Dr Paul Allen

  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden." (Romans 9:17–18). We see in verse 18 that the reverse side of God’s mercy is His “hardening” of people in sin. This verse can be rather shocking. At first glance, it seems to say that God hardens the hearts of some people and then punishes them for the sins that flow out of their hardened hearts. Such an idea is repugnant to everything the Bible teaches about God’s character and righteousness. God is not capable of committing an unjust act. There is no “darker side” of God’s personality. Active Versus Passive Hardening To understand this, we have to distinguish between active hardening and passive hardening. What we have in this verse is an example of God’s punitive judgment against a wicked man. Pharaoh was already ...

A depiction of the Hebrews' bondage in Egypt, during which they were forced to make bricks without straw. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Possible Exodus Routes. In black is the traditional Exodus route; other possible routes are in blue and green. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) English: Dura Europos synagogue wall painting showing the Hebrew leaving Egypt : west wall, register A (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Israelites Leaving Egypt (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Is the Biblical Exodus fact or fiction?  This is a loaded question. Although Biblical scholars and archaeologists argue about various aspects of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt , many of them agree that the Exodus occurred in some form or another. The question “Did the Exodus happen” then becomes “ When  did the Exodus happen?” This is another heated question. Although there is much debate, most people settle into two camps: They argue for either a 15th-century B.C.E. or 13th-century B.C.E. date for Israel’...

English: Moses Pleading with Israel, as in Deuteronomy 6:1-15, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I am stunned every time I read the story of the Exodus . How can the people of Israel complain like they do? How could they be so ignorant, so stupid, so forgetful? The God of the universe had just tossed around the most powerful man on the face of the earth like a toddler with a rag doll. God didn’t just humble Pharaoh ; he broke his spirit and revealed Pharaoh’s impotence. A slave people and their God left him and his nation in shambles. This display of power sent vibrations throughout the world, inspiring fear and awe. The Deadly Disease of Spiritual Amnesia Yet Israel ’s response to this spectacular deliverance from Egypt is not mainly praise, worship, and whole-hearted trust. Instead, Israel responds with  grumbling  — complaining, murmuring, quarreling. “No water, Moses ! Where’s the bee...

Rahab and the Emissaries of Joshua (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Three common systems of ethics Christians subscribe to: 1) Graded ethics. E.g. when lying to save a life, a lie is clearly the lesser of two evils. 2) Situational ethics . E.g. when lying to save a life, if the life is an innocent one and the person you are lying to doesn’t deserve the truth, then in that situation the lie is not evil at all, but justified by the situation. 3) Absolutism . E.g. God never permits us to sin, a lie is always a sin, and your only responsibility is to refrain from sinning; thus either refuse to co-operate with the request and deal with the consequences, or tell the truth and deal with the consequences. Here is a Bible passages that seem to contradict absolutism.  The Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:15-20). If you read the account carefully you will notice that Shiphrah and Puah did not lie to save the lives of the Hebrew babies, they lied to save their own skin. They had already saved the ...

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...

The provocation was very great. They wanted to return to Egypt from which God had delivered them. He had delivered them from bondage, parted the sea, fed them with bread from heaven, led them through the wilderness, and yet they could not trust His power to prevail over a few giants! They doubted His power. At Horeb they had made a calf, because they said it had brought them out of the land of Egypt, Exod. 32:4. They now wanted a captain to lead them back into Egypt. What is more they wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb who had told the truth. Truth is never popular, yet how important to maintain it in regard to the proper position and inheritance of the saints. The Lord’s anger was aroused, and He threatened to disinherit them and to make of Moses a great nation instead. Moses wanted no glory for himself, but he was jealous for God’s Name and glory. He could not bear the thought of the lustre of that glory being tarnished in the eyes of the nations around, vv. 15, 16. Moses pleaded f...

English: English translation of hebrew version. Map of the twelve tribes of Israel, before the move of Dan to the North (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) " Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” ( Hosea 4:17 ) Our God is longsuffering and full of mercy, but there is a line which must not be crossed. It is dangerous to presume that God will always continue to forgive; He can become a “consuming fire” ( Hebrews 12:29 ). The leaders of Ephraim (a collective term for the ten northern tribes of Israel ) had passed this point of no return. They had become completely infatuated with the pantheistic polytheism of the nations, being “joined” to their symbolic models of natural forces and all the immoral practices which accompanied such nature worship. The word for “joined” means “fascinated by.” They had been brought so deeply under the occult powers behind these nature-god idols as to be irrevocably committed to them, so that it would be a waste of time and tears to try to reclaim th...