I think you make a couple of logical errors. (This is a silly question but it does come up in philosophy courses)

A) if God can make it, then He can lift it.

B) God did not create sin, He created the potential for sin by giving us free will. Therefore, "Can God create a being so capable of sin that He cannot save him" is an unbiblical statement. For in Genesis, "everything that God created was good".

C) God cannot do everything, He can only do that which is possible. It is impossible for Him to lie, to sin, to not be God, or to force us to love Him.

The way I see this whole "Can God make a boulder so big he can't lift it?" question is quite illogical. While it's not a perfect analogy, think of the world that we humans have created. We can't exisit in it except through manipulating programs: computers, networks, and a more specific universe: the Internet.

This question is like asking a human, can you make a file so big in your created universe (the computer/Internet) that you cannot delete it? We are talking about a world we have complete control over (well, ok, not really, as I can't control your computer on the Internet, but let's say all humans were of one mind), could a file be so big that we can't delete it??? Even if it spanned across all systems and bogged down all processors to where the systems kept crashing even before we could run the "del" or "rm" command, as a last result, we could just bash in all the computers, and walla, no more file (if that makes any sense :) Or even, can we make an image of a boulder on our computer screen we can't lift it? Uh, no matter how big an image is on my screen, my monitor weighs the same thing.

God making a boulder in a universe He spoke into existance and He does not actually live/exist here, is mute, as he can just cause the universe to cease to exist...and he doesn't need to come in here and lift anything anyway, especially if the saying is true, that "He has the whole world (universe) in His hands" already!

The essence of the boulder question is "Can God do what God can not do?" To some, either response somehow proves God is lacking. A better way to frame the issue is "God is unable to do anything which violates his nature." God is limited only by self-restraint. His unwillingness to sin comes not from a lack of ability but the absence of desire.

Well put NP. Great discussion guys! You really mad me thing today.

The question is vexed, for the simple reason that even if such a boulder could be created, the entire created universe would not be large enough to contain it, so there would be no place for it to exist, nor any way for us to know that it existed.

Questions like this do serve a purpose. Like the age-old debating exercise "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" (what, you thought they actually took that question seriously?) they serve to sharpen our minds, making us more fit to fulfill the 1 Peter 3:15 charge to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

The fact that it is a vexed question will not stop people from asking it, and others like it. So we go through the drills, the mental equivalent of lifting weights, so that we can perform up to standards in the real game.

I think perhaps there may be logical errors in my post, but we are dealing with life and reality and not necessarily logic.

> If God can make it, then He can lift it.
God made the earth and He could flood it but He cannot do so again because He said He wouldn't and therefore in incapable of doing it because, as NonProfit so nicely put, it's against His nature and He cannot violate that.

> Therefore, "Can God create a being so capable of sin that He cannot save him" is an unbiblical statement.
God did not create sin, true, but he did create beings capable of sin... every one that has ever lived is an example of that.

@Arlen, it doesn't have to be a huge rock, just one that God has said He will never move. That's my point - what God can and can't do is only limited by His decisions of what He will and won't do... not by size, weight, physics (walking on water, Phillip's translation), etc.

I think it's a fun question that does indeed make us think and realize the true nature of God by going outside our own conventional thinking about what WE are like.

While I agree with your basic premise, the statement "Can God create a being so capable of sin that He cannot save him?" is an illogical question--the capacity for sin does not cause death. There is no need to be saved from the capacity for sin. It's the act of sin, a completely different thing, that draws the punishment and requires salvation. God created all of us with the capacity for sin when he created us with free will.

If you're talking about predisposition--some of us are more likely to lose our tempers than others, etc--then I would say that all of us are predisposed towards some form of sin. Just not the same kinds. I think all people are created with the same capacity for sin, but perhaps not the same predispositions.

Blessings,
Tony

While I agree with your basic premise, the statement "Can God create a being so capable of sin that He cannot save him?" is an illogical question--the capacity for sin does not cause death. There is no need to be saved from the capacity for sin. It's the act of sin, a completely different thing, that draws the punishment and requires salvation. God created all of us with the capacity for sin when he created us with free will.

If you're talking about predisposition--some of us are more likely to lose our tempers than others, etc--then I would say that all of us are predisposed towards some form of sin. Just not the same kinds. I think all people are created with the same capacity for sin, but perhaps not the same predispositions.

Blessings,
Tony

I have no idea why that double posted.

Too much picking at semantics for my taste. You all know what I mean and I stand on the statement that if God says He won't do something then He can't.

I feel like I'm trying to make my 3 wishes and word them so precisely that the evil genie can't turn my wishes against me.