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Why Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart? A Case for Divine Ultimacy

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Every Sunday school child knows the story of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. It contains all the elements that make a good flannelgraph or picture-book story—or even a Hollywood movie. It’s one of the most powerful and dramatic stories in the Bible. But it’s much more than a children’s story. It’s central in the Bible’s storyline, and it’s rich with deep theology and plays a vital role in our understanding of several important doctrines.

In this post I’d like to look at the relevance of the Exodus story for our understanding of God’s sovereignty, particularly as it relates to his work of hardening the hearts of sinners.

NEW: Check out this explainer video generated from this post:

The Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea by Antonio Tempesta

Table of Contents

Was Pharaoh’s Hardening Merely Punishment for His Self-Hardening?

Some interpreters argue that God’s hardening was solely a response to Pharaoh’s prior free self-hardening. According to this view, the ultimate reason God hardened Pharaoh’s heart was that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart. God’s hardening was reactive and judicial. Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart. God responded with further hardening. If Pharaoh had chosen otherwise—and he could have—then God wouldn’t have hardened his heart.

This view seems to have some basis in the text. Layton Talbert makes a good argument for it in Not by Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God, 86–94.

Those who defend it often use some form of these three arguments:

  1. Exodus 3:19 governs the narrative and presents Pharaoh as acting first and God as acting in response.
  2. The general flow of the narrative presents Pharaoh’s self-hardening mainly at the beginning and God’s hardening mainly at the end.
  3. God’s justice requires that his hardening be responsive to Pharaoh’s self-hardening.

Let’s look briefly at each.

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Did John Use Bad Grammar to Teach the Holy Spirit’s Personality?

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Prooftexting the Personality of the Holy Spirit: An Analysis of the Masculine Demonstrative Pronouns in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14

Does the Bible present the Holy Spirit as a person, distinct from the Father and the Son? Yes. Did John use the masculine demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος (instead of the neuter ἐκεῖνο) in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14 to make that point?

An impressive list of people answers yes. But Andy Naselli and I argue they’re wrong in “Prooftexting the Personality of the Holy Spirit: An Analysis of the Masculine Demonstrative Pronouns in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 16 (2011): 65–89.

Here’s the outline:

  1. Introduction
  2. The Argument
  3. Adherents of the Argument
  4. A Counterargument
  5. Adherents of the Counterargument
  6. Objections to the Counterargument
  7. Conclusion

Here’s our introduction:

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Rob Bell and Andrew Wilson Discuss Homosexuality and the Bible

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Rob Bell

Or perhaps I should have titled that “Rob Bell Discusses Homosexuality and Andrew Wilson Discusses the Bible,” because there was a disturbing lack of Bible in Rob Bell’s answers and arguments. Instead, Rob argued along these lines (and I’m paraphrasing):

  • People don’t like Christianity. Therefore, we should change the parts they don’t like.
  • The modern world affirms homosexuality. Therefore, we should too.
  • Monogamous homosexuals aren’t hurting anyone. Therefore, they’re not sinful.
  • Monogamy is better than promiscuity because the latter is dangerous and destructive.
  • Because homosexuals want to share their lives with each other, they should be able to.

I wasn’t familiar with Andrew Wilson prior to watching this video, but I appreciate the way he interacted with Rob. He was direct, logical, kind, persistent, and uncompromising.

Watch it for yourself.

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Warfield, Vos, and Van Til: Is God One Person?

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Shield of the Trinity

Orthodox trinitarianism typically refers to God in terms of three persons or subsistences (personas, subsistentia, or ὑποστάσιες) and one essence or substance (essentia, substantia, or οὐσία). But is there a sense in which God is one person? To put it another way, is God’s oneness personal?

Here’s how three Princeton theologians addressed this topic.

B. B. Warfield (1851–1921)

The elements in the doctrine of God which above all others needed emphasis in Old Testament times were naturally His unity and His personality. The great thing to be taught the ancient people of God was that the God of all the earth is one person. Over against the varying idolatries about them, this was the truth of truths for which Israel was primarily to stand; and not until this great truth was ineffaceably stamped upon their souls could the personal distinctions in the Triune-God be safely made known to them.

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, “The Spirit of God in the Old Testament,” chapter 3 of Biblical Doctrines, vol. 2 of The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), 127 (emphasis added).

