Well, I guess I'll have to accept this for an answer to whether you really meant it, that Abraham was chosen of God because of his obedience. You said here, "Noah was called of God due to his virtue." Now, can you please back these up with Scripture? First you said "...Abraham was in turn chosen due to his obedience to God's call." So you make Election a result of man's work. Now you say, "Noah was called of God due to his virtue."
Noah found favor with the LORD, due to his difference from the sinners of his day. Being a "preacher of righteousness", and "moved by Godly fear"
2Pe 2:4-8 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—
Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Both sound very much the same to me. You seem to be sincere with the claim that God chooses according to one's obedience, or worse, something along the lines of 'according to the spark of goodness he finds in some of them —virtue in and of oneself— apart from the work of God'. Can you show me how God's election of anyone is a result of their innate goodness? I mean, (and here, I'm giving you an out), even Arminianism claims God works 'prevenient grace' prior to anyone having any goodness in them. I'm not specifically asking about salvation by works at the moment. I'm just asking for clarification on the notion that God looks forward in time and sees who by chance is worth choosing for salvation.
Which part of "obey" or "obedience" do you not understand?
Job 36:10-12 He also opens their ear to instruction, And commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve Him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures. But if they do not obey, They shall perish by the sword, And they shall die without knowledge.
Joh 14:21-24 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
It is not about virtue in man, but God restoring it through His instruction.
Ecc 7:29 Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes."
Man starts out dark => God gives light => man chooses to accept or reject the light => man walks in the light or stays in the dark. The choice results in salvation or damnation.
