I dont agree w everything this guy says, but this is a good point he makes:
John 12:40 says that God hardens some mens hearts, and blinds their eyes so they can’t understand and be converted and healed. John12:39 says that they could not believe because of this. So did these men have a free will to believe in God.
This is my response:
“But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.” John 12:37-40
Furthermore, interpreting John 12:40 the way that you do makes it sound like these men would have believed but God intervened so that they wouldn’t. Is that what you are saying? Do you believe that sinners are capable of believing without God’s help? That these people were about to believe but God stopped it? If sinners are totally depraved at birth in the Calvinist sense, so that they cannot repent and believe unless God regenerates their constitution and gives them the power to do so, then it is not necessary for God to blind their eyes or harden their hearts. In Calvinism, there would be no possibility of men repenting and believing at the message unless God changes their constitution and enables them to do so, so why would God have to blind their eyes and harden their hearts lest they believe and are converted? It would be unnecessary for God to do this. For a Calvinist to view this passage in the way that you do contradicts your own Calvinist doctrine of the total inability of man. Thus you are creating a systematic contradiction between the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity and the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation.
Essentially, this Calvinistic interpretation of this passage blames God for the impenitence and unbelief of man. Yet God continually blames men for their impenitence and unbelief. Jesus rebuked entire cities for not repenting and even marveled at their unbelief. This implies that men could have repented and could have believed, as God wanted them to, but they chose not to contrary to the will of God.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/biblic...ts-of-unbelievers-is-this-predestination/amp/