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Featured Is God really Omnipotent?

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by humblethinker, Jul 19, 2012.

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  1. 12strings

    12strings Active Member

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    MB, I posted this in another thread, and wanted to put it here so you would know I was talking about you...From "MB" over on the "Is God omnipotent" thread...(just today, I think, others have said it also)


    From "MB" over on the "Is God really omnipotent" thread...(just today, I think, others have said it also)

    If man was without choice (for example, in the future eternity) according to this belief he could not truly love God?
     
    #21 12strings, Jul 23, 2012
  2. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    Let me throw this out by T. P. Simmons in his 1935 Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine.
     
    #22 Tom Butler, Jul 23, 2012
  3. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    Agreed, and so the term 'omnipotence' being ascribed to God with no qualifications is absurd and should not be so used in an attempt to describe God as accurately as we can. This term can be a stumbling block for Atheists.

    There are certain things that God cannot do and this is not to his shame but to his glory. The fact that He cannot do them is an admirable quality and if he could do them he would be less honorable.
     
    #23 humblethinker, Jul 23, 2012
  4. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    What is also in play here is that ONLY the saved by the Grace of God can see Him in the fullest/correct way for this OP, as those not saved will bring faulty understandings of God into their discussion!

    the unsaved will continue to misunderstand just what being God really means, what he is "all about!"
     
    #24 Yeshua1, Jul 24, 2012
  5. HeirofSalvation

    HeirofSalvation Well-Known Member
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    #25 HeirofSalvation, Jul 24, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 24, 2012
  6. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    Where does He tell us that? Maybe I missed that verse/teaching. Why not use a word that does not entail absurdity, like 'Almighty', which He has told us? The use of the word 'Omnipotent' to describe God is not as appropriate as or accurate. For insider-talk, The word "Omnipotent" will get us by but talking with or making a case to an outsider, that word will be a stumbling block. Ha, and even with many believers that word will require qualification.
     
    #26 humblethinker, Jul 24, 2012
  7. HeirofSalvation

    HeirofSalvation Well-Known Member
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    I don't understand your objection..."Almighty" and "Omnipotent" are considered to be synonymous usually. Accept that there will always be certain "godless" who will refuse to believe that 2+2=4 if it would require a belief in God. They don't WANT to learn....Thus, they never will. They have been given over to a "reprobate mind". Such confusion is not our purview. We should shake the dust off of our feet with such individuals. Our Calvinistic brethren are quite correct in understanding and defining such beings...(we simply disagree about the point or level upon which it is properly ascribed). I believe (as a passionate lover of apologetics) that we DO have a requirement and a command to "give an answer for the hope..."....but if they elect to be merely obtuse....it is their decision. ONLY the Spirit of God might convince such a being...once they begin "arguing about divisions and strifes of words"........ such as play-acting a signifigant difference between "Almighty" and "Omnipotent"...They are playing stupid word-games...I really think my above post covers most of this....I didn't randomly conjure it out of no-where.
     
    #27 HeirofSalvation, Jul 24, 2012
  8. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    can finite mind of man even grasp what God chose to reveal to us in the bible fully, much less ALL that He is?
     
    #28 Yeshua1, Jul 24, 2012
  9. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    I found this was informative regarding the OP:

    There is no universally accepted characterization of omnipotence - no account of the idea of the form "God is omnipotent if and only if..." that is universally embraced as the truth of the matter. (In case one thinks that this entails that the notion is unintelligible or unusable, not that there is no such analysis of "cause" or "knowledge" either.) But something like this seems right as far as it goes.

    God is omnipotent only if for any proposition P, God can make P true unless:
    (1) P is formally contradictory, or
    (2) P is informally contradictory, or
    (3) P can only be made true by the person to which it refers, or
    (4) P's content is such that it would be false if God so acted as to make it true, or
    (5) P's content is such that God has an esential property incompatible with God making P true.

    Here some examples are needed: of (1) "There is a round square"; of (2) "God makes an immaterial squirrel"; of (3) "God writes (as autobiography) the autobiography of William James"; of (4) "There is something other than God that is not created by God"; of (*5) "God digests ice cream without becoming embodies." (A standard but more controversial example is "God cannot sin.") Considering some such characterization may make us more realistic concerning what divine omnipotence can be.

    Keith Yandell
    Department of Philosophy
    University of Wisconsin - Madison
    as printed in Philosophia Christi, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2011
    ​
    May I emphasize that last sentence: Considering some such characterization may make us more realistic concerning what divine omnipotence can be.
     
    #29 humblethinker, Aug 3, 2012
  10. AresMan

    AresMan Active Member
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    I agree with him. God is omnipotent. He can do anything that is not intrinsically contradictory.
     
    #30 AresMan, Aug 3, 2012
  11. AresMan

    AresMan Active Member
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    I totally agree. No one ever loves against his own will. That would make no sense.
    The question is: can immaterial things like love--acts of the will--come ultimately out of a vacuum?

    Well, I would think there are some important limitations.

    Can you love your acquaintance neighbor with the same love that you would love God, your wife, or children (assuming you love them correctly)?

    Can you love the Joker Killer with the same love that you would love God, your wife, or children?

    If you think so, I would fear you tremendously. ;)
     
    #31 AresMan, Aug 3, 2012
  12. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    I don't think there's anyone on this board that would say that they do not have a single faulty understanding about God. We do not get life from the correctness of our theology, life comes from a relationship with God. This is why one's theology is not that important to God, especially compared to our relationship with Him and others.

    I don't quite understand what you mean here. If someone is bringing faulty understanding of God into this discussion then surely you would be able to explain the misunderstanding to them. Afterall, one should be able to explain what they claim to understand, no?
     
    #32 humblethinker, Aug 3, 2012
  13. quantumfaith

    quantumfaith Active Member

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    :applause::applause::applause::applause:
     
    #33 quantumfaith, Aug 3, 2012
  14. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    The bible teaches there are things God cannot do.
     
    #34 freeatlast, Aug 3, 2012
  15. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    Who's disagreeing? That is just what we are saying. What is your point?
     
    #35 humblethinker, Aug 3, 2012
  16. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    You are talking about logic and I am talking about reality or things that others can do. There are things that God cannot do and others can according to scripture.
     
    #36 freeatlast, Aug 3, 2012
  17. humblethinker

    humblethinker Active Member

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    Well, regardless, I agree with what you've said and it's no surprise that logic comports with scripture.
     
    #37 humblethinker, Aug 5, 2012
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