“You can’t choose your earthly parents but you can choose your eternal family”. – Rogersings

 

“Death is not the end of life but it reveals where you will live your life”.  – Pastor Clay 

 

“The truth will set you free but it will piss you off first”.  – my friend Dave 

 

Salvation is by birth (in Christ) not behavior (by men).  – Pastor Clay

Some people who wrestle with the concept of “predestination” in the Bible think this means that God has predestined everything that occurs, including the salvation.  They think that God has predestined a few people to be saved from their sin and have eternal life with Him, while He has predestined everyone else to die in their sin and suffer eternal death without Him.  This is basically the theology of Calvinism which teaches that God pours out irresistible grace only on a “predestined person” so that it causes that the person to recognize their sin nature and it causes that person to call out to God be saved from his sin.

Calvinism teaches that each person is “totally depraved” at birth, to the point where they are unable to recognize their own sin nature that rebels and destroys God’s creation.  And God predestines “some people” for salvation by pouring out His “irresistible grace” upon them which:

(a) enables them to understand that an awesome God created them and He created an awesome world

 

(b) enables them to see that that their desire to act independently from their creator (sin) is the reason they are dying and the world is dying and

 

(c) overcomes and overwhelmed them to the point where they have no choice but to stop acting independently from God and call on Christ for salvation from their sin.

So according to Calvinism, God pours out His “irresistible grace” on some people in order to predestine them for salvation while God withholds His grace from everyone else so they are clueless concerning sin and salvation and they are predestined for eternal damnation.  However, if this is meaning of predestination as it applies to scripture then I would have to agree with the Atheists more than the Calvinist, a God like this is not worthy of being called God.  A God who claims to be the essence of love (1 John 4:8), yet He purposefully makes it impossible for some people to be saved and experience His love is not the “all loving”, “all powerful” God of the Bible but He is a malevolent saddest.  The theology of Calvinism misrepresents God’s love for “all” men and it misrepresent God’s amazing grace grace that is able to save “all” men.  This is why Dave Hunt wrote the book “What Love is This?” and Norman Geisler wrote “Why I am not  a 5 point Calvinist”.

I have read several commentaries on the topic of God sovereignty vs man’s free will.  D.L. Moody said salvation is like a door that on one side reads  “Whomsoever will” and on the other side reads “Chosen since the Foundation of the world”.  And Charles Spurgeon, a Calvinist, said “It a good thing that God choose me before the foundations of the world because He sure wouldn’t have chosen me after I was born.”  There has been a lot of debate and discussion on the topic of God sovereignty vs man’s free and the two opposing camps of thought from the 1500’s lead the charge and get all the attention on the topic.

The Calvinist argue the position that scripture declares that God is sovereign over all and this means that God is sovereign over salvation and He “chooses and elects” those who will be saved and those who will be damned.  From the standpoint of Calvinism you may have eternally secure in Christ but you can’t really know if you are chosen by God for this purpose.  On the other hand the Arminianist argue the position that scripture declares that each person has a “free will” and this means a person has the free will to decide if they want to be saved and they also have the free will to decide to be “unsaved”.  In addition an Arminianist believe that they can do something that will cause them to loose their salvation or be unworthy of being saved.  From this standpoint you can choose to have eternal security in Jesus Christ but you have no assurance that this decision will stand.

In both of these camps we have a big problem concerning the meaning of salvation … the all powerful Arminianist thinks that man’s free will is able to undo the work of God’s grace in granting a person a “new life” in Christ while the impotent Calvinists is unable to do anything to prevent or promote the disposition of their salvation since it’s all dependent on God’s predestined disposition toward the person.  In either camp you are screwed, because if you are in the Arminianist camp you can never really be sure if you will think or do some sinful thing that will make you lose your salvation and in the Calvinist camp you don’t know if God is “willing” to save you.  Like I said many Christian theologians have attempted to reconcile the issue concerning man’s free will vs God sovereign, and my explanation is that a “born-again” Christian acknowledges their responsibility to acknowledge their self indulgent nature (sin) and their “free will” decision to receive Christ as their Savior.  Also, a born-again Christian understands that it is God’s grace that saves them and it is the sovereign God that keeps them “eternally saved”.  In other words, you can not be unborn physically anymore than you can be unborn Spiritually.  Here is a simple chart that outlines the key differences between the views.

