Arminianism: Conditional Election

Foreknowledge

The problem with molinism.

God knows you, but which you does God know before you exist?

God knows all possible iterations of you? How many are there?

God has perfect knowledge of all possible worlds. (Doubtful that there are possible worlds.) God knows what you would do in every possible world before he created you or actualized this world. If it is the case that God knows every single action you will take, to include your thoughts, the beliefs you will form, the words you will speak, and the behavior in which you will engage in all possible worlds, then in what sense could libertarian freedom hold?

The you that decided on A in possible world B and B in possible world A cannot do otherwise in either of those possible worlds if God knows what you will do beforehand.

So when God actualized this world, it has to be said that this was God’s plan from the very beginning. God planned this world and everything in it from the very beginning. Nothing can happen in this world that God has not planned because God’s decision to actualize this world was God’s perfect plan. Why this world and not another does not solve the problem. Whatever world God actualized he actualized with absolutely comprehensive and perfect knowledge of everything that would come to pass in that world.

Conclusion: Molinism does nothing to rescue libertarian freedom.

The only thing that can rescue libertarian freedom is placing some limitations on God’s knowledge. God looked down through the future to see what would happen and then God decided based on that knowledge. This would require that God exist in a state where he did not have perfect knowledge of all things. Such a view is opposed to the idea that God is omniscient.

Can God create a blank-slate human? Can God create a world whose natural laws are unrelated to one another, truly random?

The Cicada arrived at my house. Then came the cicada killer. Then came the velvety tree ant.

The Blank Slate Human is Necessary

So if LF then BSH

How could God know that any given set of circumstances that I will do A unless God has created me to do A in those circumstances?

Now, if I am created in a way that in any given set of circumstances I may do A or ~A randomly, then it follows that not even God could know what I will do.

After all, if God knows what I will do in any and all circumstances, then it is not the case that my actions are uncaused should A or ~A arise.

The Blank Slate Human is Impossible

The possibility of a human with random parts does not exist.

If man is imago dei, then random acts are impossible.

God is created in God’s image.

Random acts are impossible.

How do we know that being imago dei necessarily precludes randomness in human beings?

God is not arbitrary. Man is created in the image of God. Therefore man’s actions are indelibly related to his being just as God’s acts are the expression of his being.

Middle Knowledge

Reformed theologians break God’s knowledge down into two parts:

God’s natural/indefinite knowledge which if God’s knowledge of possible things. Nothing is determined concerning them.

God’s free/definite knowledge. This is God’s knowledge of future things.

These two categories of knowledge in God differ from each other:

(1) In object because natural knowledge is concerned with possible things while free knowledge is concerned with future things.

(2) In foundation because natural knowledge depends on God’s omnipotence and free knowledge depends on his will and decree.

(3) In order because God’s natural knowledge precedes his free knowledge. Future things are not future things except by decree. Possible things only become future things when God employs his free knowledge of them by way of decree.

The Jesuits, Fonseca, Lessius, and Molina created a third category of knowledge called “middle knowledge.”

It differs from God’s natural knowledge because it relates only to future things but not possible things. It differs from God’s free knowledge because it is concerned with hypothetical and not certainly future events.

To repeat the biblical understanding of divine knowledge once more:

God’s natural knowledge refers to all possible future events.

God’s free knowledge refers to his decree of all future events.

This gives us two types of future events: the possible and the certain.

The question is whether God sees one’s future actions BEFORE the decree.

Since God’s free knowledge encompasses all possible things and God’s free knowledge encompasses all certain things, there is no room left for the idea of middle knowledge.