Second London Baptist Confession on Election & predestination
Unconditional — grounded in God's free choice
Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret Councel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his meer free grace and love; without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him thereunto.
THE POSITION
Chapter 3.5 grounds election in God's eternal purpose and the good pleasure of his will, with nothing in the creature moving him to it. Paragraph 3.2 rules out the alternative explicitly: God has not decreed anything because he foresaw it as future or as what would follow on some condition. Paragraph 3.6 closes the circle by making redemption, calling, justification and salvation the means fore-ordained for the elect and for no one else.
4 For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
16 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The confessional standard of the Particular Baptists, first printed 1677 and adopted by the London General Assembly of 1689. It takes over the Westminster Confession chapter by chapter and rewrites it at four points that matter: the covenant (ch. 7), the gospel and the extent of its grace (ch. 20, which Westminster has no counterpart to), the church (ch. 26), and baptism (ch. 29). This entry rests on the 1677/1689 printing with its own Scripture proofs, read against the Westminster text clause by clause.
Cite this page
"Second London Baptist Confession on Election & predestination", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/lbc1689/election (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/lbc1689/election).