God Omnipotent

There are some who scoff at the Christian faith, saying that it is impossible for an omnipotent God to exist. The one who makes this claim will typically ask some variation of the question, "Can God make a rock too heavy for Himself to move?" 

When one answers "No", the mocker will say "Oh? Why not? He is all-powerful, isn't He?" And if one answers "Yes" the mocker says "Well than He's not omnipotent, if He creates a rock and then is not able to move it".

C.S. Lewis was very charitable to give an answer to this question. He said that "nonsense is still nonsense". He explained that God is all-powerful, but He is also logical. He is Logic and the source of logic. That is why He created a logical universe, and logical beings in His own image. 

Nothing God does will defy logic. He can command nature, and nature obeys Him. But that does not defy logic any more than a teacher giving an assignment defies logic. He made the laws of nature and has the power to intervene in nature - to perform what we call miracles.

For example, Jesus commanded the wind and the waves to be still, and they obeyed His command (Luke 8:22-25). But that is not the same as if He commanded the wind and the waves to be still but not still, both at the same time. 

Poets may talk of being still while not being still; but when they do, they actually mean something like "I'm physically still, but emotionally turbulent". That is a paradoxical statement, but not a contradictory statement.

The Bible has paradoxes in it. But paradoxes can be reasoned out logically, and reconciled. That is why they are paradoxes and not out-right contradictions. They only seem contradictory on the surface.

So here is the problem with the question "Can God make a rock too heavy for Himself to move?". The question suggests that in order to be omnipotent, God has to also be not omnipotent. And that is nonsense. God does not have to be not omnipotent in order to be omnipotent.

God is omnipotent. And because He is omnipotent, He can make a rock of any size and any weight; and is also able to move it.