Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


  • Join Us!
  • Scripture
  • Theology
  • My Books
  • About
  • Discipleship
  • Courses
    • What is Hell?
    • Skeleton Church
    • The Gospel According to Scripture
    • The Gospel Dictionary
    • The Re-Justification of God
    • What is Prayer?
    • Adventures in Fishing for Men
    • What are the Spiritual Gifts?
    • How to Study the Bible
    • Courses FAQ
  • Forum
    • Introduce Yourself
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Theology Questions
    • Life & Ministry

Unconditional Election Quotes from Calvinists

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

Unconditional Election Quotes from Calvinists

The basic explanation of Unconditional Election is that God, in eternity past, had an eternal decree by which He predetermined all things that would happen. This decree is related to His foreknowledge, which does not mean that God looked forward in time to see what would happen and then decreed that it would be so, but rather, that God, being omniscient, knew what would happen because He had decided and decreed that it would be so.

Uncondiational Election and Foreordination

To clarify what Calvinists mean, they often use the words โ€œforeordinationโ€ or โ€œpredeterminationโ€ instead of foreknowledge, as these words better describes the view that God did not just know what was going to happen before it happened, but actually ordained, decided, or determined what would happen.

Part of this foreknowledge or foreordination is predestination. While foreknowledge refers to Godโ€™s knowledge and determination of everything that happens, predestination refers specifically to the destiny of human beings. In eternity past, as part of Godโ€™s divine decree, He determined or decided the eternal destiny of every individual person, whether they will spend eternity in heaven or in hell.

Unconditional Election and Reprobation

rc sproul on electionAs such, this predestination is composed of two parts: election and reprobation. Election refers to Godโ€™s choice of whom He will redeem, regenerate, and grant eternal life, while reprobation refers to Godโ€™s choice of whom He will leave to remain in sin, condemnation, and everlasting destruction.

Often the term election is used as a synonym for predestination. Technically this is incorrect. The term election refers specifically to one aspect of divine predestination: Godโ€™s choosing of certain individuals to be saved. The term election has a positive connotation, referring to a benevolent predestination that results in the salvation of those who are elect. Election also has a negative side, called โ€œreprobation,โ€ which involves the predestination of those who are not elect (Sproul, Grace Unknown, 141).

I will provide more quotes about reprobation tomorrow…

Unconditional Election Quotes

Just as with every other system of theology, not every Calvinist would agree completely with the way the terms have been described above.

So let us turn to various Calvinistic authors and teachers to allow them to define Unconditional Election and its related terms in their own words. Here are some unconditional election quotes from Calvinistic authors and pastors:

Foreordination means Godโ€™s sovereign plan, whereby He decides all that is to happen in the entire universe. Nothing in this world happens by chance. God is in back of everything. He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen. โ€ฆ Predestination is part of foreordination. While foreordination refers to Godโ€™s plan for everything that ever happens, predestination is that part of foreordination that refers to manโ€™s eternal destiny: heaven or hell. Predestination is composed of two parts: election and reprobation. Election concerns those who go to heaven, and reprobation concerns those who go to hell. โ€ฆ Divine election means that God chooses some to go to heaven. Others are passed by and they will go to hell (Palmer, Five Points of Calvinism, 24-25).

The doctrine of election declares that God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of Adamโ€™s race to be the objects of His undeserved favor. These, and these only, He purposed to save. God could have chosen to save all men (for He had the power and authority to do so) or He could have chosen to save none (for He was under no obligation to show mercy to any)โ€”but He did neither. Instead, He chose to save some and to exclude others. His eternal choice of particular sinners for salvation was not based upon any forseen act or response on the part of those selected, but was based solely on His own good pleasure and sovereign will. Thus, election was not determined by, or conditioned upon, anything that men would do, but resulted entirely from Godโ€™s self-determined purpose (Steele & Thomas, Five Points of Calvinism, 27).

Election is, therefore, that decree of God which He eternally makes, by which, with sovereign freedom, He chooses to Himself a people, upon whom He determines to set His love, whom He rescues from sin and death through Jesus Christ, unto Himself in everlasting glory (Hanko, et. al, The Five Points of Calvinism, 33).

john piper on unconditional electionElection refers to Godโ€™s choosing whom to save. It is unconditional in that there is no condition man must meet before God chooses to save him. Man is dead in trespasses and sins. So there is no condition he can meet before God chooses to save him from his deadness (Piper, 5 Points, 53).

