The best, most direct, simple answer to the question above is: �In order to demonstrate His power, and in order that His name might be proclaimed throughout the entire earth.�
The reason that is the best, most direct, simple answer to the question is because it is God's own answer. See Exodus 9:16 and Romans 9:17.
God raised up Pharaoh and hardened Pharaoh's heart in order to promote His own glory.
�But,� you may say, �that doesn�t sound right to me. It just doesn't seem to me that God would arrange for a person to actually sin and rebel just to make Himself great.�
At which point I would ask, �How do you propose that we determine the truth about what motivates the heart of God? Will we base our conclusions on our own feelings about what seems right? Or will we base our conclusions on what God Himself says in the Bible to be true about what motivates Him?�
Many wise and reputable commentators propose that when the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, what it really means is that God simply facilitated a process that Pharaoh himself initiated. After all, the Bible repeatedly also states that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, i.e. Exodus 8:15 and 32.
Dr. Norman Geisler, for instance, a scholar whose work we regard highly and frequently cite in this publication, holds that God did not directly harden Pharaoh's heart (or anyone else's heart for that matter) contrary to their own free choice, but only indirectly, through their own choice. In their excellent book When Critics Ask (�1992 Victor Books), Geisler and Howe say,
�God in His omniscience foreknew exactly how Pharaoh would respond, and He used it to accomplish His purposes. God ordained the means of Pharaoh's free but stubborn action��
And that's the position of many other respected commentators. But not all. There are those who believe that the simplest and most accurate reading of Exodus chapters 4-9, and the corresponding text in Romans 9:17ff, rather indicates that it was God Himself and none other who was the primary, initiating, direct, and driving force behind Pharaoh's choice to harden his heart.
Romans 9 is perhaps the most difficult chapter in the Bible to read, accurately understand, and fully accept, because what Romans 9 teaches flies in the face of our human inclination to be independent, self-determining, and proud. Romans 9 indicates that it is God, not us�not me�who is in control. In fact, it shows that God is in such total control that He can and does sovereignly elect to show mercy to some people while hardening the hearts of others. And it shows that He is just in doing so. And it shows that I am in no position to challenge Him on the matter (Romans 9:20-21). And it shows that I am also still fully responsible for all of my actions and accountable for all of my choices.
Am I then saying that God Himself actually arranged for Pharaoh to sin?
Job was attacked by Satan.Yes, in much the same sense that He arranged for Joseph's brothers to sell Joseph into slavery (Genesis 50:20), Satan to attack Job (Job 1:12), Jews and and Romans to crucify Jesus (Acts 2:23), and sin to exist in the first place.
Well, if that's true, how can we explain what seems like a contradiction�that God wills sin which is, by definition, against His will.
Theologians have often handled this paradox by concluding that there are two wills in God, sometimes referred to as God's sovereign will and His revealed (perceptive) will, or His will of command and His will of decree. And also by understanding that in God's view and plan, it is good that there is evil in this world. Note�that is not to say that evil is itself good; only that evil serves a worthy end and is therefore an important and integral part of God's good purposes.
But isn't God compassionate toward all men�even sinners? And if so, how could He harden Pharaoh's heart while simultaneously loving him and feeling compassion for him?
Dr. John Piper addresses this as follows:
�There is a genuine inclination in God's heart to spare those who have committed treason against his kingdom. But his motivation is complex, and not every true element in it rises to the level of effective choice. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real� Yet not all of these longings govern God's actions. He is governed by the depth of his wisdom expressed through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive (Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 2:9). There are holy and just reasons for why the affections of God's heart have the nature and intensity and proportion that they do.�
but if youll notice that in exodus chapter 5 was the first encounter with pharoah by moses and aron. see the LORD gave pharoah a chance to let HIS people go .. it was later in chapter 7 verse 3 after pharoah had refused to be obedient to GOD. it was then that GOD told moses that HE would harden pharoahs heart and multiply HIS signs and wonders in the land of egypt..
so why did HE wait till the second time they was goin to tell them, that HE was gonna harden the pharoahs heart? could it be because HE gave him the choice at first to obey HIM? and after he refused it was then that he felt the wrath of GOD..
dear man, interisting.. yet noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord , because he was a just man.. when the whole rest of the world was evil around him..
If man is only able to choose on direction because of the condition of his heart, then why is it man is so unpredictable? Why give pharaoh a chance at all if the outcome doesn't matter? Why did God give him an opportunity to chose right, if that choice was not within him? Are you saying that God need time to prepare, like this is a stall tactic on His part?
