I like to think of myself as a weird guy sometimes. I think about stuff differently and I enjoy challenging myself to think outside of the box. One of the things that has recently challenged me is the following paradox: "Can an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that even that omnipotent being cannot lift it?" This is called the omnipotence paradox and it is used in many instances to question the omnipotence of God. The argument is this: if the being is truly omnipotent there is nothing that the being cannot do therefore if the being: 1. creates the stone and then cannot lift it, the being is not omnipotent or 2. cannot create the stone itself at all then the being is not omnipotent. On the surface, the paradox presents a real problem. But only on the surface. God, as we conceive of Him as believers, is omnipotent. The definition of omnipotent is simply having unlimited power. We have always been taught that God has unlimited power and the bible affirms this belief. We know that God created the universe, He set the laws of the universe in motion, He intervenes in the universe providentially and He foreknew everything that would ever happen even to this very day in history and in time. That's pretty amazing.
But is there anything that God cannot do? I would answer yes. There are many things that God cannot do because the things, if done, would be contrary to His nature. God will never contradict his nature. God cannot sin. God sinning would imply that God is subject to outside forces within the universe. Man sinned because man was tempted by Satan. God is not subject to the temptation of Satan because God cannot be tempted by something that He created. James 1:13 "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." The question might arise that Jesus was tempted but when taken in the proper context, we understand that this is a resolvable argument. The humanity of Christ was tempted and while Christ existed in the hypostatic union being fully divine and fully human at the same time, his divinity was not tempted nor could it be tempted because God cannot be tempted. Although his flesh was tempted, as Jesus was God incarnate (in the flesh), he NEVER yielded to the temptation to sin because to do so would have resulted in a failed attempt to redeem man from sin. Jesus, the Son, resisted sin in order that man might be reconciled back to God, the Father. God, the Father, is a spirit and is not subject to the temptations that we are subject to in the flesh.
God cannot lie. A lie is contrary to the nature of God. The nature of God is truth and not falsehood. Also, God will not do what He commanded us not to do. We are commanded not to bear false witness. God will not contradict Himself by breaking his own law- that would make God a sinner- which I have already established that He cannot be. There is a scripture in 1 Kings 22 that refers to a spirit that would become a lying spirit, or a spirit that chose to cause the false prophets to lie in order to entice Ahab into believing that he would win in battle. This would ultimately prove false. The fact should immediately occur to us that in this text there is a spirit standing before a holy God that is choosing to cause the prophets to lie (see Job 1 also where Satan stood before God with the rest of the "sons of God"). However, the scripture does not indicate that the spirit was a deceiving spirit while in the presence of God but became a deceiving spirit when it went out from God, with God's permission to entice Ahab. It also states that there were spirits on the left and right hand of God that conversed among themselves when God asked who would entice Ahab. God never commanded the spirit to lie, the spirit devised its own methodology by which it would entice Ahab. God said, "you will entice him and prevail" knowing the pridefulness of Ahab and his inability to resist the tickling of his own ears, even with lies from his prophets. What God allows and what God does is totally different- and in this case, Ahab's pride caused him to heed the enticing words of his false prophets, go into battle and ultimately be killed. His death was simply an execution of God's judgment. Before we accuse God of setting Ahab up, Ahab KNEW that the prophets were lying because Micaiah, the true prophet in the text, told him that the prophets had words put into their mouths by a deceiving spirit- and Ahab could have easily NOT gone into battle.
The heart of this argument against the omnipotence paradox is another thing that God cannot/will not do. God will not create a situation that is impossible for Himself. In the words of St. Augustine "God can do and does everything that God wishes, which resolves all possible paradoxes, because God, being perfectly rational, never wishes to do something that is paradoxical." C. S. Lewis argues in reference to and in favor of God's omnipotence by saying that this is essentially a nonsense paradox. According to Lewis. "a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it" is nonsense just as much as referencing "a square circle." Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica says it this way " Therefore, everything that does not imply a contradiction in terms, is numbered amongst those possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent: whereas whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them." Therefore, we can conclude the following: God does things that have the possibility of being possible, even if only remotely possible. Something that CANNOT be done, by God in His omnipotence, is not something that God WILL do. The fact that something cannot be done does not render God non-omnipotent, it renders the thing absolutely impossible. If something implies contradiction to the nature of God or the nature of possibility, it becomes nonsense because God would have to purposefully change His nature to do it and God does not change.
What does this all mean? God IS omnipotent, all powerful and the fact that there are things that God will not do does not change that. The mere fact that it takes a nonsense paradox to try and limit God's omnipotence is a great testament to the ability of God to do ANYTHING that He deems possible. The fact that God will not do something does not diminish His power in ANY way. Every miracle in the bible is real because for every sickness, there is the possibility for healing. "Wha about AIDS?" Well, if the AIDS virus is natural, which it is regardless of the bioengineering that it took to create it, and is subject to natural biological process, it can be healed- the cure simply has not been discovered yet. What about the mountains that are before us? God can move those mountains because there is nothing created that is not subject to His power! What often times LOOKS impossible to us is actually well within the realm of possibility for God. It looks impossible for God to have bypassed the natural mode of conception and implant Christ into the womb of Mary- but the angel said to Mary in Luke 1:37 that NOTHING is impossible WITH God. Nine months later, the Savior was born in Bethlehem. Therefore, as God exercises His omnipotence and His power there is nothing that can stand His way. It may defy human logic but is very much comprehensible for an Almighty God. God asked the rhetorical question on numerous occasions: Is there anything too hard for Me? The good news of the gospel promises that those that believe in Christ will face a very real, and very possible death but will also be resurrected (impossible by human standards yet guaranteed by God's word) to live in eternity with Christ!
Today, there may seem to be an impossiblity in your life. God does not create impossiblities. God removes impossibilities. When Jesus was talking with his disciples in Matthew 19 regarding salvation, he said to them that it was easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to be saved. This is a purely metaporical statement in that it illustrates the unwillingness of man, especially one with lots of material wealth, to sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of God. The disciples were astonished because this looked and sounded like an impossibility to them. A camel is a mllion times the size of the eye of a needle. It is important to note here that the impossibility arises not because of God but because of the unwillingness of man to submit to God. But Jesus came back and affirmed the omnipotence of God by saying "with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible." God will either shrink the camel or enlarge the eye of the needle, but it is possible. Could God create a camel small enough to fit through the eye of a needle...absolutely, if He so chooses. Could God give man the ability to construct a needle with an eye so large that a camel could go through it? Can a camel walk through the Empire State Building? I think you see my point. There is nothing impossible for God, there is nothing too hard for God. He said it Himself and He cannot lie! The impossiblility that you might be facing right now could very simply be due to an unwillingness to let something go. Trust God for all things. Not just for the humanly possible but also for the humanly impossible. The second we realize that we can trust God in His omnipotence to work in every area of our lives as belivers, that is the second that we can say with confidence "with God, nothing is impossible." God bless you and keep you.
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