How could Pharaoh be morally responsible if God hardened his heart?
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
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The apostle Paul explicitly stated that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Romans 9:17-18). That, of course, raises this question: “If God determined to harden Pharaoh’s heart, then how is God just in holding Pharaoh morally responsible for his sins?”
First, although God promised Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 4:21; 7:3), the Exodus account under- scores the fact that Pharaoh was responsible for hardening his own heart: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said” (Exodus 8:15; see also Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:19, 32; 9:7; cf. 9:34).
Furthermore, far from hardening Pharaoh’s heart in a direct or deterministic fashion, God presented Pharaoh with ample opportunity and free choice to either repent or continue to rebel. Every time God showed Pharaoh mercy and removed a plague from Egypt, Pharaoh responded with stub- born disobedience. As such, God’s mercy was the occasion for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
Finally, in dealing with this issue, the apostle Paul began with the presupposition that God judges all men justly (Romans 3:5-8). He emphasized the fact that people like Pharaoh are “prepared for destruction” because that is ultimately what they will for themselves. Every time God provides an opportunity to repent, too many people do as Pharaoh did: they harden their hearts in disobedience and unbelief.
When Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses.
Exodus 9:34-35 NKJV
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#god #freewill #bibleanswerman
Always remember , when asked questions about God's justice , that GOD IS GOOD.
That always supercedes everything.
@littlecrow6484 Yes. That is an important point to remember.
So many times over the years, I have heard the BAM say how some teachers torture Scripture.
As is so often the case, those who say such things, even rightly so, often do the same thing.
Therefore, what Paul plainly wrote in Romans 9 remains to this day tortured over and over again.
So, then, what Paul wrote in Romans 9:6-21 should plainly be understood...
"It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls-she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”
But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?"
...Yet, plainly and clearly from the BAM's answers that resort to man's free will and choice over the years that torture Scriptures such as Romans 9, such Scriptures remain veiled to you.
But, to your defense, if I may, these same Romans 9 Scriptures explain why you torture them...
That is, it does not depend on a man's desire or effort but on God's mercy.
So, then, despite the mighty, even commendable, efforts of the BAM to conscientiously understand these Scriptures, you remain blinded to understanding them because that is the Lord Jesus's will for you...at least to this present time.
But, I want to test you to ascertain whether this is the Lord's will for you for your remaining time in this perishing world or if it is the Lord Jesus's will for you to come to understanding these Scriptures.
So, again, I will ask you the same question I have asked elsewhere in other BAM videos...
Do you understand Romans 9:22-24?
That is, who are the objects of God's wrath, and who are the objects of God's mercy...?
I am asking you that question again in the hope it will spur holy thinking...
That is, the answer to that question should lead you down the path of establishing a firm foundation of understanding of the Lord Jesus's eternal Gospel from which you can springboard into the panoply of Scripture to understand better the things you answer as the BAM.
At present, many of the BAM's answers in isolation seem to make sense.
However, when one correlates the panoply of the BAM's answers, they do not harmonize...
But, Scripture harmonizes.
Or as I like to think of it...
Scripture adds up!
So, I hope to someday listen to the BAM and hear his answers add up.
@dsp62122 You miss the point behind Jacob I have loved and Esau I hated. Does God really hate? See this article www.equip.org/articles/can-a-loving-god-hate-someone/
@BibleAnswerMan
Hank, this is how you should understand Paul's reference to Jacob and Esau in Romans 9...
Speaking to the Romans as temporal beings, Paul uses Jacob and Esau as outward examples of how our Lord Jesus sees each of us looking down from eternity upon His future eternal sons and daughters lost in this temporal perishing world.
That is, the Lord Jesus sees each of us in our one physical body as two persons.
Scripture is replete with these outward examples of our duality intended to point each of us inward to see that in our present perishing state, we must be changed.
With that in mind, I will answer my own question to you that I posed to you in other video posts...
Who are the objects of God's wrath and mercy?
Each one of us corresponds to an object of God's wrath destined for everlasting destruction.
Each one of us corresponds to an object of God's mercy destined for glory.
Each one of us is a sheep and goat.
Each one of us is wheat and chaff.
Each one of us has books documenting what we have done in the flesh.
Each one of us has a name written in the book of life.
Each one of us corresponds to Saul and to Paul.
It should be plainly obvious that throughout Scripture these sorts of good and evil dualities of our present nature are pointing us inwardly declaring to us that we must be changed before we can enter into the kingdom of God...
It should also be plainly obvious that not one of us can change our dual nature from evil to good, as it were.
So, then, it does not matter if we desire to change our present perishing condition.
