Double Predestination: The "Dark Side" of Calvinism

Some years ago I heard Dr. Michael Vanlaningham on Moody’s Open Line radio program answering a caller’s question about Calvinism, and Vanlaningham was pushing “double predestination”: which is the view of extreme 5-point Calvinists that God not only unconditionally elects some people to heaven, but He also unconditionally elects some people to hell (even babies!) without their choice being involved at all. And I distinctly remember Vanlaningham saying that he believes God predestines some people to hell, and he described it as the “dark side” of divine providence. Let me just follow up by saying that Vanlaningham is a hardcore Calvinist. I noticed online that one of Vanlaningham’s students gave this critique of his teaching: “Dr. V is a Calvinist to the core and it even comes out in his Greek class!”[1]

But the Bible says that “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8), and an all-loving God will not play favorites by capriciously choosing 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! (The Bible says that God does not show partiality or favoritism. See 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 they don't hold up to scrutiny. 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.[3] 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: 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. 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 right. God's purpose was not to send Pharaoh to hell, but rather it was to "demonstrate His power and make His mighty name proclaimed" by raising up Pharaoh "into the position of leading Egypt" and bring him onto the stage of world events.] 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. [Editor's note: Notice how Vanlaningham shifts the focus; the apostle Paul wasn't saying that God created Pharoah to go to hell.] 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?”[4]

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.”[5]

 

References:

[1] Comment by GREEKGRAMMAR1, “Mike Vanlaningham,” Rate My Professors website, December 17th, 2014 (accessed 12/27/2023). Interestingly, another student of Vanlaningham’s gave this critique of his class on Romans: “Had him for Romans. V[anlaningham] 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[anlaningham].” Comment by BI441002, “Mike Vanlaningham,” Rate My Professors website, March 7th, 2014 (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. Airtime: Saturday, May 12, 2018, 10:00am – 12:00pm. Hour 1: The Other Michael Answers Your Bible Questions, Hour 2: Bible Q & A with the Other Michael. My transcript is from Hour 2, timestamp: 33:26 minutes – 36:52 minutes. Note: Unfortunately this particular episode has since been removed from the Open Line website, but I transcribed the audio back in 2018 before it was deleted. 

[4] Michael Vanlaningham, Moody Radio’s Open Line with Dr. Michael Rydelnik. “Bible Q & A with the Other Michael” (May 12, 2018), time stamp: 33:26 – 36:52 minutes, brackets added.

 

[5] J. Vernon McGee, Romans: Chapters 9-16 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1991), p. 32.