Churchwork
01-02-2009, 05:06 AM
I have read several of William Lane Craig's articles on Molinism and I think it works. I can simplify it in my own words. And I would like to show how osas arminians (molinists) do not believe in libertarian free will. We need to be very careful with our terminology.
Like a decision tree with all known possibilities (God sets all the parameters) including all our free-choices (God defines all the choices we can have), God can foresee all possible worlds, choices and events for eternity. This is accomplished in the first stage called Natural Knowledge and second stage called Middle Knowledge.
But God wants only one timeline or strain of events to occur to be actualized dependent upon on one main condition: to save the most and damn the least. I came to the realization how all this works quite well through my own personal experience.
I was thinking about all the things that led me to believe in Christ which were several though trying blessed events. I can see how someone would not believe in Christ if they did not go through the experiences that I went through or did not have the kind of experiences that would lead them to Christ; but everyone has a spirit of God-consciousness, so I am not making excuses for anyone, not even myself before I was saved. These blessed states of affairs led me to a choice a choice I could not forsake for Christ. It was quite easy at that point to give in and give up for our Lord and Savior.
So if an individual somewhere along a timeline has 10 choices in a particular scenario he could viably choose any ten of them, but you might ask why does he choose the one he chooses? It is because it falls in line within the optimal scenario of God's most preferred timeline to save the most and damn the least in the backdrop of all counterfactuals and contingencies.
Therefore, you can't say this is calvinism because it really is a free-choice and there is no total depravity. God in his third stage of Free Knowledge applies various propositions to effect that specific timeline to actualize it and our specific choices. Middle Knowledge is essential like Natural Knowledge, but the choices themselves are not essential (they are free to the individual just as God's choices are free). What is essential, again, is God's Free Knowledge to apply necessary propositions to that Middle Knowledge in order to achieve that very specific line of (free) choices. All His interventions in all worlds finds Himself in this one world and one asymmetrical line of cause and effects for eternity where He can fellowship with us and be involved with His creation.
This destroys calvinism for the sole reason that calvinism does not provide these different worlds and timelines to allow God to choose the optimal line, preserving true free will. It can be said that most calvinists are not saved because they worship a god that does not die for all, nor pleads with all to receive Christ; nor does calvinism require your repentance first to be regenerated. As Dave Hunt says, What love is this to berate people for not receiving His salvation when they received no such opportunity?
A calvinists writes, "...the incoherence of Arminian simple foreknowledge with its belief in libertarian free will." Arminians don't believe in libertarian free will (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_free_will), defined as "belief that human beings possess free will, that free will is incompatible with determinism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism), and that determinism is false." Arminians believe determinism is true and that free will is compatible with determinism. Determinism is defined as "every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences." This is how God can foreknow our free-choices, because God can see all possible worlds, but He only actualizes the world with the free-choices in this world we have; hence, He can foresees all causal influences. The determinism, therefore, of osas arminianism is not the same as that of calvinism, because the latter is just forced whereas the determinism of osas arminianism and molinism occurs in the backdrop of God choosing the decision tree of free choices for an optimal world and timeline that saves the most and damns the least.
I know it may be hard for you to believe that I have figured out a very difficult problem, but I have. I am sure of it. I hope I have made myself clear. I understand what I am saying and makes perfect sense to me, so if you didn't understand what I said the first time, I ask that you give it a careful second read. It is clearer today than back in the 16th century, because of computers and our ability to run such simulations and iterations. I also posted this here (http://biblocality.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5351#post5351).
I find when I think of how to reconcile God's infinite foreknowledge (omniscience) with our true authentic free will that are both clearly laid out in Scripture, my understanding in the way just explained answers my heartfelt questions how God achieves this.
For me, personally, I am not troubled with how God created the big bang or how He made the first single celled organism, since those are exceeding complicated events, nor do I get worried about how God can give us self-consciousness and God-consciousness, because certainly there are some things God reserves for His awareness alone. Likewise, how Jesus resurrected and returns may never be known to us, but a great many things have yet to be revealed for those who love Him.
