Deep thoughts: Is Jehovah omnipotent?

by Paralipomenon 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Paralipomenon
    Paralipomenon

    agapa37:

    I am curious as to your opinions on if you think the bible portrays Jehovah as omnipotent or just as a powerful being.

    As for the omnipresent, it literally means "present everywhere simultaneously" this is where the JW teaching gets a bit murky. Jehovah is said to be sitting on his throne as an individual, but his holy spirit is everywhere. Since holy spirit is referred to as Jehovah's active force, is it possible to have your active force to be omnipresent without being omnipresent yourself?

    If the holy spirit has a separate presence than Jehovah, wouldn't that more support the claims of a trinity?

    But for the rank and file JW member if you ask them if Jehovah is the three O's you will definitely receive an affirmative reply unless there has been an article that recently discussed this topic in the past few years. That was the point of my post.

  • agapa37
    agapa37

    His Word assures us that he is omnipotent, one of his titles being "God Almighty." (Genesis 28:3)

  • Mariusuk.
    Mariusuk.

    Of course he could blink people out of existance, he's GOD

    A nice point Ricky Gervais made in his "Animals" dvd............. "In the beginning God created .....blah blah", "He then said 'let there be light!'....."

    Which means................. he made the universe ....IN THE DARK!!! How smart is that!!!

    So yeah he could smiteth in a flash, if he wanted to

    if he actually existed that is

  • needproof
    needproof

    ‘They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not.’Hosea 8.4

    ‘The Lord was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron.’ - Judges 1.19

  • Clam
    Clam

    Genesis 3:8 describes how Adam and Eve hid from Jehovah, and Jehovah called out "where are you?". Proof that it's possible to hide from him. Something I'll be having a go at IF Armageddon comes.

  • Rabbit
    Rabbit

    Omnipotent ? From what I have personally seen with my own eyes...and if 'He' exists...I'd have to say 'He's'...Impotent !

    And as useful as an absentee land-Lord.

    That's just my personal viewpoint.

    Rabbit

  • SirNose586
    SirNose586

    A recent study article suggested that Jehovah selectively uses his omniscience, so there are times when even He does not know the outcome of events. Pretty far out, huh? Even the WT realizes that a god with the three o's under his belt would act nothing like the Bible god, Jehovah. I think it can be pretty well proven that the Bible god is not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent.

    If Jehovah were omnipotent, then there would be no longstanding adversary to foil his plans, as this adversary could be destroyed without any effort. Needproof also quoted an interesting scripture which supports the non-omnipotent status of Jehovah:

    ‘The Lord was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron.’ - Judges 1.19

    With God all things are possible...except if people have iron chariots! D'oh!

    alt

    If Jehovah were omniscient, then he could not react with hurt or jealousy to any problem. These emotions are human reactions, because we can't see into the future. A person who was all powerful and all knowing would never feel regret, or sadness, because he would have the knowledge and the power to do anything he wanted (Genesis 6:6). If Jehovah were omniscient, he wouldn't have killed everything then realized that people were going to be bad no matter what (Genesis 8:21). Such would be the actions of a being who could only experience time in the present.

    If Jehovah were omnipresent, then he could've foiled the Garden of Eden sin (assuming it were real), thus preventing sin, thus preventing the sacrifice of his Son, and so forth. It seems that God was busy, or he just delegated the watching of Eden to a flunky. I mean, if Satan is your one troublemaker, wouldn't you want to keep tabs on him at all times? If God were omniscient and omnipresent, he would know what Satan was going to do (omniscience) and then be there to stop it (omnipresence, omnipotence).

    Any dubs who describe god as having the three o's is really taking a big risk. Even the WT doesn't claim that God has all three of these qualities. At most they will say that he is omnipotent or omniscient (and they have to say that he "selectively" uses these qualities, to satisfy some sort of "righteous standard"), but not all three at once.

  • Abandoned
    Abandoned

    The only omni that can correctly be attributed to jehovah is the Omni Theatre production of False Positives.

  • dark angle
    dark angle

    "If Jehovah were omnipotent, then there would be no longstanding adversary to foil his plans, as this adversary could be destroyed without any effort."----- very true! thats always a question in my mind. if Satan is considered a very smart adversary, why did he challenge an omnipotent enemy, Jehovah. might he not be?

  • kwintestal
    kwintestal

    Here's more deep thoughts for ya ... If God is omnipotent and all those other big "O" words you typed out, and we're made in God's image and likeness, then do we have the capability to be all those "O" things as well? Why wouldn't we? Maybe they're in there just waiting to get out?

    Kwin

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