Molinism and Arminianism: What’s the Difference?

This is a very good question because it was really through Jacob Arminius that Molinism entered into Protestant theology. Arminius was, I think, really a Protestant Molinist. Now, modern day Arminianism tends to be very different from Molinism. Modern day Arminianism affirms that we have free will and that the way that God knows the future is by, so to speak, looking ahead into the future and seeing what will happen. And knowing then what will happen, he decrees that it will happen. Well, this is an extremely weak doctrine of foreordination and predestination because it's a sort of fifth wheel. If God knows that it will happen, there's no point in decreeing that it will happen; it does nothing. So Molinism is rather different. It says that logically prior to God's decree to create a particular world, he knew all of the different orders of things that would be feasible for him to create given human freedom. Then he chooses one of these orders knowing exactly how the creatures would freely react if they were in those circumstances. And so he decrees that those people should exist and that they should be in those circumstances. Thus, he knows exactly what they will do. So, in this case, God's decree of a world is logically prior to his knowledge of what will happen. His knowledge of what will happen is based upon his middle knowledge of what creatures would freely do in any circumstances and his knowledge of his own divine decree.