Predestination and Free Will - Part 6
Middle Knowledge
For the last five issues we've explored different ideas in reconciling God's predestining us for salvation with man's freedom to choose. (See
http://www.comereason.org/newsletters/
to read all of our back issues.)
We first studied the view that man doesn't really have free will, but that God controls all aspects and choices of every life. However, we noted there were problems with this position, most notably how it reduced human beings to puppets and makes God responsible for evil.
We next looked at the idea of man having absolute freedom apart from God
- and how this view also presents difficulties. Some are God not being able to foresee the future and being a part of time as we know it. It also in no way answers the Biblical fact that man is predestined by God.
It's easy to see why this debate has raged on for hundreds of years! Either choice seems to contradict the other. However, there is another position that I feel solves the problems raised by both sides of the issue. It is a theory first put forth by a Spanish monk named Luis Molina in the 16th century called Middle Knowledge or
Molinism. We'll be basing our study on William Lane Craig's understanding of the doctrine found in his book
The Only Wise God.
God Knows the World As It Actually Is
Craig explains that God holds different kinds of knowledge. God has what is termed necessary knowledge
- that is knowledge that can never be false. This encompasses things like the laws of logic and the idea that 2+2=4. God also has free knowledge. Free knowledge is knowing the world as it actually is
- including the past, present and future.
The difference between free knowledge and necessary knowledge, though, is that "God could lack
[specific free] knowledge and still be God. He must have this
sort of knowledge to be God, but its content would be different. For if he would have created a different world, his free knowledge would be different."
Examples of God's free knowledge may be found in Isaiah 45, where God speaks directly to Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon 150 years before he was born. Craig also offers other examples of free knowledge. "God's knowledge seems to encompass future contingencies: God foreknows Nebuchadnezzer's divinations to determine his battle routes (Ezek. 21:21-23). Even more remarkably, just as God knows the thoughts that humans have, so he foreknows the very thoughts they will have." Psalm 139 also supports this idea.
So God knows all of the events of human history, past present and future. This includes every detail of the universe - the thoughts that we think, how lots will be cast, when cocks will crow, everything. God knows this to be true because it exists in reality. If reality were different, though, God's knowledge would be different. God only knows the truth to be true.
God Knows All Possibilities
Not only does God know exactly how the world really is, He also knows the way the world would be if events were different. A great example of this is in Acts 27:21-32 where Paul is aboard a ship in a great storm. He there delivers a prophecy
given by God saying "there will be no loss of life among you , but only of the ship." However, some of the sailors sought to escape. Paul then warns them that "unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." Paul knew that all aboard would be saved. But if events were different, he knew that the outcome would be different and the prophecy would be false.
Craig offers 1 Samuel 23:6-13 as another example. He writes "the story was understood to show that God knew that if David
were to remain at Keilah, then Saul would come to get him, and that if Saul
were to come to get David, then the men of the city would hand him over."
Middle Knowledge
The idea that God knows what would happen in any situation were that situation different is termed
middle knowledge. God not only knows what is, but He knows what would be
if.
The reason middle knowledge becomes important is in God's decision to create the world in which we live. God knows all aspects of every possible world he could create. This is part of His natural knowledge and is essential to Him. His middle knowledge consists of "what every possible free creature would do under any possible set of circumstances and, hence, knowledge of those possible worlds which God could make actual." God then freely decides to create the actual world in which we live and knows every detail, past, present, and future, of how that world will be.
The ramifications of this idea go far and deep. God doesn't just "look ahead" into the future and predestine someone He knew would choose him. He decides to create a world in which that person will actually exists to choose Him, knowing that he will choose that way given those circumstances. He personally decides to give life to everyone and every event in our world after looking at all possibilities and scenarios, in order to suit His purposes!
Using the concept of middle knowledge, we can see how God can predestine each one of us to a saving grace in Him while at the same time preserving the idea of human freedom to choose. Now, there are other aspects of middle knowledge that we have yet to discuss, such as the implications on prayer, as well as certain objections that have been raised. I will deal with these in the next few months' issues.
For now, I hope that this discussion has been enlightening. It may have raised many questions, as well. If so, please write me at
newsletter@comereason.org
and ask them. This is difficult stuff, and I don’t want anyone to be left behind. Until then, God bless.
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