Omnipotence

According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

The only thing that should prevent him from doing it in a second would be his problem with being existence-challenged..

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

I don't think omnipotence says anything about how difficult things are for the omnipotent being, only that they are possible. You could be omnipotent and still find it difficult (but not impossible) to tie your shoelaces. I don't know why it should matter, though.

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

Well it all depends on what you mean by 'atomized'. If he truly destroyed the universe then he would have destroyed time too. For him to 'put it back together' in a period of time he would have to create a universe in which time existed. But as he was putting it back together he would be violating all the laws of physics in the universe so we could not really say that time was passing anyway. In fact, since time is relative it might be a moment for one part of the universe, and a million years for another.

However, considering the scientific evidence against the violation of the laws of physics, either:
1. God does not violate those laws.
2. God does not let anyone detect him violating the laws.
3. God does not exist.

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

Would say according to the bible 6 days then a day of rest

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

It would take Him six of His days, however long a day is to Him, read the book, duh. 😞

Originally posted by Ice Cold
It would take Him six of His days, however long a day is to Him, read the book, duh. 😞

I think God formed the world in six days for our sake rather than for His own.

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

If omnipotence means that God has the ability to do anything, then I question "omnipotence."

According to the Bible for God it was impossible to lie.

"In order that by two unchangeable things in which it was impossible for God to lie ..." (Heb. 6:18)

So apparently omnipotence does not cover the ability for God to lie.

Originally posted by jaywill
If omnipotence means that God has the ability to do anything, then I question "omnipotence."

According to the Bible for God it was impossible to lie.

[b]"In order that by two unchangeable things in which it was impossible for God to lie ..." (Heb. 6:18)

So apparently omnipotence does not cover the ability for God to lie.[/b]

Would it be safe to say the following?

(1) God has an essential (divine) nature.

(2) God’s essential nature is itself non-contradictory.

(3) Any talk of God’s “omnipotence”—or any other attribute—has to be understood in light of that non-contradictory nature.

I am not mounting an argument, only asking the question. (I have made arguments before, based somewhat on this line of reasoning, but that’s not my intention here—basically, I’m not asking the question in order to “sandbag” anyone.)

I will ask a further question: Is the non-contradictoriness of God’s nature discernible—either by reading nature, or a proper exegesis of scriptural revelation, or both—or must it simply be assumed?

Again, I do not intend to make any argument; I will simply take whatever answers are forthcoming and think about them for awhile...

Originally posted by jaywill
So apparently omnipotence does not cover the ability for God to lie.

If we, to a large extent do not actually know what Gods omnipotence does cover, is it not essentially meaningless to say that God is omnipotent?

For example, can God make a chicken appear on your keyboard while you are typing? We dont know. It might be possible that God cannot do it because it would contradict something or other.
Maybe God once told somebody somewhere that he would never violate the laws of physics. Or maybe such a violation would constitute lying. Or maybe he made some statement once about faith being important and thus never proving himself via miracles.
God can never flood the earth because if he did, his promise to Noah would be a lie.

Once you allow limitations to Gods omnipotence, his omnipotence becomes severely limited. How limited we do not know.

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

Isn't this a bi like the Tinkerbell problem? If the universe was atomised, who'd be there to clap him into existence again?

Originally posted by josephw
According to the Bible God is all powerful. So, how difficult would it be for God, if the universe was atomised, to put it back together in a moment of time?

And if it was quarkised how much harder would it be?

If God is as infinite as often claimed, he must have infinite entertainment needs. One should then realize that other than a natural feeling of self-importance we have no real reason to believe that God has not created an infinite number of universes to play around with and may be atomizing and creating some of them infinitely often.