Is God Truly Omnipotent??

by Cold Steel 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  88JM

  " he has the power to lie, but his nature restricts him from doing so "

  When I was a JW, this is pretty much what I had in mind. I guess the question that would pose would possibly be: "Could be he capable of going against his own nature, even if he wanted to?"

  I don't personally think the bible does point towards an all powerful God, though many JWs who haven't taken the time to think about it would say it does - I don't think JWs like the idea of a limited God.

  The same goes for omniscience - if that is the case then everything is pre-destined. I think both omnipotence and omniscience are ideas borrowed from elsewhere, most probably Greeks, but I'm not sure.

  Saying that, I'm not even sure myself at the moment in the existance of a God at all even, but that's a separate thing.
• 

  frankiespeakin

  I would say that in the minds of some god is truly omnipotent and this omnipotence is directly proportional to the amount or limits of what one can imagine omnipotence to be.

  Now some may find this interesting:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence

  In psychology

  Early Freudianism saw a feeling of omnipotence as intrinsic to early childhood. 'As Freud and Ferenczi have shown, the child lives in a sort of megalomania for a long period...the "fiction of omnipotence"'. [6] At birth. 'the baby is everything as far as he knows - "all powerful"...every step he takes towards establishing his own limits and boundaries will be painful because he'll have to lose this original God-like feeling of omnipotence'. [7]

  Freud considered that in a neurotic 'the omnipotence which he ascribed to his thoughts and feelings...is a frank acknowledgement of a relic of the old megalomania of infancy'. [8] In some narcissists, the 'period of primary narcissism which subjectively did not need any objects and was entirely independent...may be retained or regressively regained..."omnipotent" behavior'. [9]

  D. W. Winnicott took a more positive view of a belief in early omnipotence, seeing it as essential to the child's well-being; and "good-enough" mothering as essential to enable the child to 'cope with the immense shock of loss of omnipotence' [10] - as opposed to whatever 'prematurely forces it out of its narcissistic universe'. [11]
• 

  THE GLADIATOR

  Logically if God is everywhere than he is also nowhere, which could explain his absence.
• 

  frankiespeakin

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence

  Meanings

  The term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. A deity is able to do anything that it chooses to do. [ 1 ]
  2. A deity is able to do anything that is in accord with its own nature (thus, for instance, if it is a logical consequence of a deity's nature that what it speaks is truth, then it is not able to lie).
  3. Hold that it is part of a deity's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for said deity to go against its own laws unless there was a reason to do so. [ 2 ]
  4. A deity is able to do anything that corresponds with its omniscience and therefore with its worldplan.
  5. Every action performed in the world is 'actually' being performed by the deity, either due to omni-immanence, or because all actions must be 'supported' or 'permitted' by the deity.

  Under many philosophical definitions of the term "deity", senses 2, 3 and 4 can be shown to be equivalent. However, on all understandings of omnipotence, it is generally held that a deity is able to intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics, since they are not part of its nature, but the principles on which it has created the physical world. However many modern scholars (such as John Polkinghorne) hold that it is part of a deity's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for a deity to go against its own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so. [ 2 ]

  The word "Omnipotence" derives from the Latin term "Omni Potens", meaning "All-Powerful" instead of "Infinite Power" implied by its English counterpart. The term could be applied to both deities and Roman Emperors. Being the one with "All the power", it was not uncommon for nobles to attempt to prove their Emperor's "Omni Potens" to the people, by demonstrating his effectiveness at leading the Empire. [ 3 ]
• 

  PSacramento

  Those are the correct views of what omnipotence is taking inbto account that "all powerful" doesn't mean "powerful enough to do what is impossible to do" - create a round square for example.
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  Pterist

  The apostle Paul said "in Him we live and have our being" As Christians we belive the whole universe is held together by God's power. It is considered from scripture that the Father has a spiritual "Body" and yet He has a Spirit that flows from Himself. The Power /Spirit of God can be personal as Jesus explained that by means of the gift of the Holy Spirit both HE (Jesus) and the Father could be present in his disciples. The Father was present in Jesus by means of Holy Spirit, like the "presence" in the Jewish Temple" the Spirit seems to be the environment of God that can be anywhere and be embedded by Father or Son or both, we will make OUR home in you.

  Shalom
• 

  Pterist

  Opps, I went on about omnipresence, sorry my bad !