Transcript from an audio teaching by Dr. James White, continued from Part 1 here.

“For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,” (and then we have another citation of another Old Testament text) “‘For this very purpose,'” (God had a purpose, it wasn’t Pharaoh’s purpose) “‘For this very purpose I raised you up,'” – I did this.

“oh but Pharaoh had all these choices.”

Yes. And “For this very purpose I raised you up.'”

Now, folks if you’re zoning out, tune in here a second because I have got to challenge any of you who are listening today.

If you want to understand what the Scriptures teach about this, you need to have the same priorities that God has. And you have to ask yourself the question, “What is most important to me?” Because God said the reason He raised Pharaoh up was “to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”

So I want to ask everyone that calls himself a believing Christian in the audience today, where in your priority list is the demonstration of God’s power and the proclamation of His name throughout the whole earth? Nothing in there about the free will of man, is there? Nothing in there about making men feel good about themselves, nothing in there about meeting their felt needs. The demonstration of God’s power and the proclamation of His name, those are not big priorities for the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians today. So it shouldn’t surprise us in the least that the vast majority of those folks do not like what Romans 9 has to say.

God had a purpose. He raised Pharaoh up. He used Pharaoh. Now if you say “Oh how can He do that? I just wont worship a God like that.”

Really? Was Pharaoh in Adam a rebel sinner?

“Well, yeah”.

And so God could have brought His wrath to bear against Pharaoh at any point and brought him to judgment for his sins?

“Well, yeah.”

And so because God does not choose to bring Pharaoh to judgment immediately, but instead uses him to demonstrate His power and to make His name known throughout all the earth that somehow makes God unjust? Surely not!

“How does Paul interpret this text? Well what’s the apostolic interpretation? Well this is just talking about how God used Egypt.”

Well, you tell me. What does verse 18 say?

You can’t cut it out of your Bible, you’ve got to deal with what it says.

“So then, those whom He wishes, He mercies and those whom He wishes He hardens.” Yeah, it says hardens right there.

You go, “I don’t want that in my Bible!”

But it is right there. Because we know that Pharaoh, his heart was hardened. And people go “well yeah but he first hardened his own heart” except before, look back at Exodus 4: 11 & 12 before Moses ever stood in front of Pharaoh, God said “I am going to harden his heart.”

“Yeah, but he wanted to harden his own heart.”

Yes he did because he was a sinner and all sinners want to do that. And God was actually restraining Pharaoh from being worse than he was. But the point is God had a purpose. And if your theology is such that God could not have a purpose and Pharaoh could have gone, “You know what? I repent.” So that God’s entire purpose for the Exodus, the Passover, the picturing of Christ, the demonstration of His name and His power throughout the whole earth, and the spoiling of the Egyptian gods; if your theology is “Well you know God may have wanted to do all that but all Pharaoh had to do is repent and it would have been just fine.”

Then I say to you, you are not talking about the God of the Bible. You have made up a god in your own image; don’t call it the God of the bible. Because the God of the bible needs to be defined on the basis of the bible, not what you like about Him, okay? Continue reading →