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God's Omnipotence "Can God Lie?" "Can God Contradict Himself?" |
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It is never wise to begin a sentence with the words, Clearly God never lies or contradicts Himself, but using the above phrase implies that God is limited and is NOT all powerful. When we do others, especially Muslims, are inclined to misinterpret us and think that we are either denying God's omnipotence or describing a God who is somehow less than the Muslim view of God. For example, if we choose to use the words that "God is limited by the laws of logic" the Muslim will be inclined to misinterpret us and think that we believe in the heretical opinion that God is somehow restricted by something outside of Himself. And perhaps even more importantly, the Muslim will mistakenly think his God is greater than the Christian God. Instead, we need to point out that language and human thought have limitations. By analogy consider mathematics. If we attempt to divide by zero we end up with all kinds of contradictions. Therefore, we cannot divide by zero. It is undefined nonsense if we do. When confronted with questions like, "Can God do evil?" or "Can God make a stone too heavy for Him to lift?" or "Can God lie?" we should not answer the question in the affirmative or the negative. Neither a "Yes" nor is a "No" is really adequate. The problem is not primarily with the answer, but with the question itself. The question contains a self-contradiction. Like mathematics when we try to divide by zero, the questions are meaningless nonsense. We can see another limitation in language we might try to ask, "What did God do before He created time?" The word before is inherently dependant on time to have any meaning. Just because people can put words together that doesn't mean their question is valid. God's nature is to love. Yet, He is not forced to love as if He has no free will in the matter. He freely chooses to love. He freely choose to create a reality that is governed by the laws of science and He is the author and creator of those laws. He freely choose to create this reality that is governed by the laws of logic which He also created. If someone asks, "Can God choose to be illogical?" then we again point out that the question is a meaningless self-contradiction. So, now the Muslim is faced to choose between two different notions of God. The Muslim view believes God sometimes chooses to contradict Himself and be irrational. And the second option, is the Christian one, a God who freely chooses to be Good, and to be rational and logical, and while never being illogical sometimes chooses to go beyond logic by the fact that He also chooses to be infinitely Loving. Unlike before, the Muslim now has a reason to convert to the Christian concept of God because a Good, Consistent, and Ordered God is more beautiful and greater than one who is not those things. It should be easy to see that order is better than disorder. Compare the sounds that are made by someone who is playing the violin for the first time with someone who is a maestro.It also might be helpful to show the Muslim that God in the Old Testament is always loving and consistent as that is not always obvious to the casual reader. Scott Hahn's teachings are most helpful in this regard. We would not want the Muslim thinking that he was obligated to defend the idea that God is contradictory and unloving.
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