Is There a Limit to God's Omnipotence?
By Bill Fortenberry
In Paul’s letter to Titus, there is a very curious statement about God’s omnipotence. In the second verse of that letter, Paul said that God cannot lie, but how can it be that an all-powerful God lacks the power to tell a lie? Now, I realize that this may seem like a rather petty question, but the answer to it has implications that filter throughout the entire system of Christian theology, for if there is one thing that God cannot do, then perhaps there are others as well. It is necessary, therefore, to determine whether God’s power has limits and to ascertain whether those limits affect our salvation. In light of this, let me offer the following explanation of the omnipotence of God:
I have always considered omnipotence to be a function of the fact that God exists outside of time. This would mean that He does not experience time sequentially, but rather views all of time in a single moment much like we would view a timeline on piece of paper. If we also recognize that all things are sustained by Him, then we can begin to see solutions to the supposed challenges to His omnipotence.
For example, the question of whether or not God as a spirit can accomplish physical feats such as lifting weights or running a marathon can be answered in the affirmative because Jesus had a physical body. The fact that Jesus was given a physical body at some point in time meant that God, existing in all of time at the same moment, has had a body available to Him throughout all time. This is why the Bible can say that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world. His death occurred in a moment of sequential time for us, but for God, His death has been visible and present from the very first moment. God sees the future now, and it is just as true and present for Him as the present or the past.
The explanatory power of this view extends to much more difficult questions as well. It answers, for example, such questions as "Can God make a square circle?" If we view God as existing outside of time and as the sustainer of all reality, then the answer to this question is yes, God can make a square and correctly identify it as a circle, but the moment He does so, the power of His word is such that all squares within His view immediately receive the label of "circle" and that label becomes a true feature of reality throughout all time past, present and future. Squareness would immediately become so much a feature of circles that we would have no memory of it ever not being so. If God declares that a circle is a square, then that statement would have been true throughout all human history, and we would have all been taught it as a fundamental fact of geometry. In other words, the moment God declares something to be true, it becomes so true that it effects both our past and our future in such a way that we would not be capable of denying that truth.
This is why the Bible says that God cannot lie. It is not that God cannot say something which contradicts reality, but rather that reality cannot contradict what God says. Hypothetically, He has the ability to say something that is false, but the moment that He attempted to do so, all of reality throughout all time would immediately change to conform to whatever He said. If God were to say that there are no such things as stars, then because He exists outside of time, His statement would apply to all time, and since His word is the ground of all reality, His statement would immediately be true of all time. Therefore, if God were to tell us tomorrow that there are no such things as stars, that would be a true statement for there would never have been any such things as stars at any time throughout history.
This view of God even answers questions like "Can God make a rock so big that He cannot move it?" When viewing God as existing outside of time and His word as the ground of all reality, we can confidently answer this question in the affirmative. Of course, size does not matter to God since He exists outside of space, but He can make a rock of any size that He cannot move. All He has to do is say "I will never again move this rock." At the moment that He utters such a phrase, it becomes true of all reality throughout all time. We can know that God will never move that rock because He said that He would not do so, and reality always conforms to God's words.
The validity of this view of God can be seen in His statement, "I am the LORD, I change not" (Mal 3:6). God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If He were to change, then that change would be true of the past as well as the future so that His change would cause all time and reality to change at the same instant and thus be no change at all. This view not only assures us that God cannot lie, but it also shows that the true potency of God’s omnipotence is so vast that our finite minds struggle to even begin to comprehend it.
I have always considered omnipotence to be a function of the fact that God exists outside of time. This would mean that He does not experience time sequentially, but rather views all of time in a single moment much like we would view a timeline on piece of paper. If we also recognize that all things are sustained by Him, then we can begin to see solutions to the supposed challenges to His omnipotence.
For example, the question of whether or not God as a spirit can accomplish physical feats such as lifting weights or running a marathon can be answered in the affirmative because Jesus had a physical body. The fact that Jesus was given a physical body at some point in time meant that God, existing in all of time at the same moment, has had a body available to Him throughout all time. This is why the Bible can say that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world. His death occurred in a moment of sequential time for us, but for God, His death has been visible and present from the very first moment. God sees the future now, and it is just as true and present for Him as the present or the past.
The explanatory power of this view extends to much more difficult questions as well. It answers, for example, such questions as "Can God make a square circle?" If we view God as existing outside of time and as the sustainer of all reality, then the answer to this question is yes, God can make a square and correctly identify it as a circle, but the moment He does so, the power of His word is such that all squares within His view immediately receive the label of "circle" and that label becomes a true feature of reality throughout all time past, present and future. Squareness would immediately become so much a feature of circles that we would have no memory of it ever not being so. If God declares that a circle is a square, then that statement would have been true throughout all human history, and we would have all been taught it as a fundamental fact of geometry. In other words, the moment God declares something to be true, it becomes so true that it effects both our past and our future in such a way that we would not be capable of denying that truth.
This is why the Bible says that God cannot lie. It is not that God cannot say something which contradicts reality, but rather that reality cannot contradict what God says. Hypothetically, He has the ability to say something that is false, but the moment that He attempted to do so, all of reality throughout all time would immediately change to conform to whatever He said. If God were to say that there are no such things as stars, then because He exists outside of time, His statement would apply to all time, and since His word is the ground of all reality, His statement would immediately be true of all time. Therefore, if God were to tell us tomorrow that there are no such things as stars, that would be a true statement for there would never have been any such things as stars at any time throughout history.
This view of God even answers questions like "Can God make a rock so big that He cannot move it?" When viewing God as existing outside of time and His word as the ground of all reality, we can confidently answer this question in the affirmative. Of course, size does not matter to God since He exists outside of space, but He can make a rock of any size that He cannot move. All He has to do is say "I will never again move this rock." At the moment that He utters such a phrase, it becomes true of all reality throughout all time. We can know that God will never move that rock because He said that He would not do so, and reality always conforms to God's words.
The validity of this view of God can be seen in His statement, "I am the LORD, I change not" (Mal 3:6). God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If He were to change, then that change would be true of the past as well as the future so that His change would cause all time and reality to change at the same instant and thus be no change at all. This view not only assures us that God cannot lie, but it also shows that the true potency of God’s omnipotence is so vast that our finite minds struggle to even begin to comprehend it.