Man’s Salvation from sin	Calvinism	Born Again Christian	Arminiamism
Obtained by the Free Will of man	no	yes!	yes?
Guaranteed Eternal Assurance by God	yes?	yes!	no

However, the many views on how man can be saved are not as simple as this chart because there are a few variations of Arminiamism and a lot of variations on Calvinism, from a five point “TULIP” extreme position that man has no free choice in the matter of his salvation to “moderate” position that recognizes man does have free will but God still predestines.  The moderate position of Calvinism actually agrees with the tenets of the Born Again Christian position on salvation and is championed by Norman Geisler who I respect greatly for his teaching on apologetics.  However, I disagree with Geisler in his interpretation of God’s word concerning the meaning of predestination, therefore I do not think the Born Again view of salvation should be associated with the term “Moderate Calvinism“.  Actually, it was not until I read Geisler’s book “Chosen but Free” that I realized that though we agree on the tenets of our salvation in Jesus Christ, we disagree on why these tenets are true based on the interpretation of scripture and the meaning of “predestination”.

To help make sense of predestination I have divided the topic up into two parts.  

In Part 1, I discuss the predestination as it applies to the salvation of man.  Does God predestine some people for salvation with eternal life while He predestines some people for eternal damnation without hope of being saved.  Spoiler alert … Does God predestine some people for eternal Salvation and some people for eternal Damnation? … the simple answer is “NO”!  

In Part 2, I discuss predestination as it applies to the birth of Jesus Christ.  Does God predestine some people to be in the linage of Christ and have chosen roles and God’s protection over their life, regardless of their belief in Him?  Spoiler alert … Dos God predestine events in order to bring Salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ? …. the simple answer is “YES”!

Part I, Predestination as it applies to the Salvation of man – (NO)

The Lord has put on my heart to help define a distinct view of salvation for a Born Again Christian, independent from both Calvin and Armenian and even “Moderate Calvinism”.  A view that can be expounded as being clearly Biblical and distinctly different from Calvinism and Armenianism.  This is a tall task that I don’t feel qualified to accomplish but one that I feel the Lord has lead me to do in order to bring Him the glory.  The (1) fundamental tenet of the Born Again Christian is that God does not predestine any man concerning if he will be saved but God does predestine/protect certain people in order to bring His Son Jesus Christ to earth, born of a woman from the tribe of Judah, thus fulfilling many promises, beginning with the one given in Genesis 3:15.  In other words, God’s plan to provide salvation in Jesus Christ is predestined by God while man’s status of salvation is not predestined by God but it is determined by man’s free will.  The (2) fundamental tenet of a Born Again Christian is that once you are saved, you are always saved.  You cannot loose your salvation because you are become a child of God, forever adopted into His family.  You can not be “un-born” spiritually any more than you can be “un-born” physically.  It is a logical impossibility.  And you can’t have “free will” without choice because that’s a logical impossibility as well.  And if you want to know if God can make a rock so big He can’t lift the answer is “NO” … it’s illogical, like a square circle or one ended stick.

