I quoted from the NT, the words that we are chosen before the foundation of the world. I accept that it is all about interpretation, and yes, I chose the interpretation given by Calvin. How would you interpret them?
But as I see it you are consistently ignoring the point I am making, that in many ways "free will" is a red herring as far as "salvation" is concerned. That we make choices, that we experience ourselves as making them is not in dispute.
This is about the CAUSAL BASIS Of "salvation".
Here is Thomas Merton......
The reification of faith. Real meaning of the phrase we are saved by faith = we are saved by Christ, whom we encounter in faith. But constant disputation about faith has made Christians become obsessed with faith almost as an object, at least as an experience, a "thing" and in concentrating upon it they lose sight of Christ. Whereas faith without the encounter with Christ and without His presence is less than nothing. It is the deadest of dead works, an act elicited in a moral and existential void. To seek to believe that one believes, and arbitrarily to decree that one believes, and then to conclude that this gymnastic has been blessed by Christ - this is pathological Christianity. And a Christianity of works. One has this mental gymnastic in which to trust. One is safe, one possesses the psychic key to salvation......
I do appreciate that such words do not prove anything at all. But it would seem to me, if one recognises the Word of God as that which lights ALL who come into the world, as that through Whom ALL things are made (as said in St John's Gospel) then the "presence of Christ" spreads far wider than mere allegiance to, and acknowledgement of the Biblical word, and "accepting" it.
The message of Grace can be found in all faiths, at all times, in all places.......for those with ears to hear and eyes to see. And such is a gift, pure and simple....
The "encounter with Christ" is beyond creeds and formulas.
I find your words astonishing. What is the OT but the hand of God reaching out to the Jewish people? What is the Koran but another sign of God's hand reaching out? And here are the words of Guru Nanak of the Sikh Faith...."By God's grace alone is God to be grasped. All else is false, all else is vanity." And here the words of a Hindu......."They who have known God have known also this one certainty; that it was God's grace that led them to it, and framed them in readiness for it, and prepared their heart and mind for it; and it was God alone who lifted them to that embrace." (Swami Abhayananda)
Surely you must see the "hand of God" reaching to such human beings? As I see it, "other great religious systems" are maybe more inclined to emphasise the experience of the Divine rather than "belief" in God as such.
It is truly sad that many seem desperate to protect the uniqueness of their own creed and formulas. Fundamentally they are turning the strong hand of God that can and does reach all, that can speak in infinite tongues (mixing the metaphor a bit......) to infinite people, into a rather limp arm.