I wanted to ask you about the statements in Exodus when the Word says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. I have always heard these explained to justify the doctrine of election for salvation. I don't believe in the doctrine of election for salvation, yet I struggle with what these verses mean. Can you shed some light?

This is a great question. I will try to shed some light on this statement.

I also do not agree with the doctrine of election for salvation...though once, I was convinced of this doctrine of election for salvation, I have changed my mind on this. But I also do not hold an Arminian view of salvation which includes the concept of being able to loose your salvation.

I will explain my position on salvation. We have been teaching that God made man with a mind so that we can know Him, emotions to love Him, and a will so we can choose to obey Him. It is clearly obvious that God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden for man to express his freedom of choice even in his state of perfection.

That said, once man rebelled against God, scripture is clear from that point on that every inclination of man's heart is evil all the time even from conception...meaning our human nature is to rebel against God and all that He stands for. Therefore, left to our devices, void of God's truth, we will always choose to suppress the truth of God and exchange His glory and divine nature for a lie and we will turn toward idolatry and immorality (Rom 1:18-32) so that the scripture is fulfilled that says "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God (Rom 3:11-12)."

Now, when sinful man is exposed to God's truth through the principles in His Word to the point of understanding the gospel, and Christ is lifted up before him in a very clear and understandable way, man's mind is illuminated and henow is presented with a true choice: Either choose Christ or choose to stay separated from God (John 12:32, Rom 10:17). In my mind, I visualize man being take back into the Garden and presented the two trees...the tree of Life (which is Christ) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (which is rebellion against God). At this point, sinful man truly has a choice. If man does not choose Christ, then, by default, He has chosen rebellion and will remain separated from God unless at some point the sin-filled man finally does choose to believe and accept Christ. If sinful man chooses Christ, then his salvation is secure for eternity.

Here is what I came across in this study of "God hardening Pharaoh's heart." First of all, in the context, it clearly is not talking about election for salvation, and even in Romans 9, the biggy for those professing the doctrine of election, it is not referring to salvation in Christ, but rather God's choosing of people to accomplish his will in bringing about the Promised Deliverer for all people (Rom 5:18, 1 Tim 2:6, 2 Peter 3:9). Here

is a quote that I came across in reference to "God hardening Pharaoh's heart" from the website http://vjri.purpleguy.com/Researcher/2007-01/The_Ten_Plagues_of_Egypt/

(The Egyptian king is portrayed as arrogant and stubborn but it is important to remember that G-d did not take away pharaoh's Free Will. The reader might be led to that conclusion when encountering the English verse, "God hardened pharaoh's heart..," but the Hebrew text in Exodus 9:12 employs the word hazaq -- which means the Creator literallystrengthened the ruler's heart. This allowed the pharaoh to believe that his side was winning, while the entire ten plagues took their toll. Thus, God's word would be

fulfilled. This was vital so that pharaoh would realize that the God of Israel was stronger than pharaoh's gods and that He was a God of justice. Pharaoh would have to admit that he was wrong.)

Each time the Scriptures refer to the Lord 'hardening' Pharaoh's heart, the Hebrew word "hazaq" is used, which means to strengthen, to seize, to hold onto (the Strongest NIV Exhausted Concordance). In a sense, God strengthenedPharaoh's heart and, as a result, Pharaoh chose to hold even more firmly and passionately to his disbelief and pride. God did not take away Pharaoh's free will, He simply strengthened Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh used his free will to rebel even more firmly against God. I hope this is making sense. Now then, when the scripture refers to Pharaoh hardening his own heart, the same Hebrew word is NOT used, but the Hebrew word "kabed" is used which means to honor oneself, to make hard, dull or stubborn. In this context, Pharaoh was choosing to reject God with even more stubbornness than before in order that he himself would be honored and glorified. What's really going on here is a battle of wills, Pharaoh's will versus God's will and God, being all powerful, even helped Pharaoh out by strengthening Pharaoh will "power" if you will...and yet, God demonstrated His omnipotence by overcoming Pharaoh's will!

So, God did not "turn off" Pharaoh's ability to make a choice. God never does this for anyone, even today. Even if God is choosing to harden the hearts of the Jews today, I believe it would be in the same context of strengthening their hearts. As a result, the Jews choose to hold more firmly yet to their rejection of Christ, and all of this: to accomplish God's plan and will on Earth (just as in Pharaoh's day)!

In my view, the doctrine of election that we see in scripture is not election unto salvation as the Calvinists have extrapolated. The New Testament doctrine of Election can understood two ways. 1) It clearly contains the Old Testament concept of God choosing whoever He wants for service to accomplish His will, such as Pharaoh, Abraham, Jacob, Paul, etc. (those who believe and those who do not believe) 2) The NT doctrine of Election also seems to contain the concept of being chosen (elect) in Christ. Let me explain this further: The NT clearly states that we are chosen in Christ or elect in Christ. This concept is the idea that we are "chosen" BECAUSE we are in Christ, not chosen to be in Christ. We are put into Christ water baptism is a picture of this. The Scriptures teach that Christ is theElect One, the Elect of God. Because Christ is elect and we are in Him, then we too are elect by virtue of being in Him! We have all that Christ has because we are in Him! So NT election can refer to these two concepts God choosing howwe will be used

What is the history of Hope?

Hope Community Church (HCC) started in September 2004 as a nondenominational church with the desire of reaching lost people for Jesus Christ and discipling those that profess faith in Him. The structure of HCC closely resembles the new testament church outlined in Acts and 1 Timothy, with the church being spiritually led by elders and functionally overseen by deacons.

What is the purpose of Hope?

Hope Community Church exists to make fully devoted Christ followers by introducing people to the love of Jesus Christ, instructing them in the principles of the faith, and involving them in meaningful service to God and man locally and around the world.

