Romans 9:18
Romans 9:1818Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
Read through the Watchtower's permitted-issue framework: Jehovah does not harden anyone, he permits people to harden themselves. The NWT's rendering supports this directly, and JWs cite Pharaoh as someone who hardened his own heart while Jehovah simply allowed the process to run its course. Individual predestination is rejected as making God responsible for evil.
Read the verse as it stands in their Bible, then read verses 19 to 21. Paul anticipates exactly the objection a Witness will raise — "why does he still find fault?" — and his answer is not to soften the claim. He says: who are you to answer back to God, and does the potter not have authority over the clay? That response only makes sense if Paul has just said something genuinely hard. If the verse meant God merely permits people to harden themselves, nobody would object, and Paul's potter would have nothing to do. Do not press this toward a full Reformed position at the door. The narrower and more useful question is about the word "permitted" in the Watchtower's own theodicy: Jehovah foreknew Eden's outcome, could have prevented it, and chose to allow it for a purpose. Foreknowledge, plus ability to prevent, plus a chosen purpose, is not bare permission — it is a decision. in the NWT says what Herod and Pilate freely did was what God's hand and counsel had determined beforehand. Compare , , .
The NWT reads "he lets whomever he wishes become obstinate." The Greek verb is sklerynei — an active verb with God as its subject, rendered "he hardens whom he wills" in the KJV, ESV, NASB and NIV alike. The NWT converts it into a permission: God lets someone become something, rather than doing something to them. That single change is what makes the verse compatible with the Watchtower's teaching that Jehovah permits rather than decrees. It also removes the force of Paul's next sentence, where he raises the objection "why does he still find fault?" — an objection that only arises if God is doing the hardening.