I’m sure you’ve heard this before.

Some smart-alec, thinking he has discovered the ultimate brain-teaser that destroys creationism, asks the question: “If God can do anything, can He make a rock so big He can’t lift?” In the mind of the querist, if the answer is no then “God can’t do everything so He’s not God.” If the answer is yes then “God can’t do everything so He’s not God.”

Oh boy, I’m shaking in my tennis shoes now.

First of all, who said God can do anything? God Himself says there are things He can’t do. God can’t lie. God can’t sin. God can’t fail. It’s on that last point the question is derived so let’s pause to consider the logical fallacy built into it. In order for God to make this impossible rock…He would have to MAKE it! Do you see? The question presupposes the creative power of God, and recognizes that there currently is NOT any such thing that He can’t lift.

Think about it like this: Look around you next time you’re outside and you’ll find tons of things that you can’t lift. There are trees too grand, rocks too heavy, elephants too fat, and so forth. You can’t lift those things, but they’re there. They exist. God made them.

And God can lift them.

There’s nothing that exists that God can’t lift because all things were made by Him and without Him there is nothing made (John 1). So the only way someone can even conceive of a rock that God can’t lift is by imagining it in a hypothetical scenario. Once you step into the real world you find all kinds of rocks that you can’t lift, but which God can.

Look around you next time you’re outside and you’ll find tons of things that God can lift…and you’ll find nothing that He can’t.

~ Matthew