Editorial May 21, 1904 Issue

The Question of Omnipotence

The statement recently made before the New York Ministers' Conference, that "It is a mistake to say God is omnipotent; He is not omnipotent; He is constantly thwarted and harassed; there are many things He cannot do," has awakened very little protest. And this may be explained by the statement in one denominational weekly that, "perhaps this is only putting into words the difficulty that many of us feel when we try to follow out to its logical results the doctrine of God's sovereignty." We venture to say that this difficulty is entirely due to the popular theological belief that evil is real, and so long as evil is believed to be real the difficulty will remain, because to be consistent with it we must deny God's omnipotence or make Him responsible for the creation of evil.

Some have tried to evade the issue by taking the ground that although God is not the creator of evil, He, for some wise purpose, permits its existence. This does not solve the difficulty at all, but simply accentuates the inconsistency. In fact, the man who takes the ground that God is not omnipotent, is more consistent than the one who attempts to beg the question in this way. Who honors God most, the Christian Scientist who insists that God is omnipotent, and who declares that evil is unreal because inconsistent with all the attributes of Deity, or he who is compelled by the inconsistency of his logic to believe that God permits evil? The declaration of God's permission of evil, is of itself an utter denial of His omnipotence.

The following quotations from "Message to the Mother Church, June, 1901" by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy express the teachings of Christian Science which alone gives a logical explanation of evil without denying the omnipotence of God.

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