Answering Terrible Arguments Against God, The Bible, and Christianity Part 3

Continuing our discussion of common but flawed arguments leveled against the Christian faith, this month we will examine two challenges to God’s omnipotence. 

Argument #4: If God is Spirit, how can He possibly take physical form? 

This argument is correct in asserting, as the Bible does, that God is Spirit. i This means that God is not a material being and, consequently, He possesses unique qualities which set Him apart from His creation. The Apostle Paul says that Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15)ii. Later, Paul adds, “[God] alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). 

What Paul means is, first, that God alone, by His very nature, is “immortal.” He is without beginning or end. The Bible promises that, in the resurrection after Christ returns, Christians will “put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53), but we do not yet possess this quality, and we will never possess it as God does. Second, God dwells in “unapproachable light.” That is, He inhabits His own divine dimension beyond the realm of any of His created beings, human or angelic. Third, God is, by nature, invisible. Thus, no created being (human or angel) can see or comprehend His true glory. 

Given these Scriptural claims, how do we account for the numerous biblical passages which describe God in physical terms, as well as those which claim that God has appeared in physical form? And what are we to do with Jesus, whom the Bible says was “God in the flesh”?iii 

Biblical passages which describe God as having eyes, feet, and hands, iv as well as passages which picture God sitting on His throne, looking down from heaven,v use figurative language, which we call anthropomorphic language, to describe God and His actions in terms to which we can relate.vi What they mean is that God is fully aware of what happens in the universe (He “sees”) and is capable of interacting with His creation whenever He chooses to do so. 

Then there are passages which depict God as temporarily taking some sort of physical form. He walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8). He, along with two angels, appeared as men to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre and ate a meal prepared for them by Abraham (Genesis 18:1-8). He appeared to Moses in a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6), and He took the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 13:17-22). 

These temporary physical manifestations of God are called theophanies. vii They serve two purposes. One, God warned Moses that seeing God in His full, natural glory would kill any mortal (Exodus 33:20-23). Consequently, God only allowed Moses to see a “toned-down” vision of His glory. Thus, theophanies are necessary to protect mortals from the lethal power of God’s natural glory. 

Second, because God is inherently invisible, most of His communication with humans recorded in the Bible was through intermediaries, such as prophets, apostles, or angels. However, when He wished to communicate directly with humans, assuming physical form (human or otherwise) served to drive home the critical nature of the revelation by exposing them directly to Himself in a form to which they could relate. 

The ultimate theophany recorded in the Bible is the incarnation of the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, as Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3, 14). Theologian Jack Cottrell observes, “Since Jesus is God in the flesh, his acts are the acts of God, and his words are the words of God.” viii 

This brings us to the question at hand: how is it possible for God to take physical form, even temporarily, much less be born a physical infant and live in that form for over thirty years? One possible answer we can rule out is that Jesus was the result of God’s seduction of Mary, similar to the mythical seduction of the mortal Princess Alcmene by the Roman god Jupiter which produced Hercules. The Gospels clearly state that Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, apart from any sexual union.ix Moreover, Mary was to remain a virgin until Jesus was born.x 

How is God able to take physical form when and how He chooses? The answer is His omnipotence. One of the names for God in the Old Testament is El Shaddai, “God Almighty.” xi Other Scriptures declare: “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). When Mary asked the angel Gabriel how she could have a child since she was a virgin, he replied, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). 

Cottrell sums up these and other Scriptures which affirm God’s omnipotence, saying, “Omnipotence basically means that God has an unlimited reservoir of power by which he is able to do anything he could ever want to do, even if he does not choose to do it.” xii The last part of this quote indicates an important condition: God’s omnipotence does not force Him to do everything He is capable of doing. Rather, He chooses what He will do and when He will do it. 

Argument #5: If God were omnipotent, He could do anything, but He can’t lie or create a stone so heavy He can’t lift it, or make a square circle, so He can’t really be all-powerful?

This argument is meant to contradict the biblical claims of God’s omnipotence. However, it fails due to several flaws in its logic. First, the argument claims that omnipotence means God “could do anything.” Rather, as we indicated in the discussion above, omnipotence means that God has the power to do anything he could ever want to do. That is a significant difference. 

Second, the Bible indicates several things God would and could never do because they would violate His holy nature. xiii For instance, He cannot lie (Titus 1:2), He cannot be tempted by evil, and He would never tempt anyone to do evil (James 1:13). God’s inability to do these things is no indication of failure or lack of omnipotence on His part. The (moral) failure would be if God did lie or did give in to temptation. Thus, it is clear “that God can do everything that is in harmony with His perfections [His holy qualities].” xiv 

Third, the remaining two examples (the immovable stone and the square circle) are guilty of the fallacy of Contradictory Premises. That is, the two premises cannot both be true at the same time. For example, an object with four equal sides and four right angles is a square. A circle, on the other hand, is a closed curve with no corners and no right angles. The definition of one excludes the definition of the other. The reason why God can’t make a square circle is that it is illogical nonsense and cannot exist. Consequently, we may conclude that God’s omnipotence is His power to do what is logically, inherently possible. 

When we add these three conditions together, we can summarize God’s omnipotence as His ability to do whatever He chooses to do, which is consistent with His holiness and is intrinsically possible.