Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?

[NDemyanov]

Thank you Dr. Brown! Always wrestled with this text

[OfficialSonOfRock]

I look at it like this: God hardened his heart. period. No dancing around it. No explaining it away. No making it sound nicer than it really is.

[Skllzpr]

He hardens whom He hardens and has mercy on whom He has mercy. Period.

[FRN]

If I discipline my son by taking away a privilege, he might cry & feel self-pity, or he might repent & resolve not to do the wrong thing any more.
If he cried, you might accurately say that I made him do it.
"Why is he crying?"
"Because his dad disciplined him."
It was my discipline of him that led him to cry. Yet in another sense he made himself cry. He decided to react wrongly.
It was God’s punishments that led Pharaoh to decide to harden his heart.

[ETHANGELIST]

I clicked like even though I'm a Calvinist. Agreed with most of it. Sinful choice is real and God doesn't cause godly people to be hardened, fall or turn away

[Honestly_Speaking_Gods_Truth]

In other words The Lord gave pharaoh over to the spirit that was already operating in him. The Lord also may have decided not to minister the unction to repent at that time as well. Correct?

[WigoKing]

So my question is, if God can further strengthen/harden his heart, can he also weaken/soften his heart?

[trippingonfaith]

Well... if God had the ability to intervene and harden pharaohs already hard heart, why didn’t God intervene and soften his heart and spare all those children? Including the slaves children? So what was the point? Just as you said to bring glory to God?

[A.A]

Now my analogy, Free choice.. free will.. Surely you do not have choice because by that elemental factor, "choice" is a state of freedom to do any possible actions in your behalf, choice is an act of choosing between two or more possibilities.
"the choice between good and evil", ability of option, ability of altering alternatives, possibility of options, possible course of action, deciding upon or having the ability to cause problems and solution, and by God being our creator, like a scientist creating a robot, God knows your Pathology, neurology, biology, bacteriology, Physiology, Futurology, Ethnology, Philology, Epistemology and yes even your/our Personology.

Now that is the paradox of creation and Gods ability of the concept of creation of judgment and sin and punishment which is in question.


Let's now see the Omni-Omnious, Omnividence, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnifarious, Omnilingual, Omnigenous, Omniform, Omnipercipience, Omniparience/Omniparient, Omnificence, Omnikenesis, Omnimode, Omnitemporal, Omnipresence, Omniscients, Omnibenevolence, Omnilingual, Omniparity and Omnicompotence, Omnisentience, Omnimodus, Omnitemporal, Omnirelevance, Omnispective, Omniarch, Omnific of God in general, God knows all things, God knows the beginning of The universe, and the end of the universe (according to abrahamic concept of end times) by that magnificent ability of prediction and determinism of the end of the universe by will, can this even apply to a puny little spec of matter as ourselves? And if not.. then we saying God lacks knowledge upon the littlest of Gods creation or has a fault of some kind or even having limited powers to our deterministic choices, or by god's ability, is intentionally demobilising or crippling/disabling gods unfathomable abilities to something so meaningless as ourselves?

why would something of that calibre self subjugate itself giving even the concept of the probability of sin knowing the exact outcome? (Since you have answered that with reasoning and logics) If that is also the case, why create hell knowing there is a chance, likelihood, plausibility, possibility and yes even the concept of viability upon people going to infinite punishment?

Furthermore... a scenario to help... with biblical evidences in all religions...is it fair of someone to die in a "sinful" state without the time to repent but NOT had the opportunity to possibly change, but a person who done a lifetime of "sinning" is wiped clean? Can this apply to your logical perception of your type of denomination sectarian God? Where is the Omniparity? (Ability of equality in every part; general equality) But continuing with the scenario, does this Mean that God favours those who will go heaven and those who are born by fatalism (a philosophical belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable) to hell by god's Omnipotence (having unlimited power in all fields) Omniscience (state in knowing everything there is to know meaning nothing is unknown to such a thing) Omnipresence (being simultaneously everywhere at the same time [taking into the two abilities as a catalyst factor] in all your fatalism of a existence) although God is Omniscient (knowing everything, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise) and Omnifarious (knowing all that is relating to all sorts or varieties) which in that case is Omnigenous (power over all kinds and of great diversity), Omniform (adjective. Of all forms; having, taking, or displaying any or every form; of all shapes, appearances, or manifestations.), Omnitemporal (all applicable at all times), Omnirelevant (Relevant everywhere, or to everything; always relevant) Omnific (Capable of making or doing anything, all-creating, all-invoking, all-effectuating, all-producing, all-causing, all-catalysing, all-vindicating, all-prompting, all-confirming, all-verifying, all-substantiating, all -accrediting, all-establishing, all-manifesting, all-influencing etc) and Omnilingual (having the ability to understand all types of languages, Omnividence, (The faculty of seeing everything, or of perceiving all things), Omnispective (beholding everything, all-seeing, Omnificent (all creating, all manifesting, all developing) omni-ominous (all power to impress that something bad is about to happen), Omnisentience (all sensory awareness of all things) Omnipercipience (having the ability of absolute insight, ability and perceptive), Omniparious (all producing all things, Omniparient (producing or bringing fourth all things) Omnikenesis (all power in the power to manipulate anything, the ultimate form of telekinesis [recommend the story of exodus with this one]) and my favourite, Can this apply to the omnibenevolence of THE God (infinitely good, All-loving, kind, kindly, kind-hearted, warm-hearted, tender-hearted, big-hearted, thoughtful, loving, exquisitely enchanting, , infinitely nice, good-natured, good, gracious, tolerant, benign, compassionate, caring, generous, infinitely merciful, forbearing, humane, indulgent, tolerant, magnanimous, sympathetic, considerate, thoughtful, well meaning, munificent, bounteous, unselfish, unstinting etc) and Gods Omnicompetence (having the ability or able to deal with all matters and having powers to legislate on all matters) being that God is of a spiritual legislative moral judger that is justice, egalitarian, principle, foundation, pillar of the epitome of what is considered as perfect example, role model, true idol, virtue, propriety, awe in absolute ethical figure? By this logic can the concept of hell or sin or evil or given the same principle applying to the creation, manifestation, apparition (a remarkable or unexpected appearance of someone or something) and even the thought or logical explanation to the materialisation of the devil himself by God's standards to actually, factually exist? This concept goes straight back to "choice between"

