Is there anything God can't do?

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There are some issues here. First there is the issue for example where one says that God can not lie. God can do whatever he wills. It’s not that God can not lie it’s that he never “will” lie. It’s not that it is impossible it’s that God simply won’t lie. You could request it of Him and He is capable of lying but He won’t ever choose to. So it is accurate to say he can’t lie but it’s not a matter of lacking capability.

As for a square circle imagine a 3d image where the frame is a circle on the x axis and a square on the z axis. On two dimensions this shape would look like a square or circle with a line down the center. The line represents more information than you can see on two dimensions. Given the line actually is the square or circle on the third dimension then you can represent a square circle on two dimensions but from a two dimensional perspective you wouldn’t be able to measure it.

It’s already been suggested that God can restrict Himself in such a way that He can not lift a rock. So that’s not much of a challenge really.

With God all things are possible including that which we can not comprehend. I personally take the absolute position on omnipotence. He can literally do everything. There are some things that He simply refuses to do.
 
I do not understand how God can have a “will.” If God is defined as being absolute Truth and absolute Love, then there is nothing to wish for or desire.
 
laylow said:
I do not understand how God can have a “will.” If God is defined as being absolute Truth and absolute Love, then there is nothing to wish for or desire.
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That’s not what will is.
 
catholicray said:
First there is the issue for example where one says that God can not lie.
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But He can deceive:
  • Jeremiah 20:7 - O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.
  • Ezekiel 14:9 - And if a prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet.
 
laylow said:
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goout:
That’s not what will is.
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Care to provide a definition?
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Here’s something to chew on.
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1019.htm#article1

the wish you describe is something that human beings do. Wishing doesn’t bring things to be. etc…
 
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rossum said:
Ezekiel 14:9 - And if a prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet.
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Not trying to say you’re wrong but this sounds more like the authority with which prophets speak. Do you have a verse where prophets are actually deceived by God?
 
Rudolph said:
When I was a kid a friend asked me a meant to be joking question but I would like to see someone attempt to answer it. “Can god create a rock so big that he is not strong enough to lift it?” Obviously there is objections to both answers.
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The usual one goes “Can God create a stone that He cannot lift?”

Truth P1: God created everything
Truth P2: There is no stone that God cannot lift.

This “paradox” contradicts truth P1 and therefore it is meaningless.

As others have said, God does not deal in logical absurdities. God won’t be creating a square circle or make 1+1=3.

God can do anything but there are things He will not do. There’s a difference.
 
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catholicray said:
Not trying to say you’re wrong but this sounds more like the authority with which prophets speak. Do you have a verse where prophets are actually deceived by God?
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Why would a prophet say God can do something that God cannot do? Are the prophets not to be trusted?

While not deceiving a prophet, how about:

– 1 Kings 22:23 - Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

The Lord is speaking evil through the mouth of the prophet.
 
Yeah - this argument (which is really a poor attempt to object to God’s omnipotence) actually falls down both times when you look at the true meaning of omnipotent.

If “omnipotence” refers only to things that are logically possible then it is not possible for the irresistible force (God) to exist along with the immovable object (the stone). Both cannot possibly exist at the same time. Logical contradiction.

If omnipotence also includes things logically absurd then the answer is simple - God can create a stone He cannot lift and God can also lift it. There is no argument against this apparent contradiction as we have included logical absurdity as a trait of God’s omnipotence - so this is a valid argument. God can do that.
 
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rossum said:
1 Kings 22:23 - Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

The Lord is speaking evil through the mouth of the prophet.
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Not necessarily at all. The lying spirit is speaking through the prophets but it does not say that it is the Spirit of God.

God can grant jurisdiction to evil spirits.
 
Sbee0 said:
God won’t be creating a square circle or make 1+1=3.
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Actually there is a way to show that one plus one equals 2 and equals 3 which is not logically absurd. I think men have determined these things to be absurd because they don’t have a method to deal with them. I’ve yet to see proof that they are indeed illogical.
 
Not in the same way as our human courts understand it. He is an accessory to the ultimate outcome. God sent a prophet with His spirit at the same time which spoke the truth. So the king heard the truth and the lie and the king chose to act upon a lie.
 
I would not be that surprised, but we don’t need to answer for other people’s misunderstandings of our teachings, only for what we actually teach.
 
I think a lot of the discussion about the laws of nature are overlooking the very important fact that we did not make these things up for our own convenience. God built those laws into this universe when He created it. In other words, He created this particular universe to operate within some very specific parameters. Changing those would really be creating a different universe. And of course God can create different universes.

The same is true for the rules of causality. There’s no question God could make the effect come before the cause. There’s no question God could create that mode of reality, but that particular mode would be an alternate reality. It wouldn’t have much, if any, relationship to whatever it is we’re currently experiencing.
 
Rudolph said:
You live in a world with set mathematical rules and concepts that God put in place. If God chose to take these mathematical concepts away and replace them I don’t see why he can’t make a circle with ninety degree angles. Obviously we can’t imagine what it would look like. But it could happen.
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We defined a circle a certain way. If God makes a circle with 90 degree angles, it’s no longer a circle.

If I tell you that a chair is actually a horse, you would never say I was correct because there’s a specific meaning assigned to the word chair and horse. If it doesn’t fit, you can’t use those words.

Same goes with a married bachelor. If someone is married, he cannot be a bachelor. Since we established that a bachelor is single.
 
To us. We defined a word a certain way. Hence, if we are going to use a certain word to describe something, it has to fit the meaning.

Now God may see an actual number while we mortal beings see it as infinity because of how large it is, in that case we only perceive something with infinite value.

But something cannot be of infinite value, in an objective sense, and have limits.
 
I’m saying hypothetically god could make a square circle which is round with no angles and at the same time not round with angles.
 
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