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that is required is that when the moment described arrives, the present-tense version of the
statement will be true."
15
This is analogous to what we might say about past-tense statements.
The past-tense statement

(C) George W. Bush won the 2000 Presidential election

is grounded not in some present, existent state of affairs, but in a past state of affairs which at the
time of its occurrence was present. So, (C) is true just in case the present-tense counterpart
(D) George W. Bush wins the 2000 Presidential election

was in fact true. Likewise, the future-tense statement (B) above is true just in case the present-
tense statement

(E) Jesus returns in 2010

is true in 2010--that is, just in case Jesus returns in 2010.
16
But, the problem with grounding CFs is not so simple. It is, in fact, quite a different
problem. Take, once again, our paradigm CF,

(A) If David had remained in Keilah, then Saul would have besieged the city.

With this CF, unlike our future contingent above, there is no state affairs, past present, or future
to which we can point in order to ground the CF. That is, there is no time, past, present, or future,
in which a present-tense version of (A) corresponds to an actual, present state of affairs.
17
And it
will not do to reply, as Craig has, that a "statement of the form 'if P were placed in c, then P
would do x' is true if and only if P would do x if P were placed in c."
18
Why not? Because
whether or not P would do x in c is precisely the question at issue! Of course such a statement
would be true if P would do x in c! But, would P do x in c? The GO is the claim that such a
15
Craig, The Only Wise God, 57.
16
I take it that the more formal account given by Flint (Divine Providence, 130-134) is tantamount
to the same Craig's.
17
The Molinist may respond to this point by asking about a situation in the actual world in which the
antecdent of a CF is true and the agent performs the action in question. For example, suppose we want to
know if the CF "If I were rich, I would buy a Mercedes" is grounded. And let us suppose that through
some fortuitous turn of events I do become rich (say) by winning the lottery. And suppose that when I
become rich, I do in fact buy a Mercedes. Well, asks the Molinist, wouldn't this show that the CF in
question is grounded? Not at all. All that this story would ground is "If I am rich, I buy a Mercedes," and
it does so simply because of the obtaining of the categorical state of affairs of my buying a Mercedes. In
any case, even if this CF were grounded in this way, it would be of no help to God in deciding which world
to create for the CFs that God needs to know for MK to work cannot involve actual decisions in the actual
(post-creation) world.
18
Craig, The Only Wise God, 141