A few of the posters on this thread post like there is a difference between them and Cain before salvation. Cain was a sinner, so was everyone on this thread. I assume all posters are saved, so since salvation, all posters are now like Abel. We all got there the same way, grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Lord has got to shake His head when we post an entire thread in the mindset of our opinion of what the word "fair" means. We do not begin to understand the eternal or the depths of God. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts. The theme runs through the thread, implied or not, that it is not "fair" for God to have chosen Abel and not Cain, as Cain did not have a "chance." All these conclusions come from flawed humans, like myself. What we are doing is putting God in a box, with the method He must be "fair" and give everyone a "chance." On the other side of the arugment, God is put in a box saying Cain had a "chance" even if not chosen, and that is "fair."
The point is we are not the Creator, but the created. It is a miracle we are here to type some of this nonsense. The created does not explain what the Creator does or how. The Creator lets the created know what He wants to. In our case, God chose love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness as a way for sinful man to be eternally with Him. Everyone of us deserve to be Cain, and only God in His love makes any of us Abel. How He does that is His business. No man comes to the Father than by Jesus Christ, and no man responds to the Gospel except by a touch from the same God in the form of the Holy Spirit. If God only saved one person in history, it would be more than we deserved. I see His choosing is quite abundent, as there are at least ten saved in this one thread.
We will never understand the depths of God's love this side of eternity. One thing that would be wise IMO, is to take words like fair and chance, and find different terms for God's love. Cain or Abel??? Same could be said for Issac instead of Ishamel, Jacob instead of Esau, David instead of Saul, the eleven disciples instead of Judas, Pharoah had no "chance"??? Annias and Saphira had no "chance" not "fair", Noah's family vs the rest of the world, "not fair" ???? Job, cant even figure that one out, can you?
Whatever knowledge each of you have to post was given to you from God. He, in His eternal purposes, saved each one of you. We should be thankful for what we have, and praise Him for it. Maybe if we did more of that and less debating on how it was accomplished, we would be clearer in our understanding of the Almighty.