1. Among all the emotions which underlie our God-consciousness the
foremost is the realization of our own weakness and helplessness. This
makes us long for One mightier than ourselves, for the Almighty whose acts
are beyond comparison. The first attribute, therefore, with which we
feeble mortals invest our Deity is omnipotence. Thus the pagan ascribes
supreme power over their different realms to his various deities. Hence
the name for God among all the Semites is _El_—“the Powerful One.”(225)
Judaism claims for God absolute and unlimited power over all that is. It
declares Him to be the source and essence of all strength, the almighty
Creator and Ruler of the universe. All that exists is His creation; all
that occurs is His achievement. He is frequently called by the rabbis _ha
Geburah_, the Omnipotence.(226)
2. The historical method of study seems to indicate that various cosmic
potencies were worshiped in primitive life either singly or collectively
under the name of _Elohim_, “divine powers,” or _Zibeoth Elohim_, “hosts
of divine powers.” With the acceptance of the idea of divine omnipotence,
these were united into a confederacy of divine forces under the dominion
of the one God, the “Lord of Hosts.” Still these powers of heaven, earth
and the deep by no means at once surrendered their identity. Most of them
became angels, “messengers” of the omnipotent God, or “spirits” roaming in
the realms where once they ruled, while a few were relegated as monsters
to the region of superstition. The heathen deities, which persisted for a
while in popular belief, were also placed with the angels as “heavenly
rulers” of their respective lands or nations about the throne of the Most
High. At all events, Israel’s God was enthroned above them all as Lord of
the universe. In fact, the Alexandrian translators and some of the rabbis
actually explained in this sense the Biblical names _El Shaddai_ and
_J.H.V.H. Zebaoth_.(227) The medieval philosophers, however, took a
backward step away from the Biblical view when, under the influence of
Neoplatonism, they represented the angels and the spirits of the stars as
intermediary forces.(228)
3. According to the Bible, both the Creation and the order of the universe
testify to divine omnipotence. God called all things into existence by His
almighty word, unassisted by His heavenly messengers. He alone stretched
out the heavens, set bounds to the sea, and founded the earth on pillars
that it be not moved; none was with Him to partake in the work. This is
the process of creation according to the first chapter of Genesis and the
fortieth chapter of Isaiah. So He appears throughout the Scriptures as
“the Doer of wonders,” “whose arm never waxes short” to carry out His
will. “He fainteth not, neither is He weary.” His dominion extends over
the sea and the storm, over life and death, over high and low.
Intermediary forces participating in His work are never mentioned. They
are referred to only in the poetic description of creation in the book of
Job: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?... When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy.”(229)
Proof of God’s supreme power was found particularly in history, either in
His miraculous changing of the natural order, or in His defeat of the
mighty hostile armies which bade Him defiance.(230) Often the heathen
deities or the celestial powers are introduced as dramatic figures to
testify to the triumph of the divine omnipotence, as when the Lord is said
to “execute judgment against the gods of Egypt” or when “the stars in
their courses fought against Sisera.”(231)
4. God’s power is limited only by His own volition. “He doeth what He
willeth.”(232) In man the will and the power for a certain act are far
apart, and often directly conflicting. Not so with God, for the very idea
of God is perfection, and His will implies necessarily the power to
accomplish the desired end. His will is determined only by such factors as
His knowledge and His moral self-restraint.
5. Therefore the idea of God’s omnipotence must be coupled with that of
His omniscience. Both His power and His knowledge are unlike man’s in
being without limitation. When we repeat the Biblical terms of an
all-seeing, all-hearing, and all-knowing God, we mean in the first
instance that the limitation of space does not exist for Him. He beholds
the extreme parts of the earth and observes all that happens under the
heavens; nothing is hidden from His sight. He not only sees the deeds of
men, He also searches their thoughts. Looking into their hearts, He knows
the word, ere it is upon the tongue. Looking into the future, he knows
every creature, ere it enters existence. “The darkness and the light are
alike to Him.” With one glance He surveys all that is and all that
happens.(233) He is, as the rabbis express it, “the all-seeing Eye and the
all-hearing Ear.”(234)
In like manner the distinctions of time disappear before Him. The entire
past is unrolled before His sight; His book records all that men do or
suffer, even their tears;(235) and there is no forgetfulness with Him. The
remotest future also is open before Him, for it is planned by Him, and in
it He has allotted to each being its days and its steps.(236) Yea, as He
beholds events ere they transpire, so He reveals the secrets of the future
to His chosen ones, in order to warn men of the judgments that threaten
them.(237)
6. The idea of divine omniscience could ripen only gradually in the minds
of the people. The older and more child-like conception still remains in
the stories of the Deluge and the Tower of Babel, where God descended from
heaven to watch the doings of men, and repented of what He had done.(238)
Obviously the idea of divine omniscience took hold of the people as a
result of the admonitions of the prophets.
7. Philosophical inquiry into the ideas of the divine omnipotence and
omniscience, however, discloses many difficulties. The Biblical assertion
that nothing is impossible to God will not stand the test as soon as we
ask seriously whether God can make the untrue true,—as making two times
two to equal five—or whether He can declare the wrong to be right.
Obviously He cannot overturn the laws of mathematical truth or of moral
truth, without at the same time losing His nature as the Source and
Essence of all truth. Nor can He abrogate the laws of nature, which are
really His own rules for His creation, without detracting from both His
omniscience and the immutability of His will. This question will be
discussed more fully in connection with miracles, in chapter XXVII.
Together with the problem of the divine omniscience arises the difficulty
of reconciling this with our freedom of will and our moral responsibility.
Would not His foreknowledge of our actions in effect determine them? This
difficulty can only be solved by a proper conception of the freedom of the
will, and will be discussed in that connection in chapter XXXVII.
Altogether, we must guard against applying our human type of knowledge to
God. Man, limited by space and time, obtains his knowledge of things and
events by his senses, becoming aware of them separately as they exist
either beside each other or in succession. With God all knowledge is
complete; there is no growth of knowledge from yesterday to to-day, no
knowledge of only a part instead of the whole of the world. His
omniscience and omnipotence are bound up with His omnipresence and
eternity. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My
ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”(239)