Page "Omnipotence paradox" Paragraph 20

A common response from Christian philosophers, such as Norman Geisler or Richard Swinburne is that the paradox assumes a wrong definition of omnipotence.

Omnipotence, they say, does not mean that God can do anything at all but, rather, that he can do anything that's possible according to his nature.

The distinction is important.

God cannot perform logical absurdities ; he can't, for instance, make 1 + 1 = 3.

Likewise, God cannot make a being greater than himself because he is, by definition, the greatest possible being.

God is limited in his actions to his nature.

The Bible supports this, they assert, in passages such as Hebrews 6: 18 which says it is " impossible for God to lie.

" This raises the question, similar to the Euthyphro Dilemma, of where this law of logic, which God is bound to obey, comes from.

According to these theologians, this law is not a law above God that he assents to but, rather, logic is an eternal part of God's nature, like his omniscience or omnibenevolence.

God obeys the laws of logic because God is eternally logical in the same way that God doesn't perform evil actions because God is eternally good.

So, God, by nature logical and unable to violate the laws of logic, cannot make a boulder so heavy he cannot lift it because that would violate the law of non contradiction by creating an immovable object and an unstoppable force.

This is similar to the Hebrews 6: 18 verse, which teaches that God, by nature honest, cannot lie.