is an eternal attribute; His sovereignty is not.
Sovereignty means "possession of the highest power." Sovereign means "a supreme ruler; one who possesses the highest authority without control." There is nobody higher than God. Nobody tells God what to do. That is why God is sovereign. It has nothing to do with the unbiblical concept of "determinism” as taught by Calvinism, which violates both His love and His holiness.
Sovereignty is not an eternal attribute. In eternity past, how would God express sovereignty amidst Himself? He cannot.
Calvinists do not understand sovereignty. If Divine Sovereignty is complete power and authority over all that has been created, then for God to be in control over others there has to be others to control. He cannot display His power over creatures unless the creatures exist. Before creation, the concept of sovereignty was not an attribute that could be used to describe God.
Sovereignty is the expression of God's power—not the source of it!
If the all-powerful One chooses to refrain from meticulously ruling over and controlling every minute aspect of His creation, that in no way denies His eternal attribute of omnipotence. It affirms it! It is the Calvinist who denies the eternal attribute of omnipotence by presuming (and assuming) the all-powerful One has no alternative than meticulous deterministic rule and control over His creation. This denies and perverts His eternal attribute of love (and holiness).
The Calvinist denies God's eternal attribute (omnipotence) by desperately trying to protect His temporal one (sovereignty). God is as controlling (sovereign) over His creation as He chooses to be. By choosing to give man a certain level of "autonomy" or "libertarian freedom" does not make Him any less sovereign. It is ignorance on the part of the Calvinist to ass-u-me otherwise.
Arguing that God's nature demands that He remains in meticulous deterministic control over every dust particle and all our moral sinful desires is not an argument in defense of His sovereign freedom, but a repudiation of it.
God, in His freedom, has chosen to give dominion to His creation and He has not yet taken full control over everything on Earth. This has been made clear by Scripture. Jesus has not yet defeated all His enemies and has not yet placed everything under God. There are still "authorities" and "powers" which are to be destroyed but have been given limited control. We all know that Satan still roams around like a roaring lion with his limited control.
Which exhibits genuine love? If you have a child and forcibly make him love you? Or if he chooses to freely love you? If people are made to love you, then it is not real or genuine love. It is manufactured! If God preordained, predestined, determined, and decreed that you should love Him, then your love is manufactured and your love of Him is not genuine or real. Does God want manufactured love, or genuine love?
Imagine if you made a robot child to love you. You can program that robot to "love" through a display of actions, but a program is not true love because it has no choice. You cannot tell me you would feel the same joy and warmth, etc., from the robot as you would from a flesh-and-blood child. You might try and do so, but we both know you would be lying. When that robot hugged you and told you it loved you, you would not feel the same as you would with a living being doing so. Is God less emotional and feeling and compassionate, etc., than we are? We are created in His image, after all. Meditate on this. If God demands for us to be a certain way, you can be sure He is that way 100 fold. 1000 fold. Infinitely so!
Love is only real when you have a choice. Free will is necessary for love. Only if you have the freedom to choose to love does love become real.
There is nothing impressive about a deterministic worldview. A good computer programmer can create a deterministic virtual world. Our omnipotent God is more creative and complex than what can be manufactured by the most intelligent deterministic philosopher’s imagination.
God is not deceptive. He does not lead people in different directions. We do that ourselves by allowing ourselves to be convinced by various arguments of men without being like the Bereans and searching the Scriptures. Scripture says God is not a man that He should lie. If the truth is in direction A and God leads men to directions B through Z, that is a deception, which would make God a liar and no better than the father of lies. In fact, because He is the Creator, it would make Him the Father of Lies. He would be no different than the Muslim god who is "the greatest of deceivers." By believing that God does all these things and leads everyone in different directions than the truth, you are saying that God is no different from the father of lies, the devil. You can attempt to deny it, but that is precisely what you are saying. That is extremely concerning.
Calvinism is unbiblical. TULIP is unbiblical (and indefensible, except by proof text methodology, eisegesis, and Scripture twisting). If we go through each and every verse that Calvinists have isolated and ripped out of their immediate context, we will prove they have nothing to do with salvation. Examples:
"You did not choose Me but I chose you" John 15:16 — This verse has nothing to do with salvation! The context is Jesus speaking to His servants who are being prepared to take the invitation to the rest of the world.
"For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22:14 — This verse likewise has nothing to do with salvation. Many were invited to the wedding feast (i.e., the Kingdom). The choice of those who were allowed to eat at the banquet was clearly conditioned upon the individual showing up in the proper clothing. The clothing must be the righteousness of Christ — we cannot show up with our own righteousness.
I love my Calvinist brothers and sisters, but I am sorry, you are in a cult. Your theology is bankrupt and you mar the very character of God. You do not just not understand sovereignty, you do not understand the atonement, or salvation, or much of anything else. Please, humble yourselves and repent. Conform yourselves and your beliefs to the Scriptures.