Calvinism Defended:
The Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart
By
This is the 15th section of the e-mail exchange I had with Bill, an individual who objected to Calvinism. Click here to go back to the table of contents, or here to go to the full 88 page exchange.
From My First E-mail: "… Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?"
Bill's Response: Please reread the background passages in the Exodus concerning how God hardens hearts. God synergically hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Pharaoh hardened his own heart) and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by mercy and grace. Exodus 5:15 “But when Pharaoh saw that there was mercy and grace, he hardened his heart. Yes, God pours out His mercy and grace in the person of His Son Jesus Christ even on Pharaoh. Whoso ever will may receive or reject His mercy and grace. Also, please read why God makes one vessel for honor and another dishonor in Jeremiah the other background passage for Romans. Jeremiah 18:6-10. That passage in Jeremiah looks like synergy to me.”
My
Response: Actually,
your reference is incorrect. You
are quoting Exodus 8:15, not 5:15. Even
if it were 5:15, that would still not be the first time that the hardening of
Pharaoh’s heart is mentioned. The
very first time is in Exodus 4:21, “And the LORD said to Moses, "When
you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I
have put in your hand. But I will
harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”
First, we notice that God states His purpose and what will transpire before it
ever happens. Where does that leave
the libertarian freewill of any single individual in the text (whether it is
Moses, Aaron, the Israelites, the Egyptians, etc.)?
It leaves it non-existent, because not one single individual could
actually choose a thing contrary to what God’s fore determined will and
purpose were and are. They only
have “free will” in the sense that I have spoken of throughout (which, in
theological terms, has been called the “compatiblist view.”
This link http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/topic/freewill.html
contains numerous articles and will provide a great overview for you, if, for
nothing else, to at least give you an accurate view of what we believe instead
of laboring under the false conceptions you currently have, which have resulted
in the bulk of your response to me.).
Second,
according to this passage, who is the active agent, and who is the passive
agent? God is the only active agent
in the passage. There is nothing
synergistic about what is stated. It
is pure monergism. The hardening of
Pharaoh’s heart was not something that Pharaoh “cooperated” in, rather, it
was something that God sovereignly accomplished in Pharaoh.
Now, this does not mean that God did not use certain means to accomplish
His hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, nor does it mean that Pharaoh did not want
to harden his heart, nor does it mean that God created fresh evil in Pharaoh’s
heart. Rather, Pharaoh, like the
rest of us prior to regeneration, was already a God-hater, and enemy of God who
would not, because he could not, embrace the things of God (Rom 3:10-18; 1 Cor
2:14). He, like the rest of us,
already had a heart of stone (a heart doesn’t get much harder than stone).
In one sense, Pharaoh is just a microcosm of all of us, that even in the
face of incredible mercy, and even being an eyewitness to the glory of God, he
did not fall on his knees to receive the things of God, but continued in his
rebellion. If that doesn’t
describe the human race to a tee, I don’t know what does.
Anyway, God then, in dealing with Pharaoh, was dealing with an
unregenerate sinner who was dead in his trespasses and sin and was already an
enemy of God and a God-hater, and would continue to be so unless God sovereignly
removed his stony heart and gave him a heart of flesh.
The means that God used to hardened Pharaoh’s heart was not evil, but a
manifestation of His divine omnipotence, sovereignty, grace, and mercy.
With God being so glorified, what could one who hates God do? Unless God intervened with His Spirit and grace, Pharaoh, and
any other person for that matter, would only grow to hate God even more.
The message of the cross is an offence to those who are perishing, and
Christ and Him crucified is a stumbling block and foolishness to the natural
man. It will always be that way to
us, unless God removes our heart of stone, and gives us a heart of flesh.
Also,
it should not be lost that God’s Word always accomplishes what He sends it out
to do; it never returns to Him void. But,
that would not be the case if God’s purpose was to always save every single
person to whom He brings His Gospel, because many reject that message.
If many reject the message, and God’s purpose was to save them through
it, then His Word has indeed returned unto Him void.
Instead, we discover that God’s Gospel is designed specifically to save
the elect, and it is to the elect that God’s Word becomes the instrument
through which the Holy Spirit works to bring about saving faith, etc.
In terms of the reprobate, the Gospel serves as a testimony against them
and their sinful hearts. Thus,
God’s Word always accomplishes its purpose, and never returns unto Him void.
In the one (the elect), His Word is seed, and the Holy Spirit works
through it to bring His people to Himself, which work, by the way, He never
fails to do. In others (the
non-elect), His Word is a testimony against them and their sinfulness.
Lastly, with regard to this point, we still have to deal with the immediate context of Romans 9:16-19. In that passage, the whole point is that God is sovereign in His bestowing of His mercy, and that bestowment is not done with a view to anything in man (cf 9:11), and that He is also sovereign in His raising up and hardening of people (9:17-18). This is the reason why Paul anticipates the objection “why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” If the Scriptures taught a synergistic view of salvation, this question would never have been asked! Synergism sets just fine with natural man. But this that Paul is speaking of places everything in the hands of God. The natural man has always hated that.
But let's, as you say, hear the inspired apostle speak:
"16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Rom 9:16-21)
Where synergism is in all of that, I have absolutely no idea. Both the immediate context of the passage, and the background (Exodus) refute your view. Again, with all due respect, it is simply impossible, Bill, to hold to the view you are espousing if we are to take the Scriptures seriously. Maybe you can, but I certainly cannot.
Bill Writes: "Yes, God pours out His mercy and grace in the person of His Son Jesus Christ even on Pharaoh."
My Response:
Really?
That is quite a recasting of the atonement, and would make God both
unjust, and unwise. God would be
unjust, because Jesus would have made an actual atonement for Pharaoh, whereby
Divine justice was completely satisfied, yet, Pharaoh would still be forced to
pay the penalty for his sins. God
would be unwise, for He sent Jesus to die for someone whom He already knew was
in hell. If the entire purpose of Jesus’ atonement was to actually
save sinners, then how could Jesus’ atonement have any salvific relevance at all for
those whom God knows will not be saved? You
also blur the distinction between the mercy that results in salvation, and the
mercy whereby God sends rain on the just and the unjust (what we call “common
grace.”).
Bill Writes: "Whoso ever will may receive or reject His mercy and grace."
My Response: Yes,
and who is it that ever “wills?” The
only thing that those of Adams stock “will” is the rejection of His mercy
and grace. Only those who have been
made willing ever “will” to receive His mercy and grace.
All those, and only those, given to Jesus by the Father will
come.
Bill Writes: Also, please read why God makes one vessel for honor and another dishonor in Jeremiah the other background passage for Romans. Jeremiah 18:6-10. That passage in Jeremiah looks like synergy to me.
My Response:
God is the one who is said
to do with clay as He sees fit, to raise up one nation, and to bring another
down. That does not relieve our
responsibility to comply with what God commands.
However, what the passage in Jeremiah teaches us is that no one is able
to comply perfectly with God’s stipulations.
This is brought out later in the passage (verses 13 and following).
This is precisely why God states later in Jeremiah that He will make a
new covenant whereby He will put His Law in our minds and write it on our
hearts, and He will be our God, and we His people, and all of God’s people
shall know Him, and He will forgive their iniquities. This is not synergism, but monergism. Even the prophet Jeremiah himself is a testimony to the
sovereignty of God for in 1:5 we read that God “knew” Jeremiah before God
formed him in the womb, and before he was even born he was separated and
ordained to be a prophet to the nations. Where
was Jeremiah’s “free will” in all of that?