As a computer programmer it makes sense to me that I could write a computer program (good) and sell it in stores, and when that program was started it would send me a message the network to tell me who, when and where the program was started.  From that message I would respond to the person with a rebate check as promised when they purchased the program.  However, if a virus spread (sin) to every computer because of a hacker (Satan) and that virus prevented the program from sending the message to me, then I wouldn’t know to send the rebate back to the person.  In this sense I predestined the program to send me a response when the program was first activated (born) but now because of the virus (sin) the computer can not communicate with me (God) unless the effects of the virus are overcome by virus removing software.  What should I do to make good on my predestined intent to give everyone a rebate?  How about if I make the virus removing software and advertise everywhere, by TV, mail and Internet so that everyone knows how to receive the “free” virus removing software (salvation in Christ).   Then it would be up the person (free will) if they want to receive the virus removing software (salvation in Christ) so the software can fix the connection to me (Holy Spirit) and I can send them the rebate check (eternal life).  Well, this is my best attempt to explain the issue that God faced in the garden of Eden.

In a sense, God is the ultimate programmer.  He created a perfect Heaven, a perfect Earth with perfect creatures  that had perfectly good things to do.  At first Adam and Eve were Spiritually connected to God and receiving the messages of God and man was running the program of “sanctification” that was conforming man into the image of Christ but the virus of sin broke the connection to God and stopped the program of sanctification.  Now God knew this would happen and He predestined another program called “salvation”.  If that program was chosen by man then the connection between man and God would be restored and the original program of sanctification could continue and run to completion.  From this analogy, you can see that God’s original program was that everyone was predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son but after the virus of sin, only those who choose to run the program of salvation can continue along the predestined path to be conformed into the image of Christ and one day reign and rule with Christ.

In other words, God has not abandoned His predestined plan for earth and for man to reign and rule on earth but the plan for man to “Reign and Rule” is “on hold” while the predestined plan of “Salvation in Christ” is running.  Now, after our death the plan of “Salvation in Christ” is no longer an option.  If we have chosen Christ in this life then sin will be removed from us at death and sanctification in Christ will be completed and we will begin to “reign and rule” with Christ.  For those who have not chosen a new life in Christ, they will run the predestined program of “eternal damnation”, Spiritually separated from Christ and tormented in the Lake of Fire forever.

Roman 8:29-30 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

The key word in the above passage is not predestined  but foreknew.  God has the foreknowledge of all that happens, nothing surprises God.  He sees the end from the beginning and is outside of time.  God foreknew the virus of sin (self indulgent nature) would attack the “free will” of creation and result in the fall of Satan’s sin, 1/3 of the angels and all mankind would become born a slave to sin and death.  God foreknew and predestined His only begotten Son to pay the price for man’s sin and provide a way for man to be saved from sin.  And God foreknew that some people would choose “not” to receive the grace of salvation in Jesus Christ.  However, God also foreknew that some people would choose by grace through faith in Jesus Christ to be saved from their sin.

Romans 8:29-30 is not a passage saying that God predestined some for salvation but it is saying that those whom God foreknew would “choose” salvation, would follow the “predestined” process of becoming conformed into the image of Christ … by grace through faith in Christ.  This passage is not saying that God only calls those who will be saved (for Christ died for all men and calls all men to salvation) but this passage is describing how the salvation, sanctification and glorification process works for whom so ever believes in Christ.  God first “calls” each person to salvation by wooing them with grace, then if the person responds to the call of grace by their “free will” of belief (which is head knowledge of recognizing who Christ is and the heart knowledge of receiving Christ as their personal savior) then God “justifies” that person with the righteousness of Christ and after their death God “glorifies” that person with a resurrected body.  God’s grace is able to do the work of salvation (being saved from the penalty of sin), the work of sanctification (being saved from the power of sin and being conformed into the image of His Son) and the work of glorification (being saved from the presence of sin and giving a person a new resurrected body after death).  In other words, the grace that is calling everyone to salvation comes with the “all sufficient grace” to predestine a person to be like Christ and enjoy Him forever.

