Nature of god

• Omnipotence


  All powerful
• Christians believe that God is omnipotent
• Examples of God's omnipotence


  • Creation ex nihilo
  • God telling Abraham and Sarah they will have a son
  • God having total power over nature
  • Elizabeth having a son in old age
  • God doing miracles that break the laws of nature
• If God is omnipotent


  There can be no limits to God's power
• If God is not omnipotent


  He would not be able to bring about the salvation of humans by resurrecting them and giving them eternal life in heaven
• The concept of omnipotence may not be coherent
• If omnipotence itself isn't coherent or is impossible


  Then no omnipotent being can exist
• Is omnipotence compatible with the other attributes ascribed to God


  e.g. being all loving as well
• Is omnipotence compatible with omniscience


  e.g. being able to add to His knowledge but also not be able to add to His knowledge
• Descartes' view: God can do everything

  • God must be omnipotent because otherwise He could not implement His plan for the universe, save people from their sins, resurrect the dead, and give people eternal life in heaven
  • God is the source of logic so can suspend logic whenever He chooses to
• Descartes' view


  • Compatible with many religious ideas about God being transcendent
  • If there is anything God cannot do, then this would suggest He is not omnipotent
  • God performing miracles or saving the world through Jesus supports the view that omnipotence means God can do everything
• Many Christian scholars argue that Descartes' interpretation of omnipotence is flawed
• Descartes' view creates a difficulty regarding the problem of evil
• Aquinas' view: God can do everything that is logically possible


  • God can do anything which is absolutely possible, therefore ruling out that God could do the logically impossible
  • God cannot perform tasks that are contradictory or go against His nature
• God could not


  • Create a being more powerful than Himself
  • Make Himself not powerful
  • Do evil
  • Create a race of beings with free-will who never do evil
• Swinburne's view


  God can do everything (where 'everything' is defined as God being able to do and create all 'things' but self-contradictory definitions are not 'things')
• Kenny's view


  God's omnipotence is the possession of all logically possible powers which it is logically possible for a being with the attributes of God to have
• Plantinga's view


  God may choose to limit his omnipotence in order to preserve free will
• Vardy's view: God's power is self-limited


  • God decided to only operate within the natural laws he created, thus self-imposing a limitation on his power
  • This makes sense of God limiting himself by becoming human in Jesus Christ
  • God's power is more about power over the universe rather than the power to do anything
• Macquarrie argues that believers need to remember they are using analogy when they talk about God's omnipotence
• Almighty


  The power to do anything
• Some thinkers use the word 'almighty' instead of all-powerful to describe God
• Peter Vardy's view of God's omnipotence


  • God's omnipotence is limited
  • God created the universe and it is so finely tuned that if God acted in a different way everything would not be able to exist as it does
  • God has imposed this limit on himself in order to allow the universe to remain perfectly suited for the existence of free, rational human beings
  • The limits God has are self-imposed, not imposed by logic, the physical world, or the actions of humans
• John Macquarrie's view of God's omnipotence


  • Believers need to remember that they are using analogy when they talk about God's omnipotence
  • God's power is different to ours and there are always aspects of God's nature that we are unable to understand fully
  • Any limits on God's omnipotence are self-imposed, not imposed by logic, the physical world, or the actions of humans
• Kenosis


  The doctrine that God 'emptied' himself of omnipotence in order to come to earth as a man
• Omnipotent


  Having unlimited power
• Almighty


  Having power over everything rather than power to do everything
• Geach, Whitehead and Hartshorne's view of God as almighty


  • It makes more sense to understand God's power as power over everything rather than power to do everything
  • Total power is a flawed concept as nothing or nobody can stand up to it
  • What is more impressive is for God to have more power over humans than any other but for humans still to be able to resist God's will
• Definitions of omnipotence


  • God can do anything
  • God can do only that which is logically possible
  • God's power is self-limited
  • God is almighty
• Eternal


  Existing forever, without beginning or end
• Interpretations of God being eternal

  • God is timeless (atemporal)
  • God is everlasting (sempiternal)
  • God moves through time (process theology)
• Significance of whether God is eternal or timeless

  • Omniscience
  • The problem of evil
  • Omnipotence
  • Free will
  • Miracles
• God is timeless (atemporal)

  • God created time and exists outside of it
  • God can see all events simultaneously, not limited by time
  • God is immutable and unchanging
  • Language used about God is analogical, not literal
• God is everlasting (sempiternal)


  • God acts within time and moves along the same timeline as humans
  • God was, is and always will be
• Swinburne's view of God in time

  • God is backwardly eternal (no time at which He did not exist)
  • God is forwardly eternal (will go on existing forever)
  • God exists at any nameable time
• Eternal (God)


  Endless duration, not timeless
• Scholars who agree with eternal view of God

  • Charles Hartshorne
  • Richard Swinburne
  • Oscar Cullmann
• Timeless God


  God acts outside of time, does not move along the same timeline as humans
• Everlasting God


  God acts within time and as He moves along the same timeline as humans, He can act within time
• Swinburne argued that if God is timeless and immutable then He cannot be a person or have a 'life' in the way that we would normally understand this