Isn't that statement consistent with the thinking that God chooses his elect because of something that is in them? Something that he foreknew about them?"
Simple answer:
Galatians 3
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Any human distinction you can think of makes absolutly no difference to God. God doesn't give Jews an advantage over Greeks in salvation. God doesn't give free-men and advantage over slaves in salvation. God doesn't give men and advantage over women in salvation. God doesn't give White Collar workers an advantage over a ditch digger in salvation. God doesn't give Whites an advantage over Blacks in salvation. Any human distinction you can think of applies here.
A little more clear:
Ephesians 1:5
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
He predestinates only according to his good pleasure. Nothing else.
And the clincher:
Acts 10:34
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Peter says, point blank, 'that God is no respecter of persons'. By that we are 'bound'.
Jean
There are Calvinists on these threads that state that those who live or lived in the deepest darkest places in Africa or in the backwoods of Mongolia were placed there because they were not chosen. The gospel was not or has not been taken to them because they were not "chosen."
Since Christianity is primarily a "white man's" religion, it can be logically deduced that indeed God has given an advantage to whites over blacks, to whites over asians, to whites over Indians. Christianity has florished in those countries and cultures that are or have been dominated by white skinned people and has floundered elsewhere.
From a Calvinistic standpoint, if it is not because God has given to white men an advantage not given to those of other races, then how do you explain it? Pure Luck?