Editing Unconditional election (section)

==Summary==
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2012}}

In [[Calvinist]] theology, unconditional election is considered to be one aspect of predestination in which God chooses certain individuals to be saved. Those elected receive mercy, while those not elected, the [[reprobates]], receive justice without condition. This unconditional election is essentially related to the rest of the [[Five points of Calvinism#Five Points of Calvinism|TULIP]] (five points of Calvinism) doctrinal outline and hinges upon the supreme belief in the absolute [[Sovereignty of God in Christianity|sovereignty of God]] over the affairs of humans. God unconditionally elects certain people even though they are sinful as an act of his saving grace apart from the shortcomings or will of man. Those chosen have done nothing to deserve this grace.

In Calvinist and some other churches ([[Waldensians]], [[Catharism|Katharoi]], [[Anabaptists]], [[Particular Baptists]], etc.) this election has been called "unconditional" because his choice to save the elect does not depend on anything inherent in any person chosen, on any act that a person performs or on any belief that a person exercises.

According to the doctrine of [[total depravity]] (the first of the [[five points of Calvinism]]), the influence of sin has so inhibited the individual's volition that no one is willing or able to come to or follow God apart from God first regenerating the person's [[soul]] to give them the ability to love him and take part in the salvation process. Hence, God's choice in election is, and can only be based solely on, God's own independent and sovereign will and [not] upon the foreseen actions of man.

[[Reformed scholasticism|Scholastic Calvinists]] have sometimes debated precisely when, relative to the decree for the [[fall of man]], God did his electing &ndash; see [[supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism]] &ndash; though such distinctions are not often emphasized in modern Calvinism.

The Reformed position is frequently contrasted with the [[Arminian]] doctrine of conditional election in which God's eternal choice to save a person is conditioned on God's certain foreknowledge of future events, namely, that certain individuals would freely exercise faith and trust in response to God's offer of salvation. The Arminian doctrine agrees that the influence of sin has so inhibited the individual's volition that no one is willing or able to come to or follow God, but the Arminian doctrine of [[prevenient grace|prevenient (or "enabling") grace]] is considered sufficient to enable a person to repent and believe before [[regeneration (theology)|regeneration]]. Based upon God's foreknowledge of each individual human response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, God justly and sovereignly elects to salvation those he foresees exercising free will to repent, believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and follow God.