The title of this blog post possibly points to a peculiar proclivity for alliteration.
A.W. Pink writes:
“In John 12:37-40 we read, ‘But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that (in order that) the saying of Esaias (Isaiah) 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.’
It needs to be carefully noted here that these whose eyes God ‘blinded’ and whose heart He ‘hardened’ were men who had deliberately scorned the Light and rejected the testimony of God’s own Son” (A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God).
Pink’s palpable prejudice against God’s unconditional and active blinding and hardening is revealed in his pseudo-pious phrase “It needs to be carefully noted here…” But what actually needs to be carefully noted here is how Isaiah says the unbelief was a RESULT of God’s hardening and blinding, NOT the other way around (contra Pink). Certain men “had deliberately scorned the Light and rejected the testimony of God’s own Son,” WHY? BECAUSE “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart.”
Agrammatos 