Exactly. He chose US.
Who is "us"?
Believers. A group of people, members of a whole.
Just like an airline scheduler chooses a plane to go from point A to point B. The scheduler doesn't know who will be on that plane, just that the plane will be going from A to B.
God decided, predetermined, that those who believe (the group as a whole, not individual members of that group) would not perish, but have everlasting life.
An extrabiblical belief that originated with Plato.
God knows everything that can be known, and only knows that which He wants to know. He is not forced to know something that He does not want to know.
Again, this comes from the concept of "Fate", which is part of Greek mythology, not the Bible.
Begging the question.
Here's the passage you're referring to.
Paul is speaking of a group here, not specific individuals.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. - Romans 8:28-30
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans8:28-30&version=NKJV
Namely:
"those who love God"
"those who are the called according to His purpose"
The GROUP of members, not the individual members alone, would be conformed to the Son's image.
God simply planned to have a plane go from earth to heaven. He didn't decide who would be on it.
He chose a group, not specific individuals.
No argument here.
This is reading your interpretation into the Bible, instead of letting it speak for itself, and not only that, it's contradictory to what you said above.
Your entire position so far is self-contradictory for this reason:
If God knew about us, that means, at some basic level, we existed. Yet you also say that we wouldn't exist until
later.
So which is it? Have we always existed in the back of God's mind for all of eternity past? Or, as I'll ask again below, was there ever a point in God's past where He did not know we would exist?
You said:
If He is omniscient, and He knew that we would exist someday, then His omniscience is dependent on us existing, which makes his knowledge a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak.
In other words, God depends on you to exist for Him to be omniscient.
Which places him lower than you.
Or rather, it exalts you over God.
That's called idolatry, and it's a sin.
You need to humble yourself and repent.
I'll ask you this again:
Was there ever a time when God did not know that we would exist?
I urge you to read it again more closely, and in context of the verses before and after it:
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations” ) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” - Romans 4:16-18
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans4:16-18&version=NKJV
The verse is simply saying that God can declare believing sinners to be righteous even though they are not, by imputing His righteousness to them.
This is why you don't ignore the context of the verses you quote, because when you take them out of context, you can make them say anything you want them to.