It does not matter how strenuously we effort to change ourselves...
Not one of us can change ourselves from evil to good no matter our desire or effort.
But, thanks be to our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus...
He saved us through the Cross by redeeming us from all of our sins committed following Adam.
He revealed to us His eternal Gospel for His future sons and daughters through His resurrection...
That is, His eternal Gospel declares that we will all be changed just as Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57...
"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
That, my friend Hank, is the eternal Gospel of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus to all of His future eternal sons and daughters.
I'm trying to understand. Yes, everytime God let up and Gave him Mercy , Pharaoh hardened his heart because My GOD Continued to harden his heart.
@@GodsGirl850 You are interpretending just as Isaiah 28:13 says the lost (Gentiles) did! Give me witnesses to that framework of "JESUS" being nothing but a forgiving servant to eternally save man. The disciples scoffed when he spoke to the harlet, and the taxpayer! Jesus came to Pharoah in the same manner to rear him up to turn his people TO HIM!!!!
@GodsGirl850 No. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. See Hank's article: www.equip.org/bible_answers/how-could-pharoah-be-morally-responsible-if-god-hardened-his-heart/
This subject is so important! Your statement of God giving Pharaoh a free choice is totally correct. But, when you said, God gave Pharaoh a chance to repent "or continue to rebel" happened how many times during the plagues? More than one? Two? Three? If Moses' God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" at the very first "continuing to rebel" then God SENTENCED HIM TO HELL. When the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and etc. chances of repenting came it would have been A LIE, and thus God would have been responsible for his fate in hell! Thus, YOU MUST RECOGNIZE "hardening the heart" was like God calling one a goat "AT JUDGEMENT", not during one's life on earth! Ma'at would 2:56 have weighed Pharaoh's heart; NOT Moses's god (according to even the Hebrews listening to that conversation)! But, when Moses said, his God in heaven would harden his heart in the afterlife EVERYBODY would have recognized Pharaoh would have epic failed the "FEATHER TEST"! IS MOSES there to save Pharaoh eternally? You had better say yes. Which I believe you would. But, you have unfortunately changed a "parable about salvation" into the "literal aspects of the temporary" while in Egypt! Luke 24:44-45 says the whole Bible is about the eternal. Lastly, Pharaoh would have been "DISOBEDIENT" WITHOUT "God letting Pharaoh harden his own heart"! There is no purpose in the story to "LET PHARAOH HARDEN HIS OWN HEART or God doing it 1 time. There was no change. After 2 times, no change. After 3 times no change. God was proving NOTHING with that action. Unless one come to a conclusion after God hardens your heart 10 times you go to hell? Our flesh is wicked and is "HARDENED" as described by a man being "disobedient". That can not be a logical conclusion of what or why God used that during that time period, with an Egyptian who probably had a grandfather that invented Ma'at!
@leaderlandscapeinc.2325 Your missing the point. Pharaoh chose to war against God and the people of God. Pharaoh hardened his own heart against relenting from warring against God and God's people. God showing kindness to His people became the occasion for the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
As to the Pharoah's heart being hardened...
The predestination of mankind is perhaps the most difficult Scriptural concept for a free will mankind to understand, much less to accept.
After all, we are not robots or puppets.
Indeed, we are neither.
Nevertheless, central to our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus's Creation, of which mankind is its central purpose to create, predestination is an essential, integral tool, if you will, to bring about the Lord Jesus's eternal plan to mold mankind into His future eternal sons and daughters who are made in His image...
In order to be truly made in His image that required mankind to come to the knowledge of good and evil molded together with free will.
This is why Adam was predestined to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, even knowing that sin, suffering, and death would ensue.
There is much more to say about that, but for now, it should be plainly understood that mankind is presently going through the process of being created in the image of our Lord Jesus...
Therefore, while we find ourselves in this process of creation, each one of us would do well to think of ourselves as lumps of clay in the Lord Jesus's potter's hands, if you will.
That is, each one of us is being shaped and molded by our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus with the knowledge of good and evil together with free will into one of His future eternal sons or daughters who is truly made in His image.
Therefore, we should take heart in knowing that it is our Lord Jesus who is shaping and molding each of us, like a potter shaping and molding clay, according to His eternal plan for each of us.
So, then, for now, as we find ourselves going through this process of creation, each one of us would be well served to not lose our focus on what we already know and believe.
That is, we already know how this process of creation culminates for mankind, including each of us...
As believers, we believe in the Lord Jesus's eternal Gospel as revealed through our Apostle Paul...
First, Paul plainly told us in Philippians 2:10-11...
