In college, two of my favorite books were Lewis Carroll's "Alice and Wonderland" and it's sequel, "Through the Looking Glass". There is a point in "Looking Glass" where Alice is told a poem called "the jabberwocky" which is a string of nonsense words strung together into a sort of story, with lines like:
"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
After hearing it, Alice responds:
'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—-only I don't exactly know what they are!"
Interestingly, in college I also met those who argued against the gospel this way. They would ask questions like, "If God is all powerful, can God make a rock so large that he cannot lift it?" If you say "yes" then you admit there is a size of rock God cannot lift. If you say "No" you admit there is a size of rock God cannot make. It is a no win...or is it? You may have heard a question like this yourself at some time. Most believers here something like this in high school or community college, because by the university level, most teachers, even anti-Christian ones, realize how meaningless this type of so called argument is. The truth is, this is not only a bad question, but in fact it is not a question at all. Like the Jabberwocky, it has the grammatical structure of a sentence, but in fact it does not mean anything. Kind of like if I asked you, "How blue does your lunch taste?" It has the form of the question, but it is not actually asking anything. It is nonsense. Let's look a little closer.
Now, you can put any object in this question, so the rock is not really important. "Can God make so much water e cannot drink it?" "Can God make a light so bright he cannot look at it?" You get the idea. So let's look at what the formula is saying. "If God is all powerful, can God make a _____ so _____ that he can't _____ it." What is this asking? It is asking, "Is God's power so unlimited that it is limited?" to which I say "...um, what?" That does not MEAN anything! That is like asking, "Is a building so tall that it is short?" or "Is a mountain so big that it is small?" These statements look and sound like questions, but the problem is, they are ubsurd! They don't actually mean anything! So we need not be troubled, as Alice was, when someone tries to show their intelligence with poetic nonsense. We can simply and lovingly point out the truth. Their question is ridiculous, but here is the truth; God can make a rock of any size. God can move a rock of any size. God can do so because he is the infinite and almighty creator of all things. As such, all things belong to Him. Mankind belongs to him. Yet mankind has rebelled against our maker, and though God has been patient with us, He has appointed a day in which He will judge the living and the dead. The real question is, how will you stand before a God so great? How will you answer for your sins against him? Would you like to know how to be made right with the all powerful maker, mover, ans ruler of all things? Our questions may be less poetic, but they absolutely demand an answer!
Luke
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