Romans 1:18-20 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” 

God’s grace is always being poured out upon each person on earth, all the time.  God is always “calling” each person into repentance and salvation in Jesus Christ through His grace, as though He is knocking on the door of each person’s heart.  The issue of why some people are save and some are not saved is not the fault of God because He with holds His grace from some and pours out irresistible grace upon others (as the Calvinist contrive) but the issue is whether or not man is “willing” to respond to the all sufficient and amazing grace that God continually pours out upon each person.   Scripture clearly tells us that man is without excuse for failing to acknowledging the greatness of God’s creation and his sin that destroys it.  So unless a person is “willing” to acknowledge the destruction of his sin nature, the call of God’s grace offering forgiveness of sin makes no sense to the person.

Ephesians 1:4-6  “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved”

This passage explains that God’s desire for us from the foundation of the world is that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  But tragically man’s sin disrupted the original plan of God that was to make man holy and blameless.  Yet, God foreknew that sin would disrupt His plan for man therefore God “predestined a way” to redeem His plan, through “adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” for those who are willing to be saved from their sin.  God foreknew that He would have to send His only begotten Son to pay for the cost of what our sin destroyed and God predestined a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ.  God has predestined/protected the individuals who carried the linage of Christ from Eve to Mary but God did not predestine or force these individuals or any other person to accept His offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. 

Predestination simply means that God has guaranteed to make a way to fulfill His promise to have a Heaven and Earth where man reigns and rules with Christ.  Genesis 1:26  “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”   Sin has not ruined God’s plan for man but it has put His plan “on hold” while God builds lives of faith that are able to enter and inherit His Kingdom.  It is a “free will” decision by each person, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, that gives that person Spiritual birth into God’s Kingdom and this decision is not coerced or predestined by God.

And it is the “grace of God” that is poured out equally on each person that is able to convict a person of his sin and save a person from his sin but the grace of God can not save a person unless that person “first” turns from their self indulgent nature (sin) and turns toward the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and accepts the gift.  God does not force anybody to love Him, that is not what love is.  And this is why people say “a person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”  Like the scripture says, it is not by our works that we are saved, so we cannot boast.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 

Some might say, it was irresistible grace that knocked Saul off his horse and gave him overwhelming evidence to stop persecuting Christ and become Paul, his ambassador.  Well, there were many that saw the overwhelming evidence of Christ’s resurrection from the empty tomb they did not believe.  And some saw Jesus walk the earth after He rose from the dead and they did not believe.  Thomas said, unless I put my finger in his side, I will not believe.  Is that your excuse for denying Christ because He hasn’t revealed Himself personally to you?  Well, if you are honest and sincerely in your heart desire to know the living God, He will make Himself known to you.  Saul was looking for Christ, even while he persecuted his followers, that is way he asked in Acts 9:5-6 “And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”

As in the case of Saul of Tarsus, I believe that God did knock him off his horse and blind his eyes but Saul have the free will to sit in anger with God or in pity from God but Saul “chose” to call upon God.  In most cases, I think God lifts His hand of protection and allows Satan or our sin nature or the evil in the world to knock us off our own horse.  Then when we are down on our backside we might just lookup to Him and try to figure out what happened.  This is the way God revealed my sin nature to me, when a perfect storm of bad circumstances made me seriously consider my motives and the motives of those around me.  Of course, I can’t explain why some people remain clueless about their sin nature, even enjoying their rebellious self centered way as they sail along through the storms of life on Satan’s pirate ship, stealing from God without regard for their eternal soul.  In some cases when a person is mugged, this will cause them to change their view that man is basically good and they will see the sin nature of man while someone else who is mugged may become less sensitive to sin and seek to do the same to others.  So you see God is pouring out His grace and/or lifting His hedge of protection equally upon each person so man is without excuse for failing to to see the awesomeness of God (Romans 1:20) and the sin nature of man (Romans 1:21).  The fault is with the free will of man who chooses to ignore the evidence God and and the evidence of sin in him and all around him.

In the same sense, it is the grace of God that works in salvation that changes a person into “an elect” born again child of God but this elect status does not “kick in” until after a person responds to the gift of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ by their own free will.  When you freely accept the offer of salvation in Jesus Christ you become an “elect” person that is granted heavenly citizenship and an inheritance of rewards in heaven based on the faithful works you do in Christ after you are saved.  However, some people are NOT willing to receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ and they remain disconnected from God for all eternity, which results in a life of torment in the Lake of Fire.  

