God is not one of us so we shouldn't hold him to our standard. Right? It isn't okay to say that God isn't capable of doing something just because we humans couldn't do it. Most people do believe this. We can say that God can't make a rock so big that He can't lift it because that is nonsense, but to say that He can't do something that would be physically impossible for a human but is still conceivable is something quite different.
But how powerful is God really? This question is often answered by looking at who gets saved and who doesn't. The fact that some people won't be saved is a dilemma. Usually this comes across as either God is not as powerful as we would like to believe and can't save those people, or that God is a cruel God who has predestined them to damnation. Why are these the only options?
Why is is that we think that God either can't or won't save these people? Are we saying that if God can do something, then He will do that thing? I believe that there is another possibility. A third possibility goes like this: God could predestine everything and make us live our lives so that we all get saved, but He chooses not to exercise that power. He wants us to choose Him of our own accord and therefore gives us free will. Even though He knows that some people will not come to Him and therefore not be saved, He allows us to make that decision for ourselves. He has the power, but chooses not to use it. People who are not saved end up that way not because God is weak or cruel, but because He allows us to choose for ourselves.
Just because God has the power to do something doesn't necessarily mean that He will do it. Isn't it possible that He has simply given us the power to choose? Why do we look at God as if He either uses all power that He has or that he doesn't have all power? Are we putting arbitrary limits on God by saying that if He has power he has to constantly use it? I think that sometimes we find it unfathomable that an all-powerful God would give some of His power to powerless creatures like us, but isn't it possible that He could?
I think what you're suggesting as a third possibility is essentially C.S. Lewis's own view. And yes, the idea is that God chooses to create a world in which his actions are limited by creaturely freedom. I'm not sure this is a third option.
ReplyDeleteFurther, some might still see cruelty in a God who creates free creatures and allows them to make such awful choices that they condemn themselves to damnation and destruction.
This is complicated stuff to think about!