A Smidgen of Omnipotence?
After writing my last post, I sent a message to the author of the article I quoted and asked if he would be willing to elaborate further on his comment "we can fully affirm the reality of hell, but it's not up to us to decide who goes there.Indeed, I wonder if it is really up to God as well. Yes, being the all powerful one, and the Almighty judge, he is the one who consigns souls to hell, but it is also true that we choose Hell." I did this to give him an opportunity to explain himself and, because I really wanted to know if he meant what he said. I asked "Doesn't that diminish the character of God to say that it's not really up to Him? Is He not more involved in the affairs of men than that?
Here is a part of his response: "Does this take control from God too much? I don't think so because I believe in free will. Maybe my view on this is too speculative, but I have always understood free will to be a little smidgen of his omnipotence that God gives each one of us when he creates us in his image. We really can do what we want."
We can really do what we want? Free will is a "a little smidgen of his omnipotence that God gives each one of us when he creates us in his image"? Where is that in the Scriptures? God is omnipotent, all-powerful. To say that we have some omnipotence like God would be to say that we are nothing more than little gods. This, of course, goes against all the teachings of Scripture. God is not a man, and we are not God. We are His creatures, and we cannot do what really want. A better way to state that would be to say we can only really do what is in our nature to do, and without Christ, our nature is to sin.
The idea of being able to do what we really want and that we somehow share in the omnipotence of God is no different from what the serpent promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He told them if they ate of the fruit (did what they really wanted to do), they would be like God, knowing good and evil. They ate of the fruit, and what they got was a sinful nature which has been passed on to all of us.
The true sin nature in man wants nothing more than to do what it wants to do. It is in rebellion against God. It imagines that it somehow possesses godlike qualities. The fact is that we can only do what Christ empowers us to do. Any power or goodness we have, comes directly from Him.
We can really do what we want? Free will is a "a little smidgen of his omnipotence that God gives each one of us when he creates us in his image"? Where is that in the Scriptures? God is omnipotent, all-powerful. To say that we have some omnipotence like God would be to say that we are nothing more than little gods. This, of course, goes against all the teachings of Scripture. God is not a man, and we are not God. We are His creatures, and we cannot do what really want. A better way to state that would be to say we can only really do what is in our nature to do, and without Christ, our nature is to sin.
The idea of being able to do what we really want and that we somehow share in the omnipotence of God is no different from what the serpent promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He told them if they ate of the fruit (did what they really wanted to do), they would be like God, knowing good and evil. They ate of the fruit, and what they got was a sinful nature which has been passed on to all of us.
The true sin nature in man wants nothing more than to do what it wants to do. It is in rebellion against God. It imagines that it somehow possesses godlike qualities. The fact is that we can only do what Christ empowers us to do. Any power or goodness we have, comes directly from Him.
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