But why some people do accept the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ while other are NOT willing to accept the gift of salvation is a question for the ages … one we may never know the answer too.  Why did Moses choose to identify with the people of God, the Jews, and be treated as a slave rather than be called the son Pharaoh’s daughter?  Moses believed there was a heavenly reward in Christ that was much greater than the treasures of Egypt. (Hebrews 11:23-29)  And why was Paul willing to share in the suffering to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ?  It was because Paul believed that he would share in the glory of Jesus Christ in Heaven. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)  And why did Jesus humble himself and take on the form of a bond-servant, even being obedient to the point of death on a cross?  It is because Jesus knew that God would highly exalted Him above every other name so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  (Philippians 2:6-11)

And what reward are you seeking?  A reward that is here on earth that can not give you eternal life or the reward that God predestined for you to obtain in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world?  You have the free will to ask God to redeem your soul by accepting Christ as Lord of your life, thus beginning a life of faith, the life God predestined and desires for you to have.  God is able to do the work of salvation if you put your trust in Him.  And God is able to give you grace to do good works that He has prepared for you to do in Christ Jesus, after salvation. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10

When people ask me which is more powerful man’s free will or God’s sovereign will? I point them to these passages.

Matthew 23:27 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

 

John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

From the above scripture it is clear that God loves all of us and it is His choice that we would not die in our sin but that we would have eternal life in Jesus Christ but some people are NOT willing to be believe in Christ and be gathered into the family of God.  So it is man’s free will (or God’s allowed will) that trumps God’s preferred will.  Those who choose to be saved from their sin by grace through faith in Jesus Christ get what they want, to become Spiritually connected to God and remain forever connected to God (eternal life) and to one day be “free” from the presence of sin.  And those who choose to die in their sin get what they want, to remain eternally separated from God forever a slave to their sin.  The only One who doesn’t get what He prefers is God … for none to perish!

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Part II, Predestination as it applies to making a way for Christ to bring Savlation to man (YES) 

In the above article I focused on explaining the concept of Predestination as it relates to salvation, pointing out that God does not choose who is predestined for salvation but God predestined His only begotten Son to make a way for man to be saved.  In this next part I want to focus on the concept of Predestination as it relates to God’s providence in providing “a way” for God’s Son to be born into the world.  The following scripture from Romans 9:14-24 is one that many people stumble over because they confuse God’s grace concerning salvation which is poured out equally upon all men with God mercy, compassion and hedge of protection which is sometime lifted from a person in order to test that person or judge that person.

Romans 9:  14What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

The first part of this discourse in Romans 9, Paul is explaining God’s sovereignty based this passage.

 Exodus 33:19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

In this passage the Lord is telling Moses that it is not because the Jewish people were better than others or more worthy than others that He made them His chosen people.  In this sense, God’s protection and providence for the Jews was a gift of His grace and compassion that was not based on their worthiness.  This gift of compassion and protection did not guarantee salvation to a Jew but it guaranteed that the Jews would be protected by God because God promised Abraham that the Messiah would come through him.  Therefore the Jews enjoyed the protection and compassion of God whether they believed in God for their salvation or not.  This promise of a Messiah that would come from a woman goes back to the garden in Genesis 3:15 and the complete linage from Adam to Mary can be found in Luke 3:23:38 (http://www.ldolphin.org/2adams.html).

God’s grace concerning salvation is poured out equally upon each person with the person choosing or not choosing to be saved while Gods’ grace and compassion concerning providing a woman from the lineage of Judah to bear God’s Son is poured out upon people of God’s choosing who are physically born into their position of fulfilling the promise regardless of what they believe concerning salvation.  Just like in your own linage, if you are a believer in Christ, there are probably at least one of more people in your linage that are not believers.  So you see this passage is not taking about the grace of salvation that is poured out upon all people but it is talking about the grace of God that is poured out upon the Jews to protect them so God’s Son could be born through the line of Judah, as God He promised (Genesis 49:9, Revelation 5:5).

