and the Second Vatican Council) are not regarded as truly ecumenical by
other churches. Also, many Protestants do not accept all seven early councils
as ecumenical. For example, most Protestants reject the Second Council of
Nicaea, which taught the veneration of icons, and other Protestants do not
accept the authority of church councils at all. For the issues discussed at
these councils, see the timeline.
ecumenism: (See ecumenical.)
effectual call: Calvin’s teaching, based on Romans 8:28–30, that there is a
specially effective call of the Gospel, when God by the Holy Spirit works
in a sinner’s heart to produce true saving faith—the kind of faith which is
sure, by the grace of God, to persevere to the end and thus to result in
eternal salvation.
election: From the Latin word for “choice,” the doctrine concerning
God’s eternal choice about who will ultimately be saved, often called
“predestination.” “Unconditional election” is the Calvinist label for the
doctrine taught by Augustine, Aquinas, and Luther, as well as Calvin, that
God eternally chooses (that is, predestines) those whom he will save, without
considering any of their foreseen merits or faith. (See Dordt, Synod of).
“Conditional election” by contrast is the doctrine of Arminianism, that God
eternally chooses to save those who he foresees will accept Christ in faith.
In conditional election, human faith is the basis or “condition” of God’s
choice; in unconditional election human faith is a “result” of God’s choice.
(See reprobation.)
Elizabethan Settlement: The mature form taken by the English
Reformation under Queen Elizabeth I, rejecting Roman Catholicism but
not reforming the church as thoroughly as the Puritans thought necessary,
it was characterized by the Book of Common Prayer (re issued in 1559)
as well as the 39 Articles (1563) and enforced by the Parliament’s Act of
Uniformity (1559).