Chapter 29. God Is Not the Author of Sin.
Chapter 29
1. But these men object that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants. Now, those who make that accusation do not read in the Gospel where the disciples said to the Lord, Why do you speak to them in parables? the Lord answered: Because to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them I speak in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear; that with them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah who says, “Harden the heart of this people, and make their ears dull, and blind their eyes.” But blessed are your eyes which see what you see, and your ears which hear what you hear. Surely one and the same God, on the one hand, blinds those who do not believe and who set him at naught, just as the sun, his creature, affects those who because of a defect of the eyes cannot look at its light. He grants, on the other hand, a fuller and greater illumination of the mind to those who believe him and follow him.
In keeping with this discourse, the Apostle in turn writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Again to the Romans, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. But in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, when speaking of the Antichrist, he clearly asserts, Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2. If at the present time, then, since God knows all things in advance, he hands over to their unbelief all whom he knows to be unbelievers, and turns his face from such and leaves them in the darkness that they chose for themselves, what is there unusual if in the past he handed over to their unbelief Pharaoh and his associates who would never believe? That is what the Word said to Moses from the bush: But I know that Pharaoh the King of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. Now, in the sense that the Lord spoke in parables and blinded Israel so that seeing they might not see, because he knew their unbelief, in the same sense he also hardened the heart of Pharaoh, that he might not see that it is God’s finger that leads the people, and might not believe, but might be precipitated into the sea of unbelief, thinking that their departure was through acts of magic, and that the Red Sea did not offer passage to the people through God’s power, but that it happened that way naturally.