Frankly, I think pharaoh was free to make any choice he wanted to make and God deal with the consequences of that action accordingly. God knew the condition of his heart and perhaps, knowing this, even if he had made a different choice would later in his life make other choices that would determine his salvation or lack there of.
Often God uses unsaved people to accomplish His goals for man. Richard Nixon is a prime example of this. By his own admission, not a Christian, yet supported Israel at a crucial time to defend its existence primarily because of something his mother had said to him as a child.
People often say that working where I do is like working in a big day care center, which truly makes me laugh for despite similarities it is really not the same at all, but when I look at God and look at the world, I think His job is more like running the worlds' largest daycare center, then mine will ever be, for He does give me the ability to make many decisions knowing He can adjust accordingly to anything I decided to do. He can do that. He's God. There is nothing I can do to help Him or to hinder Him, He's God. We are easily manipulated by Satan, but for those that hear His voice, we too are easily influenced. He's not like us, He's God.
Do you really think any man of so much power...pharaoh, hitler, napoleon, stalin, or any others we could name, could ever have more power than our Almighty God? When God has had enough of their evil ways, they will die in a fire, or get hit by a car or drop dead of a heart attack or be murdered by an assassin. God never needed pharaoh to make a choice either way.
I imagine that is part of the wonder of having us, is that you never know what we are going to do next, for I do not believe we are as predictable as other creatures might be. I think He knows everything we might do, and might even know what we are most likely to do, but the free will thing really is what makes it all so interesting, and that can be the only thing that explains why satan thinks he has a chance in this deal. For in his insanity, I really do believe he thinks he can win, for I am not certain any of God's creatures can really understand just how Big, how Powerful, and how Superior He is next to everything else all put together. I sometimes wonder if you consider the vastness of His creation as we understand it to be, and think of it as an amoeba in His hand, if we would even be close, yet He is still able to count every hair on our head, every grain of sand on a beach.
If we could begin to fathom the enormity of our Almighty God, we would probably fall shaking to the ground, unable to speak, which is why every tongue will confess, and every knee will bow. The Almighty God of all creation cannot be put in a box, for there is nothing big enough to contain who He is or what He can do, and He doesn't need to take away our choices to be who He is or to do what He can do. No one man can move the Mountain of His Plan for what shall be. No one nation can change His Mind for the Design of what will come. The entire world can stand against God, and He will simply erase them from the Book of Life, but we are all given the chance to have our name in His Book if we want it there, but we are given the ultimate choice, to submit to His ways, or to submit to our own selfish ways.
For all the complexity, it still comes down to the simplest of choices to be seduced by the lure of sin or to submit to a God that wants for none to perish, but for all to have everlasting life.
God is decribed in the bible as knowing all. past, present future,he is timeless,all-powerful,perfect in everyway.So how could he create beings that he did not know what they would do.The answer is he could not.Thus,he created beings knowing they would sin(including lucifer,Adam)Either way you look at it(predestination or choice)We cannot escape the fact that if god is omnipresent,omnipotent,omniscent,then he created beings with the full knowledge that some of them would be damned.In the arminian veiw some of the beings choose to worship him and some dont,he already knew ahead of time,as a matter of fact,he created them this way on purpose,unless of course your going to tell me he didnt know what they would do,or they were unpredictable.Then you are not describing the god we read about in the bible.Can you follow the logic?Yet all throughout the bible we see passages,and whole chapters describing gods predestining his chosen people,and even stating that we are like clay pots that he can do what he wants with.I think you have it backwards .I am saying god is all powerful and we are nothing compared to him,and obviously not unpredictable in the least bit.
God cant be all knowing and yet not know what we will do.
this is a contradiction and it limits god,and its not biblical
the only god im interested in is the god of the bible,not one we think might be this way or we feel should be that way,but the one who tells us exactly who he is.
Oh, but Steve, He gave us free will, which means He knows every possibility of what we can or would possibly do, which is what makes us fascinating, and what makes Him God. You see, if He has it all written and we have no choice (yawn), what is the point (snooze) what would God have left to do?
You see, I think we have trouble understanding how we cannot help God, for He needs nothing from us, nor can we stand in our way any more than we could stop a semi from running us over by pushing against it.
The beauty is that we can make all our own decisions and He can still write the Book, ending and all, and make it come out True, despite any choice we can make about which side we want to be on. He can do this because He is God, and it escapes our understanding of HOW He can do this because we are so very limited in our understanding.
We are the ones that give Him perimeters; He does not fit in the box. There is not a box big enough to contain our understanding of Him. He can do all things despite our understanding of Him (or lack there of). There are so many things about Him we cannot begin to comprehend, for He is undeniably God, and to think we can ever truly understand His ways fully, well, Steve, we are just not capable of that level of comprehension.
