Impossible for God

     The famous question “Can God make a rock bigger than He can pick up?” has been used by deniers of God for centuries to allegedly expose the illogical assertion that God is omnipotent or all-powerful. They suppose that if God can make the rock, then He is not omnipotent because He cannot pick it up. If He cannot make it, then He is not omnipotent. They propose that this follows the laws of logic and therefore disproves God. This proves nothing because it is an absurdity and contrary to their assertion, it is indeed illogical. It is a category error. They are not following the description of God given in the Bible, and they are trying to prove a negative. Both are errors in logic. That is like saying a circle can be a square, or a triangle can have four sides. Also, if there is no God and the universe is random and unguided, why are there universal laws of logic? Why are there laws of nature, morality, and mathematics? They can acknowledge them but they cannot show a basis for them without God. All laws including those of logic, morality, and mathematics are immaterial. Most atheists are materialists, so they have no explanation for these things. They have to “borrow” from the Biblical worldview to even discuss these things.

     The God that created the heavens and the earth is omnipotent, but because of His nature there are certain things that He will not do. He will not act in a way that contradicts His nature. The Bible says this:

     1. He cannot lie because He is the truth (Jn 14:6, Titus 1:2, Heb 6:18, 1Pet 2:22)

     2. He cannot die because He is eternal. He did not come into being and will never cease to

         exist (Ex 3:14, Is 57:15, 1Tim 1:17, Rev 1:8). Scientists who have made science their

         religion refused to believe that the universe had a beginning until well into the 20^th Century.

         That would imply that God exists and created everything out of nothing like the

         Bible says. Today most scientists don’t believe the universe is eternal, but they would

         rather assert that nothing created the universe, time, space and all laws than admit there

is a Creator. There is no scientific way to support this assertion, nor how there is such

precise order from nothing. Nothing literally means no thing. The source, or uncaused first

cause, must be outside of time, immaterial, outside of space, and omnipotent. That sounds

like the God the Bible describes.

     3. Because Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (Jn 1:1-14, Jn 14:7-11, 2Cor 5:19, Col 1:19,

         Col 2:9, 1Tim 3:16), He could not remain dead (Acts 2:24). Everyone dies, and most

         people are buried, but nobody before or after Jesus rose from the dead resurrected

         themselves by their own power.

     4. He will not force us to be saved (Heb 6:1-6). That is just one reason that Calvinism is false.

     5. Because He is outside of space and omnipresent in space, He cannot be contained (1Ki

         8:27, 2Chr 2:6, 2Chr 6:18).

     6. He will not accept the offerings of the hypocrite (Is 1:13).

     7. He cannot contradict Himself because He is the truth (Jn 14:6, Jn 10:35, Gal 3:17, 2Tim

         2:13)

     8. He cannot be tempted with evil (Jam 1:13). Jesus did no sin (1Pet 2:22). He knew no sin

         (2Cor 5:21). In Him is no sin (1Jn 3:5). The deniers blame God for the evil in the world

         instead of placing the blame where it belongs – on all of us (Rom 3:23). He created a

         perfect wolrd (Gen 1-2), but man brought sin into the world (Gen 3), and sin brought death

         and all of the accompanying evils (Gen 2:16-17, Rom 5:12-21, Rom 6:23, 1Cor 15:20-            

         26). He so loved us that He came in the flesh to deliver us from the control and effects of

         sin (Jn 3:16), and He will restore the paradise we lost (Rev 21-22). The deniers ask if God

         is Almighty, then why doesn’t He stop the evil. First of all, if there is no God, there is no

         objective definition of good and evil (Gen 3:5). Hitler thought he was doing humanity a

         favor by assisting evolution to rid us of those he deemed unworthy to live and reproduce.

         The existence of evil is not a dilemma for Christians. The Bible gives a clear

         explanation of how it started, why it is continuing, and how God will eventually end it.

         Atheism and other religions offer no such explanation or solution. God didn’t drive out

         Adam and Eve from the garden solely as a punishment. He did it to stop them from eating

         of the tree of life and live forever in a sinful state (Gen 3:22-24). He made a plan to save us

         from our sins before we did it (Jn 17:5 & 24, 1Cor 2:7, Eph 1:4, 2Tim 1:9, Titus 1:2, 1Pet

         1:20). It cost Him to do it. Asking why God created us knowing we would sin is like asking

         parents why they have children they know will make mistakes and grow up in a world that

         is not perfect. The answer is love, and God is love (1Jn 4:8). Why doesn’t God stop the evil

         in the world? It is because He would have to destroy us all. He is longsuffering, and He

         gives people chances to repent (2Pet 3:9). He is good even to His enemies (Mt 5:43-48,

         Rom 5:6-10). He can destroy us. He is the Judge we will all face in the end (Rev 20:11-15).

         That is why people interpret the abundant evidence of the flood any other way they can

         (2Pet 3:3-9). People want God to stop other’s people’s evil but not their own. When people

         hurl accusations against God, it is not really God they hate. Deep down, it is themselves.

         They are just projecting that hatred onto Him. Jesus is the only innocent One.

     9. The deniers claim that God’s omniscience is also a logical contradiction, because if He

         knows all things, why does He allow us to do evil? They ignore the fact that God made us

         in His image (Gen 1:27). We have the power of choice, or free will (Deut 30:11-20, Josh

         24:15). To dodge this and put the blame back on God, the deniers assert the doctrine of

         determinism which says that free will is an illusion. You can read the book “Free Will”

         available on this website for a more thorough examination of this issue. Calvinists should

         be concerned that they are making the same argument as the deniers. The issue is not the

         alleged faults of God, it is the very real faults of all of us, and God’s love and longsuffering

         giving us opportunities to repent and obey the gospel (Acts 2:36-39, Acts 8:12-17, Acts

         10:43-48, Acts 19:1-7, Rom 6:1-4, Col 2:8-12).