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Omnipotence of God

【Power】On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Range of Washington exploded with what is probably the most visible indication of the power of nature that the modern world has ever seen. At 8:32 A.M. the explosion ripped 1,300 feet off the mountain, with a force of ten million tons of TNT, or roughly equal to five hundred Hiroshimas. Sixty people were killed, most by a blast of 300-degree heat traveling at two hundred miles an hour. Some were killed as far as sixteen miles away.

The blast also leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as seventeen miles away. A total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber were destroyed, enough to build 200,000 three-bedroom homes.

【God’s Omnipotence】A young boy was waiting after church for his family. The pastor saw him standing around and struck up a conversation. Since the boy had just come from Sunday school, the pastor decided to ask him some questions to determine just how much the children were learning there. He said, “Young man, if you can tell me something that God can do, I’ll give you a big shiny apple.” Thoughtfully the boy replied, “Sir, if you can tell me something God can’t do, I’ll give you a whole box of apples.”

【God’s Omnipotence】The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost when thinking about it.—Pascal, Pensees

【God’s Omnipotence】On March 5, 1979, what was called “the most powerful burst of energy ever recorded” occurred. It was described as follows:

“The burst of gamma radiation picked up by the satellites lasted for only one tenth of a second. But in that brief instant it emitted as much energy as the sun does over a period of three thousand years. If the sun had belched out the same amount of energy, the earth would have vaporized instantly.”

Reflecting on the event, astrophysicist Doyle Evans said, “Every time we think we understand the physical laws of the universe, nature seems bent on confounding us.”—Nature? Or God?