I read Pink's article on Reprobation. It is basically fine, however I also read James Pettigrew Boyce's summary on that topic. He was the founder of Southern Theological seminary in Louisville and graduate of Princeton, 1852.
Boyce brought out the point that the way God uses to harden men is really meant to bring them to repentance. The mighty miracles that Pharoah witnessed should have caused him to repent.
Also the verse '...fitted for destruction...', has been explained by Dr. Hershel Hobbs, now deceased, who was active in the SBC, as being in the reflexive voice. This means the vessels are doing their own 'fitting' as well as God 'fitting' them. One verse in Exodus says, '...Pharoah hardened his heart...' Now Hobbs who believed in free will, that is that every person has the capacity and freedom to choose Christ, tried to use the Greek voice of this verb to show that God does not predestine people to Hell. Also the phrase, '...endured with patience and long suffering...' meant that the people who went to Hell went of their own free will and that they were not predestined.
Also the verse in I Timothy 2:4 is interpreted by some Calvinists such as John Piper (Bethlehem Baptist church, Minneapolis)as meaning all people universally or 'the whole human race' as John Calvin said about the extent of the atonement near the end of his life.
