The Bible : God 's Omnipotence

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our like-ness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”(Gen . 1.26)

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is the creator of all things in this world, holy and unholy. It was him who created the birds, trees, oceans, and seas. He said “let there be light” and there was light. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all of the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” There has been attempt to duplicate the almighty God’s creation, although, there are many differences, there are some mind blowing similarities.

In the construction of the Large Hardon Collider, physicists seek and hope to unlock the mysteries of the universe by analyzing the attributes of the most miniscule particles known to man. In the same way, theologians have argued back and forth over the course of human history with regards to the divine attributes of God, seeking and hoping to unlock the mysteries of the metaphysical universe. Although these many attributes, for example omnipresence, could be debated and dissected ad nauseum, it is within the scope of this research paper to focus but on one of them. Of these many divine attributes of God, nothing strikes me as more intriguing than that of God’s omnipotence. It is intriguing to me because the exploration of

In Genesis the divine power is God, and one God only. The opening sentence in Genesis refers to one power. That power is also omnipotent. Evidence for that is seen on page eight when God gives clear instructions not to eat “from the tree of knowledge.” This sets up the relationship between humans and God: humans must first seek God’s will. This culture believes all who follow his guidance will be blessed; while all those who go astray will find distress. Just as Adam and Eve found when the ate from the tree of knowledge, and God acrimoniously “terribly sharpen birth pangs, in pang shall you bear children ...”, as well as other deleterious consequences. (Genesis, page 13).

The theological problem of evil is a problem that many philosophers have tried to solve. The problem is stated as, "if one believes that god is omnipotent and wholly good, why does evil still exist?" In this writing I will discuss the solutions/propositions of John L. Mackie in his work, "Evil and Omnipotence." I will do this in order to illustrate the concept of free will for understanding or resolving the problem, and to reveal how and why Mackie arrives at his conclusions.

For centuries, philosophers, theists, and theologians alike have claimed that God is all-powerful. This is the divine attribute of God typically referred to as omnipotence. This attribute needs to be fleshed out, but, essentially, what this is saying is that God can do anything; however, is this true? There is an infamous paradox about God’s omnipotence that runs like this: If God is all-powerful, can he create a rock too heavy for him to lift? In either case, God cannot do something. Either God cannot create the rock or God can create the rock, but then cannot lift it. This puts the theist in a paradox. How can God do anything, yet not be able to do something?

In the Hebrew Bible, God plays many roles and has many personalities. God is a judge, lawgiver, liberator, creator, father, king, and shepherd. Oftentimes, God’s attributes seem contradictory. God is said to be, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6), but God is also a vengeful warrior. According to this week readings, Judaism begins and ends with a story. Moreover, “the

It is widely accepted in theism that God is omnipotent, meaning He is all powerful. This, however, does not mean that God can make logical impossibilities possible, like making two plus three equal six. It is important to understand that the idea is “God can do all things possible.” For example, God cannot make a square circle. This is a fact, because if He were to make a “circle” with four sides and four edges, it would no longer be, by definition, a circle. According to philosophers, a omnipotent God can do all things that do not involve a contradiction, and it is “that such things cannot be done, [not] that God cannot do them.” (Thomas Aquinas.)

The God of the universe is omnipresent in all He has created. God is everywhere all the time so in His complete wholeness which allows Him to take part in everything, everywhere, every time. From the smallest to the greatest God is there to control, assist, and observe in order to keep everything just the way it is meant to be. God as Creator is also God as Sustainer and in order for God to be sustainer He must be omnipresent or everywhere at all times. God created everything for His pleaser, and He loves His creation. It is spoken in Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Holy Bible, KJV, Gen. 1:31, Thomas Nelson, USA. 2) As creator God would want to have total involvement with what He has made. So the attribute of omnipresence would be that of a caring, loving God Who wants to be with His creation at all times.

Does God exist in the universe, or does the universe exist in God? This is the question mankind must answer when we discuss the attributes of God. Many times humanity attempts to place God in the universe and placing universal laws and limitations on God, but God is not bound by the laws of the universe, because the universe exists in God. If it true that God has created everything than how can he be limited by anything? Only God could limit Himself, by His own choice to do so. Thomas V. Morris in his article on the omnipotence of God asks; can God do everything that is logically possible? Who’s logic? Are we made in the Image and Likeness of God, or are we attempting to make Him in ours? The difficulty is this: as humans, we are imperfect, with our viewpoints so limited —is it God we connect to, or merely our own impression of Him? As imperfect humans, we know only ourselves. We connect to others, but we can never truly go into anybody’s mind but our own. Every “person” exists in a specific manner, completely immersed in his individual awareness, which is egocentric and exclusive. As human beings, we look towards reason and logic to try to understand existence and our place in it. However, there is no human being who is omniscient, so therefore our logic can be flawed, so what is logically possible?

The whole of the Lord’s creation is all around us, and is composed of the things we see, as well as the things we cannot see (Characteristics of God 2005). God has made the universe, the planets, and the starts, the earth, and everything within it. He created the Earth, the Sun. the entire universe and all that is included within it. The mountains and valleys, the rivers and seas, the animals of the great deep, the birds which fly in the air, and the creatures which roam the planes of the earth are all his creation and all were carefully and lovingly made (Genesis).

Throughout the Old Testament, there are many clear examples that show God’s benevolent nature and portray him as a life giving force. For example, in Exodus 3:7-10, the LORD says that he has “heard the affliction of the Israelites” and will “deliver them from the oppression of Egypt through Moses.” God also says that he will “lead them up from that land(Egypt) into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites,...etc.” This presents a God that wants to redeem his people and bring them back to a position of prosperity. From this, the reader can conclude that God doesn’t want his people to suffer. In addition to this example, the Bible shows the reader other instances of God’s loving nature.

God's omnipresence is one of His essential attributes. His justice is also essential, and, therefore, it is necessary for Him to punish sinners who do not trust in Jesus for salvation. Thus, we have a God who is referred to as everywhere present yet who maintains a place called hell, described as a place where people are removed from His presence “Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).

In the second discussion question of week two, we had to provide three characteristics of God. The characteristics that I chose were merciful, light, and our refuge, but in reality it’s hard to characterize God with only three characteristics. In fact, I saw many characteristics that were posted by my classmates that I hadn’t thought to list, such as the fact that God is eternal. But, to be honest, the bible is full of characteristics, especially in Psalm 145, in this particular passage it lists at least 19 characteristics of God. The textbook also states, “Some of these attributes can be seen through what God has created, and, most notably, through his eternal nature, his omnipotence, and his goodness.” (The Beginning of Wisdom) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1) God’s creation happened in six days, on the seventh day he rested. God created day and night in the first day, He created the sky on the second day, on the third day He created plants, on the fourth day He created the sun, moon, and the stars, He created animals to fly in the sky and live

According to biblical teachings, there is a belief that God created nature. For God, this means that there is a separation between God, Himself, and nature. Next God created man, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (Gen.1. 27)”. Human are already closer to God because they were made in His image, rather than nature just being created. This brings into question, why was nature not made in God’s image? Or is this because every thing God creates is already in His image? One has to look at human’s relations to the natural world. Humans have created a separation with an intended purpose. White believes that, “God planned all of this [creation of nature] explicitly for man’s benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man’s purposes (White, 1205)”. Humans obtain this mastery over nature since humans were created in God’s image, whereas, God created nature. This mastery of nature leads to the exploitation of nature. This is because society embodies this mastery of nature concept that becomes incarnate in one’s everyday actions. This mastery grew with the rise of both science and technology in the industrial and scientific revolutions