We mean, therefore, by this doctrine, that God, in eternity, chose or picked out of mankind whom He would save (by means of Christโ€™s death and the work of the Holy Spirit), for no other reason than His own wise, just, and gracious purpose (Beck, The Five Points of Calvinism, 12).

Divine election may be defined as that loving and merciful decision by God the Father to bestow eternal life upon some, but not all, hell-deserving sinners. This decision was made before the foundation of the world and was based not upon any act of will or works of men and women, but solely upon Godโ€™s sovereign good pleasure. One does not enter the ranks of the elect by meeting a condition, be it faith or repentance. One enters the ranks of the elect by virtue of Godโ€™s free and altogether gracious choice, as a result of which he enables us to repent and believe. Thus, election is both sovereign and unconditional (Storms, Chosen for Life, 45).

Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, he hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of Salvationย (Canons of Dort, I:7).

What are your thoughts on these quotes about election? Agree? Disagree? Have a quote you want to share? Weigh in below!

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, foreordination, predestination, reprobation, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election

Advertisement

The U in TULIP – Unconditional Election

By Jeremy Myers
22 Comments

The U in TULIP – Unconditional Election

Calvinism 5 point TULIP

The Calvinistic doctrine of Unconditional Election is sometimes said to be the heart of Reformed theologyย (Boettner, Predestination, 96). ย It follows logically from the doctrine of Total Depravity (Seaton, Calvinism, 11).

Lorraine Boettner links the two doctrines with this explanation:

If the doctrine of Total Inability or Original Sin be admitted, the doctrine of Unconditional Election follows by the most inescapable logic. If, as the Scriptures and experience tell us, all men are by nature in a state of guilt and depravity from which they are wholly unable to deliver themselves and have no claim whatever on God for deliverance, it follows that if any are saved God must choose out those who shall be the objects of His graceย (Boettner, Predestination, 95).

Edwin Palmer concurs:

If men are totally depraved and if some are still saved, then it is obvious that the reason some are saved and some are lost rests entirely with God. All of mankind would remain lost if left to itself and not chosen by God to be saved. โ€ฆ Therefore, if total depravity is Biblically true, then faith and consequent salvation come only when the Holy Spirit goes to work through regeneration. And the decision as to which persons He will work in must rest entirely, one hundred percent, with God, since man, being spiritually dead, cannot ask for help (Palmer, Five Points of Calvinism, 27).

electionSo if people are totally depraved (see the link list below) so that they cannot even believe in Jesus for eternal life or respond positively to God in any way, then God must unilaterally give eternal life to certain people.

Who receives such a blessing?

According to Calvinism, God gives eternal life to those whom He chooses to give it. This is the doctrine of election, which we will consider over the next severalย blog posts.

Tomorrow’s postย will provide numerous quotes from Calvinists on how they understand and explain Unconditional Election.

After this, we will look carefully at numerous texts from Scripture which are often used by Calvinists to defend the doctrine of Unconditional Election, and will suggest alternative explanations for these texts which fit better with their grammatical, cultural, theological, and historical contexts.

Finally, this series of posts on electionย will close with an explanation of what I believe the Bible teaches about election and predestination.

Until then, what questions and issues do you have about the biblical doctrines of election and predestination? Let me know below!

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, predestination, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election

Advertisement

A Brief Summary of Calvinism

By Jeremy Myers
23 Comments

A Brief Summary of Calvinism

Some say that John Calvin was not a Calvinist.

In some regards, this is probably true. There are one or two points of Calvinism which John Calvin is less than clear about in his writings. In some places, he seems to say one thing, and in other places, he says the opposite. This is not too surprising, especially for someone who wrote as voluminously as did John Calvin.

But the real reason we can say that John Calvin was truly not a Calvinist is because he himself did not develop the system of theology which bears his name.

Jacobus Arminius

Jacobus ArminiusSeveral years after John Calvin died in 1564 (click here to see a brief history of John Calvin), a man named Jacobus Arminius traveled to Geneva to study under Theodore Beza, who was Calvinโ€™s successor.

After Arminius completed his studies in 1587, he moved to Amsterdam to pastor a church there. As he as preaching through Romans in the years that followed, he developed several points of disagreement with the theology of John Calvin. In fact, it was actually in seeking to defend the teachings of Calvin against some detractors that led Arminius to have doubts of his own. So just as Luther and Calvin had sought to reform the church of their day, Arminius sought to reform Calvinism.

