notes from w.l. craig's seminar on middle knowledge

MOLINISM - BILL CRAIG
God's hypothetical knowledge.. like Dickens' Christmas Carol where the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come shows him visions of both his death & Tiny Tim's death and, horrified, he asks the Spirit whether or not these are shadows of things that definately are to come or may only possibly come.. Craig says these visions are not just mere possibilities (cos anything is possible and Scrooge neednt worry about just anything) nor was the Spirit showing him what will definately happen, because at the end of the story Tiny Tim does not die.. so what the Spirit was showing Scrooge was a kind of hypothetical knowledge - what would happen if Scrooge did not repent and Scrooge does repent so these things do not happen. the question, then, is does God have this kind of hypothetical knowledge of what would be the case if something else were to be the case? Another case in popular culture is from the classic movie A Wonderful Life where the angel shows Jimmy Stewart what the world would of been like if hed never been born - you find the world would have been vastly different without him being born. Does God know that - does He have that kind of knowledge?

This is a controversial question. It would be hard to prove just from the Bible alone God has this kind of knowledge - tho a good case can be made according to Craig. Some theologians would say no He doesnt - He knows everything that could happen and everything that will happen, yet He doesnt have knowledge of what would happen if such & such was the case. therefore the question 'if God knew the world would be so messed up as it is why didnt he create it in another way?' gets these theologians off the hook. the answer for them is He didnt know it would turn out this way - that if He were to place Adam & Eve in the Garden they would fall into sin, there would be a World War II etc.

on other hand Craig thinks there are powerful theological reasons to say God has this kind of knowledge.. Gen. 15:20 is the most powerful passage for God's sovereignty over human history.. God seemed to know here that if the brothers were to sell Joseph into slavery that Joseph would then rise to power in Egypt & so be in a position to rescue his family when famine hit Israel.. they meant it for evil & God meant it for good & so brought it to pass.. this isnt also isolated incident in the OT - in OT there is a very strong sense of divine sovereignty & providence such that God is always in control - God isnt caught by surpise by the way things turn out but its a part of God's planning.. see Acts 4 - the apostles say everyone conspired against Jesus to do whatever His (God's) will & plan was to take place. so it wasnt an accident of history what happened to Jesus - it was the plan of God, to use likes of Herod & Pilate - God knew what Pilate would freely do if confronted with Jesus on trial & same with Herod etc.

What makes these examples remarkable (Joseph & Crucifixion) is that these concern sinful acts of human beings, so God couldnt have brought them about directly, unless we are willing to make God the author of sin. we cant say it was God who brought the wills of Joseph's brothers to do this heinous act & same with Pilate/Herod etc. so what this suggests is that God has this hypothetical knowledge explained above i.e. what these free agents would freely do in any circumstances He might place them in, so by placing those agents in those circumstances God knew exactly what they would do & thereby everything came about by his sovereign plan. on this view this means everything that happens in the world is known by God & is in a sense decreed by Him. but here we need to distinguish between God's DIRECT will & his PERMISSIVE will. everything in universe happens according to will of God but actions which are good are in God's direct will but evil actions are only in God's permissive will. so take Judas' betrayl - God's will is always that Judas would do the right thing (his primary will) - to make the moral choice. but knowing what Judas would freely do in those circumstances God allows/permits Judas to betray Jesus & He uses that sinful act to bring about Jesus' deliverance to the Romans.. similarly with Pilate's free decision to send Jesus to the cross & therefore bring about salvation for mankind via the crucifixion..
so through his directive will or permissive will everything that happens in universe is result of will of God, not accident.. He knew what every free creature would do under any set of circumstance He might place them in, so by placing certain persons in certain circumstances God can bring it about that his ends are ultimately achieved in human history, but through the free agency of human beings, so that you see this hypothetical knowledge provides the key to unlocking the mystery to this whole conondrum of divine sovereignty and human freedom.. many have puzzled how God can be sovereign & yet human beings be free - this hypothetical knowledge provides such a key to the puzzle..

this type of hypothetical knowledge is known as Middle Knowledge.. this is abit of a silly term for it being inbetween God's knowledge of what could be and what will be, and this inbetween is His knowledge of what would be.. to take an example He sees that if he had made Pierre to be one of the twelve disciple Pierre wouldnt of done very well - so knowing that He decided not to create him as one of the twelve.. that would illustrate God knowing what would happen if someone was put in certain circumstances & therefore deciding not to do it and, as a result, God does not know that Pierre will do these things as one of the disciples of Jesus. So there is a difference between things that could happen, would happen (under certain circumstances) & will happen..

