12 Things God Can’t Do

12 Things God Can’t Do … And How They Can Help You Sleep at Night, by Nick Tucker

When I was doing youth work at church, there was one kid in the group who just loved to pick arguments with questions like, “If God is omnipotent, can he create a square circle”? Of course, theologians are equally capable of descending to that level. This book, however, shows how God’s inability to contradict what he is by definition is a major source of strength and comfort for Christians. God is the one necessary being from whom all else flows. Therefore God CAN’T by definition do things that would detract from that perfection. So, we don’t need to worry about being let down.

But, just where you’re thinking, “How, then, can this God who can’t do so much possibly understand me, who can do all of the above far too easily?” – well, then, that brings us on to the sheer joy and necessity of the incarnation in Jesus. So, we have the glorious contradiction of a God who can’t do all these things, but very much has done so, nonetheless.

One consequence of this is that as well as achieving what it sets out to do, the book also manages to become a handy primer on the necessity of the Trinity, and written in very accessible language. Strongly recommended both to established and beginning Christians.