If Satan is persuasive, and we know he truly is manipulative and highly persuasive, how much more persuasive can our Superior, Intelligent, Almighty God be? I think God can persuade anyone to do His work, even His enemies, but they are His enemies, for they choose not to follow Him, but to serve their own self centered sinful ways.
See that is the beauty of free will. We can still make our own choices and He can still write the Book, ending and all because when the Almighty God commands something, it will happen. If it was all decided, there would be little point in it all, but there is something undecided and that is the names in the Book of Life. He would not need to write in any names or erase any names if it was all completely predestined.
He created us to be us, knowing all the scenarios, and can allow us to have those choices, and still He can be God and none of that will ever affect His Power or His Abilities because He is the Everlasting, Almighty, All Powerful, Unchanging, Superior God of All Things great and small. Nothing is too big for Him to overcome or too small for Him to overlook. He allows us to be free and knows in Him we can be free indeed, for He is not limited as we are, and I truly believe it is all those choices to stand for Him or turn away that makes us a favorite among His creations.
For Him to have to have our every choice scripted where we have no choice, would put limits on Him, and He is truly a God without limits. We are limited, and He can adjust to anything any of us can do, on our own or collectively. He does not fit into the box of our thinking or even our comprehension, for He Truly is and AMAZING God. I do not think we can even comprehend the AWE He commands in His presence. He is a God that shows not His face for I truly believe the Awe it commands would mesmerize us to a point we could focus only upon Him and would no longer be able to function on a level where we could make choices other than to be of Him, for we are of Him in His image, unlike any other creature great or small.
I love your theories of Calvinism, my Brother, and find them fascinating, and worth of study, but I still think the thoughts into those theories are too small and put God in a box, and He simply is so much bigger than our thinking or that thought process.
One thing you do have so very right though, You are Loved and You are Chosen in the Love and Purposes of our Almighty God.
1.this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. (Acts 2:23)
2.This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Ephesians 3:11)
but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)
but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. (1 Peter 1:19-20)
the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
3.So David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before the LORD. (2 Samuel 6:21)
'Since the day that I brought My people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, but I chose David to be over My people Israel.' (1 Kings 8:16)
'Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of My servant David whom I chose, who observed My commandments and My statutes; (1 Kings 11:34)
"Yet, the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be a leader; and in the house of Judah, my father's house, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. (1 Chronicles 28:4)
He also chose David His servant, And took him from the sheepfolds; (Psalm 78:70)
4.Then David said, "No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for the LORD chose them to carry the ark of God, and to minister to Him forever." (1 Chronicles 15:2)
5."Thou art the LORD God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham. (Nehemiah 9:7)
6.But [God] chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. (Psalm 78:68)
1.picked out, chosen
a.chosen by God
1.to obtain salvation through Christ
a.Christians are called �chosen or elect� of God
2.the Messiah in called �elect�, as appointed by God to the most exalted office conceivable
3.choice, select, i.e. the best of its kind or class, excellence preeminent: applied to certain individual Christians
8."And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. (Matthew 24:22)
"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)
"And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matthew 24:31)
"And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days. (Mark 13:20)
for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray. (Mark 13:22)
"And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven. (Mark 13:27)
now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? (Luke 18:7)
9.Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70)
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. (John 15:16)
10.Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; (Romans 8:33)
11.just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, (Ephesians 1:4-5)
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, (2 Timothy 1:8-9)
12.And all who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. (Revelation 13:8)
"The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. (Revelation 17:8)
13.For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30)
also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, (Ephesians 1:11)
14.For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
15.'But arise [Paul], and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;' (Acts 26:16)
16.Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? (James 2:5)
17.The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4)
18.For 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." (Romans 9:17)
19.for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." (Romans 9:11-13)
20.For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. (Romans 9:15-16)
21."For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:17)
22.Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70)
23."For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur. (Acts 4:27-28)
man does not want to accept God's sovereignty. the truth of God's sovereignty offends man's pride and his sense of fairness.
He has written our names in the Lamb�s Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. It uses the word predestination. Everyone believes in that, who believes the Bible. God predetermined who would be saved. Before they were ever born. That's in the Bible.
The Bible also says, �Whosoever will may come. Him who cometh to me I will in no wise cast out? Free will is not a biblical term, because man�s will isn't really free. It is bound by sin.
God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race,
without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.
It is the only conclusion that we can logically determine,and what is revealed to me by the holy spirit
