Note: This article was written before the author’s conversion to Orthodoxy.
Arminians like to pretend that all those verses that speak of Pharaoh having his heart hardened by God are negated by references to Pharaoh hardening his own heart. So, instead of taking the literal interpretation that both happened, they say things like this:
In their perpetual quest to find discrepancies in the Bible, to undermine biblical ethics, and to find fault with the actions of God, skeptics have charged that God mistreated Pharaoh by overriding his free will and forcing him to resist the demand of Moses to allow the Israelites to exit Egypt. The skeptics focus on the verses about Pharaoh’s heart, demanding that the God of the Bible is an unjust, cruel being. Steve Wells, the well-known skeptic writer, said: “God begins the process of ‘hardening Pharaoh’s heart’ (see also Exodus 7:3,13, 9:12, 10:1, 20,27, 11:10, 14:4,8), thus making it impossible for any of the plagues that God sends to have any beneficial effect. But according to 1 Samuel 6:6, God didn’t harden the Pharaoh’s heart; the Pharaoh did it himself” (Wells, 2001).
Instead of getting into a whole exegetical hissy over the matter, allow me to simply quote Deut 2:30–
But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today (Deut 2:30).
Curiously absent from the above passage is any reference to Sihon hardening his own heart. God even gives the reason for doing so: to deliver him into Israel’s hand.
Hey, but that’s not nice! Shouldn’t Sihon have a chance at repenting and stuff?
Absolutely not! And neither do you and neither do I. Grace is not owed to anyone. It’s a gift, He gives it to whomever He pleases.
I’m still waiting for that verse of the Bible that says, “God can do anything other than violate the autonomous free will of man.” I’m yet to find that one.
There is no doubt that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It is what is written. But what is not written and always implied by Calvinist, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to send him to hell. Now this is reading into scripture, which we are taught is not the proper way to study the Bible.
What is recorded, so we can say it is written, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart that God might show His power in him, so His name would be declared through the whole earth. This fact is stated in Romans and over and over again in the Exodus account. Never is it about Pharaoh’s salvation. The dude was lost when he reject the testimony found in Roman’s chapter one. He was well on his way to hell before Moses showed up.
I agree, let’s stick to what is written and quit making this passage in Romans other than what it is.
This passage in Romans is not about personal salvation. It is about how not all the Hebrews are really Abraham’s descendants and how everything is done through the promise.
God in His mercy chose Jacob and not Esau. Not that God hated Esau personally and this passage is about God keeping Esau from salvation. The scripture is quoting the OT in which the passage is referring to the nation that is Esau and how they will never rise again because of their sin. Israel, however, God brought the children of the promise back to the land.
Yes the passage is about God’s mercy and election, but not mercy concerning salvation, but how He works His election through a promised people through the means of His chosen plan of mercy.
No one said God hardened pharaoh to send him to hell. All men go to hell by default apart from grace.
I don’t get Calvinist, even the 4.5 ones. Why can’t we just read scripture and believe it without trying to qualify it or force into and idea.
Scripture says that Jesus tasted death for every man. God is not willing for any to be lost. God through Christ has reconciled the whole world. The word is reconciled. In other place God has reconciled all things in earth and in heaven, through Christ.
Not meaning everyone is saved. But His death was for everyone in the fullest capacity of the hope it offered to all mankind.
Why do we have to try to make it more for this guy and less for this guy? What is the hang up?
What is so offensive about no Limited Atonement by any measure.