Q&A: God's Omnipotence
God's Omnipotence
Question
Dear Rabbi Michi Abraham, good evening!
Recently I read the following quote:
Can an all-knowing God,
who also knows the future,
marshal all His power
to change the future of His knowledge?
In other words, if God knows the future, doesn’t that detract from His being omnipotent?
Is the answer, once again, that God is above time and for Him there is no before and after?
Thank you in advance
Answer
Why is the answer "once again"? That is not an answer to any question. The claim that He is above time is mere empty verbiage.
There is no impairment of His omnipotence here, because logical impossibilities are not within His power. He also cannot make a square circle, and that poses no problem for the assumption that He is omnipotent. Therefore, if He knows that X will happen, He cannot change it, and that does not detract from His omnipotence. After all, even if He could change it, that too would detract from His omnipotence, since it would then turn out that what He knew was not true.
As for me, I hold that He does not know the future when it depends on free choice, and therefore the question does not arise in the first place.
Discussion on Answer
He is completely omnipotent. Inability to do logical impossibilities does not detract from His omnipotence.
See about this here: https://mikyab.net/posts/66771
So that means He is not omnipotent.
Thanks for the answer