Unconditional Election
REPRESENTATIVE STATEMENTS
1. "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." (Presbyterian confession of faith, Chap. 3, Sec. 1)
2. "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man, all are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death. (Inst., 3:21:5)
3. "We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, and without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment." (Ibid. 3:21:7).
4. When God prefers some to others, choosing some and passing others by, the difference does not depend on human dignity or indignity ... If what I teach is true, that those who perish are destined to death by the eternal good pleasure of God, though the reason does not appear, then they are not found but made worthy of destruction ... the eternal predestination of God, by which before the fall of Adam He decreed what should take place concerning the whole human race and every individual, was fixed and determined ... God chose out of the condemned race of Adam those whom He pleased and reprobated whom He willed ... (E.P. 8:5) " "Quoted from Robert Shank, Elect In The Son, p. 47).
CONCEPTS OF THIS POINT
1. Is based upon truthfulness of preceding two points:
2. Unconditional - this election is one that requires NOTHING of man.
3. Personal - that this election was that certain PERSONS were chosen. This is in contrast to the concept of "corporate" -- i.e., that the relationship was chosen and all that are found in the proper relationship compose the "elect".
4. Double or single predestination? Augustine taught only single -- that is that God only elected who was to be saved -- not that He chose who would be damned. Calvin taught a double predestination -- one group predestined to heaven, the other group predestined to hell. I believe that logical consistency on this point would drive one to Calvin's position.
5. Presentation of material. I debated with myself over this, but settled on this order: