 In the case of Jesus’ prophecy that Peter would deny him, Molinists would say that God knew (through middle knowledge) that if Peter were placed in certain circumstances, then he would deny Jesus. And for reasons not known to us, God decided to create those circumstances, place Peter in them, and prophecy through Jesus what Peter was going to do. (For a much more detailed explanation, see Flint 1998, chapter 9.) Molina’s theory of middle knowledge generates a theory of providence designed to combine a strong notion of God’s control with a robust account of the contingency involved in human freedom. (It also appears to have some biblical support, because there are verses which seem to attribute middle knowledge to God, although this is disputed: see I Samuel 23:6–13 and Matthew 11:20–24, for example.) 