“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.”
and Jesus then explains.
“Exactly, Gnostic. He reveals the mystery of the parable to a select few. Doesn't get much more Gnostic than that.”
Hardly. In chapter 10 he had already told the disciples to preach from the house tops what he had told them in secret and at the end of Matthew he commands them to go with the message to the whole world. Within a few years Matthew records Jesus words for anyone to read. Gnostism? Nope.
“But the Bible tells us that hardening of the heart is God's doing. So, if their hearts were hardened it wasn't their will but God's will.”
Where is that stated? If you are referring to John 12:40 wherein Isaiah 6:10 is quoted, in both cases it is the REACTION of people to Jesus’ performance of miracles and Isaiah's preaching that constituted the hardheartedness.
So it is said, God did it though the people acted quite freely of their own will.
We are warned not to harden our own hearts.
It doesn't change the fact that he spoke to the whole crowd in parables first, including the disciples. Then he explains to the select few. Heavenly secrets revealed only to select individuals is Gnsotic.
In chapter 10 he had already told the disciples to preach from the house tops what he had told them in secret and at the end of Matthew he commands them to go with the message to the whole world
No, just the gospel, the good news that the kingdom of God is near. To the Jews that meant Israel will be restored. Besides, the only thing the disciples did among the "lost sheep of Israel" was to heal the sick. After the resurrection, the "good news" was that he will be back, not the secrets of heaven.
What allegedly happened to Paul on the way to Damascus was also Gnostic. He learned nothing from any man, as he assures us, but directly from the resurrected Christ, because God had set him apart for that in his mother's womb and then, at the right moment, revealed his Son in(!) him (Paul). Doesn't get much more Gnostic than that.
Matthew's so-called Great Commission calls on the disciples to teach (the good news, i.e. that he will be back) and baptize. Hardly revealing secrets of the heaven.
[the Bible tells us that hardening of the heart is God's doing] Where is that stated?
All over the Old Testament. Either everything is God's doing or it's a hit and miss uncertainty. The only way God's plan will work is if things happen exactly as God willed from all eternity, and Jesus tells his followers to acknowledge that ("Your will be done...").
So it is said, God did it though the people acted quite freely of their own will even if it seemed that way to them. Their "choice" was only to reject. That's not a choice.
Well, if God did it (harden their hearts) then the reaction of the preople was necessarily guided by the act of God and could not be a free will choice.
We are warned not to harden our own hearts
Yes, in the NT (except for John 12:40), but it is obvious from the OT that things would not have happened the way God wanted them if he hadn't done it himself, even if people thought that was their doing. Without God hardening the Pharaoh's heart Exodus would not have happened, and so many of Israelites' enemies would have opted not to fight...and the whole nine yards would be a totally different story.
I mean, you can say that Judas betrayed Jesus on his own, but he was pretty much "set apart" from the womb, as Paul would say, that he will be the fall guy, LOL. Without Judas, no arrest, without arrest no crucifixion, whiteout crucifixion no resurrection, without resurrection no Christianity...and even Jesus acknowledges in the Garden of Gethsemane "Your will be done..." or else the whole story falls apart.