God hardens people’s hearts

Pharaoh readily comes to mind in his encounter with Moses when God hardens his heart. The reference in Romans 9 is understandably often used in deterministic reasoning, and I shall address that shortly. For now, the concern is with a passage in 2 Thessalonians that says that God sends people a powerful delusion so they will believe the lie (2:11). To prepare for our discussion of Romans 9, here is a relevant point to make: Scripture teaches that God can “harden” people’s hearts. As it should be obvious by now, however, we must be careful to delineate the boundaries and understand the nature of such an act. It seems like God hardens people’s hearts when they get to a point of no return—that is, when such people get to a point when they will never believe even if given eternity to choose. Also, there appears to be distinct forms of hardening described in scriptures. There is a kind carried out by God and another by individuals against God. Besides. it also seems like a hardening of heart may be temporary. We shall address some of this later under the treatment of Romans 9. For now, however, here is the relevant passage in full: