Does God harden people's hearts who reject him?
The various statements that are made in the Scriptures in regard to God hardening Pharaoh ’s heart have also perplexed a great many young Christians and have frequently been made use of by unbelievers in their attacks upon the Bible . It is said that if God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and, in consequence of this hardening, Pharaoh rebelled against God, then God Himself was responsible for Pharaoh’s sin, and it was unjust to hold Pharaoh accountable for his rebellion and to punish him for it. In Exodus 4:21 ( RV ) we read: “And the LORD said unto Moses , When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go” (see also Exodus 7:3; 14:4). Now from reading these passages it does seem at the first glance as if there were some ground for criticism of God’s action in this matter, or of the Bible account of it. But when we study carefully exactly what the Bib