The acronym TUPLIP is often used to represent the five points of Calvinism and the U is unconditional election.
Does election mean that you are saved?
Does unconditional mean that your salvation has nothing to do with what you have done or will do?
These two questions are directed [MENTION=7209]Ask Mr. Religion[/MENTION]
Thank you for your time and consideration
Calvin must have been a "heretical hyper-Calvinist"
“God is moved to mercy for no other reason but that he wills to be merciful.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 22, Paragraph 8)
“… predestination to glory is the cause of predestination to grace, rather than the converse.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 22, Paragraph 9)
“Therefore, those whom God passes over, he condemns; and this he does for no other reason than that he wills to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines for his own children.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christia/n Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 1)
“We cannot assign any reason for his bestowing mercy on his people, but just as it so pleases him, neither can we have any reason for his reprobating others but his will.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 22, Paragraph 11)
“But since he foresees future events [including someone's salvation] only by reason of the fact that he decreed that they take place, they vainly raise a quarrel over foreknowledge, when it is clear that all things take place rather by his determination and bidding.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 6)
“We hold that God is the disposer and ruler of all things, –that from the remotest eternity, according to his own wisdom, He decreed what he was to do, and now by his power executes what he decreed. Hence we maintain, that by His providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 16, Paragraph 8)
"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. (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion Book 5, Chapter 21, paragraph 5)
Further, The Westminster Confession of Faith states...
"God has predestined and foreordained some men and angels to everlasting life out of His free grace and love without any foresight of faith or works in man or perseverance in either of them, and others are foreordained to everlasting death and the number of either is so certain and definite that it cannot be increased or diminished." (Chap. III, art. 3,4 &5; Chap. X, art. 2)
The Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. says...
"God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass … By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite it cannot be either increased or diminished." (Chap. III)
I could quote Pink and Clark and several other prominent Calvinists but it isn't necessary. These are source documents that are commonly cited as the defining documents of what Calvinism is.
Anyone who denies Unconditional Election as presented here is not a Calvinist and has abandoned the clear and unavoidable logical conclusions that must be drawn from their truly foundational first principles such as Immutability, Impassibility, Absolute Sovereignty, etc. In short, the quasi-Calvinist who wants to cherry pick which doctrines to accept doesn't get such a luxury. You throw out the bath water, out goes the baby.
Resting in Him,
Clete