This particular response happens more often in those who have been born again than it does in those who have not been born again. The seed, the gospel of the Kingdom of the Heavens, lands on the trampled path of the heart in a Christian. How did that path get trampled and hardened? Isn't a Christian's heart supposed to be soft toward God? The heart becomes hardened by repeatedly missing the mark. There are three major types of sin: slipping across the line, stepping across the line, and missing the mark. This hardening of the heart comes mainly from missing the mark. It can also happen from repeatedly stepping across the line, but most Christian sin is the act of missing the mark.

Missing the Mark

The mark is very exact and easy to miss. The way is very narrow and constricted, that is, strait. How narrow and strait? Whatever is not of faith is sin. That faith must be God's faith, not human faith. Faith only comes by hearing and hearing only comes by a word of God. God speaks and directs in our lives. We listen and obey or we don't. Not only that, we may listen and allow God to place His faith into our hearts, and then not allow faith to give us access into God's grace. Going even further, we can have access to God's grace and then not yield the members of our bodies to God's grace so that God's grace can do the work of God through us. We may even try, at that point, to help God reason or help God to do the work. When we miss the mark, we sow bad seed into our hearts.

(some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

What kind of bad seed tramples the soil of our hearts and makes it hard? Failure to discern the Body of Christ tops the list. Ungodly Counsel is a form of failure to discern the Body of Christ. Ungodly counselors focus on church problems and on things like the hypocrites in the church. Ungodly counselors are always willing to tell lies about the Bible. False ministries, false prophets, and false apostles are also a form of ungodly counsel and an inability to discern the Body of Christ. Those who listen to the ungodly end up with hardened hearts against God.

When Christians accept philosophies such as Agnosticism, Evolutionism, and Liberalism, these Christians become hard-hearted toward God. The wrong type of involvement in politics is a similar problem. These Christians become lukewarm--Christians who are at ease in Zion, the church.

Some Christians who don't discern the Body of Christ become disconnected and independent of the church. There are some Christians who are best called Evanjellyfish rather than Evangelical. Some put evil for good. Some want to redefine Christianity in contradiction to Scripture. Some of these want to turn the church into a democracy or a dictatorship or Oligarchy.

Another attitude that results in a very hard heart is the lack of honor and respect for God. Honor and respect for God is the beginning of wisdom, and God's wisdom is the only source of righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
Rejecting the Spirit-The Spirit will soften the hard heart

Dangerous Paths:

Alien & UFO Cults (Go)
Agnosticism And Agnostics (Go)
Agnostic Christianity (Go)
Atheists And Atheism (Go)
At Ease Christianity (Go)
Baha'i Faith (Go)
Buddhism (Go)
Christadelphianism (Go)
Church Of Christ Scientists, Christian Scientists, Mary Baker Eddy (Go)
Demagogue Christianity (Go)
Democracy Worship (Go)
Denominational Christianity (Go)
Disconnected Christianity (Go)
Dogma-based Christianity (Go)
Eckankar, ECK, And Sugmad (Go)
Emergent "Church" (Go)
Emotion-based Christianity (Go)
Entertainment Christianity (Go)
Evil For Good Christianity (Go)
Evanjellyfish Christianity (Go)
Evolutionism, The Cult Disguised As Science, But It Is Not Science. Evolution / Evolutionism is a Cult. (Go)
Evolutionistic Christianity (Go)
Gnostics and Gnosticism (Go)
Hinduism (Go)
The Human Goodness Cult (Go)
Humanism Also Known As Secular Humanism (Go)
The Human Potential Movement (HPM) (Go)
Intellectualism. Leaning On One's Own Understanding. When Does It Become A Cult? (Go)
Islam (Go)
Jehovah's Witnesses (Go)
The Latter Rain Movement and the Charismatic Movement (Go)
Liberalism, A Human Goodness Cult of Totalitarian Coercion (Go)
Liberal Christianity (Go)
Materialism, The Cult That Is Based On Nothing Other Than A Bald-faced Lie (Go)
The Cult, Modernism (Go)
Mormons--The Church Of The Latter Day Saints (Go)
Native American Religions (Go)
Naturalism, A Cult Based On A Bold-faced Lie (Go)
The New Age Movement (Go)
Old-Earth Fairy Tales Have Destroyed The Faith Of Many (Go)
The Occult (Go)
Pantheism: All Is God--God Is Everything There Is. (Go)
Post Modernism, The Last-Ditch Effort To Defend Evolution And Atheism (Go)
Rationalism: Why Is It A Cult? It Makes The Human Mind Into A False God, Giving It God-like Qualities That Don't Fit Reality. (Go)
Rationalized Christianity (Go)
Redefined Christianity (Go)
Relativism Is One Of The Chief Precepts Of Many Cults Including Post-Modernism (Go)
Self-Christianity (Go)
Scientism (Go)
Scientology (Go)
Secularism (Go)
Sikhism (Go)
Statism & Statists (Go)
Theosophy (Go)
Transhumanism (Go)
Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon (Go)
What is Uniformitarianism? (Go)
Unitarian / Unitarianism / Universalism / Universalists (Go)
Unity School Of Christianity (Go)
Christians Who Submit Their Minds to Ungodly Counsel Lack Wisdom (Go)
Ungodly Friends And Failure to Make Godly Friends (Go)
The Bible -- Satan Knows that He Can Keep You in Frustration if You are Not Faithfully being Fed by the Bible. (Go)
Satan Wants To Discredit Those Who Follow Christ (Go)
An Attitude Toward Politics And Government That Is Not In Line With Scripture Will Cause You To Remain In Bondage and Frustration (Go)
Standing in Judgment: What About All the Things that Are Wrong with the Church? (Go)
The Way International (Go)
Wiccan / Wicca / Witches / Witchcraft (Go)