Something I thought I'd share...

[uberreiniger]

My friend Anya e-mailed me wanting my input on a theological debate she was having with a friend. Apparently her friend had posed her with what is apparently an old connundrum: "If God is capable of doing anything, could He then create a rock so heavy that He would be incapable of lifting it?" I thought out my answer and sent it to her, but the more I looked at it, the more I felt perhaps I should share it, so it's posted here. Cut for your consideration.

I shall not impart my wisdom, but rather God's as I
> interpret it. It is a very good question indeed, but
> at its core, nothing more than a clever exercise in
> semantics. What's really at stake here is not the
> size
> of God's biceps, but rather whether One who is
> without
> limits is capable of imposing limitations on
> Himself.
> If He cannot, then isn't that, in itself, a
> limitation? Does that not then nullify the very
> concept of Him being limitless in capabillity?
> Fortunately, that is not a connundrum which will
> have
> to be faced as I believe that God is perfectly
> capable
> of doing that very thing. In fact, He has. Now the
> examples of this are merely my own interpretation of
> scripture and they could not mean at all what I
> think
> they mean, but here is what I base my hypothesis on.
>
> 1) In punishing Mankind for its fall, God created a
> condition which He could not understand save via
> direct personal experience: death. John 11:32-36
> shows
> Jesus reacting with deep sorrow and regret to the
> death of Lazarus, an occurence, which, had He
> arrived
> a few days early, He could have prevented. Why should
> God
> cry over a man's death? He knows what happens to
> people when they die, knows that there is no
> cessation
> of the being who was once human. Yet here we see
> Jesus
> overcome with grief at the sight of a grieving
> family
> - a family who blames *Him.* Moreover, we see Him
> returning the lost loved to life to be with his
> family
> for a few more years. Surely He must have known the
> peace
> that the suffering Lazarus had finally found. Surely
> he could have simply showed the family a vision of
> their loved one transfigured and at rest, just as he
> once allowed the apostles to glimpse Him with the
> glorified Moses and Elijah. Yet He brought Lazarus
> back. What an unusual thing to do.
> God understood death better than any creature in
> the
> universe, yet it wasn't until he viewed it through a
> mortal's eyes, saw the nullifying and thunderous
> sense
> of finallity and uncertain with which it left the
> surviving loved ones did He understand its magnitude
> for a mortal. His reasons for allowing death to
> exist
> this way would be another topic altogether, but that
> is what I believe happened and why the 11th chapter
> of
> John is more than just a happy story about a
> miraculous occurence.
>
> 2) In order to save Mankind, God, by necessity had
> to
> create a chain of events which, once started, He
> could
> not interfere with - The Crucifixion of Christ. From
> Gethsemane to the Cross itself Christ repeatedly
> begs
> his Father to end this nightmare. Is it that God
> will
> not, or cannot? Obviously, it is not that He lacks
> the
> capability, but if He had chosen to stop it, then
> His
> entire plan for redemption would have been
> destroyed,
> would it not?
> Slightly off topic but slightly not, I've met
> several
> people - including a cynical ex-pastor - who base
> their rejection of God on on his treatment of His
> Son.
> "What kind of father would do that to his son?" they
> ask. "I won't follow someone who wouldn't answer his
> child's cry for help!" Their argument sounds
> convincing, until you really think about it. Christ's
> purpose was to face every temptation, yet still be
> without sin. He had to face every black pit of
> despair, every dark human emotion and find his way
> through it. This included the darkest place in the
> human soul: the feeling of being utterly and
> completely abandoned by God. Once again, if God had
> stepped in and ended it, how could Christ have
> experienced that? How could His mission have been
> completed? What can end that feeling of despair,
> save
> God and death? And when the former does not
> come,
> the latter inevitably must. God had created a rock
> he
> could not lift, then placed it upon his own
> shoulders
> until its weight killed Him. And saved the whole
> world
> in the process.
>
> Those are my thoughts. Like I said, I could be
> wrong.

Comments

[buffygirl.livejournal.com]

this is too deep for my feeble little mind.

Very interesting.

[darkemoone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for a good morning read. It's nice to have something to wake my brain up to.

Your second point actually reminds me of something Satan said in Milton's Paradise Lost. He said that he was but a tool in God's plan because without Satan's revolt, there could have been no set up for the birth of God's son among men.

Re: Very interesting.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I am glad you found it of interest. Paradise Lost is one of my favorite books. I desperately need to read it again.

[stitchedsutures.livejournal.com]

ahh. your theological side. yet another reason i think you're just hipper than the bee's knee's and finer than frog's hair. i think its a good way to look at that discussion. you'd get along with my dad well i think :D

Re:

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. You're too kind. I would very much like to meet your dad. I think it would be interesting to say the least.

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

That is by far the most intersting response to this question that I've ever *heard* Well thought out. No idea if it's right, but it sounds pretty good. Some points would be gained with theology profs. very interesting

Re:

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I don't know if it's right or not either, but it makes sense to me. I've often wondered what would've happened if I'd gone into theology. In another century I probably would've been burned at the stake, I can tell you that.

Who do you say that I Am?

[warriorbride.livejournal.com]

I am with you on some parts and don't agree on others. That's an interesting question I've never heard that before. I will be tossing that around in my head for awhile. It is inconcievable that God could create something that is too heavy for him to lift. He is not mortal. He lives outside time and space and in fact created it. So that question is thinking of God as a man thinks of superman. Putting God in a box.
I was confused about with last paragraph it sounded nice when I read it but I read it again because I didn't understand it and I realized I don't agree with that unless I didn't understand where you were coming from?

Re: Who do you say that I Am?

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

That's okay to disagree. I realize it's a pretty unorthodox track to take. And like I said, I may be utterly wrong about it altogether.