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Omnipotence
of God
Power
On May 18,
1980, Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Range of Washington exploded with what is
probably the most visible indication of the power of nature that the modern
world has ever seen. At 8:
The
blast also leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as seventeen miles away. A
total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber were destroyed, enough to build
200,000 three-bedroom homes. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
God’s
Omnipotence
A young boy was waiting after church for his family. The
pastor saw him standing around and struck up a conversation. Since the boy had
just come from Sunday school, the pastor decided to ask him some questions to
determine just how much the children were learning there. He said, “Young man,
if you can tell me something that God can do, I’ll give you a big shiny apple.”
Thoughtfully the boy replied, “Sir, if you can tell me something God can’t do,
I’ll give you a whole box of apples.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
God’s Omnipotence
The greatest
single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination
gets lost when thinking about it.— — Pascal, Pensees
God’s Omnipotence
On March 5, 1979,
what was called “the most powerful burst of energy ever recorded” occurred. It
was described as follows:
“The burst of gamma
radiation picked up by the satellites lasted for only one tenth of a second.
But in that brief instant it emitted as much energy as the sun does over a
period of three thousand years. If the sun had belched out the same amount of
energy, the earth would have vaporized instantly.”
Reflecting on the event,
astrophysicist Doyle Evans said, “Every time we think we understand the physical
laws of the universe, nature seems bent on confounding us.”— Nature? Or God?
GOD, omnipotence of
A
young boy traveling by airplane to visit his grandparents sat beside a man who
happened to be a seminary professor. The boy was reading a Sunday school
take-home paper when the professor thought he would have some fun with the lad.
"Young man," said the professor, "If you can tell me something
God can do, I"ll give you a big, shiny apple." The boy thought for a
moment and then replied, "Mister, if you can tell me something God can't
do, I"ll give you a whole barrel of apples!" ── Today in the Word,
April, 1989, p. 43.
Nothing is too big
for my God to accomplish, and nothing is too little for Him to use in
accomplishing it!── Source Unknown.
Does omnipotence
mean that God can do literally anything? No, that is not the meaning. There are
many things God cannot do. He cannot do what is self-contradictory or
nonsensical, like squaring the circle. Nor (and this is vital) can he act out
of character. God has a perfect moral character, and it is not in him to deny
it. He cannot be capricious, unloving, random, unjust, or inconsistent. Just as
he cannot pardon sin without atonement because that would not be right, so he
cannot fail to be faithful and just in forgiving sins that are confessed in
faith and in keeping all the other promises he has made. Moral instability,
vacillation, and unreliability are marks of weakness, not of strength: but
God's omnipotence is supreme strength, making is impossible that he should
lapse into imperfection of this sort.
The positive way to
say this is: though there are things which a holy, rational God is incapable of
intending, all that he intends to do he actually does. "Whatever the Lord
pleases he does" (Ps. 135:6). As when he planned the make the world,
"he spoke, and it came to be" (Ps. 33:9), so it is with everything
that he wills. With people "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip,"
but not with him.── James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw
Publishers, 1986.