Part V - The Omnipotence of God

God is Omnipotent: A God of Perfected Power

There are more than three-hundred verses of Scripture, in which the Lord is referred to as being “almighty.” This refers to His omnipotence — meaning that God is all-powerful.

Perhaps the greatest statement of God’s immeasurable power is found in the very first ten words of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). In only six days, God created light, seas, the atmosphere, dry land, stars, birds, fish, and animals. Each of these creations was brought forth in perfection simply by the power of God’s word. 

In the first chapter of Genesis, each instance of creation is preceded by the words “God said.” This phrase is repeated ten times during the creation narrative. Stop for a moment and truly consider the tremendous power of our God. By the power of His word alone, the grand scale of our universe — from the most ferocious of stars to the tiniest of atoms — came into being. 

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth…. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm (Psalm 33:6, 9).

The Lord declared to the prophet Isaiah:

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (Isa 40:25-26).

However, we would do our God a disservice if we only focused on the massive grandeur of our universe. Perhaps even more remarkable is the utter perfection of its order. The universe has not been chaotically strewn about without laws to guide it. Instead, it displays an immense degree of order. In recent decades, advances in technology have provided scientists with a glimpse of the unfathomable precision of our universe. Many of the laws of physics rest on a razor’s edge, and even the slightest variation in these laws would lead to the complete annihilation of all life.

These scientific discoveries seem to affirm the fact that our universe cannot be the result of blind chance. Instead, science points us toward an engineering force that has designed and regulated the laws of nature with the exact mathematical precision necessary for existence.

There are hundreds of mind-boggling perfections that make our planet uniquely qualified to sustain life. Consider just a few of the basics. Our atmosphere is thin enough to allow for light, yet it is precisely capable of blocking the dangerous radiation. Our earth is abnormally dense when compared to the other more gaseous planets — allowing for terrestrial life. Our earth revolves around the sun at precisely the perfect speed and with the exact centrifugal force necessary to maintain its orbit. Any slower and it would be drawn into the sun. Any faster and it would overtake the sun's gravitational pull. Our earth’s axis just so happens to be perfectly tilted to allow for seasons and the necessary rejuvenation of life’s cycles. Our planet is uniquely hospitable for water supplies. The earth and the moon are perfectly sized to compliment each other. Our moon, which affects our tides and provides for the cleansing our water supplies, rotates around us at the perfect distance — creating an incomprehensibly exact gravitational equilibrium with the earth that is necessary for life. And this is only scratching the surface of how wonderfully our world has been made!

From an objective standpoint, it seems that the physical properties of our universe were perfectly fine-tuned for the existence of human life. Sir Fred Hoyle, a famous English astronomer, marveled, "Such properties seem to run through the fabric of the natural world like a thread of happy coincidences. But there are so many odd coincidences essential to life that some explanation seems required to account for them."

This is not accidental good fortune. Our omnipotent God has imposed His laws upon everything in creation — from the rate at which the universe expands to the speed at which electrons circle an atom. All such properties have proven essential for the existence of life. And all of them loudly proclaim our God's love for life!

The late John O’Keefe, a Harvard-educated scientist at NASA, has been hailed as the “godfather of astrogeology.” His study into the marvels of our universe led him to conclude: 

We are by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures; our Darwinian claim to have done it all ourselves is as ridiculous and as charming as a baby’s brave efforts to stand on its own feet and refuse his mother’s hand. If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could have never come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.

Should we be surprised that man, who was created in the image of God, now appears to be a pampered creature of the cosmos? Are we surprised that countless laws of astronomy and physics have the appearance of being engineered for our wellbeing? As scientists advance in the fields of astronomy and physics, we gain a better glimpse of the omnipotent benevolence of our God.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). 

Just as our outward exploration of the universe has led many scientists to faith, so too has the inward exploration of the microscopic realm of our existence. In fact, recent breakthroughs in cellular science have given rise to the Intelligent Design movement, which teaches that the complexity of even the simplest of cells could not have possibly been produced by chance.

For example, the mapping of the human genome has been hailed as one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in the history of the world. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, was once an atheist. His journey into the amazing complexities of life — even at the smallest scale — brought him to embrace faith in God. "God is the author of all truth," Collins has concluded. "You can find Him in the laboratory as well as in the cathedral. He’s the God of the Bible; He’s the God of the genome. He did it all." The Christian has no need to fear science. In fact, we should grow to love science, because it leaves us in awe of the brilliance and power of our Creator!

In the beginning, God brought forth all of creation by the power of his word alone. Today, God's Word continues to have the power to forge new beginnings. In Christ (the Word made flesh), we have become "new creations" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus is our awesome, almighty God!