Sorry the video came out side ways. Still working out the kinks on this thing.
God is Omnipotent Notes
What is an attribute? An attribute is basically a characteristic or character trait. One might say that you are compassionate or sympathetic, and either of those would be an attribute. The difference between attributes that we might possess and those that God possesses, hinges upon our nature. We are contingent beings, as was discussed earlier, therefore all of our character traits are dependent upon various factors (i.e. genetic qualities, people we interact with, upbringing, etc.) and can subsequently change with these factors. God, however, is necessary, or independent of all things. Therefore His attributes are essential to His nature and cannot change.
What does omnipotent mean? Omnipotence is the first attribute of God in a series of attributes that begin with the prefix “omni” simply meaning, “all” The suffix “potent” simply means “powerful”. Obviously when they are put together you have the attribute of God being “all-powerful”.
Rom. 1.20: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.”
Old Testament Scriptures on God's Omnipotence:
Gen. 17.1 Job 42.2 ; 37.23 Ps. 71.16-18 Jer. 32.17 Job 38-42
New Testament Scriptures on God's Omnipotence:
Rev. 1.8, 4.8 Rev. 11.17ff Rev. 15.3; 16.7, 14; 19.6, 15; 21.22 Matt. 19.25-26
Col. 1.16-17 Heb. 1.3.
The power of God in creation: Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a single planet to support life, every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. In our galaxy alone, without the existence of a massive planet like Jupiter using it's gravity to draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would strike our surface rendering life on this planet impossible. Modern astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces – gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear forces – were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value by even 100,000,000,000,000,000 and the universe itself, not just our planet, could not exist. For anything to exist at all the odds would be the same as being able to flip a coin and have it land on heads 10 quintillion times in a row.
The power of God in Jesus: Mark 5.35-42; Jesus uses the phrase Talitha Koum and our English Bibles get it right translating it as “little girl, get up”, because that's about as direct a translation as is humanly possible. But here's the beauty of this moment, when this phrase is used it's never done in some big booming commanding voice, it's the ay you wake up your daughter from a nap. Just imagine sitting next to your little girl, or boy even, and you gently shake them on their shoulder, “honey, it's time to get up now.” This is all Jesus utters to her. Death is one of the greatest fears of almost the entire human race. This awesome, sometimes paralyzing reality that holds so much sway over our lives and how we live, is conquered by the simple whisper of Jesus Christ.
What can God not do? God cannot lie (Tit. 1.2); He cannot disown Himself, or go back on His word (2 Tim. 2.13); God cannot be tempted to sin (Jam. 1.13).
Theologically, omnipotence is defined as God's ability to do all things that are possible to do. To be even more specific, omnipotence, as it refers to God, is that God possesses all powers logically possible for a Being with the attributes of God to possess.
Some have argued that since God does not possess the power to sin, and I do, therefore I have power that God does not possess and thus He cannot be omnipotent. This is where that definition is key, for if God were able to sin, then He could not be Holy and if He were not Holy, He would not be the greatest possible being and not God. What's more, my ability to sin is not a power in the positive sense, but a deficiency in my character and such a thing cannot be paralleled to divine power.
How Then Shall We Live?
I want to address one last thing, and that is on how we live with this knowledge. In light of the evil and seemingly senseless suffering in the world, and we'll be discussing this problem of evil several times in this class, it is often leveled that if God were all-powerful He could prevent evil and suffering from existing, but evil and suffering does exist, therefore God is not all powerful. From the ivory towers I might respond intellectually that just as with the stone, it might not be possible for a world to exist with free creatures, such as humans while also existing free from evil and suffering given the fall of man. I'd add to that the fall of man must have been a necessary possibility for there to be a world such as we have in which mankind might know God. Because God does possess the power to do all things actually possible for a divine Being, to have a world without evil and suffering must be logically impossible.
That kind of response is absolutely useless however, when faced with the rape and murder of children or the ravages of war and famine and disease. A more personal response to this problem would be that yes it's true that an all powerful God can defeat evil, but evil is not yet defeated, therefore evil will be defeated. Because God can defeat evil, and has promised that He will do so, and because God cannot lie or go back on His word, we are guaranteed that He will. (Read Is. 25.6-9) The omnipotence of God provides us with the assurance that God will keep His Word. No circumstances of this life or this world can ever change that. There is no other hope without this God.
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