Omnipotence, what does it mean and is it Biblical?

First I recommend watching InspiringPhilosphy’s video on Omnipotence which is a good start, the gist is that Omnipotence doesn’t mean “nothing God can’t do” but only that no one is more powerful than God..

But I want to dig deeper by asking if the word itself is something we should maybe discard in preference to better representations of the Biblical Idea?

In the King James Bible the word Omnipotent occurs only once in Revelation 19:6 where it is used to translate the Greek word Pantokrator which everywhere else it appears gets translated Almighty.

Pantokrator does indeed come from combining a Greek word that means “all” and a Greek word sometimes translated “Power”.  But Krators is also the root of the last part of words like Demokratia/Democracy.  It means Power in the sense of Ruling Authority not in the sense of your Power Level in a Video Game.  An absolute Dictator still can’t defy the laws of physics in his domain.

The Theology of the Ancient Stoics is often defined as not believing in Omnipotence as we’d define it today but some Stoics did use Pantokrator.  The Bible definitely does teach Omniscience (God knows the End from the Beginning) and Omnipresence which are also doctrines it has in common with Stoic Theology in contrast to Platonism.

Universal Salvation alone does not solve the Problem of Evil, many people still have a problem with the need for Salvation in the first place if God is both All Good and All Powerful.

There are two usual methods of trying to reconcile the existence of Evil with Omnipotence.

First would be that it’s about respecting Human Free Will.  But as I’ve already discussed on this Blog the idea that Humans ever truly Choose Evil is one I Biblically reject.

Second is arguing that it's about Creation still being a work in progress, the Evil and Suffering in the world now is the beating the clay into shape or some such allegory.  I have some sympathy for this approach since I think it's partly true even without the doctrine of Omnipotence, much less the popular understanding of it.  But taken on its own, it starts to remind me of how some Anime Villains justify themselves, like Izaya in Durarara which I recently watched.

But you may ask “how can we have Faith in Universal Salvation without Omnipotence?”.  

My Faith is first and foremost in the Character of God, I don’t believe God makes any Promise there’s any chance He could fail to keep, and I firmly believe He’s promised to Save Everyone.

The actual meaning of Pantoktrator combined with Omniscience and Omnipresence gives God more than enough tools to accomplish Universal Salvation.