A protestant friend constantly brings up the point that Jesus prayed for St. Peter but not for Judas Iscariot therefore believing in this predestination.
He also brings up Pharaoh having his heart hardened instead of giving him grace.
He also says that as God doesn’t give his grace to everyone and therefore only some people in the world are given a chance to get to Heaven.
How best to debate against this?
Thanks.
Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?
Sin is what hardens the heart. Pharoah’s heart was stone because he made it that way thru his crimes against the chosen people, and probably thru his other sins.
The only sin that is unforgivable is the sin against the Holy Spirit, meaning that the Holy Spirit works if a person asks for forgiveness. But a person steeped in sin hardens their heart … doesn’t want to change … then the Holy Spirit does not operate in such a soul. Then the soul is described as hard … unrepentent, unchangable. We know that for a person to change he must have grace to change. Which in this case Pharoah was not given.
So the condition of hardness was the work of Pharoah himself by his own sinning. And it is said that God hardened his heart by leaving him in his unrepentent sins and withholding extra grace to repent.
Obviously we know that God could change his heart even when someone’s heart is like stone. God can perform miracles. But God chose not to.
The question then becomes why did God not give him grace to change? What was God’s purpose in doing this? For with grace Pharoah would have graciously let the people go.
It seems to me that this whole story of their release is a part of salvation history, pointing to the lamb of God, Christ, the Last Supper, Calvary, the Promised Land. And this story would not succeed in this higher meaning if the people had just simply walked out of Egypt.
Although Jesus did pray for Peter, the Bible doesn’t say he did not pray for Judas.
I have not seen in the Bible where “God does not give his grace to everyone”. Before looking at this statement, I would need a reference from the Bible directed at this for the context in which it was said. Because if there is one, the meaning might be something different.