now this kind of providence over human history is unimaginably complex.. just think what God would have to calculate in order to bring about a single event in human history i.e. the Allied victory at D-Day.. He would have to get in place an Eisenhower, a Hitler, all the various soldiers, British Empire, Third Reich etc. and since those also depend upon free decisions i.e. the exact time/place Churchill's parents would engage in secual intercourse so the right sperm-egg would produce a Winston Churchill - when you think of this its incomprehensible - ONLY an infinite mind could have this kind of providential control over history.. but God is omniscient - He knows an infinite number of truths & if He has this hypothetical knowledge, He not only has knowledge about all truths that will or could happen, He also has knowledge of an infinite number of truths of what would happen under certain circumstances.. so this knowledge, if true, redounds to the glory & majesty of God - as Craig contemplates it he finds himself awestruck & overwhelmed & expands his vision of God's perfection & majesty to think that His omniscience would be this great to encompass the providential planning of a world of free creatures to arrive at His purposes without abusing their freedom.. for that reason Craig thinks God does have this kind of knowledge.. it also illuminates Biblical texts..

question from audience about if God knew Joseph's brothers would sell him into slavery if put in certain circumstances & God then decreed to put them in such circumstances how does it then excuse God from causing such an evil act? Craig says the circumstances are freedom-permitting circumstances and they don't determine the choice - they're causally indeterminative circumstances & cos the circumstances dont determine the choice the agent is completely free to do or not do the action & therefore God is not causally determining them to do it & therefore its the agent who is responsible.. as stated earlier in any circumstances we find ourselves in God's primary will is we also do good/moral i.e. don't sell Joseph into slavery, but He knew they wouldn't.. an illustration on a human level to make the point clear - the FBI often conduct sting operations against criminals were they use this sort of hypothetical reasoning i.e. set up a circumstance where they try to sell/buy drugs from/to someone they suspect & so theyll set up a circumstance where that person is confronted with such an opportunity & when that person does so the FBI arrests them.. what these people always say is 'it was entrapment, i was trapped, they made me do it by putting me in that circumstance' - but the courts rule it was not entrapment - the person freely chose to do this is those circumstances & therefore they are culpable & can be prosecuted for the crime.. this illustrates it is not God who is author/responsible for sin of these people - they are freedom permitting circumstances, God wills they do the right thing under those circumstances & the fact they choose evil in those circumstances is entirely their free choice & they are culpable for it..

Craig thinks we all have this kind of hypothetical knowledge - Craig's wife knows if he were offered a plate of cookies or plate of liver & onions he would choose the second because he likes that and hates the first - God has this but just with absolute certainty..

how does God have this kind of knowledge? there are several models of divine foreknowledge of the future - one is that God has perceptual knowledge (i.e. looks & sees what is going to happen in future - thats a real problem), but Craig thinks its more a kind of conceptual understanding - He has the essential property of knowing only & all truths and, therefore, He just has knowledge of the future in virtue of knowing only & all truths and the idea of how He comes about it doesnt actually arise - its like asking how can God be omnipotent: how can He do everything it is logically possible to do? can't answer they're just essential attributes of God. So if there are truths about how people would freely behave under certain circumstances then, as an omniscient being, God would simply have to know these things as an essential property of His..

applied to theories of inspiration.. how could God inspire an inerrant scripture in such a way that it wouldn't reduce to mere dictation? the way would be if God knew what the authors of scripture would freely write under the circumstances in which they were placed.. that solution presupposes this doctrine - middle knowledge.. suppose God has high premium on inerrant scripture for mankind, maybe He'd have to permit all kinds of things to get Paul or John in the right circumstances where they would freely write this inerrant revelation of God - circumstances which might cause all other kinds of evils/sufferings in world, permitted in view of an inerrant scripture being produced - some evils which ripples we might be feeling today.. we have no idea what kind of things needs to achieve by permitting these kinds of evils/sufferings in the world.. perhaps its by no means obvious God can achieve the things in history He wishes to achieve without a World War II or a Holocaust.. if God wanted to get to goal A it seems fair to say He would do so in a way which minimized gratuitous suffering..

why did God then create a messed up world & not a better one? maybe cos God's options were limited - given He wanted free creatures & not puppets, it may be that they would of messed up any world that God could of created.. so that in any world that is feasible for God to create with free creatures in it, its possible that they would have sinned & messed up that world.. so its possible there isnt any world available to God that has this much good without also this much evil.. God's will may be that they do the right thing in any circumstance but nevertheless if they freely will to sin God permits them to do so but, in providence, He has selected a world which is more good than evil & results in His ends being achieved - a multitude of people in Heaven of every tribe, tongue & nation..