Category Archives: Predestination

Exodus – Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?

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The account of the ten plagues of Egypt frequently refers to the ‘hardening’ of Pharaoh’s heart.  Because ‘hardness of heart’ suggests to us something to do with the emotions, Goldingay prefers to think of this as ‘the closing of Pharaoh’s mind’.  There are four aspects to this:-

  • Yahweh will close Pharaoh’s mind: Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 14:4
  • Pharaoh’s mind was closed: Exodus 7:13, 14, 22; 8:19; 9:7, 35
  • Pharaoh closed his mind: Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34
  • Yahweh closed Pharaoh’s mind: Exodus 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:8

Alexander refers to the ‘strengthening’ of Pharaoh’s heart. …

Molinism – the doctrine of middle knowledge

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Luis de Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian who attempted to reconcile the apparently contradictory doctrines of divine sovereignty and human free will by postulating that God has a ‘middle knowledge’ (scientia media).

Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) had taught that God has two kinds of knowledge.  The first is a knowledge of the actual: a knowledge, arising out of God’s absolute decree, of what exists in the past, present and future.  The second is a knowledge of the possible: of what could exist in the past, present and future, but does not, because God has not decreed it.…

Divine Fore-ordination

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According to Eph 1:11, God ‘works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’. Nothing comes to pass that has not been fore-ordained by God. The fall of the sparrow, the throw of the dice, and the number of the very hairs on our heads lie under his fore-ordination. So do the free actions of men and women Phil 2:13. Even the sinful actions of men lie within God’s will and purpose, Acts 2:23.…

Open Theism

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Evangelical theologians have rarely proposed any significant revisions to the doctrine of God as understood to be taught in Scripture and handed down by Protestant thinkers.  There have been some differences concerning God’s eternity (with some seeing this as timelessness and others as everlastingness), and God’s love (interpreted differently by Calvinists and Arminians).  But, despite such occasional differences, evangelical scholars have in the past agreed that God’s omniscience includes infallible and exhaustive knowledge of the past, present and future. …

Foreknowledge

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Arminian theology teaches that God’s election of individuals to salvation is based on his foreknowledge of their faith. God knows beforehand that they will believe, and on that basis elects, or predestines them, to eternal life. This approach has the apparent advantage of relieving the tension between divine election and human freedom.  A key text here is Rom 8:29 –

Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.…