So the Calvinists don't argue that certain people are blind to the light of the gospel from birth?
Sight is not the issue with Clavinists. It's ability. Namely, inability. 'Total Depravity' is due to inability, they quote Romans 3
There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
...which is a quote from the Psalms. They teach that without grace, what David wrote applies to everybody, and so logically, in their minds, according to their own doctrine, God would need to intervene directly in the life of each one who goes on to believe in the Lord Jesus, and so 'Unconditional Election' proceeds logically, to Clavinists, from their 'Total Depravity,' which they feel is indomitably rooted in the plainest scriptures.
'Election' however doesn't do anything without the Holy Spirit then visiting the elect, and 'regenerating' them, which then empowers them and them alone, to believe the Gospel, which they of course would have had to have heard before this visiting occurs. This is called 'Irresistible Grace,' which means that when the Spirit, like a hitman targets the elect, He never fails to regenerate them, and there is no resistance from the elect, because, the Clavinist argues, due to 'Total Depravity,' we are All resisting the Spirit all the time anyway. So when He prevails against our inability, He always does so successfully.
'Preservation of the Saints' is logically implied by 'Unconditional Election' and 'Irresistible Grace.'
And 'Limited Atonement' logically follows, again, to the Clavinists, from 'Unconditional Election' and 'Irresistible Grace' also, since God's election is unconditional, meaning that He chooses whom He wills according to His good pleasure, and He never fails in what He sets out for Himself to accomplish.
I'm not trying to persuade you to believe Clavinism, which was obvious before, and I'm just making that explicit now. I myself used to be a convinced Clavinist, thinking that was the odds-on truth of God, but I am now Catholic in my theology, though not in my body at present.
"And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor.4:3-4).
From what Paul said here it is evident that the ones who are perishing are perishing because they cannot see its light.
Do you think that the Calvinists teach that from birth all people have
the ability to see its light?
The Clavinists teach inability from conception (per, to them, Psalm 51), so I'd say No.
