In the Old Testament book of Exodus, in the days of Moses, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Leader of the Egyptian people) so that no matter what miracles or things Moses said or did on behalf of God, the Pharaoh would not listen. Example verse below..
Exodus 9:12 "But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses." How is that right, that God allows people to become evil if he knows everyone that will be part of heaven and we know hell is a curse not to be reckoned with? Well sometimes decisions are weighted and outside of our control regardless of the best gripes in the world.
Have you ever been in an argument with someone that will not listen to your viewpoint but chooses because of their own reality and those they associate with (if applicable), to discredit whatever you have to say because their viewpoint and way of choice is threatened? It’s not even about the information of protecting the integrity of the conversation, it’s about winning whether in a twisted way or righteous indignation the end goal is to take whatever you can get away with, regardless of weighing merit within reason. Conversations can become borderline ‘blasphemous,’ where the truth doesn’t matter or full explanation can be swindled away for the sake of gaining the victory that leads to the meditation or lack of meditation that is created as the end means. We are blasphemous to God when we go excessive on ‘ignorant unbelief,’ because what is may just be what is and we didn’t really look at the information correctly for the sake of simple outs.
In the bible, the usage of the word "hardened" means to disbelieve in the notion that we are accountable to the sins of the bible (which is a broad complicated topic) and in the faith that Jesus will be our leader for those who believe in the next age.
This is a topic I struggle with personally as I have always put my own concepts of righteousness before the righteousness of God (though there are many similarities as right is right and good is good and when I didn't believe I wasn't bound to that code during that stage in my life) I still could create scenarios that seemed justified nevertheless. It took an eye-opening experience of through change revelation to take the next step, though my conditioning of life meaning was creating a yearning for more answers. I therefore thus do not blame others for not committing to belief, though I’m not convinced on peoples goodness like I use to be adamant about.
Romans 10:3-4 "For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
My mind works like this.. We have no control over the cards we are dealt with in life, as far as being born into this world and the settings we grow up in. We have no control over the genetics and large social factors and inherent abilities that lead us down the paths we go in life, that mold us the way we become; so how is it righteous that God chooses to send some people to hell and others are chosen for heaven when we are all set down different paths in life that we had no initial control over? Oppression in society is real, so is the importance of parenting - you are naive if you think that we alone 100% of the time can control our fate in this regard? Doesn’t seem fair!
Plus did the disciples really have the opportunity to decide on the degree’s of bounding to heaven, in a system where we humans are termed as wheat of heaven or chaff of the fire of hell that all grow independently mutually exclusive until the big day comes? Did these same disciples who barely could listen to Jesus telling him of his death on the cross to come until right before or even after not yet actualized what occurred, then get the permission from God almighty to decide on the ‘bounding of eternal fate’ of others who crossed their paths?
Though eventually I’ll admit they learned it quite well, even being able to miracles themselves after Jesus died where new literature in the new testament was created after they got more acclimated to the things at hand. Not quite since Paul re-affirmed we can’t actually know until the revealing of the fire; though Peter laid the ground rules for us to discern from and could pray according to the decisions being made around him.
Regardless, it's a hard pill to swallow that God has so much control of the bigger future ahead when we are making mistakes in a temptation filled world now – I should be able to slack right now given all the details some say! We tend to prefer to think of ourselves as high value within in existence, just look at that person, that means I should be safe! But the truth is - even though we are worth much more value than animals and are the elite species on earth - we humans are not all we are cracked up to be, especially in comparison to a God who takes His own glory and wants us to know He has to choose mercy not to react more powerfully off bad behavior. The free will decision making God allows Himself to get fretted over at various times of time playing out. Just look at the hardships and tough realities of this world and you'll understand how imperfect we are as a human race, but God knows how to control His own mind and relevance to a higher degree of existence.
So the hard pill to swallow is that we are either going to be slaves of God, which means you are free to live by rules and concepts of following His will here on earth, or we are slaves to selfish ‘short sided’ desires in that we are slaves to the sins and rules Satan plays by that are referenced throughout the bible.
Romans 6:22-23 "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So ultimately, even though it seems ludicrous to many non-believers, righteousness comes from accepting that the supernatural start of existence came from God the Father and creator of all, and His decision to create sin and evil was so that we can learn to trust Him and what is good, along with follow his designated leader and son Jesus Christ, where true righteousness comes through faith in a concept that earns us this coveted eternal life and shared glory in the next life with those who also believe and follow the rules Christ stood for. It's when we think of ourselves too highly, giving our existence too much worth, that we get hardened in understanding that keep us ignorant to a more proper faith and belief. I know this first hand as I still remember the hardenings I once had.
