Omnipotence

Note: Last Updated 7/29/2024.

Richard Swinburne:

A logically impossible action is not an action. It is what is described by a form of words which purport to describe an action, but do not describe anything which it is coherent to suppose could be done. It is no objection to A’s omnipotence that he cannot make a square circle. This is because ‘making a square circle’ does not describe anything which it is coherent to suppose could be done.

(Richard Swinburne, The Coherence of Theism: Revised Edition, [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993], pp. 153-154.)

C. S. Lewis:

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think all nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask―half our great theological and metaphysical problems―are like that.

( C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, [London: Faber and Faber, 1966], pp. 58-59.)

 

Thomas Aquinas: 

     I answer that, All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to the precise meaning of the word “all” when we say that God can do all things. If, however, we consider the matter aright, since power is said in reference to possible things, this phrase, God can do all things, is rightly understood to mean that God can do all things that are possible; and for this reason He is said to be omnipotent. …Now God cannot be said to be omnipotent through being able to do all things that are possible to created nature; for the divine power extends farther than that. If, however, we were to say that God is omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible to His power, there would be a vicious circle in explaining the nature of His power. For this would be saying nothing else but that God is omnipotent, because He can do all that He is able to do. It remains therefore, that God is called omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible absolutely; which is the second way of saying a thing is possible. For a thing is said to be possible or impossible absolutely, according to the relation in which the very terms stand to one another, possible if the predicate is not incompatible with the subject, as that Socrates sits; and absolutely impossible when the predicate is altogether incompatible with the subject, as, for instance, that a man is a donkey. …Whence, whatsoever has or can have the nature of being, is numbered among the absolutely possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent. Now nothing is opposed to the idea of being except non-being. Therefore, that which implies being and non-being at the same time is repugnant to the idea of an absolutely possible thing, within the scope of the divine omnipotence. For such cannot come under the divine omnipotence, not because of any defect in the power of God, but because it has not the nature of a feasible or possible thing. Therefore, everything that does not imply a contradiction in terms, is numbered amongst those possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent: whereas whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them. 

(The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas: Part I. QQ. I.-XXVI.: Second and Revised Edition, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, [London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1920], Pt. I, Q. 25, Art. 3, pp. 350, 350-351, 351-352.)

R. C. Sproul:

The answer is “No, God cannot build a rock so big that He cannot move it.”

     How can that be? Is there something God cannot do? To understand this answer we must first establish some foundations. First, it is important to note that the word omnipotent is an abstract theological term used by theologians in theological conversation. Most theologians do not use the term omnipotence in an absolute sense, which would mean that God could do anything, absolutely anything. God could die. God could lie. God could create a square circle. God could be God and not be God at the same time and in the same relationship. Here the concept of omnipotence is pushed to the level of absurdity.

     The normal meaning of omnipotence is that God has absolute power over His creation. He rules His creation; the creation does not rule Him. God has the entire universe under His control. There are no horses that run too fast for Him to catch them, no elephants too heavy for Him to lift, and no rocks too big for Him to move.

     Thus, the answer to the student’s question is God cannot build a rock too big for Him to move because God cannot stop being God. He cannot stop acting consistently with His nature. It is His nature to be omnipotent over what He creates.

(R. C. Sproul, One Holy Passion: The Consuming Thirst to Know God, [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987], pp. 125-126.)

καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν ~ Soli Deo Gloria