.
God's free will trumps everybody else's free will, and this fact is very evident
in the confrontation that Jehovah forced between Himself and the Egyptian
monarch holding Moses' people captive.[/size]
• Rom 9:17-18 . . 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. So then He has mercy on whom He
desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
That's a reference to Exodus 9:13-17 where it says:
• Ex 9:13-17 . .Then Jehovah said to Moses: Rise up early in the morning
and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the Jehovah, the God
of the Hebrews; let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I
will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that
you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
. . . For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people
with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But,
indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My
power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you
exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.
There's some interesting information tucked away in Jehovah's proclamation.
The most notable is that He could've simply wiped the Egyptians off the map
with just one miracle and been done with it. But instead, Jehovah chose to
whittle them down piece by piece, a little at a time, and just to make sure
His intentions succeeded; Jehovah deliberately, and willfully, strengthened
Pharaoh's resolve to resist and not give in.
Someone, somewhere, is sure to demand: How can God condemn Pharaoh's
stubborn will to resist when it was God himself who strengthened the man to
do so?
The thing is; Pharaoh was already condemned for refusing Moses' initial
request. From that point on he was dead meat-- Jehovah could say "I own
you" and it became His sovereign prerogative to do with the man as He
pleased because God's free will trumps everybody else's free will.
Now the situation is this: there are people out and about who have been
presented an intelligent gospel message, and turned from it. Those people
have put themselves at risk of God himself deliberately, and willfully,
stiffening their resolve to the point where they will never be able to accept
the gospel-- ever! Thus their destiny in Hell becomes a sealed fate.[/size]
• Heb 10:31 . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.
NOTE: See also 2Thess 2:7-12
_
God's free will trumps everybody else's free will, and this fact is very evident
in the confrontation that Jehovah forced between Himself and the Egyptian
monarch holding Moses' people captive.[/size]
• Rom 9:17-18 . . 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. So then He has mercy on whom He
desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
That's a reference to Exodus 9:13-17 where it says:
• Ex 9:13-17 . .Then Jehovah said to Moses: Rise up early in the morning
and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the Jehovah, the God
of the Hebrews; let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I
will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that
you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
. . . For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people
with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But,
indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My
power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you
exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.
There's some interesting information tucked away in Jehovah's proclamation.
The most notable is that He could've simply wiped the Egyptians off the map
with just one miracle and been done with it. But instead, Jehovah chose to
whittle them down piece by piece, a little at a time, and just to make sure
His intentions succeeded; Jehovah deliberately, and willfully, strengthened
Pharaoh's resolve to resist and not give in.
Someone, somewhere, is sure to demand: How can God condemn Pharaoh's
stubborn will to resist when it was God himself who strengthened the man to
do so?
The thing is; Pharaoh was already condemned for refusing Moses' initial
request. From that point on he was dead meat-- Jehovah could say "I own
you" and it became His sovereign prerogative to do with the man as He
pleased because God's free will trumps everybody else's free will.
Now the situation is this: there are people out and about who have been
presented an intelligent gospel message, and turned from it. Those people
have put themselves at risk of God himself deliberately, and willfully,
stiffening their resolve to the point where they will never be able to accept
the gospel-- ever! Thus their destiny in Hell becomes a sealed fate.[/size]
• Heb 10:31 . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.
NOTE: See also 2Thess 2:7-12
_
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