Parent Question – Could God make something more powerful than Himself? Could He destroy it?

Tough Questions – Week 2

Could God make something more powerful than Himself?  Could He destroy it?

This parent question will be sent home with students on February 17 to ask you as parents.  This is part of our theme called Tough Questions, where we will answer actual questions from students.  During the lesson time we will investigate the question, “What does it mean that God’s Spirit hovered over the face of the waters?”  The focus of this lesson is that God brings order out of chaos.  We will send students home to ask you this question:  Could God make something more powerful than Himself?  Could He destroy it? Below are some notes on the subject to help better prepare you for the discussion.

The first part of this question relates to God’s power – How powerful is He?  Scripture teaches very clearly the concept of God’s omnipotence – He has unlimited power.  Below are a few references that demonstrate this.

• Genesis 17:1 – God almighty (This is the Hebrew term you may have heard, “El Shaddai”)
• Jeremiah 32:17 – Nothing is too difficult for God
• Matthew 19:26 – All things are possible through God[1]

So if God can do anything could He actually make something more powerful than Himself?  When thinking about this, one could almost wonder about this concept of omnipotence and if there is some sort of logical problem with it.  The truth is that the question itself is the one that has some logical shortcomings.  The idea of God making something more powerful than Himself (or destroying it) is nonsensical.  Here is a way to relate this:  If you were asked to draw a square circle, you would probably reply that the request makes no sense.  God in all of His attributes is above nonsense.  So the answer to the question is neither “yes” nor “no”.  The question itself is where the problem lies.

During this discussion, another question might come up related to God’s power.  It could be phrased similar to, “If God can do anything, then can He sin?”  The assumption is that if God is omnipotent, then He can do absolutely anything, so He must be able to sin.  In reality, sin goes against everything that God is; it reveals a lack of God.  For God to sin would mean that God would have to deny Himself and diminish who He is, becoming less than Himself.  Therefore God cannot sin…He is actually too powerful to sin.