What is the passion of Hope?

Our passion is to be transformed into the image of Christ as we spend time in His Word, in Prayer, and in fellowship with one another. We at Hope believe that life change happens best in a small group setting so we have many House Churches for people to get involved in and grow in their relationship with the Christ.

What is the church's government?
The church is an Elder-run church. There are currently four men elders who shepherd the church. Each has responsibility in teaching, protecting, and shepherding the flock. They oversee the spiritual aspects of the church. Under the elders are the deacons. They are six men who are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day functionality of the church. Under the deacons are the ministry team leaders. The elders and deacons can only be men, but the ministry team leaders can be either men or women.

What kind of programs do you have for kids during the worship service?

What is the Noahic Covenant?

Great question. I want to briefly cover the Noahic Covenant. Again, like Adam, Noah stands as a representative head of the whole human race. This covenant is found in Genesis 9:1-17. Before reading these verses, let me summarize the events leading up to this covenant.

Basically, because of sin being in the world, it became an utterly sinful place to live. God described man this way in Gen 6:5, every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God's plan was to wipe out the entire earth because of the sin of man.

But the Lord found favor with Noah. In fact, he considered Noah righteous because Noah believed God and his Word. So, God instructed Noah to build an ark in which Noah and his family and many of the animals would be saved. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah. This is what Genesis 9:1-17 covers [Read Genesis 9:1-17].

The participants in this covenant were God and Noah, where Noah represented the entire human race.

There were seven provisions to this covenant:

1) God told man to repopulate the earth. There were four couples now from whom the entire human race descended. Noah and his wife, and Noah's three sons and their wives. Notice that God did not tell men to subdue the earth and to rule over it. This authority was usurped by Satan. He, from that point forward until now, has authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. He's called the prince of this world. Recall he offered all the kingdoms to Jesus when he tempted Jesus, but Jesus refused. Satan will offer them again to the Antichrist, who will accept in the future. The beast talked about in Rev 13:1-3.

2) The fear of man was put into animals. They again were given to man to rule over. This fear of man that God gave to animals was a means of self preservation because...

3) Man could now eat the animals in addition to the green plants. In this passage, there was no limitation to the animals that man could eat!! For those of you who like a good steak dinner, enjoy. God has given us the cow to eat!!

4) Man was forbidden to eat blood. All life in man and animals is sustained by their blood!! It's amazing. Blood is the symbol of life. The shedding of blood is the symbol of death! So, we are not to eat and drink blood. This is not referring to a nice juicy rare steak. This is referring to draining the blood out of the animal and using it specifically for cooking and drinking. In Satanic practices, a sacrifice is often made and Satan worshipers often take the blood of the sacrifice and drink it in direct violation of this provision!!!

5) Capital punishment was given/allowed as a means of accountability and punishment. Basically, if a person murdered another person, the murderer's life was then demanded!!

6) God promised never again to destroy the entire earth by flood! There could be local floods, but not a global catastrophic flood! God will destroy the earth in the future, but it will be through fire!!

7) God gave a token as a reminder of his covenant - the rainbow. Until this point, as far as we understand, it never rained on the land. The land is believed to have been watered by a mist. The water that brought about this flood was the first time it had ever rained. From this point forward, the rainbow is given as a reminder of this Covenant.

What is the STATUS of this covenant? This is also an unconditional covenant. God calls it an everlasting covenant in verse 9:16. It is still very much in effect!! Many believe that when God judges the entire earth in the future, it will be because of man's breaking of this covenant!!! This is understood from Isaiah 24:5-6.

As I pondered this, I began wondering what breaking this everlasting covenant with God would look like on man's part. I began to go down through each provision and ask, What would breaking this provision look like. Please understand, what I'm going to share doesn't come from the Bible. I'm just trying to understand the world today and the future world in light of this unconditional covenant. Walk with me, will you? I want to address provisions 1, 4, 5.

The first provision calls us to repopulate the earth. So, what would it look like to not follow through with this provision? Birth control...I'm not talking about a family who feels God calling them to wait a few years to have another child or a family who senses God is calling them to stop having kids. I'm talking about mass control over the populations of nations and continents!!

In terms of capital punishment, it would be letting murderers run free without any consequences.

In terms of eating plants and animals only, what if man adds to this the eating of human flesh.

I'm not a prophet, nor do I sense that this is the direction that the world will go in, I'm simply looking at where we've been, where we are, and then projecting where it could possibly go!! Heres the deal:

One of the biggest breakers of this covenant in our day is abortion!! I'm going to nail it, and I'm going to nail it hard. I'm going to nail it because it has become one of the largest government-backed forms of population control in the world and I believe one of the biggest proponents of breaking the Noahic Covenant in our day and age.

Peer with me into the future. You might think I'm nuts, but I don't really think it's too far from being a reality. Here's what could happen in the future to majorly break this covenant:
a) Governments all around the world invoking abortion as the means of population control,
b) Many adding to the covenant of only eating vegetation and animals by adding human flesh, mainly ones taken from abortions,
c) Serving as a delicatessen human blood drained from aborted fetuses
d) Governments, not only allowing such practices, but encouraging them, and even demanding them, with no consequences to those who participate!!

This is deplorable and disgusting. But I wonder if it's really too far from reality. You see, once you remove God and his creative nature and active role in life in the here and now, and adopt a worldview that says everything simply evolved from self-replicating molecules and life happened by accident over billions of years by chance and adaptation, then we as human beings have no more significance than a bird, a cow, or a flower. In fact, I found an article on the internet that indicates that this practice of eating aborted fetuses is already being done in China today! See Baby Eating in China.