Christianity • Protestantism Unconditional election (also called sovereign election[1] or unconditional grace) is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to receive 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.
[3] In Calvinist theology, unconditional election is considered to be one aspect of predestination in which God chooses certain individuals to be saved.
This unconditional election is essentially related to the rest of the TULIP (five points of Calvinism) doctrinal outline and hinges upon the supreme belief in the absolute sovereignty of God over the affairs of humans.
Scholastic Calvinists have sometimes debated precisely when, relative to the decree for the fall of man, God did his electing – see supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism – though such distinctions are not often emphasized in modern Calvinism.
The doctrine was first articulated and popularized by 4th century Church Father Augustine of Hippo during his debates with Pelagius, and he taught that saving grace is bestowed by God on the elect according to his sovereign decrees.