This is a rebuttal to the 11th alleged Bible contradiction

Question #11: Is God's power unlimited? Or, is God All-Powerful?

These are the verses Evans presented to make his claim.

In the 'no' category, we have

Genesis 32:24-30, Judges 1:19

and in the 'yes' category, we have

Matthew 19:26.

Note: If I find verses to be repetitive, I may decide not to quote them.

My standard prefacing comments:

God's dealing with Mankind has been chopped up into various dispensations,
starting with that of Adam, then to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Moses,
then to Jesus (who gave us the Church Age), then to the Millennial Reign
of Christ, etc. The moral constraints that God places on the people of the
earth are primarily dictated by the dispensation the individuals were born
within and their undefiled consciences.
The Bible reveals the big doctrines of God progressively over time,
such as heaven, hell, angels, devils, salvation, the Messiah, etc. As a
consequence, the verses in the back of the Bible (i.e., the Gospels on)
tend to be more authoritative than those in the beginning of the Bible.
As a corollary to this, often part of the revelation given to the prophet
will not make any sense to the prophet or even to the people of his own
generation. In my novels I refer to these verses as 'praega talleas' or
hidden gems, to be appreciated or even understood in centuries or even
millenia later.
Not all verses are equally authoritative. What Jesus said trumps every
other writing in the Bible.
Not all people are equally equal. Jesus Christ is not just another man
among the billions of people. Jesus, not you or me, is God in the flesh.
In the Church Age, the true followers of Jesus, by the grace of God, are
partakers of the divine nature [2 Peter 1:4], but they are not themselves
divine. See also Galatians 5:16.
Just because a certain action or claim is recorded about someone in the
Bible, doesn't mean that God approved of it. They may even be sincere
and still get it wrong. Remember Job's friends who came to Job to
commiserate with him and later to advise him on righteousness and the
nature of God? They assumed that they were acting as the oracles of God,
but God gave them a stern rebuke for their errors.
My favorite way to attempt to resolve controversial doctrines or claims is
to collect all verses on the matter and then consisticize them so as to reduce
the number of apparent contradictions, if there are any. Like it or not, the
Bible has to be interpreted by the Bible.
I am not a Christian apologist. It may take twenty years of hard study
to be good at Christian apologetics, and I'm too old to start education for
that now. I'm just a Christian who has had to deal with these questions on
my own.

On the No side:

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
of the day. 25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched
the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint,
as he wrestled with him. 26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And
he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 And he said unto him,
What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28 And he said, Thy name shall be
called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God
and with men, and hast prevailed. 29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name? And he blessed him there. 30 And Jacob called the name of the place
Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
-- Genesis 32:24-30

And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the
mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because
they had chariots of iron. -- Judges 1:19

On the Yes side:

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible;
but with God all things are possible. -- Matthew 19:26

My answer

It's quite easy for me to interpet Genesis 32:24-30. What it is not is God wrestling
with a man to prove that He's better than him in wrestling. That would be silly.
Then what is this all-night wresting match for? It should be something memorable
to Jacob, because from the Bible text we know that this event is an auspicious
occasion, at least to God. This is the moment that God inaugurates the founding
of the nation of Israel by renaming Jacob and encouraging him as one who has power
with both man and God. Jacob needs to learn patience and perseverance for him to be
able to deal with all the foes he will encounter in his life.

Undoubtledly, a part of the reason for this text is for all future generations,
because it identifies a real theophany of this 'nameless God'. Probably a
pre-incarnate form of Jesus, and thus a praega tallea.

The issue with Judges 1:19 seems simple enough. This was the time when
the individual tribes were trying to kick out the inhabitants of the land that was
promised to the descendants of Jacob (Israel). In this case, it seems to me that
Judah put their eyes on the power of their enemies and took them off of the
power of their God and they became fearful, so God did not honor them going
further in their faithless state. Did we not see something similar when the Israelites
were about to enter the Promised Land for the first time, but the negative report
of ten out of the twelve spies frightened the people away from proceeding into the
land by faith, and God was very pissed at them.

