Several times in the gospels our Lord refers to believers as the elect (Mt 24:22, 24, 31; Mk 13:20; Lk 18:7). In each case, Jesus always meant a person who was specifically chosen by God to be saved.

Some would have us believe that is not the case. They want us to believe that we become elect when we are saved. That God foresaw those who would believe and then elected them on that foreseen faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. To base election on foreseen faith is to say that we are ordained to eternal life because we believe, whereas the Scriptures declare we believe because we are appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48).

The Greek word for elect is eklektos, and it means to personally select out, to choose by personal preference. That choosing was done in eternity past, as explained by Paul in Ephesians 1:4: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” The phrase “He chose” is the verb eklego, which also means to personally select, to pick out for oneself.

In Mark 13:20 Jesus clarifies who the elect are: “Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.”

There it is: “The elect, whom He chose.” You don’t become chosen, you are chosen. You don’t become selected, you are selected.

Likewise, you don’t become elect through a personal choice, you are elected by the choice of God. This is exactly what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1:4: “Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you.” And John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you.”

There is no way out of the Bible’s plain teaching that God personally chose by His own preference all who will be saved. These are the elect, the chosen of God, selected, predestined, and foreordained for salvation before the world began (Ro 8:28-30).