Editorial September 8, 1928 ISSUE

Good Omnipotent

Albert F. Gilmore

In a characteristically pithy sentence Mrs. Eddy on page 228 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" settles forever the question of God's omnipotence and the powerlessness of evil. "There is no power apart from God," she declares; and adds, "Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God." With what definiteness she states the case; and with what definiteness God, good, is the only power. And if we, in our thought, seem to give power to something besides God, then we dishonor Him; we break the First Commandment. Moreover, if we acknowledge another power, if we give power to any type of evil, to sin, sickness, and death, we seem to be subject to that belief in just the degree of our acceptance of it; evil's seeming power is just in proportion to the reality we give it in our thought.

In declaring God's omnipotence, Mrs. Eddy was following precisely in the footsteps of the holy men of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, those spiritually illuminated acknowledged the all-power of God, whether Deity was regarded as Jehovah, as in many of the early books of the Scriptures, or understood as Spirit, as in the New Testament. The inspired writer of Genesis records that when Abraham was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." And the Revelator wrote, "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." There was no doubt with either of these inspired writers, between whom stretch many centuries, as to the all-power, the omnipotence of God.

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