Category Archives: Foreknowledge of God

Molinism – the doctrine of middle knowledge

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Luis de Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian who attempted to reconcile the apparently contradictory doctrines of divine sovereignty and human free will by postulating that God has a ‘middle knowledge’ (scientia media).

Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) had taught that God has two kinds of knowledge.  The first is a knowledge of the actual: a knowledge, arising out of God’s absolute decree, of what exists in the past, present and future.  The second is a knowledge of the possible: of what could exist in the past, present and future, but does not, because God has not decreed it.…

Foreknowledge

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Arminian theology teaches that God’s election of individuals to salvation is based on his foreknowledge of their faith. God knows beforehand that they will believe, and on that basis elects, or predestines them, to eternal life. This approach has the apparent advantage of relieving the tension between divine election and human freedom.  A key text here is Rom 8:29 –

Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.…