The Five Articles of Remonstrance

After Jacobus Arminius died in 1609, some of his followers put together a document called โ€œThe Five Articles of Remonstrance.โ€ In much the same way that Martin Luther had posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, for the purpose of stating his objections to the abuses he saw within the Roman Catholic Church and inviting church leaders to gather and discuss these items, so also, the Five Articles of Remonstrance were an invitation by the followers of Arminius to the followers of Calvin to gather for the purpose of discussing these issues.

The Canons of Dort and TULIP

Instead, the followers of John Calvin met in Dordrecht, Netherlands from 1618 to 1619 and crafted what has become known as the Canons of Dort. This consisted of a point-by-point refutation and condemnation of the Five Articles of Remonstrance.

As such, there were five main points to this second document. It is these five main points in the Canons of Dort that have become known as โ€œCalvinism.โ€

The five Canons of Dort are often summarized today by the acrostic TULIP:

Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

Calvinism 5 point TULIP

A Summary of TULIP

TULIP Calvinism begins with the idea that mankind is completely sinful and cannot do anything to contribute to his salvation (Total Depravity).

As a result, we are totally dependent upon God to initiate salvation for us, which He did in eternity past by choosing to save some, without any condition or merit on the part of those whom He chose (Unconditional Election).

In order to accomplish this salvation of those whom He had previously chosen, God sent Jesus to die specifically and only for the sins of those whom He had chosen so that they might have eternal life (Limited Atonement).

Those whom God has chosen, and for whom Christ died, will be irresistibly drawn by Godโ€™s grace into Godโ€™s family (Irresistible Grace).

Since Godโ€™s will cannot be thwarted, none whom God has chosen, for whom Christ died, and whom were drawn and transformed by Godโ€™s grace, can ultimately be lost. They will all be glorified. Due to this gift of grace in their life, all who are delivered by Godโ€™s grace in this fashion will give evidence to it by living a life of perseverance in faith and good works (Perseverance of the Saints).

A Sixth Point of Calvinism?

The so-called sixth point of Calvinism, which of course is not mentioned in the five points above, but which undergirds them all, is the Sovereignty of God. One can see that Godโ€™s complete control over all things is behind each of the five points.

John CalvinGod must be in control, and God must accomplish everything, from first to last, if humans are to have any hope of salvation, and if God is to be certain of defeating sin, death, and the devil in the ultimate end.

Calvinism by Calvinists

Not all Calvinists will be happy with the brief summary above. I have tried to state the view as succinctly and clearly as I know how, and in fact, I tried to write that summary in a way that almost nobody could disagree with itโ€”not even most non-Calvinists.

If you are trying to figure out what Calvinism is all about, it is likely that as you read through that brief description of the five points of Calvinism, you though, โ€œYeah? So? Thatโ€™s what I believe. Thatโ€™s what the Bible teaches, isnโ€™t it?โ€ Yes, well, that is what this series of posts on Calvinism will seek to determine.

Nevertheless, for those Calvinists who feel I did not properly explain Calvinism, tomorrow I will post some summaries of Calvinism from leading Calvinists. (This will be a common practice in my series on Calvinism … to allow Calvinists to explain their views in their own words. I hope any Calvinists reading this will allow me to do the same with my own views.)

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Arminianism, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, Irresistible Grace, Jacobus Arminius, John Calvin, Limited Atonement, Perseverance of the Saints, Theology of Salvation, Total Depravity, TULIP, Unconditional Election

Advertisement

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
Join the discipleship group
Learn about the gospel and how to share it

Take my new course:

The Gospel According to Scripture
Best Books Every Christian Should Read
Study Scripture with me
Subscribe to my Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to my Podcast on Amazon

Do you like my blog?
Try one of my books:

Click the image below to see what books are available.

Books by Jeremy Myers

Theological Study Archives

  • Theology – General
  • Theology Introduction
  • Theology of the Bible
  • Theology of God
  • Theology of Man
  • Theology of Sin
  • Theology of Jesus
  • Theology of Salvation
  • Theology of the Holy Spirit
  • Theology of the Church
  • Theology of Angels
  • Theology of the End Times
  • Theology Q&A

Bible Study Archives

  • Bible Studies on Genesis
  • Bible Studies on Esther
  • Bible Studies on Psalms
  • Bible Studies on Jonah
  • Bible Studies on Matthew
  • Bible Studies on Luke
  • Bible Studies on Romans
  • Bible Studies on Ephesians
  • Miscellaneous Bible Studies

Advertise or Donate

  • Advertise on RedeemingGod.com
  • Donate to Jeremy Myers

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!

© 2025 Redeeming God · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Knownhost and the Genesis Framework