Now when we also philosophically think about the concept of the devil (which I hear this argument a lot) being created as a "all perfect" "most beautiful" "most powerful" "all awe inspiring creation", before even continuing upon such deity, you have to consider by its makings that such a thing cannot have a flaw, or even any fallacious analogies and arguments against such a thing because if something like that actually, factually did exist, it will denote, debunk, demote and derate the very concept of it credibility of it being created or the process of creating such as the most perfect, majestic, fantastic creation, or even questioning the concept of Gods omnipotence, omniscience and Omniparient (producing or bringing fourth all things) Omniparious (producing all things) .

We will also need to discuss how this can apply to the omnipotence paradox, God being as what most theist consider god under the umbrella of imperfections, flaws, fallibilities which is responsible or liable to unnecessary ancient holy wars and destructions to digress humanity upon its preservation, prosperity and all natural disasters, cataclysms, disease epidemics that is becoming more harder and further advancing rather than refraining, digressing, decreasing or declining.

Has such an infinite powerful being(s) wanted to create a being that possessed all the elements that made it a God(s) or the very concept of God(s) using its powers to create something by infinite energy that could be infinite energy by its immortality now applying the omnipotence paradox to that very creation? Furthermore, I mentioned the paradox of the elemental traits to the design of the human which if a third party is required, it is responsible, accountable, authoritative towards the atomic creation of this Devil(s) we hear of (applying the Neurology, Pathology, Psychology [and most importantly] PERSONOLOGY) with the concept of Omnipotence to Omnifarious, (infinite ability to possess power of comprising or relating to all sorts or varieties) of the natures of these concepts as well as being Omniarch (noun. A person who rules over the whole world or universe) and Omnimode (ability of all functions) with Omnimodus (the faculty of possession of all or every sort or kinds) which then we use this concept it goes straight back to the concept of free will by what I presented above.

[ryanfieldflower]

I’m a bit confused maybe someone can help. So did God raise pharaoh to be wicked or did pharaoh did it first?...sorry maybe I just missed the point. God bless you

[bobfree]

Pharoah also hardened his own Heart, and God was not gonna let this king to do what he wants.

[bobfree]

Just like God put Judas in a position Knowing Judas would do what he did, Judas did what he wanted to do. God did not cause judas to sin an do what he did. judas did it all. Got appoints the times and places that we all should live so that We might seek and find him. BUT God also puts people who do evil so that His will will always be done as inthe case of Joesph where his brothers tried to kill him. They meant it for evil like judas and pharoah but GOD meant it for Good.

[Iffmeister]

God hardened Pharoah's heart by giving him the opportunity to repent.

[briangc]

God's law of cause and effect was in play and although Pharaoh turned away from the commands of God, God's law hardened Pharaoh. Both statements are true Pharaoh's volitional choices and God's law of cause and effect.

[adamdavys]

But why didn’t God want pharaoh to repent?? Because after all he must want all to repent??

[rallytotheking]

Exodus 14:1-9 God simply acted such that pharaoh was strengthened (encouraged) to do his heart's desire to kill the Hebrews.

[blake]

Then isn't God taking advantage of sin in a way to give himself glory? Forgive me Lord for asking this I just can't get my head around this.

[thechristiancowboy]

Your last statement "God did what was right" Should have been your first statement. No matter what God does is right. If He were to harden the Pharaoh's heart before he had a hard heart, it would have been right, because God does it and God is law giver, not law taker.
I know this is your arminianism philosophy kicking in. I have seen your debates with James White and while I will agree with you on a lot in Old Testament Theology, with all due respect to you, this one I do not.
When I teach Calvinism vs Arminianism, I won't teach it in Church unless all my students can answer this one question correctly. Does God have the freedom, to Choose who ever He wants for Heaven and allow everyone else to go to hell. If there answer is ANYTHING other than something like this, "if that is what the Bible teaches then yes" I simply won't teach them.
You see we must be honest with ourselves when it comes to the Scriptures no matter where it takes us. If The Scriptures teach us that God only hardens Pharaohs heart, or anyone's heart if their heart is hard, then so be it, it's true, if it teaches the opposite, then it is equally true and God did the right thing. Either way what He does is the right thing...

[Roedygr]

Did god harden Pharaoh's heart? Did the wolf blow down the first piggy's house? No. Moses was fictional. The exodus was fictional. The captivity was fictional.

[nb]

I was always under the impression that the reason Pharoah's heart was hardened was because God was judging him. Notice in Exodus 7 that Pharoah's heart is not hardened until *after* God judges him or shows him miracles. What God is basically saying is, "By me putting plagues upon Egypt, Pharoah's heart will be hardened." It's the same as me slapping someone in the face and then their natural reaction is for them to get mad. Another theory I have is that the reason Pharoah's heart was hardened is because his magicians were able to everything Moses was able to do(until the lice plague I believe). If I were Pharoah and my magicians were able to do the same thing as Moses, I wouldn't see anything special about Moses's God. It would just seem to me like another god. Of course eventually God showed his power was greater than that of the magician's sorcery.