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04082015CanGodCreateARockSoBigThatHeCantPickItUpDonRuhl
Can God Create a Rock So Big that He Can’t Pick It Up?
Luke 1.37
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • April 8, In the year of our Lord, 2015
- This, and similar questions, is a favorite of atheists.
- What is their motivation? What are they trying to do with the question?
- They read passages like Luke 1.37, and
- they hear us argue for an omnipotent God, and
- so they think they have Him, or us, on the horns of a dilemma.
- If we answer yes, what does that imply?
- If we answer no, what does that imply?
- Either way they believe that they have demonstrated
- God does not exist, or
- He is not omnipotent, but
- if He is not omnipotent,
- He is not God.
- How shall we understand
- passages like Luke 1.37 and
- the overall teaching of the omnipotence of God?
- Remember that the Bible writers write with versification.
- Therefore, we have to understand everything by its context.
- What is the context of Luke 1.37?
- What is the entire biblical context for the omnipotence of God?
- Can God do anything that would violate who He is?
- For example, can He sin?
- Titus 1.2
- Hebrews 6.18
- Why is it impossible for God to lie?
- God is holy and He is truth.
- If He could lie,
- He would cease to be God.
- If we say He cannot sin, or cannot create a logical contradiction,
- does that mean He is not all-powerful?
- No, not at all.
- I also wonder whether atheists ask the question to show off.
- How do we answer or deal with their question?
- First, you do not have to answer every question you are asked.
- Jesus did not answer all questions – Mark 14.60
- Also, if someone can ask us questions, we can ask them questions – Mark 11.27–33
- Acts 26.4
- Can the question of the atheist be answered?
- If not, why not?
- It is a logical contradiction.
- God is also a God of truth.
- Therefore, He cannot make a contradiction, even as He cannot sin.
- Creating a rock so big that cannot be lifted,
- implies that this is done in the realm of gravity.
- Gravity is a law of nature.
- He is outside of nature, having created it.
- Isaiah 40.12; 48.13
- First, you do not have to answer every question you are asked.
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