Written by Jim Denison
With this essay, we step into the most enduring debate in Christian theology. It's all about a single word, "election." The term means to choose, as in electing a candidate. You "elected" to buy this book, and to read this chapter. In theological use, the word relates to the idea that God chooses (or has chosen) a people or individuals to belong to him in a unique way.
There is no question that God "elected" Abraham and the nation he would establish, so that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen 12:3). Through that nation he "elected" to bring the Messiah (cf. Is 9:6-7). Here's the question: does God "elect" those who are lost and those who are saved? Does he choose those who will be in heaven and those who will spend eternity in hell?
Paul told the church in Philippi that nothing was more important to him than knowing Christ (Philippians 3). God told Jeremiah that he would give people a "heart to know him" so that He could be their God and they[…] 
