Is God all-powerful?
You’d think I would know better by now. And yet, I naively continue to be amazed at how some folks seem to willfully delude themselves and work like there’s no tomorrow to stay ignorant.
This graphic is a case in point. It was posted on an atheism internet community; in my experience, most of the people in these communities know the Bible pretty well. Then someone uploads a graphic like this…..
First of all God IS all-powerful. Consider these excerpts from ancient prophetic writings:
- Look! I am the Eternal, the God of all living things. Is anything too difficult for Me?
- God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
- There are things about God that people cannot see—his eternal power and all that makes him God. But since the beginning of the world, those things have been easy for people to understand. They are made clear in what God has made.
Now consider the evidence of hundreds of thousands of years: all the bad things me, you and the rest of humanity have done (and the good things we’ve failed to do). Could there be a clearer measure of proof that God is serious about the gift of freewill?
Indeed, God could have stopped Roman authorities from putting Jesus of Nazaareth (who many people believe is His divine Son) to death on trumped-up charges. But he allowed freewill to take its course.
In our day and age, God could have stopped Al Qaida from carrying out the 9-11 terrorist attacks. But once again, He allowed freewill to take its course. (You may not like that, but if He stopped that, then where would the limits on freewill end? I address that here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-38.)
My point here is that God could easily force people to believe in Him. But what would be the point? To prove He’s powerful? Really? I don’t think the creator of time, space and the universe needs to prove a darn thing.
What He does want is for all of us to come to Him, through His son, because WE want to. Here’s how one of Jesus’s earliest followers put it: “God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth.”
The truth is this: “If you openly say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved.” That’s from the same early follower.
Saved from what? From being judged on all the bad things we’ve done and the good things we’ve failed to do. When I decided to follow Jesus, His sacrificial death on a Roman cross cleaned my account with God. God no longer sees my mistakes, my pettiness, my times of thinking I can do everything without Him. He sees me as perfect – just like Jesus.
Does this make sense? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 