Molinism
In the movie, Next, Nicholas Cage plays a man who has the ability to perceive future events. Here is a section of the movie where Cage’s character is attempting to thwart a future event (don’t worry, this isn’t a plot spoiler, the movie is still worth watching) by examining all the possible outcomes of his [...]
Peter Lumpkins wrote recently regarding Molinism First, like Calvinism and Arminianism, Molinism is a system, and being a system itself remains a weakness so far as I am concerned. From my standpoint, it is difficult to impossible to accept that a system is required to interpret God’s revelation. The nature of biblical revelation itself works against [...]
Here is a great question I received recently via Facebook I’ve been thinking about libertarian freedom lately. What exactly does “nature” mean? 1. The compatibilist says we can only act according to our nature, while the libertarian says we can act against it. If our nature is to sin, then couldn’t we come to Christ [...]
Continue reading about Libertarian free will vs. compatabalism
Here is a follow-up to the exchange I posted on earlier wherein I received and answered a question from someone interested in learning more about the Biblical doctrine of Molinism/Middle Knowledge. “Now, I may be incorrectly understanding Craig’s explanation of how middle knowledge is supposed to have worked, but I believe he detailed a scenario in which [...]
Continue reading about Another primer on Molinism/Middle Knowledge 2 of 2
I recently received the following via a Facebook message (reposed with permission): Wes Pardon the unsolicited message–and I see that with your 3K+ friends, your ability to reply may be limited–but I’m a long-suffering “anti-Calvinist” who’s only now beginning to study Molinism. I noticed through Facebook’s VERY unprivate data search mechanisms that you are a [...]
Continue reading about Another primer on Molinism/Middle Knowledge 1 of 2
I recently came across the draft of a paper written by Ken Keathley on Molinism titled “A Molinist View of Election Or How to Be a Consistent Infralapsarian”. The full PDF version is avaliable here. The final version is included in the book Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue. On supralapsarianism and historical Calvinism Keathly writes: [...]
Counterfactuals are statements about “what might have been” regarding an event in time had circumstances been different.1 Counterfactual statements are characterized by the conditional keywords “if-then”, as in “if Obama had not raised the national debt to record levels, unemployment would have been much higher.” The “counter” part of a “counterfactual” statement is that such [...]
A friend of mine recently asked what, if any, impact the belief in causal determinism (or lack thereof) has in practical day-to-day living. Here’s my answer: Well, one example to the contrary1 is this: I never locked my doors. This was because I believed that men had no free will and that not only were [...]
Continue reading about How does a belief in causal determinism influence how one lives?
Earlier I posted a portion of a conversation I recently had with a friend (Mike) regarding salvation’s availability. Here is the continuation of that conversation (reposted with premission) where our conversation logically turns to whether everyone has the ability to accept the offer of salvation if it were freely offered. Mike: I see your questions1, [...]
Continue reading about Can all freely choose, or are we totally depraved?
One of the strongest objections to the doctrine of Molinism is what has commonly been called “the grounding objection” which, stated simply, is; “Where is God’s knowledge in future events grounded?” Many who ask this question object the idea that, if God’s knowledge is based in his eternal decree then Molinism is undone because it [...]
Continue reading about Answering the grounding objection against Molinism
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