Good morning, Chopper. It's a bright, sunny morning here in Colorado.
Yes, you have explained it well several times.
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
So the big question is 'who is us'? This scripture does not say God chose individual people to be saved.
v4 - Before God created the world, He chose that 'us', believers in Jesus Christ, would be holy and without blame before Him in love.
v5- Having predetermined that 'us' believers in Jesus Christ, would be adopted children through Jesus Christ to the Father, and that it is God's pleasure and His will to do that.
So before God even created the world He had a plan, His fore-plan, His before plan (His foreknowledge). Jesus tells us in Matthew what that plan was. He says that He would have 'one fold of sheep' that is what God chose to have. He designed/planned that this would come about through Jesus Christ.
Exactly where does it say that God chose some not to be believers or chose who would be believers?
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
G1825
exegeirō
From G1537 and G1453;
to rouse fully, that is, (figuratively) to resuscitate (from death), release (from infliction): - raise up.
You can look in e-sword for the definitions of G1453, it is long. But there is nothing in there that denotes creation or creating of anything, that I saw.
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Jeremiah's parable. Did God say anything here about individual people? No, He is talking about nations, and Pharaoh being the ruler of Egypt, was the one, at that set time, to represent that nation. Just as God raised up Moses to represent the Hebrews.
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Jer 18:7 At what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Jer 18:8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced,
turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9 And at what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Paul uses this scripture as an example to the JEWS that God is the one who decides what nations He will pluck up or plant. The Jews thought they were the only nation of people that God had chosen and that the Gentile nations were shut out of God's plan.
Paul is telling them and showing them that God has now, through Jesus Christ, revealed how He had planned, that ALL nations of people, would be included His plan of redemption, not just them. The very next verses prove that is what Paul is talking about.
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25 As
he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26 And
it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them,
Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
There is nothing here, that I can see, about each individual person being chosen to be saved or not being chosen to be saved. It is all about nations, as individual groups of people. Israel is one group and all the other nations are one group. Paul's theology teaches what Jesus said, two flocks becoming one fold, in Christ.