The second part of this discourse in Romans 9, Paul is explaining God’s sovereignty based this passage.

Exodus 9: 15“For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. 16“But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. 17“Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go. 

Paul further clarifies, that it was God who allowed Pharaoh to rise in power.  God is Lord of all.  God’s permissive will “allows” evil to prosper and rise to power.  God does not champion sin but He sometimes restrains and delays His judgment for sin, while He is working all things toward good in the end.  God’s allows man to sin and glory in himself, for a while, but God’s greater glory always trumps sin and glorifies God in the end.  Just as Joseph explained to his brothers that their intent for selling him into captivity for evil but God meant it for good, in order to preserve many people alive, including his brothers (Genesis 50:20).

Romans 9:18 “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires”

This is the scripture that people hold onto for their fatalistic view that God’s predestines and causes everything to occur, including sin and who is going to be saved from sin and who is not going to be saved.  But as we have been discussing, Paul is not talking about salvation here but about God’s providence to provide a way for His Son to born through a woman.  God’s demonstrated His mercy on the Jews, so they would be able to “go” to the land of promise and fulfill His promise to bring His Son into the world through a Jewish woman from the tribe of Judah … the virgin Mary.

Now concerning the hardening of Pharaoh heart, in Exodus, it is stats that Pharaoh hardened his own heart 4 times and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart 6 times.  So what does it mean when Pharaoh hardening his own heart and what does it mean when God hardened Pharaoh heart?  Well, this perhaps is the most difficult concept to understand and explain in the Bible and theologians have debated the issue for ages.  Some say that when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He caused Pharaoh to sin but this doesn’t make sense because James 1:13, says “God tempts no one to sin.”  Some say that in both cases Pharaoh hardened his own heart but when it is said that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart it is drawing attention to God’s foreknowledge of all things that happen, as opposed to Pharaoh’s free will at the moment.  I think this is nice way to dodge the question rather than a good answer to the question.  The issue is, how can you say that God doesn’t want people to sin if He causes a person to sin by hardening their heart against Him?  And not only was Pharaoh’s heart hardened but so where his servants

Exodus 10: 1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, 2and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”

My explanation is that God’s does not directly harden a heart but God lifts His hedge of protection and restraining influence of evil from a person so that Satan and/or the Demons entice and infect the heart with evil and make a hard heart even harder towards God.  The heart is the Spiritual center of man, the place where God longs to reside and have fellowship with the person and reign over a person’s life.  It is because of the sin of Adam and Eve that man is born Spiritually disconnected from God, with a heart that is Spiritually empty.  And this is the life long search and goal of man, to find and satisfy the Spiritual void of his heart.  Of course God Himself is the only One that can fill and satisfy this Spiritual void but the self indulgent nature (sin) of man is not very easily convinced of this fact and therefore man by his nature acts as a rebel towards the will of God.

Look, plain and simple God is not the author of sin.  Furthermore, sin is not something that is created but it is something that destroys what God has created.  Sin is a decision of “free will” that is directed by self instead of directed by God.  Satan is the first to sin and the virus of sin infected 1/3 of the Angels and all life on earth, including man.  Satan’s sin all the time in order to try and dethrone God so he can assume the throne and receive the worship that is due God.  Man’s desire to sin is more of a case of self deception, in that man doesn’t realize from birth that he is really a slave to sin and a puppet for Satan.  Satan is the prince of this world and he has real Spiritual power that can reach man’s Spiritual center and deceive him to rebel against God.  Satan’s power can also be manifested in the physical realm to destroy cause sickness and even effect the weather.  However, Satan’s power is limited and restrained by God.

