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The Omnipotence of God
Study
God’s
omnipotence is perhaps His best known and least understood
attribute. God, if He were not omnipotent would not be God. He
could be a powerful being, more powerful than humankind, but He
would not be God anymore than we are God as compared to insects.
With insects, certainly we are capable of killing or destroying
their habitat. We can capture them. But we can’t control them. We
can’t decide where a fly will fly. We would hold the power of life
and death, but that would not make us God to them. Likewise, God
without omnipotence is not God at all.
Limits
So we say that
God can do everything. And we’re safe in saying that if we do not
think further about this. However, even God has limits. We’ll see
in later studies that God cannot lie. He cannot change. He cannot
sin. And most people have no problem believing these things as
well. But is it a contradiction to God’s omnipotence? Is God
capable of change but simply does not? Did God place limits on
Himself with regard to humanity (or all of creation) or is the
limitation simply part of His nature?
Freewill
We’ll discuss
freewill more in regards to God’s sovereignty but the issue must be
addressed here as well. Is God free to do with humanity as he
pleases? Are limitations He has placed on Himself guaranteed by
virtue of His word or is He bound to them because of His nature.
For example, God said he would never again flood the earth. Is His
power in that regard now limited, thus making Him incapable of
flooding the earth, or is He still capable of flooding the earth but
He simply will not because of His word?
Contradictions in definition
Can God create
a rock so big that He cannot move it? Can He create a square
circle? By definition a circle can’t be a square, but God is not
bound by human definitions. By man’s definition God cannot be
Three-in-One either, but yet He is.
Jesus
omnipotent?
In our
discussion of omnipotence, we must at least mention that Jesus as
God is not bound by the same rules of omnipotence as God as we
normally think of Him. While fully God, Jesus still had the
limitations of humanity on Him – like when angels attended to Him
after 40 days in the wilderness.
To Attributes of God index
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