Religion
In reply to the discussion: Evangelicals Find Themselves in the Midst of a Calvinist Revival [View all]enlightenment
(8,830 posts)Since no one can know whom god elected, humans can only assume they are chosen.
The doctrine of Calvinism states that some are elected and some are not - and that those elected are elected regardless of their actions (so, they'll never go to hell).
The reality of it works a bit differently.
If you are faithful, you HOPE you are elected. You can't assume. You live your life virtuously, by the tenets of the faith - and when you die, you only have the knowledge that you didn't screw anything up and that probably means you are one of the elect, because if everything is predetermined, then you would probably have committed some major sin during your life.
The flip side of that is that if you screw up, you are not faithful, and probably not one of the elect - but who wants to know in advance that they are going to hell?
The system wouldn't work if people actually believed they could know who was elected and who wasn't, because "unconditional election" means that they don't have to do anything - they've got the golden ticket already. But since it also teaches that they cannot KNOW, the doubt allows for the development of rules (controls).
You do the best you can - you be the best person, the most vigilant within the tenets of the faith - and you hope you're elected.
At least that's how I understand it. I think it's a really effective method of social control, but crazy illogical otherwise.
Hopefully, someone with more knowledge can do a better job with this - sorry.