But the Bible says that “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8), and an all-loving God will not capriciously pick and choose some people for heaven and some people for hell without them having any choice in the matter. That’s not the God of the Bible! (See the following list of Bible verses showing that God does not show partiality or favoritism: Deut. 10:17; 2 Chron. 19:7; Prov. 24:23, 28:21; Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; James 2:9, etc.) Of course Calvinists have their proof texts, but see the excellent response by Dr. Norman Geisler titled: “Why I Am Not a Five Point Calvinist”.[2]
Related to Dr. Vanlaningham’s comments about the “dark side” of God’s providence, notice the following transcript from Moody Radio’s Open Line with Dr. Michael Rydelnik. Airtime: Saturday, 10:00AM – 12:00PM. Hour 1: The Other Michael Answers Your Bible Questions, Hour 2: Bible Q & A with the Other Michael. The following transcript is from Hour 2, time stamp: 33:26 – 36:52 minutes. Unfortunately I do not have the exact date of this recording, but I believe it was in 2017 when I first heard it live on the radio. What’s interesting is that since then, all the Open Line radio programs from 2017 have been scrubbed from the internet! But thankfully I was able to transcribe the audio before it was deleted. Here’s what Vanlaningham said in regards to “double predestination”, or what he calls the “dark side” of God’s providence:
Michael Rydelnik: “Okay, I got another question here. This one comes from Ed. He wants to know if some people, created by God, are also predestined to go to Hell and suffer forever exclusively for God’s glory?”
Michael Vanlaningham: “Um, yeah Ed. I’m gonna give you an answer that you’re not gonna like. And it’s a hard, hard, hard answer. In Romans chapter 9, it talks about that very thing. It says in verse 21, ‘Does not the potter’ (that would be God), ‘have a right over the clay’ (that would be all of humanity), ‘Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use [i.e. the Church, cf. Rom. 9:23-24], and another for common use [i.e. unrepentant Israel, cf. Jer. 18:1-18, 19:1-13]?’ Now in the context of Romans chapter 9, what we’re talking about is salvation. [Editor’s note: Notice that Vanlaningham does not cite any particular Bible verse! Because actually, Romans chapter 9 is about the past national election of Israel, not individual election to salvation.] And so Paul’s point seems to be, that God has a right to save some — to take some from humanity for salvation, and to take others from humanity for condemnation. You have to read the context to get the idea of salvation. [Editor’s note: Where exactly? Vanlaningham again fails to cite any paticular Bible verse or verses to support his contention.] And then it says in verse 19, just before that, ‘You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? Who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Will it? Does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use [i.e. the Church, cf. Rom. 9:23-24] and another for common use [i.e. unrepentant Israel, cf. Jer. 18:1-18, 19:1-13]?’ That is, Paul anticipates that there are going to be people who will object to the concept, and yet he says it is not our place to argue it with an angry sense against who God is and what He does. We have to be very careful about that. Finally, in the same passage it says (related to Pharaoh in verse 17), ‘For the Scripture says to Pharaoh’ (God said to Pharaoh), ‘For this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’ Pharaoh was born, he was put into the position of leading Egypt, he hardened his own heart [!] and God hardened his heart. [Editor’s note: Notice that Vanlaningham just admitted that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart, and then God confirmed Pharaoh’s choice.] Why? So that God could demonstrate His power and make His mighty name proclaimed. [Editor’s note: Exactly, so not to send Pharaoh to hell.] And so what happens is, yes, I think as hard as this is to hear, and it’s hard, and I have unbelievers in my immediate family — my brother and my sister and my mom, and yet I have to grapple with the idea that God may not have chosen them to accept Christ and to be saved. I don’t know that. We don’t know who is among the elect and who isn’t. But those who are not, God has determined that, and He will bring glory to Himself — as he does with Pharaoh, eventually when He judges them. And that’s exactly what He did with Pharaoh, and that’s what God does with unbelievers, and that’s a hard, hard, hard, dark side to the providence of God. But it’s still providence. [Editor’s note: But the Bible says in 1 John 1:5 that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”] And this is still how God functions [according to Calvinism] — hard to hear though isn’t it?”[3]
Tricia McMillan: “Yeah, it is.”
But in response to Vanlaningham’s Calvinistic (and unbiblical) view of God’s providence, Dr. J. Vernon McGee has well said: “There never will be a person in hell who did not choose to be there, my friend. You are the one who makes your own decision.”[4]
[1] Comment by GREEKGRAMMAR1, “Mike Vanlaningham”, Rate My Professors website, Dec 17th, 2014, www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/671895 (accessed 12/27/2023). Interestingly, another student of Vanlaningham’s gave this critique of his class on Romans: “Had him for Romans. V uses his teaching position to explain why he’s right and everyone else is wrong. Students’ questions are swatted down. Papers are graded on format more than actual content. A student was told to ‘shut up’ for voicing a contrary view. If you want a narrow-minded, unforgiving class on Romans, take V.” Comment by BI441002, “Mike Vanlaningham”, Rate My Professors website, March 7th, 2014, www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/671895 (accessed 12/27/2023).
[2] Norman Geisler, “Why I Am Not a Five Point Calvinist”, Richard Kalk YouTube channel (posted September 30, 2019, although Geisler’s original sermon appears to be from sometime around 2009), www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwNZhdPqGDE (accessed 12/27/2023).
[3] Michael Vanlaningham, Moody Radio’s Open Line with Dr. Michael Rydelnik. “Bible Q & A with the Other Michael” (2017), time stamp: 33:26 – 36:52 minutes, brackets added.