Hi SB, the first thing to note here is that God is not
causing "men" to be sinners (and then eternally punishing them for disobeying Him), rather, He's dealing with a single "
man" who has chosen to "
harden his heart" and disobey Him, a command that God gave directly to Pharaoh alone, I might add
Secondly, Pharaoh's disobedience results in neither his death, nor his or anyone else's "eternal" punishment as far as we know. So this is a comparison of apples and oranges.
In this particular case, God told Pharaoh to "
let My people go", and the Scriptures clearly tell us that he would not not obey, that he
hardened his heart towards God instead ... again and again and again. How, and to some degree "why" God stepped in toward the end and further hardened Pharaoh's heart is unclear (since Pharaoh seemed to be doing a perfectly good job of it all by himself
), but that is what the Scriptures tell us, as well the reason "why" He did so.. cf
Romans 9:17-18.
Since I assume your are aware of God's sovereignty over all of His Creation, I'm a little confused by something you said above, "
God hardened Pharaoh's heart by commanding him to do something he did not want to do". My response to that is something along the lines of, "
too bad"
Do you really believe that God did something wrong when he issued that command to Pharaoh, or that He didn't have the right to make that demand of him? ... Or that Pharaoh had any right whatsoever to disobey Him?
*(Perhaps a discussion of much of
Romans 9 is needed if your answer to any of those questions is "yes"
)
The Bible tells us that Pharaoh chose to harden his own heart towards God, and that God stepped in later and continued the process. Just so I know that we're clear about this, you understand that it's
the Bible that teaches this in Book of Exodus, right? (and that along with Calvinists, Arminians, Protestants, Catholics, Baptists, etc., ALL within the pale of orthodoxy believe it's true, because that's what the Bible tells us)
Yours and His,
David
Isaiah 46
9 "I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’"
.