In my fifth novel about Ilfinor, I tried to address this tricky subject of an All-Powerful
God. In particular, I had the matter come up in the class Darwin as Literature,
which is run by the teacher Phaedrus. Now, we can't ask that God be able to do
something logically impossible, like to simultaneously do A and not A. Also,
we can't ask God to deny His own nature [2 Timothy 2:13], or to tell a lie [Titus 1:2].

Phaedrus begins the conversation with the students:
"As for a self-inconsistent idea, consider a married bachelor." Phaedrus
waited as the chuckling grew louder and then calmed down on its own. Peter
had laughed the loudest.
"Did I perhaps say something amiss, Peter?"
Peter stood up and smirked. "Well, sir, where I come from, men can be either
bachelors or married, but not both at the same time."
"So, Peter, are you claiming that married bachelors are pretty rare in Waring?"
More giggles.
"No, sir. I'm saying that there are exactly zero married bachelors in Waring!"
"You mean, as of right now, right?"
Then, the whole class was laughing.
"Phaedrus, Waring has zero married bachelors because the whole idea of a
married bachelor is ridiculous! It's logically impossible!"
The class clapped.
"That's one point for our side!" yelled Morris Zajak.
Phaedrus smiled and said, "Morris, since you've shown some courage to speak up,
I have a question for you. Can God make a married bachelor?"
Then there were groans from the students.
"Of course not, Phaedrus."
"And why not?"
"Because he's still trying to figure out how to make a rock so heavy he can't lift it."
That got both laughs and guffaws that time. Phaedrus tapped his ruler on the table
top to bring the class to order. Then he continued.
"Morris, can you make a more cogent response?"
"I don't know how to. All I know is that if God is All-powerful, it seems to create
paradoxes."
"Excellent, Morris! One more point for the class."
Kota Sasaki raised his hand.
"Yes, Kota?"
"You sure gave in on that one pretty fast, sir."
"Well, then, maybe I should address it better, huh?"
"Yes, sir."
"The problem seems to be the asserted proposition that God is All-powerful. First,
I'm not interested in analyzing some abstract notion of God, but rather the notion
of God I personally have from my reading the Bible. Therefore, unlike the philosophers,
I am not interested in a god or 'supreme being' that is consistent with all possible
notions of god in any possible world. I am only concerned with the biblical God I know
who is over this actual world.
"Now, I am not aware of any specific claim made in the Bible that God is All-powerful,
per se. But even if there were such a claim, we would have to determine what it really
means. Of course, the Bible claims that God cannot lie [Hebrews 6:18]. But an all-powerful
god should be able to do anything, right? But if God cannot lie, then there is something
that He cannot do. Hence, a contradiction. Does anyone have a solution here?" He waited
and then said, "Clarence, haven't we been over this territory before in our private talks?"
"Yes, sir. Okay, I'll try to make the argument. First, no claimed attribute of God stands
alone. Every one of His actual attributes must be consistizied with all His other actual
attributes, so that no contradiction among them is allowed."

Now for my concluding comment: If Jesus makes a claim that is unproblematic, then we
can safely take it at face value. On the other hand, if one of His claims is problematic,
then we need to consisticize it with the rest of the Bible, and perhaps, as in this
particular case, employ a dab of common sense. Sorry, but that's the best I can do. -- Patrick

Question 12: Is incest wrong?
At some point in time bewtween Adam and Eve and the billions of people now
inhabiting the earth, God decided that it is no longer permissible for people
to marry close kin, and then it was time to formalize rules against incest.
Mr. Evans has a really hard time to understand that there are different
dispensations in which God determines the moral rules for people to live by.
Apparently even God has, at times, to defer to practicality.

Question 13: On what day of the month did Nebuzarandan come to burn down
Jerusalem?
For the time being, I will leave this question for the apologists to deal with.

Question 14: Is there such a thing as predestination?

Remember this: The righteous are mindful of the poor and help them; the wicked do not! (Proverbs 29:7)

You either get control of your lusts and feelings of entitlements or they will get control of you. -- Ilfinor