Molinism
{Middle Knowledge}

By definition, Middle Knowledge is truth that is contingent and outside of God's control. It is truth that doesn't have to be the way that it is (so it is contingent), but there's nothing God can do that can change it (it is outside of God's control). Calvinists think that everything that is true, other than truths that follow necessarily from God's nature, was made true by God. Middle Knowledge denies this, saying that there are facts out there which are independent of God's nature and God's actions. This is something that we Calvinists typically don't want anything to do with.

Advocates of Middle Knowledge generally adopt the view because of this "outside of God's control" feature of it, which they think safeguards free will. So, God can know what men would freely do in various situations through his Middle Knowledge. He doesn't determine what they would freely do, He just knows, through His omnipotence, all the facts about what they would do. He can't do anything to change those facts -- they just are what they are. This concern to protect man's free will at the cost of creating contingent truths outside of God's control is what makes many Calvinists say that Middle Knowledge is a man-exalting theology.

Middle Knowledge is not just knowledge of possibilities, it's knowledge of contingent truths that are not up to God. God knows that it is possible for him to create many different worlds with different laws and populated by different people. He knows this simply by knowing Himself and His own nature. Knowledge of those kinds of possibilities is not Middle Knowledge.

It seems like wherever these truths that God knows by Middle Knowledge came from, they came from somewhere outside of God, and that is worrisome.

Psalms 33:8-15   Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. (9) For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (10) The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. (11) The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. (12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. (13) The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. (14) From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; (15) He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

Psalms 135:5-6   For I know that the LORD is great, And our Lord is above all gods. (6) Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.

Proverbs 16:33   The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.

Isaiah 14:24   The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, [so] it shall stand:
Isaiah 14:27   For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul [it]? His hand [is] stretched out, And who will turn it back?"

Isaiah 46:9-11   Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ (11) Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.