Rom 9
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
20 On 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?
21 Or 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?
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So far so good for Calvinism! (If we exclude vs 15-16)--
Perfect Calvinist point here - the chapter should END here to preserve the Calvinist point and not wreck it. It appears that maybe God is claiming that it is not man's choice - but rather God's choice to NOT have Mercy on the many, and to harden them instead.
But wait a minute!
The text instructs us to SEE what the scripture says about Pharaoh!-
A. His heart
"was hardened" Exodus 7:13, Ex 9:7,35
B. And the blame is assigned to Pharaoh who
"Hardened His own Heart" Exodus 8:15,32
C. And The all-knowing God by sending His judgments - takes an active role such that
"God hardened Pharaoh" Ex 7:3, 10:1,20
These are ALL true because the action of God designed for SOFTENING – results in hardening when the soul chooses to reject light rather than accept it.
How does a dead man “harden his heart”?? The answer is that In ALL God has supernaturally placed
“enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent” Gen 3 so that mankind is supernaturally “drawn to God” against his own sinful nature. Mankind is ENABLED to choose to respond to the “Knocking at the door” Rev 3. And mankind CAN choose to harden his heart instead of opening the door. With each of God’s “knocking” convictions, judgments – calling – we can either soften and respond to the John 16 work of the Spirit or harden our hearts against it.
The
pristine Calvinist example of Pharaoh being neutral - and God arbitrarily hardening him is missing from the account. Rather, God is sending those judgment designed to soften and turn the wicked from their ways - but when the wicked
"Refuse to take Correction" as we see Israel doing in Jeremiah 5, the result is "hardening".
#1. Whatever happened to "Total depravity"? Why would God need to "harden" anyone? Aren't we "ALL" sinners, and all by nature inclined to be "hardened" against God? Wouldn't the "outside act" of God only be needed if He wanted to "change" our sinful response to something other than the "totally depraved" hardening that we ourselves are always going to adopt? Is Calvinism trying to have it "both ways" on this point? Indeed this is our first clue that something is not right in Calvinism’s spin for this text.
#2 As pointed out in the previous note - this approach only applies to that subgroup within the Arminian camp that believe that man is "neutral" and that do not accept the "totally depraved" aspect of our sinful nature. Only in that context COULD there be "hardening" by God! And that is a starting point that even Calvinists “Admit” is false. But if that sometimes-Arminian starting point WERE true – then this “hardening by God of NEUTRAL souls” would indeed be the devious and wicked plot "against" man based on “partiality alone” that Calvinists imagine it to be.
It would “show” active dislike/hatred/evil-intent by God against
a being that is otherwise neutral and might otherwise have chosen God if God had not actively "hardened them" of His own choice, bias and partiality! But such an internally-self-conflicted Calvinist scenario – is not the case.
#3. The softening principle of scripture:
Isaiah 26:9-10
9 "when the Earth experiences Thy Judgments - The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 "Though the wicked is shown favor, he does not learn righteousness; he deals unjustly in the land of uprightness"
This is true in general - it is not a specific statement about just - Israel.
#4. The hardening principle when man rejects God's correction
Jeremiah 5:3
3 Thou hast smitten them, But they did not weaken, Thou hast consumed them But they Refused to take Correction
They have made their faces harder than rock, they have refused to repent (speaking of Israel not Egypt)
So here we see how
the action of God that is designed to cause softening - results in
"hardening" in cases where the will is used to reject correction (as we see Israel doing in Jeremiah 5). Both God and man play a part in that - but God's part in sending judgments is the only hope for "Softening" since by showing favor to the wicked (as we see above) is not a mechanism for "turning them" from evil.
Luke 7:
28 “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29 When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John.
30 But the Pharisees and the £lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.
31 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?
32 “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
‘The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
