Can God do anything? Yes, and no.
There are no physical limits to God’s power. He is the ground of being, the very source of the existence of everything else. If he wanted to make a galaxy disappear, or create a second universe, it wouldn’t take more than a thought. In this regard, he is most certainly all-powerful.
But…
Catholic tradition holds that God cannot do what is logically impossible. He cannot make 2+2=5. He can’t make a circular square, or a triangular rectangle. And he cannot go against his own eternal nature. He can’t, for example, make himself stop existing. He is existence itself, his essence is to exist. To stop existing would be self-contradictory, and therefore impossible.
Where this gets interesting is when God makes promises. Can God break a promise? Catholic tradition says No. For God to break a promise would be for him to go against his nature, and so is logically impossible. But the Bible says that God does make promises (called “covenants”) with his creatures, so in a sense God, while all-powerful, can choose to self-limit the expression of his power.
This is super important to understand for Catholic teaching. A lot is riding on this distinction, and not just theoretically. When people get this wrong, all kinds of spiritual errors (and even spiritual distress) arises.
So please stay tuned!
P.S. You will note that my video no longer includes a mention of the web address. This is an experiment. My videos have seen their reach greatly reduced, and I think it might be because the social media companies don’t like it when you sneak in references to outside websites. So we’ll see how this one works.
In the meantime, your help in sharing my videos with others is super important and deeply appreciated!
