Most evangelical philosophers today affirm God's knowledge of the future, but they deny that the source of God's knowledge is his decree. They insist that God's knowledge of the future does not conflict with libertarian human freedom because God's knowledge is based on an inference. Knowing precisely what every possible free creature would do in every possible circumstance, God directly decrees the (freedom-neutral) circumstances, and deduces what his free creatures will do as a result. This knowledge of what free creatures will do is called God's "middle knowledge." The position is often referred to as "Molinism," since Luis de Molina first proposed it in the sixteenth century as part of a commentary on Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica.
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Issue: "God in Our Image: Why Some Evangelicals Are Challenging the Traditional View of God" Sept./Oct. 1999 Vol. 8 No. 5 Page number(s): 24-25
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