The righteousness comes from the fact that life is a gift, and we did nothing to be able to exist and play for each breath we get. The verse below is not as extenuated as it should be ‘God does to us whatever He chooses, but we only preached for a while that Jesus just loves you blindly but really it’s only if you adhere. ’
Proverbs 8:17 ‘I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.’
John 14:21 ‘Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’
John 14:15-17 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, who the world cannot receive, because it nether sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be with you.’
John 15:12-17 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Plus the reminder of the ‘two greatest commandments see MARK 12:28-31 ‘LOVE GOD, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR’
Moral of the story is you have to be receptive to God’s will, which is embrace other people the right way with having a code of respect and proactive optimism to other people who have been on their path working for something we shouldn’t covet, be in rivalry of, or spite against – rather keep trusting in God who will provide for us all in due season.
----------------WE ARE VESSELS TO COMPLY OR NOT - SEE PASSAGE BELOW----------------------
Romans 9:14-18 “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardness whomever he wills.”
God created a standard of adherence where he can choose the next biggest decision in our souls existence, eternal life to those who love and have the right diligence for information, and to those who are hardened who do not have life’s requirements in their hearts - who will either perish and seize to exist after the judgment of our lives, or live in hell for an eternity being made an example just as Sodom and Gomorrah is constantly made as the example for the people who did not follow the law of God written within their hearts who followed a different code. I ended up justifying Satan ‘being in the only state He knows,’ as my analogy for God creating a worse state of living for those condemned to hell, of which is a trust factor all together on God still knowing what to do to handle all the factors of running things as He does.
It’s good to be reminded in the Romans chapter 9 verse that it is God who hardens those who do not believe, and it is God who has compassion on those who accept the free gift of life - which means you accept there is a God the Father who created all, and he decided to want to share his domain with a Son who will rule over us. God allows you to be tempted, to stumble can mean He loves you like a Father who spanks His child.
If you create something, it's your prerogative to do with it as you choose. It's not righteous for someone else to take for granted what you made and use it selfishly for whatever evil desire they end up wanting to use it for, cheating you out of your work or stealing your time from you. Now read the verse below and connect it to what I just wrote:
Romans 9:20-23 "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory"
God is the potter and we are the clay that is molded by God however he chooses in life. Notice the verse above ends in "prepared beforehand for glory" which means God already knows who makes it to the next life and who does not. We can’t really go there too much, but yes God shares His glory as well. God controls the uncontrollable circumstances in life that lead us to perceive and become who we become and the paths we go down, often controlled by the systems of control in creation (power, money, love, etc). All we know are the rules in front of us, and to strive forward the best we can with the right soul receptive to God’s inclinations and the teachings within the Holy Spirit rule book of ‘reason and grace.’
If you don't believe all the bible to be the Word of God, then there is no point for you to call yourself a Christian and believe in Jesus, because otherwise we could make up a different religion that makes more sense to the understanding we have in this life in a human self-justification way.
Nobody's really going to hell! Everything is going to work out if you're a good person working 40 hours a week! But the harsh reality is you are ignorant as a Christian believer if you don't accept the harshness and truth behind things being God's way or the highway. Can make it vague and convert future heirs of heaven that need more info. Predestination is a harsh reality that is spoken of constantly in the bible.
Isaiah 46:10 "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'
If you don't accept this harsh reality, it means you would be called 'hardened' to the bible. That still bugs me a bit personally because I can understand why people get so fed up with religion and the inconsistencies of Christianity with those who believe, but it doesn't change the fact that the teachings of Christianity at its core in loving others as you would want to be loved, is a deep truth of life nobody can deny on how to live in unity. So partial belief is allowed all the way up in final prophecy!
I could quote many predestination verses from the bible, but I'll just add a couple more below:
Romans 11: 2 ‘God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew...’
and
1 Peter 2:8 ‘They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.’
PLUS
Revelation 13:8 ‘and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain’
And this Revelation 16:6 verse helps you get ironically non hardened or hardened to the initial disdain we have with hell in the first place about people who only want to hurt you, go ‘blood’ towards you even if it’s just a light slam it’s who they are inside.. Though most people mature correctly in life, not everyone does on the thoughts of their mind or decisions or indecision's to lend a willing hand.
‘For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!’
So if you want the truth, it is that before the foundation of the world began - God decided to create the concept of family and fellowship, which started with having his own son who would later become manifested on earth, to become the one who received the extra ‘oil of gladness,’ more than the rest of us, who unjustly was killed to make a righteous covenant of ‘law of procedures’ that requires we love according to the appropriate measure of our ability.