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Is God
really omnipotent?
Can God create a
spherical triangle? Can God create a rock so heavy He can't lift
it? Can God think of a time when He was not omnipotent? Atheists
claim that any answer to any of these questions means that God
cannot be omnipotent and, therefore, the God of the Bible does
not exist. On the surface, the questions sound convincing.
However, we will find that these questions are a form of the
kind of question such as "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
The topic of
omnipotence (the ability of God to do anything, i.e., God is
all-powerful) is frequently cited by atheists as proof that the God
of the Bible cannot exist. The claim has been made that if there is
anything that God cannot do, then God cannot be omnipotent
and, therefore, does not exist.
The word "omnipotent" is never used in
the Bible, but has been inferred primarily by one of God's Hebrew
titles, "Shadday," which is most often translated "almighty."1
However, the Bible never claims that God can do all things. In fact,
the Bible makes a point that there are things that God cannot
do. The Bible says that God cannot commit sin.2
God cannot lie.3
Therefore, biblical omnipotence does not mean that God can do all
things. God cannot do anything that is contrary to His holy
character. However, God can do anything that He determines to do.
This is a true meaning of omnipotence - the ability to do anything
that one sets out to do.
Some of the arguments
against omnipotence are plain silly and stupid. Can God create a
spherical triangle? Saying that omnipotence requires the ability to
do logically impossible things is stupid. God cannot turn truth into
a lie. If humans define a triangle as a two dimensional object
formed by the intersection of three lines, it makes no sense to ask
if God could make one that was spherical. When one says that God is
all-powerful, one means that God is able to accomplish all that He
desires to do. Even an all-powerful being cannot do what is
impossible by definition. God can do many things that are humanly
impossible. However, there are some things that even an all-powerful
being cannot do.
Can God create a rock
He cannot lift? Since an all-powerful being will always be able to
accomplish whatever He sets out to do, it is impossible for an
all-powerful being to fail. The above atheistic argument is arguing
that since God is all-powerful He can do anything - even fail. This
is like saying that since God is all-powerful He can be not
all-powerful. Obviously, this is absurd. An all-powerful being
cannot fail. Therefore, God can create a rock of tremendous size,
but, since He is all-powerful, He will always be able to lift it.
The ability to fail is not a part of omnipotence.
Could God think of a
time when He was not omnipotent? If He can't think of it, He isn't
omnipotent, but if He does think of it then there was a time when He
wasn't omnipotent? This question is quite similar to the rock
question above. The answer, of course, is that God can never think
of a time when He wasn't omnipotent. God has always been omnipotent.
His inability to contradict His divine character does not mean that
He isn't omnipotent.
The atheist distorts
the biblical definition of omnipotence in order to "prove" that God
cannot exist. Contrary to their claims, omnipotence does not include
the ability to do things that are, by definition, impossible.
Neither does omnipotence include the ability to fail. By defining
omnipotence as requiring one to have the ability to fail, atheists
have defined omnipotence as being impossible. Of course, an
omnipotent God would never fail.
These kinds of
arguments are clearly illogical and even silly, although they are
commonly used by inexperienced atheists. Most intelligent atheists
have dropped these kinds of arguments long ago. |