Praise the Lord!
Like a decision tree with all known possibilities (God sets all the parameters) including all our free-choices (God defines all the choices we can have), God can foresee all possible worlds, choices and events for eternity. This is accomplished in the first stage called Natural Knowledge and second stage called Middle Knowledge.
But God wants only one timeline or strain of events to occur to be actualized dependent upon on one main condition: to save the most and damn the least. I came to the realization how all this works quite well through my own personal experience.
I was thinking about all the things that led me to believe in Christ which were several though trying blessed events. I can see how someone would not believe in Christ if they did not go through the experiences that I went through or did not have the kind of experiences that would lead them to Christ; but everyone has a spirit of God-consciousness, so I am not making excuses for anyone, not even myself before I was saved. These blessed states of affairs led me to a choice a choice I could not forsake for Christ. It was quite easy at that point to give in and give up for our Lord and Savior.
So if an individual somewhere along a timeline has 10 choices in a particular scenario he could viably choose any ten of them, but you might ask why does he choose the one he chooses? It is because it falls in line within the optimal scenario of God's most preferred timeline to save the most and damn the least in the backdrop of all counterfactuals and contingencies.
Therefore, you can't say this is calvinism because it really is a free-choice and there is no total depravity. God in his third stage of Free Knowledge applies various propositions to effect that specific timeline to actualize it and our specific choices. Middle Knowledge is essential like Natural Knowledge, but the choices themselves are not essential (they are free to the individual just as God's choices are free). What is essential, again, is God's Free Knowledge to apply necessary propositions to that Middle Knowledge in order to achieve that very specific line of (free) choices. All His interventions in all worlds finds Himself in this one world and one asymmetrical line of cause and effects for eternity where He can fellowship with us and be involved with His creation.
This destroys calvinism for the sole reason that calvinism does not provide these different worlds and timelines to allow God to choose the optimal line, preserving true free will. It can be said that most calvinists are not saved because they worship a god that does not die for all, nor pleads with all to receive Christ; nor does calvinism require your repentance first to be regenerated. As Dave Hunt says, What love is this to berate people for not receiving His salvation when they received no such opportunity?
A calvinists writes, "...the incoherence of Arminian simple foreknowledge with its belief in libertarian free will." Arminians don't believe in libertarian free will (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_free_will), defined as "belief that human beings possess free will, that free will is incompatible with determinism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism), and that determinism is false." Arminians believe determinism is true and that free will is compatible with determinism. Determinism is defined as "every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences." This is how God can foreknow our free-choices, because God can see all possible worlds, but He only actualizes the world with the free-choices in this world we have; hence, He can foresees all causal influences. The determinism, therefore, of osas arminianism is not the same as that of calvinism, because the latter is just forced whereas the determinism of osas arminianism and molinism occurs in the backdrop of God choosing the decision tree of free choices for an optimal world and timeline that saves the most and damns the least.
I know it may be hard for you to believe that I have figured out a very difficult problem, but I have. I am sure of it. I hope I have made myself clear. I understand what I am saying and makes perfect sense to me, so if you didn't understand what I said the first time, I ask that you give it a careful second read. It is clearer today than back in the 16th century, because of computers and our ability to run such simulations and iterations. I also posted this here (http://biblocality.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5351#post5351).
I find when I think of how to reconcile God's infinite foreknowledge (omniscience) with our true authentic free will that are both clearly laid out in Scripture, my understanding in the way just explained answers my heartfelt questions how God achieves this.
For me, personally, I am not troubled with how God created the big bang or how He made the first single celled organism, since those are exceeding complicated events, nor do I get worried about how God can give us self-consciousness and God-consciousness, because certainly there are some things God reserves for His awareness alone. Likewise, how Jesus resurrected and returns may never be known to us, but a great many things have yet to be revealed for those who love Him.
Praise the Lord!