"...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Then Paul revealed to us the mystery that was to follow through 1 Corinthians 15:51-57...
"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
...With this eternal Gospel firmly in mind, let no one deceive you with their fine sounding gospels, which are no gospel at all.
Indeed, then, use this Gospel as your unshakeable foundation upon which you can springboard through the panoply of Scripture to harmonize seemingly difficult things to understand.
I hope this helps...
@dsp62122 Input appreciated.
@HankHanegraaff In Exodus 1:8 it says the NEW king (Pharoah) knew not Joseph. In verse 7, if you add that information along with much other info. instead of a person discerning line by line you will "spiritually" discern the bible is telling us that the new king did NOT WORSHIP Joseph's God! The king did know Joseph in a manner of considering all of the Israelites were as like animals of no concern roaming around outside of his kingdom! The Egyptians worshipped many gods! Taking all that into account with all scripture and even the history of the Egyptians and their credit of the mythological realm you find yourself on a different planet almost! Talking to Pharoh or any of the Egyptians would give you an understanding they knew very much about the prophecies given to Adam up to Moses! They even copied them with better twists such as the ankh given to their gods to give their women a gift of a "son of man (god) from heaven. That is why Pharoh's daughter picked Moses out of the river and hid him as like a "miraculous (virgin) birth! Moses talked to Pharoh with this knowledge of "his gods" vs. Moses' Sovereign God! Moses knew of the goddess Ma'at! Moses told Pharoh Elohim was the bigger God and deciding God over Ma'at! When all "EGYPTIANS" got to heaven their Ma'at would weigh the feather against their "GOOD WORKS & OBEDIENCE TO ALL THE gods! Moses placed his God in the council mentioned in Ps. 82:1!!!! Moses told Pharoh "HIS GOD" would make his heart to be worthy of heaven and Ma'at would toss his rear end out of heaven!! Pharaoh was BEING WARNED to obey the GOD OF MOSES!!!
@leaderlandscapeinc.2325 Not denying a régime change took place, and what Jacob did for the nation was unknown to the new Pharaoh. The problem is the new Pharaoh enslaved and mistreated the Hebrew people living in Egypt. Pharaoh's heart was hardened towards showing respect to God and God's people.
@@BibleAnswerMan I still say "hardening a heart" was Egyptian mythological language. It is no different than John's language in Revelations! All cultures including the Hebrews were forced to learn astrology, witchcraft, false temple worship, etc. from the start at Nebuchadnezzar! Hardening a heart was not what God does to the living! He did not do it to Cain, Esau, or anyone else to get their attention. The interpretation has come 100% from Calvinism to convince their false doctrine! You have studied more than I; however, the Exodus example in 1:8 is completely figurative as Moses speaks in like manner to Pharoah. Think about the "heart of God" trying to convince Pharoh instead of going in the other direction (Jer. 29:11!). The same thing has been done with the term "goats"! That is an "AFTER DEATH" figurative term for choosing another, not being forced, persuaded, or nudged in a disobedient direction. There is ZERO BIBLICAL PARABLE, VERSES, SENTENCES or otherwis that God wants the opposite of his sheep to REPENT, TURN AWAY FROM the world & the flesh, and Satan! Jonah said, He would wait for them to turn back to sin! I will not argue MAN WANTS "his enemies" to die, suffer, and go to hell! But, you know better than I Jesus came to do ONE THING: REVELATIONS 22:16-17. God said hell was NOT MADE FOR HIS CHILDREN! Im frankly dumbfounded you believe he actually "caused" Pharaoh to react with disobedience & help lead all those Egyptians to hell! Imagine if he had bowed the knee like the Ninevites?
That was God's design! God predestined A PLAN TO ESCHEW, not help add to the world, the flesh and Satan.
God hardens some hearts just by being himself. Even if you grant the full on Calvinist reading of Hebrews chapters 9 through 11, it does not prove Calvin's point. Read it instead as a report of a miracle, not the way God deals at all times with all people.
Reformed, Calvinist, determinist, Leibnitzian thinkers have yet to answer this question. You decided determinism was logical. Or did you?
@KendalCBlack Please listen to Hank's answer. Also read the video description. No. Hank does not deny humans having libertarian freewill. See also www.equip.org/articles/how-does-free-will-affect-faith/ and www.equip.org/articles/is-divine-determinism-biblical/
You mean Romans 9 through 11 not Hebrews. Good point though.
JUST by being himself LOL where did you come up with that foolery? #2 GOD also stated clearly I will have favor upon whom I choose, God is 100% sovereign over man, what was the miracle exactly?