Chosen before time
The Bible declares that God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of the human race to be the objects of His undeserved favor. These (and only these) He chose to save. God could have chosen to save all men—He had the authority and power to do so, or He could have chosen to save none of us—He was not obliged to show mercy to any of us. But He did neither of those things. He chose to save some and to exclude others from this salvation. His eternal choice of particular sinners for salvation was not based on any foreseen act or response on the part of those selected, but was based solely on His own good pleasure (it made Him happy to do it) and sovereign will. So then, election was not determined by, or conditioned upon, anything that we might have done, but resulted intirely from God's self-determined purpose.
Those who were not chosen for salvation were passed by and left to their own devices and evil ways.
Unconditional Election from the text of Scripture
Deuteronomy 10:14–15
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
italics added for emphasis
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