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John Murray on Union with Christ

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Redemption Accomplished and Applied

John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied is one of my all-time favorite books. I highly recommend it as a biblical and Reformed study on the atonement and the ordo salutis.

I’m preparing to teach on union with Christ at my church in a couple of weeks, and I decided to reread Murray’s chapter on the subject. It was time well spent.

Here are some highlights:

Nothing is more central or basic than union and communion with Christ. . . . [U]nion with Christ is in itself a very broad and embracive subject. It is not simply a step in the application of redemption; . . . it underlies every step of the application of redemption. Union with Christ is really the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation not only in its application but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished work of Christ. Indeed the whole process of salvation has its origin in one phase of union with Christ and salvation has in view the realization of other phases or union with Christ. (161)

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The Doctrine of the Trinity in Five Theses

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Shield of the TrinityHere’s how Geerhardus Vos articulates the core affirmations of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity:

  1. There is only one divine being. Scripture expresses itself decisively against all polytheism (Deut 6:4; Isa 44:6; Jas 2:19).
  2. In this one God are three modes of existence, which we refer to by the word “person” and which are, each one, this only true God. In Scripture these three persons are called, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  3. These three persons, although together the one true God, are nevertheless distinguished from each other insofar as they assume objective relations toward each other, address each other, love each other, and can interact with each other.
  4. Although these three persons possess one and the same divine substance, Scripture nevertheless teaches us that, concerning their personal existence, the Father is the first, the Son the second, and the Holy Spirit the third, that the Son is of the Father, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Further, their workings outwardly reflect this order of personal existence, since the Father works through the Son, and the Father and Son work through the Spirit. There is, therefore, subordination as to personal manner of existence and manner of working, but no subordination regarding possession of the one divine substance.
  5. The divine substance is not divided among the three persons as if each possesses one-third. Neither is it a new substance beside the three persons. Finally, neither is it an abstraction of our thinking in a nominalistic sense. But in a manner for which all further analogy is lacking, each of these persons possesses the entire divine substance.

Geerhardus Vos, “The Trinity,” chapter 3 of Theology Proper, vol. 1 of Reformed Dogmatics, ed. Richard B. Gaffin, trans. Annemie Godbehere (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013), 38–39.

By the way, today is Vos’s 151st birthday. In honor, Logos Bible Software just posted a 14-volume collection of Vos’s works on Pre-Pub. They’re also working on the first ever English translation of Vos’s Reformed Dogmatics, from which the above quotation comes.

John Piper on Alcohol Consumption

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John Piper

John Piper’s view on alcohol consumption is encapsulated in these four sources:

  1. “Total Abstinence and Church Membership,” a sermon preached on October 4, 1981
  2. “Flesh Tank and Peashooter Regulations,” a sermon on Colossians 2:16–23 preached on January 17, 1982
  3. “Is It Okay to Drink Alcohol?” Ask Pastor John podcast, May 8, 2010
  4. “Is Drinking Alcohol a Sin?” Ask Pastor John podcast, October 23, 2013

Total Abstinence and Church Membership

“Total Abstinence and Church Membership,” though delivered nearly 32 years ago, is his most extensive treatment on the subject (that I’ve come across). In it he gives four main reasons that he personally abstains from alcohol consumption:

  1. “. . . because of my conscience.”
  2. “. . . alcohol is a mind-altering drug.”
  3. “. . . alcohol is addictive.”
  4. “. . . to make a social statement.”
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D. A. Carson on Assurance of Salvation

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D. A. CarsonYesterday Andy Naselli highlighted six resources by D. A. Carson on assurance of salvation. It reminded me of Carson’s article “Reflections on Christian Assurance,” which is one of my favorites on the subject. Carson skillfully holds together what many tear asunder. If you haven’t read it, I’d strongly encourage you to. The balance he strikes is exemplary. I can’t speak to whether some of his other treatments are better, but this one is superb.

He originally presented “Reflections on Christian Assurance” as a paper at Tyndale House in June, 1990 as the Annual Biblical Theology Lecture. Two year later it was published in Westminster Theological Journal 54, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 1–29. In 2000 it was republished as “Reflections on Assurance,” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace, ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 247–76.

Here’s the outline of his article:

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