This was written in an article by Kirk McGregor on Free Thinking ministries website
Recently I have been looking into the I of TULIP and wondering if I have misunderstood it. In between watching various videos about the matter and reading articles I am finding that I am accepting the concept as not as incompatible with also being a Molinist or acknowledgement of middle knowledge/human free choice.
I came across the article sourced at the top of this post. I now accept that one can be a full 5 point Calvinist (Reformed Theology or Doctrines of Grace) while also accepting Molinism or middle knowledge that allows for one to allow for free choice.
Per the article I linked to above this post.
Calvinistic Molinism
Taking adherence to all the Five Points of Calvinism (TULIP) as sufficient for being a Calvinist, we will disclose how a Calvinist can subscribe to the core of Molinism. We have already seen that Molina held to T (total depravity) and U (unconditional election). One can get P (perseverance of the saints) simply by proposing that the world God selects is one in which he middle-knows that no individual who responds to his prevenient grace would fall away. Which mechanism God uses to ensure that such “first responders” do not fall away is wide open for Calvinists to debate. Hence we have three of the Five Points.
One could secure the other two points by following a version of Molinism called Congruism, formulated by the early seventeenth-century Catholic reformer Francisco Suárez. According to Congruism, while God gives all persons in the world he creates a completely sufficient grace for salvation (so that the reprobate have no one to blame but themselves), God decides to ramp up the quality of grace for the elect upon middle-knowing that they would respond to the default level of sufficient grace if given. God gives the elect a congruent grace, namely, a special quality of grace that is so perfectly adapted to their unique characters, temperaments, and situations that they infallibly yet freely respond affirmatively to its influence. Such grace is extrinsically efficacious, thus furnishing us with I (irresistible grace). Since God only intends to save through Christ’s cross those whom he gives congruent grace, the atonement is limited in scope, giving us L (limited atonement).
In sum, a combination of original Molinism and Congruism yields subscription to all Five Points of Calvinism, thus making it quite possible to be both a Calvinist and a Molinist.
