Can God do anything?

[Tracy]

God has all power but the power of my choice.

Woweee, do I disagree with this statement.


God definitely has power over your choice!!

BUT I'm drowning in green beans and peaches and cucumbers and squash and zucchini, and I don't have time to dialogue.

You'll have to carry on without me

[dolfan]

And, so we march back into this discussion about God's sovereignty over humanity.

Tracy would say, I venture (based on past discussions, which are worth reading), that God's will/power to accomplish it is not limited by human will and power to resist God's will. We often respond to that with a sort of knee-jerk, understandable reaction that we are free moral agents and God does not or cannot place our desires and actions, morally, in any particular station or else we'd be "robots" --- at least that's the popular response.

But, that response includes a false assumption that our freedom of moral choice is somehow pitted against God's power of His own will, that one must yield if the other is to have any exercise at all. The two can and do occupy the same "space" at the same time. They often operate in ways that seem contradictory, to us.

For example, I was reading about Jeroboam. Ahijah the prophet told Solomon that Jeroboam would reign over Israel after his death, a prophecy in response to Solomon's idolatry. So, Solomon dies and Jeroboam returns from Egypt as a man very much desired by Israel. God tells Jeroboam that He has made Jeroboam king over Israel, and that if Jeroboam will follow God and obey the Law, then God will cause Jeroboam to be to Israel as He made David to Judah. Jeroboam goes to Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and offers to subject himself and Israel to Rehoboam if Rehoboam would lighten the burdens Solomon had placed on Israel's sons. Rehoboam has a practical choice: Accept the request of Jeroboam and have Israel subject to him or reject it (as he did) and be king of Judah only. He chooses the latter advice and the Bible specifies in 1 Kings 12:14-15 that the choice is "from the LORD, that he might perform his saying [i.e., that Jeroboam would be king of Israel], which the LORD spake by Ahijah....".

Was Rehoboam a free moral agent? Yes. Did God's power and will, as exercised to ensure that Jeroboam fulfilled God's promise to him, reduce that free moral agency? No.

[Paully_44]

Can he make a rock so big he cant lift it?

I've thought about this, and that question actually falls into the category of nonsense.

sorry, my poor attempt at a goofy response. Guess I have been doing that alot lately.

[Mike Vande]

Can he make a rock so big he cant lift it?

Yeah, but He's not stupid enough to waste His time with such trivial pursuits..

[soulsearcher]

God has all power but the power of my choice.

Woweee, do I disagree with this statement.


God definitely has power over your choice!!

I can't believe you're serious, but apparently you are. If he has power over my choice, he's doing a lousy job. On the other hand, now I know who to blame for my many gross errors.

[dolfan]

God has all power but the power of my choice.

Woweee, do I disagree with this statement.


God definitely has power over your choice!!

I can't believe you're serious, but apparently you are. If he has power over my choice, he's doing a lousy job. On the other hand, now I know who to blame for my many gross errors.

He has power over your choices, but He's not responsible for them.

[soulsearcher]

He can't - or won't - make MY choice. Otherwise, I am his robot, and not his son. Certainly, his power/his word guides and influences me to make the right choice, but the decision is ultimately up to me.

Just as he said, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live," he didn't make the choice. The choice was theirs.

[dolfan]

He can't - or won't - make MY choice. Otherwise, I am his robot, and not his son. Certainly, his power/his word guides and influences me to make the right choice, but the decision is ultimately up to me.

Just as he said, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live," he didn't make the choice. The choice was theirs.

It is true, they made the choice. The decision is yours. That doesn't mean God can't control or exercise full power over it.

[dolfan]

Realizing that I would botch this discussion in about 2 minutes, I refer you, soulsearcher, to this thread

http://www.jude2.com/viewtopic.php?t=78 ... y&&start=0

from 2005. It really picks up on page 2 on the topic discussed on this thread. Tracy is really gifted, but I'm sure she'd minimize that to avoid any hint of self-praise. Not that you have to agree with her, but it is really a good thread overall.

[stevenson]

I believe God can do anything but has chosen to limit Himself.

Could He lie? He's God why not? But He won't and that's what so awesome about Him.

Could He force His will upon us? Probably! But He won't, another demonstration of His great wisdom.

He could change the past, He could wipe us all out. He could turn the whole world upside down and dribble it like a basketball. But He chooses to work thru us and to do things that benefit us more than Him if you look at the reality of it. Why? Cuz He wants a people that love Him regardless of everything.

Man, I can't even comprehend His mightiness and power. But it sure does make me feel small.

[rough_rider]

John, I'll agree that God I suppose if He wanted to, could dribble the earth like a basketball. But (and I think we disagreed on this subject before) God can not lie, this is impossible. God's words are "truth" in it's purest form, in His words you would never find guile.