By 16th Century Jesuit Luis de Molina. Attempting to embrace both predestination doctrine and arminianism.
Also known as the middle knowledge.
The Molinists use
Matthew 11:23 "...if the mighty works done in you had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained until this day" to make their claim.
Molinism categorize God's knowledge into 3:
1. Necessary truths (Food
is meant to be eaten, etc.) I say this is the first gate for molinists
to fall into a God confined in logic. For it is logical because God say
it is, not the other way around.
2. Natural knowledge (all possibilities of the universe) I
say this is when molinists are over fascinated with mathematical
probability of things. If one would like to argue the presence of
natural knowledge in God, I would ask why must God confine Himself among
the logical possibilities we perceive? It would be ridiculous to say
that these possibilities are perceived by God unless one fell for
category 1's claim.
3. God's free knowledge: outcomes
dependent upon God. I say here the molinists imagined God being put in a
playground and is observed (by men?). Should the molinists claim God as
creator of logic, then why not eliminate the above two categories? It's
a bit unecessary.
Thus, their "middle knowledge" is the knowledge of God between 2 & 3. That God knows if I'm going to wear pink today without Him interfering.
By
this way, they believe they've solved the election vs. free will
problem. That God presents different paths in different individuals'
lives in a way that they could freely choose Christ.
With this I see a few problems that could be solved in the following understanding:
1. That God is not God but is under what we know as "Logic".
2. That we are but puppets with the illusion of free will fatefully
twist and turn by God's commands like coins falling into the coin
pusher machine in a direction perfectly planned by a professional
player.
Molinism can easily discount the work of the Holy Spirit.
And it is obvious, they do not understand "regeneration". For to them,
an elect is merely shown the path to holiness; not supernaturally regenerated
to walk a new path in holiness. Without acknowledging the work of the
Holy Spirit, the molinists are in danger of a non-relationship knowledge
of God. Something John Calvin warned in his Institutes that one cannot
truly know God without reverence to Him.
Now back to the source, Matthew 11:23. Which of all the verses they quote, is their strongest support:
I
say our Lord was commanding humility in Capernaum, as if they thought
they were better than Sodom. That they were conscious enough to judge
Sodom wicked, but they were ignorant of their own wickedness. And should
they recognize God's immense mercy in the almighty works, which was
legitimately not shown to Sodom, they should have repented urgently
while the gracious Lord was walking among them.
None of this is
discounting the work of the Holy Spirit. It only shows how wicked we are
and those we deemed sodomites could easily be less wicked than us, if
God would grant them mercy and prolong their nation.
This verse is not talking about logic of things, but the need of pure humility to see God.
And
in verse 24, Christ has revealed that Sodom had been shown more mercy
than Capernaum. Not that Sodom's status has changed, but that Sodom to
Capernaum is as a drug user to a drug lord. That it is revealed that the
wickedness of Capernaum is worse than they thought.