Hello and welcome back to Sochiology 101.

Today we're going to talk about the hardening of the heart.

And the reason I'm bringing this up is because it's come up in a lot of recent

discussions that we've had, especially with my talk that I had with the Calvinistic friend,

Robert Weisner, who we're praying for because his baby, if not already come, has coming very,

very soon. And so we're in prayer for him and hope that all goes well with he and his wife. But in that discussion and in some of our private discourse, I've noticed a common

theme from those who are not real familiar with the provisionist perspective or the traditional

Southern Baptist perspective with regard to the hardening of the heart.

Because oftentimes when I describe our perspective and describe what we mean by the

messianic secret and the judicial hardening of God, some Calvinists like Robert and I've

heard even some Armenians, you know, reply by saying, well, you sound like a Calvinist.

Because isn't it the Calvinist who says that God hardens sinners' heart? Isn't it conceding to

Calvinism to say that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh? Isn't it uniquely Calvinistic to say that

God is blinding people in their unbelief or speaking to them in parabolic language

so that they can't believe? Doesn't that prove the Calvinistic worldview? After all, you Armenians,

you provisionist over there, you non-Calvinist over it, you believe God wants everyone to be saved.

And therefore, why in the world would God harden or blind someone from seeing the truth?

Why would he use parabolic language or riddles, as some translations call them,

in order to prevent them from understanding the truth so as to believe and be healed,

as Mark 4 says, as Matthew 13 says.

If he wants everyone to be healed, then surely you don't believe that God is

hardening or blinding people from the truth so as to keep them or seal them in darkness.

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