If you don't know that the criterion for election is Jesus Christ, then the criterion for election is not Jesus Christ in your mind.
No amount of mental acrobatics will ever change that.
So of you own words, you were still elected for a reason other than Christ. That you were elected to be placed in Christ [which Ephesians 1:4 doesn't even technically say] doesn't change the fact that you were first elected outside of Christ.
If you were elected to be placed in a can, it's because you were first elected outside of the can.
Yes and no. He chooses who will believe. So in the sense that the elect are only those who believe in Christ? Yes. that is true.
Were the elect because of that belief? No. They believe because they are elect.
David, I am not speaking for @George Antonios but I think that he is defining outside of Christ just as you have here:
You both have good arguments, BTW. Are the elect chosen to salvation apart from Christ (based on the pleasure of God alone)? What about the Father giving the sheep to Christ?
That is precisely why Christ, in the way that @George Antonios is trying to argue, is NOT the criterion for election. The Father gives His elect to Christ. It is at that point, the point of conversion, that the elect are in Christ. But that does not change the fact that they were already elect prior to conversion.
I understand. But then there is the issue of election and not Christ being the criteria for salvation.
If Calvinism is correct then we have to deal with the fact the crux of salvation is not Christ or the Cross but the election of the Father (it is what Barth referred to as "back door" philosophy).
I think this is what @George Antonios is pointing out, and for my part I had not considered this until reading his post.
I read a book while in College, and their main point seems to be what many non cals really hold with, in the sense that God elected to chose and save all sinners in Christ, but up to us now to ratify that choice, for we can ourselves in a sense un elect us!