By what parameters does God decide to violate free-will?

Well Goddess,

The way I see it, if He went ahead and let the Pharaoh do whatever it was he wanted, the movie wouldn't have been 25%, or even 1/4 as good as it was..

It is a good example when God acted on pharaoh.

According to King James Version, Exodus 4:21 reads: "And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go".

But several other translations give that God "allowed" the heart of pharaoh to get hardened, that is, pharaoh hardened his own heart and God did not stop it (not intervening in pharaohs free will). In the ancient hebrew language it can sometimes sound as it is the reason for something or the allowing of something that actually causes this to happen.

There is a good example seen in Exodus 1:17 where the passage in an exact word translation gives that the nurses caused the children to live, when it is obvious that they only let them live.

When we read Exodus 8:15,32 this viewpoint is confirmed since the passages reads: ""But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said."; "And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go." (King James Version)

Regarding if God will intervene against evil deeds we need to consider passages as 2 Chronicles 36:15,16 and Revelation 14:18,19. These shows that even if God respect every man's free will, evil will, when it has matured, be removed. (see also Psalm 37:10,11; 2 Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:4)

When you read that God hardened someones heart or confounded them you are reading about God passing well deserved judgment on them. Yet even then, God did not interfere with their human (gnomic) will but in fact He granted them unbridled fulfillment in their sinful passions ; that green light into their sinful tendencies is usually quite sufficient in bringing devastating judgment upon themselves (as was the case with the Pharaoh or the rebellious kings). The point being that these villains that God was passing judgment on already had made the choice to sin in their heart and were fully accountable for their choice ; all God had to do was to abstain from protecting them from themselves and grant them what they wanted to their utter destruction. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall in the hands of an angry God. Something you might want to bear in mind as you contemplate pursuing this calumnious line of questions. Some questions are truly inquisitive and are submitted in good will ; others such as yours are not questions per say but they amount to a venomous rhetorical form intended to criticize, calumniate, judge and ultimately condemn God...

Though it sounds like God hardened Pharaoh's heart He did not. Each time Moses went in Pharaoh refused therefore hardening his heart for the next request. As an example someone steals a dollar next time its two and so on. I constantly see, and I include Christians here, a verse(s) are used in arguments and it/they may well say what is being argued but it can not be done this way. The correct way is "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: Isa 28:10

He doesn't violate their free will, but he did harden their hearts.

Let me explain using an analogy I'm stealing from Fulton Sheen:

The light of God has 2 effects on men, as the sunlight has varying effects on matter. The sun shining on wax will cause a different effect than the sun shining on mud. The former softens, the latter hardens. If Pharoah detests goodness, the light of God will harden his heart. If Pharoah loves goodness, the light of God will melt his heart.

Jesus, the light, had/has the same effect, only more sharply. Jesus came to bring a sword, which will divide and distinguish between those who love God and goodness, and those who hate God and goodness. Jesus is the test of the heart of man, and how people react to him is an indicator of the kind of heart they have.

Fulton Sheen compared Jesus to a magic mirror, that when gazed upon will cause men to either love Jesus or hate him depending on their reaction to the reflection of themselves that is shown back at them. If they love evil, they'll deny they have a horrific reflection, and thus deny Jesus. If they love goodness, they'll hate their reflection because people who love goodness are sinners too and thus also have horrific reflections, and they will desire Jesus to change them.

he intrudes upon free will all the time: that is what the big 10 are for.

He states "free will" and then sends you to a mythical place called HELL for acting upon it.

Wow!

The more you hear about the Christian BS, the more holes there are in it. How does the thing hold together? Are people really this stupid? O_o

Don't answer that....

You're wondering why bad things have to happen and why God doesn't just make it not so. Well, it is my understanding that you can't have the good without the bad. If nothing bad happened, then we would have nothing to judge what is good by. Also, if nothing bad happened, that would mean we were already in heaven. The bad, not only allows us to see the good, but it also helps us to get through the mediocre or, in other words, helps us to cope with the things that aren't so great in our lives and to see the good when it's not so easy to see.

lol, thanks for the thumbs down, guess some people can't handle reality.

I'm guessing people don't like my attitude - bite me

Looks like God doesn't mind hardening the heart of modern people as well.

that is a really good question