Editing Unconditional election (section)

{{Short description|Calvinist doctrine}}
{{too few opinions|date=July 2011}}
{{Calvinism}}
'''Unconditional election''' (also called '''sovereign election'''<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sproul|first=R. C.|date=April 1, 2017|title=TULIP and Reformed Theology: Unconditional Election|url=https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/tulip-and-reformed-theology-unconditional-election|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805035437/https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/tulip-and-reformed-theology-unconditional-election|archive-date=August 5, 2021|access-date=August 5, 2021|website=Ligonier Ministries|quote=''Unconditional election'' is another term that I think can be a bit misleading, so I prefer to use the term ''sovereign election''.}}</ref> or '''unconditional grace''') is a [[Calvinist]] doctrine relating to [[predestination]] that describes the actions and motives of [[God in Christianity|God]] prior to his creation of the [[world]], when he predestined some people to receive [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]], the elect, and the rest he left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation, for their transgressions of God's law as outlined in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God made these choices according to his own purposes apart from any conditions or qualities related to those persons.<ref>{{cite book| author=John Calvin| author-link=John Calvin|title=[[Institutes of the Christian Religion]] |chapter=Of the Eternal Election (3.21.7) |year=1559 |chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.v.xxii.html#v.xxii-p19 }}</ref>

The counter-view to unconditional election is the Arminian view of [[conditional election]], the belief that God chooses for eternal salvation those whom he foreknows will exercise their free will to respond to God's [[prevenient grace]] with [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] in [[Christ]]. God's election was for a clear unalterable purpose, to elect those who will believe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Joseph |title=Commentary of the Old and New Testaments |date=1857 |publisher=Carlton & Phillips |ref=Ephesians 1:3-6}}</ref>