Skip Navigation Links

Logic: What's impossible for God?

"If God is God, then nothing is impossible for Him.
Therefore He can make a rock too heavy for Him to lift.
But if it is impossible for Him to lift the rock, then He is not God, so there cannot be any God."

 

So goes a favorite atheistic argument.  And as ridiculous as it sounds — and is — this "logical trick" is nonetheless used to "prove" that God does not exist. But is this reasoning valid? No — it is based on a false assumption. Because the Bible states that there are things impossible for God to do.

In order to get a clear picture of what would be impossible for God, let's consider the game of checkers. Checkers, as you know, is played only on the black squares. But could God play it on the red squares also? Absolutely not! It is impossible for God to move His checkers on the red squares and STILL stay within the rules of checkers. It is logically impossible because of the LAWS of checkers. The limitation is on the game itself and has nothing to do with the power of the individual playing the game. Likewise it is IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE (Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2) and still stay within His Law (Ex. 20:16).

Wouldn't it be ridiculous to suggest that God does not exist because He cannot move checkers on the red squares without violating the rules of this man made game? How much more ridiculous would it be to say that God does not exist because it is "impossible" for Him to lie without breaking His own Law? Then it is equally ridiculous for the atheist to argue that God does not exist because He cannot perform a ridiculously idiotic logical impossibility such as creating a rock too heavy for Him to, lift! All other arguments used by those who say there is no God (Psalm 14:1 and 53:1) prove equally illogical — some are just more complicated.