God the Strong, the Almighty
God—glorious is His majesty—has divine attributes that distinguish Him from human beings. Among these attributes is that He is strong. But the strength of God is unlimited, whereas strong humans have strength in limited matters which they do not exceed.
Also, every human strength is a gift from God, the Giver of strength. Therefore, human ability is limited, but God is able to do everything, and this attribute belongs to Him alone from eternity.
The power of God first appeared in creation, and we discussed this in the previous article. Creation belongs to God alone—that is, bringing into existence out of nothing. As for the simplest thing that humans can reach, it is to be makers and discoverers; that is, they can discover the nature of things and their properties as God created them. Then they make from those things what their God-given minds enable them to make. But creation is from the wondrous power of God, especially regarding the number of His creatures and their kinds, visible and invisible, whether inanimate, rational, or speaking beings, material or spiritual.
In the field of creation, there is an important question: What do we say about the devil? Did God create the devil with all the evil in him and his attempts to make others fall?
The answer is that when God created him, He did not create him in this way; rather, He created him as an angel. Then this angel fell and his nature became corrupted by his will, and he turned into a devil.
Regarding the ability to do everything, we say that God has no rival in His power… Some primitive peoples believed in the existence of two gods: a god of good and a god of evil. We do not believe at all in the existence of a god of evil. The devil is not a god of evil, nor is he a rival to God. And God, in His unlimited power, can intervene whenever He wills and stop the work of the devil, and God does not allow everything the devil wants. How many are the miracles of God in casting out demons from those who were possessed!
As for the nations that once believed in multiple gods—there was a god of war, a god of love, a goddess of beauty, gods of fire—these were all myths, because there is only one God. Some attributes of this one God were imagined by those peoples as gods… The devil is not a god of evil, and although he may now appear to have power, God will eventually cast him into the torment of hell.
The power of God also appears in the wonders and miracles He performs, which we cannot count, whether those of ancient times recorded for us by divine inspiration, such as healing incurable diseases, or deliverance from dangers by sending His holy angels, or visions by which God revealed some of His will, or gifts He granted to some of His righteous ones and saints, or holy dreams through which He reveals certain mysteries.
From God’s humility in His power is that He granted power to some of His creatures—both angels and humans. He granted amazing abilities to angels, allowing them to move from heaven to earth in the blink of an eye and to perform miraculous works He assigns to them. Likewise, the abilities God granted to the human mind enabled scientists to invent and produce things that once surpassed imagination, but now appear natural: such as computers, fax machines, mobile phones, airplanes, the use of atomic energy and lasers, and what is used in medicine, industry, space sciences, the seas, and so on. He also granted some of His saints the ability to work miracles in His name and by His power.
This power given to some humans is not an innate power of their own, but it is the power of God working in them by the grace of God working in them, through faith by which everything becomes possible through the power of God working in the believer.
God’s power is shown in His love for His creation and His care for them: He did not create us and leave us. Rather, He takes care of us in everything. He still sends us light so that we may perform our tasks, and He also allows darkness so that we may rest. He gives food to everyone and satisfies everyone from His goodness. He cares for humans; He cares for the worm that crawls under a stone. He is help for the helpless and hope for the hopeless. How many are the situations of deliverance by which He saves us! And every person rejoices because he is under the protection of a strong God who can rescue him from distress. And for every closed door before him, he believes that God is able to open it.
God is also strong in His forbearance. He endured idol worshippers for a long time. He endured those who believed in multiple gods, in the worship of spirits, and the worship of their kings. He endured atheists. He also endured those who walked in every kind of evil, corruption, vanity, and immorality, breakers of His commandments in every way, and blasphemers against Him. He could have destroyed them, but He did not… He endured all these sinners by the millions over long ages. How wondrous is His strength in forbearance—an unlimited strength.
God was not only strong in His forbearance, but even more in His forgiveness. Through this forgiveness, He granted us repentance—and with repentance He gave us grace to repent and power to help us get rid of our old sins. And He gave us another condition for forgiveness: that we forgive those who wronged us.
There are many other aspects in which the wondrous power of God appears: for example, He is strong in His knowledge—He knows everything. He knows what is in our hearts and thoughts, and He knows our intentions. He also knows what we have done and what we intend to do. And despite all this, because of the strength of His love, He does not deal with us in everything according to the depth of our sins, but according to the strength of His compassion toward us in our weaknesses. Glory be to Him in the power of the kindness with which He deals with us.
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III published in Al-Ahram newspaper on 30-8-2009.
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