God's omnipotence

I sing the almighty pow’r of God

            That made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing seas abroad
And built the lofty skies.

                                    –ISAAC WATTS

Think with me a minute about the forces that hold our universe together and determine the movements of its component parts. Consider how strong these forces must be. Take, for example, the power of our Sun. It is but one star in the universe, yet alone its gravitational pull is enough to cause an object twenty-five thousand miles in circumference and ninety-three million miles away to orbit it as one of its planets. That body, the Earth, is by no means the largest or furthest planet so affected by the Sun’s gravity. Multiply this—the force of one star in one solar system—by trillions, and you will begin to touch only a part of the universe’s power. Astronomers tell us that these seemingly endless stars are arranged in groups, the galaxies, which also move according to the forces between them. How much greater would be the force of one galaxy upon another than that of our Sun upon the Earth!

Even what would be considered a relatively weak force in the universe seems strong to us. The tides that give us so much pleasure during a seaside stroll and so much fear during an approaching storm are due to the moon’s “weak” pull upon the ocean’s surface. The power of a single dammed river or one steep waterfall is enough to light thousands of homes. Sufficient force is present in a lump of coal to ignite the Industrial Revolution and enough within a single atom to destroy entire cities. Add all of this together and multiply it exponentially by a myriad of additional forces not mentioned above, and you have a glimpse of a universe whose cumulative power staggers belief.

Now consider with me again the first attribute of God, the most obvious deduction from the Argument from Design, that God is the Creator of the universe. If so, He is the One responsible for the power present within it. He must be the Source of those gravitational forces, so strong and so structured, between the Sun and its planets. He must be the Creator of the bond between electron and proton that forms the organizational basis of the material world. He must be responsible for the forces present in every wave of the ocean, within every particle of coal dust, and at the flip of every switch in the house. We all agreed yesterday that God created our designed universe. His power, therefore, must be indescribable.

This leads us to a second characteristic of God: He is the Power behind the creation. And this divine power must be immeasurably enormous, greater than the sum power of the universe itself. No wonder the word omnipotent has been ascribed to God!

Unfortunately, divine omnipotence has been misunderstood and misapplied over the years and has caused many a sufferer to level a charge of injustice at God. Later in this book, we will discuss the misuse of this term. For now, we will venture only this far: awesome, seemingly unlimited power is a requisite part of God’s nature. Almost every believer would agree, even that sufferer. In fact, his accusation of divine injustice is based on the assumption that God’s power should be more than adequate to remove the burden.

In short, to deny there is a Designer behind the universe’s design is irrational. So, too, is to refuse to attribute to that Designer the power manifest in His design.

                                              Dear God, You Sure Don't Act Like You're Alive (Day 10)