Well then I probably agree with B57 more than yourself. How do you understand salvation and faith? For I understand faith as the thing believed, and believing as a result of the thing believed. God is the source of the thing believed, for He is the thing beliveed.
Faith is not a requirement, it's a gift. It's only required once it's been given. But once it's been given...you aren't the source of it anyway, so maintaining it is not your responsibility anyway.
So of course we are chosen before the foundation of the world...except that God is outside of time so there is no before for Him. He knows us as/before the moment of salvation. He knows us regardless of time. So of course it was before...but there's no before.
That said, there is a time when we hear and respond to the Gospel, but that is nothing that we can subjectively initiate or determine. Faith receives, it does not initiate. The root word of faith is "peitho," to persuade. You cannot persuade yourself. You can only be persuaded. Thus as a faithful individual, I have been persuaded by God of the gospel. 'Nuf said.