The Pharaoh

Did God harden the Pharaoh's heart as though it was saved and then lost salvation, or on the verge of being saved and then God disallowed him salvation, or was he already rejecting God and God simply hardened that which was already there to be used to lead His people out of Israel and show God's almighty power?

"That I might shew these my signs before him: and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD" (Ex. 10.1).

"To make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath [such as Pharaoh] fitted to destruction" (Rom. 9.22).

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" (Ps. 76.10).

God was simply helping the Pharaoh do what that tyrant wanted to do. God said to Moses, "I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go..." (Ex. 3.19).

Even Piper (a calvinist) acknowledged:

[b]efore the first active assertion of God's hardening in Exodus 9.12 there are two assertions that he [Pharaoh] hardened his own heart [8.15,32] and after 9.12 there are two assertions that he hardened his own heart [9.34,35] [Thus] Pharaoh's "self-hardening" is equally well attested before and after the first statement that God has hardened him...." (Emphasis added)

"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Says the Lord God: and not rather that he should return from his way and life?" (see Ez. 33.11) Sounds like unlimited atonement, conditional election and resistible grace to me.

When the Pharaoh let Israel go, God did not cause him to do so with irresistible grace. He was simply terrified and on that basis submitted to Yahweh's will (Ex. 12.30-33), but still without true repentance.

Chazaq (Ex. 4.21; 7.13,22; 8.15) in the KJV is the word used for hardening the Pharaoh's heart: to embolden or encourage so he had stubborn courage to stand even in the face of frightening miracles. He simply became stiff-necked and stubborn (Qashah, Ex. 7.3) as was the general direction of his heart intent. This word is distinct from kabed, to harden one's own heart (Ex. 7.14, 8.15, 9.7, 9.34).

The Calvinist says God could, through Irresistible Grace, cause all mankind to believe in Christ and obey Him. If that be true, then the fact that He does not do so runs counter to all that the Bible says of His lovingkindness, mercy and grace. There is no explanation for this glaring contradiction: the Calvinist is forced to plead "mystery."

There is nothing in Rom. 9.20-24 to indicate that God the Potter causes anyone to be or do evil, much less sending people to Hell without the choice after falling into a presumed total depravity.

In contrast, Scripture declares that God has given men the power of choice. Therefore, to force irresistible grace upon them would itself contradict that gift. God violates no one's will. Oh how God endures "the contradictions of sinners" (Heb. 12.3) for a time.

As well the nations of Jacob and Esau are in view, not their individual salvation. Even if their individual salvation was in view, that God knew before they were born speaks of His infinite foreknowledge of their free-choice, not God being the cause of their choice. Not everyone in the generations of Jacob are all saved either; nor is everyone in Edom unsaved.