Exodus 7-12(the Egyptian Plagues) demolishes the Christian Doctrine of Free Will

Introduction: What a wonderful debate topic and one I hope my opponent and I can enjoy very much. I know that his intentions for wanting to negate freewill – being an atheist and all – are different than that of a Calvinists, but I am almost certain that what my opponent and a Calvinist have in common is where they err. ------------------ I would first like to start out with the definition of demolish: Demolish - To tear down completely (www.dictionary.com) If I can show that there is reason to believe that Exodus 7-12 does not pose a demolishing threat to freewill, my burden is fulfilled. Perhaps the most important point will revolve around the understanding of Hebrew language and colloquialisms. ------------------ 1. Understanding Hebrew Idioms The error in my opponents rendering of the text is that he reads it without understanding who it was written to and what the intended meaning of the text was. My opponent's entire rendering of the text depends unilaterally on a misunderstanding of a Hebrew idiom. Before I delve into the idiom, let me illustrate with a contemporary example. Suppose my father came up to me and started to explain his encounter with someone who disagreed with him. This person was not a skilled arguer and my dad explained that he "ripped him a new one." If I was completely unaware of colloquialisms and idioms, I might be entirely shocked that my dad would do such a grotesque thing. But of course, my dad did not ACTUALLY rip him a new one. The question that now arises is: did God ACTUALLY harden Pharaoh's heart? E.W. Bullinger in his work has shown the many ways that Greek and Hebrew verbs are used in different ways other than their literal usage. He shows that the Hebrew language "used active verbs to express the agent's design or attempt to do anything, even though the thing was not actually done" (1898, p. 821)." Bullinger shows how active verbs (in his list of idiomatic verbs) are often used, "by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do" (p. 823, emp. in orig.) Bullinger explains that God saying "I will harden is heart" is actually a way of saying I will allow Pharaoh to harden his heart. This is of course evidenced also by the use of the phrase in question: God hardened Pharaoh's heart - 7:3; 9:12; 10:1,20,27; 11:10; 14:4,8 Pharaoh hardened his own heart - 8:15,32; 9:34, 10:3 (he was stubborn in 13:15) Passive form of hardened without indication of source: 7:13,14,22; 8:19; 9:7,35 The writer of Exodus is using the phrase idiomatically to show that Pharaoh hardened is heart and God, in his permission of freewill, allowed it to happen. This resembles the Greek used in Romans 1:26 that shows God giving the Romans over to their desires – showing that, though He did not want it to happen, He let it happen. This seems to be the quintessence of freewill. ------------------ 2. Not enough evidence to demolish My second objection is the very idea of believing that the whole doctrine of freewill could either stand or fall by one section in scripture. If my opponent's rendering were true, it still would fall very short of "demolishing" the notion of freewill. Similarly, if my fingerprints were found on the weapon used to murder my close friend - which would be some rather damning evidence against my innocence in the matter - if over 20 corroborating witnesses were able to testify that I was nowhere near the scene of the accident at the time of its happening, would it still be said that the fingerprints were enough to demolish my innocence? Certainly not. ------------------ Conclusion: My opponent not only misunderstands Hebrew idioms, but he believes that one section of scripture can unilaterally demolish the entire doctrine of freewill (that is attested – in some way or another – by every single book in the Old and New Testament). Moreover, Semitic use of metonymy still remains as a perfectly viable explanation. Sources: Bullinger, E.W. (1898), Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1968 reprint).