On God's Ability to do the "Impossible"

By

Michaelbrent Collings

It has been said that "with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37). People (notably the great mass of sectarian establishments) have interpreted this to mean that God can do anything we can conceive of. Naturally, this leads to problematic questions, e.g., if God can do anything, why would he set up a system wherein we suffer, sin, and are (in some cases) eventually damned? If He can do anything (as this is commonly understood), why not cause our Exaltation without causing us (or His own Son) pain? Or at the very least without causing so many of us to be lost to that Exaltation?

Thus, confusion ensues through the misconception of God as all-powerful in the sense of "able to do anything one would imagine," yet somehow loving us in spite of what appears a capricious choice to cause (intentionally) our suffering.

This confusion dissipates when we look at the critical statement properly. If we deconstruct the sentence correctly, "nothing" is the subject, "impossible" its descriptor. Thus, only "nothing" - i.e., those things which do not exist - is impossible. To God, though, all things extant are possible. This does not mean that He has the power to create paradoxical or irrational situations (see 2 Nephi 1:7 and Alma 42:13 for examples of such "impossible" and nonexistent paradoxical situations); but rather that He has full - what we call perfect - understanding of all things that are possible. And, with that understanding, He can bring them to pass. A universe of perfection without suffering is irrational. It does not exist. It is a "nothing" and therefore is "impossible." While the universe of pain and suffering that may culminate in perfection is the real universe. It is the possible, extant universe that God is sustaining and bringing to culmination through His great power.