Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kilroy@mimsy.umd.edu (Dust In The Wind) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Quarterflash Redux Message-ID: Date: 26 Jul 90 06:38:58 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 23 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In Exodus, there are 18 accounts of the pharaoh's heart being hardened; nine times he does it himself, and nine times the Lord does it for him. The Bible presents the pharaoh's actions as sinful, but given that he was merely a puppet in God's hands, this seems a bit unfair. The result of this passage is that God caused the pharaoh to engage in `sinful behaviour'; God was responsible for the `evil' that pharaoh did. (This is not entirely conformant to orthodox Christian teaching on the subject of good & evil.) One could refer to Romans 1:24ff, and say that God just gave the pharaoh over to the sinful desires already expressed -- but the first occurrence is in Exodus 4:21, before pharoah has had the chance to harden his heart on his own. Is it `loving' to punish people for `sinful behaviour' that they had no choice in committing? Exodus 4:22-23 specifically states that the reason God will kill the pharaoh's firstborn son is that pharaoh would not let the Israelites leave -- but the pharaoh never had a choice. kilroy@cs.umd.edu Darren F. Provine ...uunet!mimsy!kilroy "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" -- Amos 3:6