Question:
God can't be omniscient and omnipotent?
KeepCalm CarryOn
2010-07-24 09:46:46 UTC
If God is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence. But that means he can't change his mind about his intervention, which means he is not omnipotent?
Fourteen answers:
Upon this rock
2010-07-24 09:52:08 UTC
Saying God can't do something because it's against his very nature doesn't mean He's not omnipotent. Let's define what Christians mean by omnipotence--that God can do anything that does not contradict His nature. God CANNOT change His mind, because that would mean he would be imperfect.
2010-07-24 09:51:14 UTC
Often, God's Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, etc. is misunderstood by many people.



God can make mistakes. God knows the future, yes, but He also knows many different alternative futures. The Book of Life can have names added to and taken away from anytime. God is not just in heaven; He is also on earth and even in hell. Time travel is impossible; only God can do that. Only God can take the form of an animal.
2 Shepherds
2010-07-24 09:58:20 UTC
God can and does change His mind. He has an overall plan for mankind, but there are variables. That has nothing to do with His omnipotence.
2010-07-24 09:53:23 UTC
If God is omnipotent he can make a rock he cannot lift. If he is infallible he can lift any rock in the Universe. Hmmmmmm - dichotomy.
?
2010-07-24 10:20:20 UTC
@skippy



Shut up and read your bible. Logic is a tool of Satan.



Heathen.



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WOW just WOW and WOW skippy, how is it possible to read without a system of logic by which we can create meaningful language, using inferences based on context, syntax, etc...



This is just embarrassing, really. How can you hope to understand God's Will without logic? How could you follow God's commands?



How would you have learned how to speak, walk, or do ANYTHING without deductive and inductive reasoning?



Logic is not the tool of the devil. There is nothing logically inconsistent about God, and we can use logic to defend the faith in almost every circumstance. Using logic we can also explain why certain arguments are fruitless and a waste of time due to the inability to reach a conclusion.



Christ and the Apostles had to understand logic in order to witness to the Jews and later Pharisees. Without an understanding of logic, they wouldn't have even understood the questions, let alone how to answer them.



Don't embarrass yourself with such inane posts. Furthermore, your choice of language belies a lack of compassion and undermines your (apparently insincere) command for the author to read the Bible.



To see how our faith can be IMPROVED with logic, please see below:

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"The argument for divine atemporality from the doctrine of divine immutability is, indeed, an ingenious one. The logic goes as follows: Since the Bible teaches that God is immutable, it stands to reason that the only way that this idea of an unchangeable God can be maintained with any consistency is to view Him as timeless. For only a timeless being can be spared of the change that occurs from existing at one moment in time to another."



To answer the question, God exists external to time. Being omnipresent atemporally means that His status does not change, but rather that at all times He is as we know Him. His mind has "never" changed, but from our perspective, being subject to time, we see different aspects of Him on different occasions. As our relation to God changes with our understanding of Him, so too God's Will for us takes on new meanings, although His Will had not changed.



God's omnipotence is not in question in regards to changing history, as God knows History and has effected it to His Will as He sees fit. At times a great "unnatural" occurrence may shake our understanding of the way that life goes, and we attribute these to being miracles, but to God they are merely His Will the same as natural occurrences follow His Will. The "changes" are from our perspective only. God's "interference" in the "natural" world is not interference; His "changing" the course of history is infelicitous. The course of history is what it is, and it follows God's Will.



It seems your main contention is that God is not omnipotent because He cannot break His own Will. This is a logical inconsistency as it is not in God's essence to oppose Himself.
Jim
2010-07-24 10:39:19 UTC
Part of God's plan is to allow human history to take it's course in order achieve His far greater over-arching eternal purposes. What we see during this brief period of time of the earth's saga is but a speck in the vastness of eternity. As God allows history to take it's course upon this fallen planet, in which all of nature as well as humanity has been corrupted, He is providing us an eternal lesson in the misuse of human freedom and it's consequences. God created us as free moral agents because that is the only kind of love and worship that is meaningful to Him. But the human race has decided to use our freedom to chart our own destinies apart from Him, and He is allowing us to witness the horrific results of that choice.



Someday God promises to create a new heaven and a new earth where absolute righteousness will prevail for eternity. Those who enter this eternal kingdom will still be free moral agents. But they will have the benefit of thousands of years of human history upon this earth from which to draw from to teach them that every conceivable misuse of our freedom brings about eventual devastation and destruction. I know that doesn't help much when an impaired driver kills a loved one of yours, as has happened to our family, or you homeland is being devastated by war or catastrophe. But that is how suffering fits in to the big picture of eternity.



The amazing things is, He still invites us to become a part of this future kingdom, if we will but bow our knee to Him.



So you see my friend, in the end, it's not about us. It's about God.
RED MIST!
2010-07-24 09:56:23 UTC
Furthermore, if he were omnipotent, why would he need to intervene in his OWN work?
Drake
2010-07-24 09:49:44 UTC
I don’t know of any place where God actually changed his mind. Perhaps, the world is exactly how it is supposed to be.



No one ever thinks that maybe this is his intended plan. Maybe there was no mistake at all.
emma
2010-07-24 09:50:03 UTC
omniscience and omnipotence are not mutually exclusive
Billypilgrim
2010-07-24 09:49:30 UTC
If there was such an all powerful deity that could create the universe, which I don't believe, do you really think such a being would be bound by our simple world games?
2010-07-24 09:49:26 UTC
you can be distressed in thinking about my abilities all you want,for verily i say to thee i am he!,never limit me.,practice the holy rosary,practice make perfect,we love you all,the holy family.
Johnny JoJo
2010-07-24 09:48:29 UTC
Shut up and read your bible. Logic is a tool of Satan.



Heathen.
Sassi-The Happy White Kat
2010-07-24 09:56:27 UTC
what is the question, then?
Noctis
2010-07-24 09:48:19 UTC
i know that...


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