Is God omnipotent?

I'm not sure I understand your question. I use the word "omnipotent" because the bible uses it: Revelation 19:6I have some understanding of the term but, as I stated, it is a difficult concept.

The questions that you are asking about why a perfect and omnipotent God would bother to create the universe is not new. This has been a strain in philosophy since the ancient Greeks. A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (published in 1946) gives some space to the evolution of this perfect God in pagan and Christian intellectual history. I believe Karen Armstrong's A History of God also speaks of various Jewish, Muslim, and Christian philosophers trying to come to grips with this question.As you read the Hebrew scriptures, it becomes very clear that the early Hebrew conception of God is very anthropomorphic -- it is a God, and one, it seems, among other Gods (it appears that the ancient Hebrew were actually henonistic -- look that word up), he had very human emotions, could make mistakes, be uncertain, and do all the other things that anthropomorphized Gods do.Then, the Hebrew deity becomes the the omnipotent, omniscient God that is portrayed today. I doubt that this was indigenous with the Hebrews themselves -- my guess that this was due to Greek influence (many of the ancient Greek philosophers speak of an omnipotent and perfect Creator/God), although maybe this sort of evolution is common among theistic cultures.So now the Christians are in the unhappy position of trying to reconcile this Hellenic perfect God with the clumsy, rash, and very human deity depicted in the Old Testament.

Can you please cite some examples of the mistakes and uncertainty so that I might examine them?

Throughout the OT, God is constantly reminding his creations (which He treats so well by the way) that He is a jealous God. Not only that, but this God deominstrates His very human (actually childish) anger quite often, and at the price of innocents as well. This God tells us what 'pleases' Him - and it sems that He just LOVES the blood of animals and people from opposing tribes and nations. Sounds sort of like a very human tyrant to me, but I may just not know what I'm talking about eh?By the way, God showing ANY kind of emotion contradicts the idea that he is all knowing - for emotion is mostly caused by events that unfold before us and are not previously known. When we learn of a friend's death from a car accident, the news is a shock and we often resond as such. Funny thing is, so does God in the Bible. This is quite inconsistent with the idea that God is all knowing - but this thread is about God being all-powerful so I'll leave it at that.The fact is, the God of the Bible does not indicate (at all) that He is all-powerful. Now it may be objected that we simply don't understand what "all powerful" means, so how can we critique it? And I retort that how can one claim this God is all powerful when they themselves don't know what the word means either? Perhaps words used to describe God should be changed completely. Maybe we should use "blorth" instead of "all powerful" since we don't know what all-powerful means. Therefore, God is blorth, yes? This same attitude can be elevated to any words used in an attempt to describe or define this God.And again it will be objected that we (non believers) are placing this God "in a box", but I reply that it is the theist that places the God in a box in the first place by trying to define what it is they believe exists. Defining anything puts whatever is being defined "in a box" - and there is no other way around it! To avoid this dilema, the theist would have to assert that they have no idea what it is they believe exists and there's no way for them to communicate what they believe exists to anyone outside of their theistic belief. In fact, these kinds of theists would never be sure that each believes the same thing as the others! Either God is put in a box, or there are only agnostics.

That's sort of what I was looking for, the idea that God displaying any emotion would contradict the idea of omnipotence. But to take it a step further, wouldn't God taking ANY action also contradice the idea, as anything that any creature on this planet does (okay, I may be wrong on this) is based on some shortcoming? We eat because our bodies are not perfect and require energy, we love eachother so that we can live as a better unit and all benifit from all individuals. Again, are these assumptions somehow unfair? Are they biased in some way? I am trying to break them down to the most simple definition.
Brad

Forgot to give a few 'examples' of God having human-like qualities:Isaiah 34:2 - For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armiesJer 21:5 - And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrathMicah 5:15 - And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heardNahum 1:2 - God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furiousZechariah 8:2 - Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great furyJeremiah 20:7 - O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceivedEzekiel 14:9 - And if a prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet2 Thessalonians 2:11 - For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lieExodus 31:17 - For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshedIsaiah 1:14 - ...I am weary to bear themJeremiah 15:6 - I am weary with repentingPsalm 11:5 - The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hatethRomans 9:13 - As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hatedGenesis 18:9 - And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent (God all knowing?)Job 1:7 & 2:2 - And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in itHosea 8:4 - They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it notGenesis 6:6 - And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heartExodus 32:14 - And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people (This one's a double whammy - God all good? God perfect? - who did He repent to? Himself?)1 Samuel 15:35 - The Lord repented that he had made Saul king over IsraelJeremiah 18:8 - I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto themPsalm 44:23 - Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?This list is getting a bit long and I don't want to bore those that are interested. Of course, this list is definitely not all inclusive - this is a small sample of the indicatioins we're given in the Bible that God is more human-like than we tend to think.

