Why is it almost impossible to reach elderly people who are still rebelling against God?
Repeated rejection of God’s mercy hardens the heart: every time a person says no, the next no becomes easier, while awareness of mercy shrinks. By their 80s or 90s, if they remain rebels against grace, accumulated resistance makes breakthrough nearly impossible, though sometimes it still happens.
Les explains that this pattern is seen in human nature today, just as with Pharaoh. When people are brought to a place of deciding for or against God and they say no, the next time it is easier to say no than it was the last time. Their whole concept of rebellion grows, while their recognition of God’s mercy gets smaller. So when people get old, into their 80s and 90s, and are still rebels against the grace of God, it is hard to break through. It is almost impossible because they have become so hardened. Les notes he has talked to a few and you just cannot get through to them; sometimes you can, but usually it is very hard because every time they were confronted with believing the gospel and rejected it, it became that much harder later to break down their barriers of resistance. It was so with Pharaoh.