If God can do anything, can he make a rock that is so big he can't pick it up?
This is what I like to call a "pharisaical question." The Pharisees were always asking Jesus these kinds of questions. They didn't care about the question or the answer. They were just trying to "trip Jesus up!" I can picture them at home in the evenings, thinking up new questions. Calling each other with clever philosophical quandaries. Congratulating each other on ways to "stump the preacher!"
But Jesus didn't play their game. He answered without hesitation from the heart of God, from a Kingdom perspective. He baffled them, because he didn't buy into their perception of the world and of God. He knew God intimately.
The variation on the "big rock" question that I often hear people discuss today is: "If God is sovereign and has absolute control over everything in existence, how can I have 'free-will?' If I do have the ability to make decisions apart from God, then there is an area of existence where he doesn't have control, and therefore would not be completely sovereign."
Yeah. Whatever. When in doubt, go to scripture. And scripture says that God IS sovereign and that people DO have free-will.
Sometimes I am amazed that people think that they can out-think God!
It's a mystery to us, people! If you could physically stand before God and ask him one question, what would it be?
For me It certainly wouldn't be "If you can do anything, can you make a rock so big that you can't pick it up?"
