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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 8:32 A.M. the explosion ripped 1 300 feet off the mountain with a force of ten million tons of TNT or roughly equal to five hundred Hiroshimas. Sixty people were killed most by a blast of 300-degree heat traveling at two hundred miles an hour. Some were killed as far as sixteen miles away.

         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. GreenIllustrations 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. GreenIllustrations 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.

 

OMNIPOTENCE

         Nothing is too big for my God to accomplish and nothing is too little for Him to use in accomplishing it!── Source Unknown.

 

OMNIPOTENCE

         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.