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JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
U<br />
"UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION"<br />
THE CHOICE FOR HEAVEN AND HELL ARE DONE LONG BEFORE CREATION<br />
AND IS ARBITRARY<br />
<br />
"Unconditional election" asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to<br />
himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, his choice is<br />
unconditionally grounded in his mercy alone. God has chosen from eternity to extend mercy to<br />
those he has chosen <strong>and</strong> to withhold mercy from those not chosen. Those chosen receive<br />
salvation through Christ alone. Those not chosen receive the just wrath that is warranted for<br />
their sins against God.<br />
"Those of mankind that are predestined to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid,<br />
according to His eternal <strong>and</strong> immutable purpose, <strong>and</strong> the secret counsel of good pleasure of His<br />
will, has chosen, in Christ, to everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace <strong>and</strong> love, without any<br />
foresight of faith, or good works, or Perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the<br />
creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; <strong>and</strong> all to the praise of His glorious<br />
grace." Westminster Confession of Faith III,5<br />
In the midst of total depravity, the Deity did happen to nevertheless to h<strong>and</strong>-pick a minority of people,<br />
by means of his loving grace, to be the beneficiaries of eternal salvation. <strong>Calvin</strong>’s unique spin on all<br />
this was that none of the lucky beneficiaries (or the “elect”) deserved to go to heaven, no matter how<br />
profound their piety or copious their good works. In other words, no amount of good faith or good<br />
deeds could compensate for mankind’s utterly irredeemable nature. If one was “chosen” by God it was<br />
not due to that person’s own individual merits, it was merely an act of divine grace.This means simply:<br />
God chooses to give some people eternal life, without looking for anything good in them as a condition<br />
for loving <strong>and</strong> saving them.<br />
Before any man or woman is born -- in fact, before the world was made -- God decided who would go<br />
to heaven <strong>and</strong> who would not. Before they did good or bad, God chose some to be His people <strong>and</strong><br />
rejected others.<br />
“By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men <strong>and</strong> angels are predestined<br />
unto everlasting life <strong>and</strong> others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels <strong>and</strong> men, thus<br />
predestinated <strong>and</strong> foreordained, are particularly <strong>and</strong> unchangeably designed; <strong>and</strong> their number is so<br />
certain <strong>and</strong> definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. ... The rest of mankind, God was<br />
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