Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Election

God's choosing, before creation, of those who would be saved — 'he chose us in him before the foundation of the world'.

Latin electio, 'a choosing out'; Greek eklogē, from eklegō, 'to choose out'.

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 (Israel); John 15:16; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:33; 9:11; 11:5–7, 28; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 2:10; 1 Peter 1:1–2; 2:9.

The OT pattern is God's unconditional choice of Israel (not for merit or size but for his love and oath). Augustine argued that the faith God foreknows is the faith he gives, so election precedes faith (unconditional); Arminius held that God elected those he foreknew would believe (conditional); a corporate reading takes the primary object to be a people 'in Christ'.

Scripture presents election as ground for humility (you contributed nothing), assurance (God will finish what he began), and worship — never for presumption, despair, or speculation about others, and it does not cancel the universal offer 'whoever believes'.

Unconditional (Calvinist) vs. conditional / in-view-of-faith (Arminian) vs. primarily corporate; whether there is a parallel decree of reprobation.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.