Plantinga Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of "Engaging God's World," I began to respect Plantinga much more than before.  I also came to a realization: Almost everyone in the rest of the class has heard this stuff several times over.  I did not learn this so much from reading the book, but from speaking with a fellow classmate and, I guess, just piecing it all together.  Another thing that I realized was the fact that it is not so much that I am so critical of Plantinga, it's just that I am so critical relative to others in my class.  The whole thing about Creation, Fall, and Redemption is very new to me.  This just explains my whole problem with Plantinga's assumptions...it's that they really are assumptions.  I'm not saying that Plantinga wrote this for only the CRC students, I'm just saying that maybe they know all of the assumptions and I don't.  Or maybe they don't even necessarily understand the other implications of the assumptions.  Either way, this realization does help me respect Plantinga's writing much more.

Besides my realization, however, I do not think Plantinga assumes as much as he does in other chapters.  Where I really liked the book was near the end of chapter three when he talks about where sin comes from.  He seemed to pose all of the right questions about God, while keeping his opinion to a minimum, and his statements careful.  He asks "Where does sin come from?" and even asks, "Does God have a hand in it?"  His are answers very careful and do not make any bold claims.  For that, I respect him.

Although I respect Plantinga greatly for this statement, I am bold in this case.  I do believe that God created everything...everything that can ever be thought of or that we can name, including sin.  I do not believe that God was taken off guard by "the devil" "doing his own thing."  Plantinga does justice to this argument, except when he talks about when "God hardened Pharaoh's heart."  Plantinga's conclusion is that the author simply means that, "God will rescue people when a hard heart is blocking the road out of Egypt."

I have a problem with this simple answer.  It simply does not respond to the scripture, where clearly God is the subject of the sentence.  In the same way that God blessed David, He hardened Pharaoh's heart.  I can agree that God does rescue people when a hard heart is blocking the road out of Egypt, but that is only one minor purpose pf the passage.  I believe that in the same way that we say, "The Devil tempted me," we can say, "God tested me."  Perhaps God just had one temptation after another for Pharaoh, and each time Pharaoh fell into temptation.  This belief is no different than proving Predestination or Free Will.  What I mean is, Pharaoh chose to keep the Israelites every time, even thought God was the one that hardened his heart in the first place.  Of course, God also knew that Pharaoh would deliver the Israelites when he did, so that is also in favor of predestination.  But this is not the focus of my point.

My point is, Plantinga should have never put this passage in here if he wasn't going to do anything with it.  He did not serve the passage justice, while he seemed to totally serve it justice.  Despite my complaint, though, I like his insecurity in this subject.  It is what I have been waiting for.