When a “person hardens their own heart“, they are deceived by their own reasoning to think they deserve what ever they are able to take from world but they are really “stealing” from God who created the world.  In this sense, a person is deceived and their heart is hardened by their “own stinking thinking” and they rebel against God by following their own selfish will.   When “God hardens a person’s heart“, He lifts His restraining influence from evil forces upon an already hard heart and a person is deceived and their heart is hardened by the power of Satan’s lie so they rebel against God and follow Satan’s will.  In either case the result is the same, a hardening of the heart and a rebellion towards God.

Remember the story of Job, in Job’s case when God lifted His restraining influence from Satan, Satan’s lies did not harden the heart of Job because Job’s heart was already softly directed toward God.  Thank God as a born again believer my Spirit is sealed by the Holy Spirit and Satan’s lies can’t invade me through my Spirit but he can still tempt me through the world and the flesh.  But in the story of Judas, Satan entered Judas at the table of the last supper and lead him to betray Jesus.  Was Judas prevented from being saved by God because of this sin?  No, Judas could have repented even of this sin and have been saved but he was not willing.  Was Pharaoh prevented from being saved by God because of his rebellious acts toward God?  No and quite frankly we don’t know the final story concerning Pharaoh life and his relationship with God, perhaps after seeing his first born son die and seeing his entire army was wiped out by God in the Red Sea, that was enough “grace” to turn his heart toward God.  Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar, after seven years of eating grass like an animal his Spirit was changed and he acknowledged God as Lord of his life.

So is God cruel for allowing sin to come into the world and fester in the world and for allowing Satan to roam around deceiving people to sin?  No, God sent His only Son to die on a cross for man’s sin in order to redeem man from sin.  Sin is a temporary virus that God allows to exist in the world to demonstrate what is greater than sin … God’s grace, His forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ.  Plus a born again believer by faithfully serving Christ after salvation is in essence fighting sin and storing up treasures in Heaven.  This is a sound teaching to motivate a Christian to do good works of faith after salvation but sadly many Christians fail to comprehend it and therefore they don’t spend their days denying self and surrendering to God’s Holy Spirit.  If a person is truly a born again Christians they will make it to heaven but they are likely to have a tinge of smokey smell as all their works are like straw (self motivated) and they are burnt up at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Overall, concerning Bible interpretation, it is unhealthy to take one scripture that contradicts a hundred other scriptures and use that one scripture to form a theological view of God.  To me, that is what Calvinism does with the concept of predestination, it misrepresents the love of God and the grace of God that is equally poured out on concerning the offer of salvation found in Jesus Christ.  If you find a passage in scripture that seems to contradict other passages in scripture then you should pray to God for His understanding to explain His word.  The greatest blessings that come from scripture are the ones that come when we “first” don’t understand God’s word but after much prayer and study we are later enlightened by God.  God is a God of logic, order and truth.  The root issue in understanding what seems to be a contradiction concerning the predestination of God’s will is:  Does God have a predestined sovereign will that man cannot change?  Yes, the means of providing salvation that is found in Jesus Christ.  Does God have a permissive that that man can change?  Yes, the acceptance or denial of salvation in Jesus Christ.

God wants everyone to know Him, join Him and enjoy Him.  Some, like Moses, sense God’s goodness and preferred will for their life and they choose to be saved by God and used by God, while others like Pharaoh do not sense God’s goodness and preferred will for their life because they are too wrapped up in their own self indulgent nature (sin) or listening to the lies of Satan.  God originally predestined Pharaoh for glory with God before the fall of Adam but after the fall, it was Pharaoh who choose to remain a slave to sin and an enemy to God.  God created Moses and Pharaoh with the same love He created all His creatures.  And God poured out the same amount of saving grace on Pharaoh as He did on Moses.  Pharaoh is lump of clay “prepared for destruction“ not because God predestined this path for him but because “Pharaoh, like others who reject God, choose” to remain on the path of sin, which is headed for destruction.

+8^)   Rogersings

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