Hardness Of Heart In Biblical Literature

Every speaker, teacher, or preacher has on some occasion encountered an audience that was unreceptive to what he or she had to say. One response to such communication breakdowns given by both the Old Testament prophets and New Testament authors was to declare that the hearers “have hardened their hearts to the message” or that “God has hardened them.” What is this hardness-of-heart phenomenon? Who became hardened and why? Was it a result of some “deficiency” in communication? What were the consequences of such a disposition? Is there any hope for a change of perspective for those hardened? In this concise and carefully argued volume, Charles Puskas considers all the key texts relating to human obstinacy towards God in pursuit of answers to these questions.

Every speaker, teacher, or preacher has on some occasion encountered an audience that was unreceptive to what he or she had to say. One response to such communication breakdowns given by both the Old Testament prophets and New Testament authors was to declare that the hearers "have hardened their hearts to the message" or that "God has hardened them." What is this hardness-of-heart phenomenon? Who became hardened and why? Was it a result of some "deficiency" in communication? What were the consequences of such a disposition? Is there any hope for a change of perspective for those hardened? In this concise and carefully argued volume, Charles Puskas considers all the key texts relating to human obstinacy towards God in pursuit of answers to these questions.

The Crisis: People who are in rebellion are not the only ones with hard hearts. The dictionary defines hard when it applies to matters of the heart as being "cold; insensitive; callous; unfeeling; unyielding." This malady has stricken every Christian in some area of their life. This is what keeps us from hearing the voice of the Lord and being led by Him in our everyday lives. The Cause: The condition of our heart is determined by what we focus our attention on. It doesn't matter what we know, it's what we think on that controls whether our hearts is hard or soft (Proverbs 23:7). Once this is understood, this same law that will sensitize us towards God can be used to harden us towards the devil. The Cure: The Cure for a hardened heart is a total commitment to keep our minds stayed on the Lord. This teaching will give you one of the clearest understandings of the relationship between faith and unbelief that you have ever had.

The purpose of this book is to provide a biblical, theological answer to Isaiah's question: "Why, O Lord, do you cause us to stray from your ways, and harden our heart from fearing you?"

The annual Review of Biblical Literature presents a selection of reviews of the most recent books in biblical studies and related fields, including topical monographs, multi-author volumes, reference works, commentaries, and dictionaries. RBL reviews German, French, Italian, and English books and offers reviews in those languages.

Vols. for -1960 include Proceedings of the annual meetings of the Society.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1881.