Good ideas shadow but I'll have to disagree. You're assuming that our bodies aren't 'perfect' and therefore require food, water, sleep etc. This implies that in order for something to be 'perfect' it shouldn't need any of these things, but I contend that 'perfect' is just an ambiguous as the terms 'good' and 'evil'.The JD theist would hold that 'perfect' is defined by God since He's inherently perfect, and anything He does is therefore perfect, but I would object by saying that if God is the standard for perfection, then He Himself has no basis for any of the decisions He makes. All of God's choices are random and cannot be founded upon any type of system (such as logic or emotion) since this would entail following some other standard and thus stripping Him of His perfection. On the other side, if God follows some outside standard for perfection, then he is not all powerful since he must follow a specific standard that is more powerful than He is.Next objection: "Chuck, you're being irrational dude" and it's probably not going to give reasons why. I might even get a *yawn* or two - or "I've heard it all before"...

Given the above definitions, have you read anywhere in the OT describing God himself using anything manmade? (spears, knives, etc.) From what I have read anything manmade was used only by man (spears, armies etc.)When God allows the Hebrews to win against their enemies, the OT doesn't really describe what he did. Did he make them stronger or the enemy weaker etc.? The same goes for when God removes his protection from the Hebrews. Did he make them weaker or the enemy stronger? What did he remove?God apparently wasn't able to manipulate manmade items that couldn't be influenced by nature.God seems to exert his power by using nature. Given all the natural disasters that plagued the Hebrews, and yet they still strayed continually according to the OT.So given that the Hebrews were a stubborn people, according to the OT, God apparently was unable to control or influence them consistently.Doesn't sound like the Hebrew God had unlimited power.

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

What is YOUR source for YOUR beliefs concerning God ?The source of the Bible reveals a God who is omnipotent with one exception.He cannot create the one thing He wants.God's omniscience is a function of His power (omnipotence) - He can know what He wants to know, but the Bible says there is one exception to His omniscience.Because free will exists/the ability to change ones mind at will - God does not know if a person fears/trusts/loves/(=synonyms) Him until His power arranges circumstances to find out. God can predict what a person will do but He does not know FOR SURE until they do what they do because humans have the ability to change their mind at will. Abraham was at least 120 years old in this event and it took that long before God was convinced that Abraham feared Him via the test of offering Isaac."now I know" means that prior God did not know - one exception to God's omniscience but discovered by His omnipotence - ability to arrange circumstances to find out.

The term "evil" as used in this verse refers to punishment.As far as God being "all good", how are you interpreting that?God is good but is not limited to doing only nice things. He judges the behavior and thoughts of people and either chooses to bless them, chasten them, and in some circumstances, punish fatally.Lastly, the term "repent", as used in the verse, means changed his mind.

i'm in the process of re-reading the bible, from the beginning (in the hebrew order). i'm trying to pay a little attention to the opinions of the authors about god, and his qualities. it seems pretty obvious that human qualities are projected onto god, by the authors. but more interestingly, god itself seems to evolve alongside it's creation.for instance, in genesis god wrestles with jacob in the desert, and changes his name to israel. the two have a physical fight, and god wins by hitting jacob in the leg. but later in exodus, god says to moses that no one can see his face and live. moses is even instructed that on certain days people can't go anywhere near mt horeb, or else they'll die.now, i don't have any formal thoughts on this, no real analysis. i haven't checked to see which passages are j sourced, p, or e. but i would argue that the age of the text somehow correlates to the omnipotence and personal-ness of god. the older the text, the more personal and less powerful. gen 2 is older than gen 1, for instance.

Shadow,Would a fair definition of omnipotent be "able to do all that can be done?"For example, God could not create a square circle, because that is something that cannot be done.

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If you say there no absolutes, I ask you, are you absolutely sure?

The term "evil" as used in this verse refers to punishment.How do you know what this refers to? Because it helps your argument?As far as God being "all good", how are you interpreting that?God is good but is not limited to doing only nice things. He judges the behavior and thoughts of people and either chooses to bless them, chasten them, and in some circumstances, punish fatally.I'm interpreting it to mean "all good and no bad" which follows from simple common sense. It seems to me that you've quite misinterpreted it to mean "good but not all the time since He's not limited to doing only nice things", in which case, you're conveniently changing the defenition for what all-good means. Speaking of which, if God is limited by only good actions (which follows from the defenition for "all good"), then God is essentially not all powerful.Lastly, the term "repent", as used in the verse, means changed his mind. [b]Again, how do you know what is meant? Because it helps your argument? Also, was God perfect before or after He changed His mind?

I concluded "evil" refers to punishment because I read the context of the verse.What do you think "evil" refers to?

I keep hearing about God showing human qualities, this won't prove anything but actually we(humans) show God's qualities. It says in Genesis that man was created in the "image" of God. This is not his physical image, he has no physical body, this is about God making us with: intellect, emotions, will, and conscience.