Double Predestination, Part 3

The Bible teaches that God actively and positively intervenes in the lives of the elect to ensure their salvation.  The rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. God does not create unbelief in their hearts. Unbelief already exists.  Neither does God positively coerce the non-elect to sin. They merely sin by their own choice.

Calvin saw the choosing of the elect as a positive election and the decree not to elect others as a negative election.  Hyper-Calvinists differ in their take on double predestination in this way. They see the decree of God to choose the elect and to create unbelief in the non-elect as “positive-positive.” Calvinists see double predestination as “positive-negative.”

Here is a chart to compare the two schools of thoughts:

Calvinism                    

Positive-negative

Asymmetrical view

Unequal ultimacy

God passes over the

Reprobate

Hyper-Calvinism

Positive-Positive

Symmetrical view

Equal Ultimacy

God works unbelief in the hearts

Of the reprobate

The unsettling thought with hyper-calvinism is that God is directly involved in coercing sin in the lives of the reprobate so as to ensure they will never come to Jesus for salvation.  I believe this view does extreme injustice to the integrity of God’s character.

The primary example used to support the view of the Hyper-Calvinists is in the case of Pharaoh.  We read repeatedly that God harden Pharaoh’s heart.

God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let My people go. Moses did and the Bible says: 

“The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exod.  9:12; 10:20, 27; 14:8).

In Exodus 10:1, God not only hardens Pharaoh’s heart, but also the hearts of his servants.

Furthermore, at the beginning, God informed Moses that when he would stand before Pharaoh delivering God’s message “to let My people go,” God said, “but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go” (Exod. 4:21). 

So here we see that God was actively involved in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart so that in the end, God’s purposes and redemptive plan for Israel would stand.

But then again, we are still left with a serious issue.  God indeed hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but then judged him for it.  How can God hold Pharaoh and the non-elect responsible and accountable for sins that come from the heart that God Himself hardens?

End of Part 3