It's not a lottery. But the cards were all dealt at the begginning of creation. Your fate was sealed before you ever took a breath.
earned is probably not the right word.
No kidding. It is a GIFT! You don't earn a gift.
But, I also see scripture and the entire theme of the New Testament that accepting Christ is a choice for you to freely make.
Indeed and if you freely make that choice then you were chosen by God from before the foundation of the earth. If you fail to make that choice, then you have exercised your free will to your own destruction.
Free will is not a great blessing to men. It is a curse. You're only hope lies in having God make you willing, and no one, in the exercise of their own free will, is willing to allow that.
This gets back to an earlier poster who described Calvinism as lazy i.e. rather than accept that something is complex it just crosses out a major theme of the bible.
My experience is that few people work as hard at "confirming their election" as committed Calvinists. Not because they feel that they need to, but because they have a burning desire to do so. It is my experience that many non-Calvinists feel a need to do good works to "secure their salvation." The Calvinist knows that his fate is entirely in the hands of God. As a non-Calvinist, I also believe that my fate is entirely in the hands of God. I wouldn't have it any other way.
LOL