Omnipotence

Nothing too hard for the LORD

Scripture speaks again and again of God's power. To Abram at ninety-nine he revealed himself with the words "I am God Almighty" (Genesis 17:1), and when Sarah laughed at the promise of a son, he asked Abraham, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14). With Jerusalem under siege, Jeremiah prayed:

You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

Jeremiah 32:17

Jesus said the same: "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). The New Testament calls God pantokratōr (παντοκράτωρ), ‘the Almighty’ (Revelation 19:6). The word suggests less the bare ability to do anything than the actual rule of the one who holds all things in his hand. So God's omnipotence belongs with his providence, by which he upholds and governs the world now.

What God cannot do

The same Scripture says that it is "impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) and that "He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). This is no contradiction, because God's power is never a force apart from his character. Lying and doing evil are not powers but defects; that God never does them is not weakness but perfection.

Augustine, answering someone who demanded that God make what has happened not to have happened, replied that this is to ask that true things be made false in the very respect in which they are true. He added: "we do not so call God omnipotent as supposing also that He could die" Augustine. Thomas Aquinas reasoned that a self-contradiction, such as a square circle, is not a possible thing at all, so it is better to say that it cannot be done than that God cannot do it Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae.

Confession and comfort

The Nicene Creed opens with "one God, the Father Almighty" Nicene Creed, and the Apostles' Creed with "God the Father Almighty" Apostles' Creed: almighty power is confessed together with fatherhood. Power without love would be terrifying, and love without power could only pity. Paul turns this power into comfort: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). And it works even through weakness. The Lord told Paul, "My power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Evangelicals explain differently how the almighty God governs what happens in the world. The Reformed tradition confesses that God freely ordains whatever comes to pass, yet in such a way that he is not the author of sin and no violence is done to the will of his creatures Westminster Confession 3.1. The Wesleyan and Arminian traditions teach that God governs all things, yet does not take back the freedom he gave in love, and works with and through it Wesley, On Divine Providence. Both hold that God's purposes will finally be accomplished. See also Can God do anything? and Is God in control?