Greetings Dr. Craig! First I would like to thank you for all your work in the field of apologetics. Your writings have helped me immensely, not because I am struggling with my faith, but because I want to help other people to see that Christianity is plausible and rational world view.
Lately I'm reading more about molinism, and while I think it's a very powerful concept, it makes me wonder about a few things. I would like to read your thoughts on the power of prayer in light of molinism. Jesus and many other passages in the scriptures teach us that our prayer is capable of enormous things. This means that prayer gives us the incredible power to change very specific things around us, with impacts down the road that we can't predict.
This means that God have to take into account not only our free will, but also our prayers! Surely this puts Him in an even more difficult position, if molinism is true. What if our prayer clashes with the most optimal balance between saved and unsaved? I have thought of three possible solutions to this problem. Here they are:
1) Given middle knowledge, God knows what all of our prayers will be, so He only made the promise in the first place because He knew this would actually "help" Him (or at least not mess up His plans) to arrange the world with the best possible balance.
2) God directly puts the right prayer in the hearts of His saints. This means that our prayer only goes answered because it was God who made us make that prayer to begin with. That would be a more Calvinistic view, I think.
3) God simply answers prayers that don't clash with his optimal arrangement. My problem with this one is that it makes the promises of prayer seem somewhat empty.
What are your thoughts on this matter?
Thanks for reading this.
Fabricio
Brazil
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