The state motto for Ohio is “With God, All Things Are Possible.” Is this theological statement really true? First, “God” in this statement is not just any old deity, it’s the Christian God. And as far as Evangelicals are concerned, this God is theirs alone. Evangelical orthodoxy states that Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, liberal Christians, and other sects deemed heretical worship false Gods. For Evangelicals, the God of all things possible is the God of the inspired, inerrant, infallible Bible. It is through the Bible (and conscience and nature) that God reveals himself to us, thus God is who and what the Bible says he is.
Second, are ALL things really possible with God? 1 John 5:14, 15 says:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
This passage says that only those prayers that line up with God’s will shall be answered by God. This is what I call God’s “divine escape clause.” Countless other verses, however, explicitly say and or imply that whatever Christians ask of God, he will grant it to them. John 14:13, 14 says:
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
John 15:16 adds:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
And finally, John 16 22-24 says:
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These statements are in RED in the Bible, so that means Christians believe Jesus said these things. Another RED passage on the subject is found in Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him.
Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) evangelist John R. Rice, wrote a book titled Prayer: Asking and Receiving. Rice believed in a formulaic approach to prayer: ASK and RECEIVE. Based on the aforementioned quotes from the gospels, Jesus believed the same. Evidently, by the time we get to the writer of 1 John, things had changed a bit. Instead of prayer being simply asking and receiving, answered prayer was contingent on praying according to the “will of God”; a will, by the way, that no mere mortal knows. The LORD says in Isaiah 55:8,9:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Thus, when we see how this whole praying thing works out in real life, suggesting that “all things are NOT possible with God,” Evangelicals will appeal to God’s escape clause to defend his callous indifference to the plight of his Creation. God, then, is never accountable or responsible when Christian prayers go unanswered. “You didn’t ask according to my will,” God says. When the sincere believer asks, “Jesus, what is your will?” the King of Kings replies, “Oh I can’t tell you. That’s just between me and Dad. Besides, even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand. Me and Dad, our thoughts and ways are higher than yours and beyond human understanding.” Christians, then, are either left with choosing to believe what they can see and know or turning off their intellect and critical thinking skills and believing as Romans 8:28 says: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Most Christians, sadly, choose the latter. When occasional lapses of faith or doubt force them to face the irrational nature of prayer, they are reminded of Paul’s words about doubting God:
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:19-21)
In other words, shut the fuck up. God is the sovereign ruler over ALL, and he does whatever he wants to do. End of discussion.
Christians who trust what they can see and know instead of Bible proof texts and unsupportable faith claims are left with a conundrum of epic proportions: God rarely, if ever, answers their prayers, and there is no evidence for the theological claim, With God, All Things Are Possible. Countless Christians in the Middle East pray daily for God’s protection — surely a prayer the Big Man Upstairs would want to answer, right? Yet, these followers of Jesus continue to be slaughtered by Muslim jihadists or killed by the actions of the American war machine. In Africa, countless Christians earnestly pray:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)
And yet, they continue to have their daily food and water needs unmet. While they are starving to death, God, evidently, is too busy directing an American Christian to the location of her keys or working any of the innumerable “miracles” Western Christians say he does every time they dial his number, to stop and feed the hungry. Does God’s behavior not contradict what the Psalmist said in Psalm 37:25, 26?
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
Everywhere we look we see the followers of Jesus and unbelievers alike forsaken and begging for food. Where is this God of mercy, this God of love and compassion? From my seat in the atheist pew, he is nowhere to be found. Which stands to reason, since the Christian God exists only within the pages of the Bible. God is the leading character in a work of fiction.
The reason Christianity still exists in the twenty-first century is that Christians either choose faith over fact or they choose to live with cognitive dissonance. The latter know the evidence points to the nonexistence of the Christian God — any God, for that matter — yet they believe anyway. Why? Most often, such people want to believe that there is more to life than the present; that there is life after death. They are willing to live with cognitive dissonance because doing so meets some sort of psychological need or gives them answers to the “big” questions concerning human existence. They see little to no evidence for the claim, With God, All Things Are Possible, yet they believe anyway. Certainly, they are free to do so, but I hope thinking Christians realize that praying and waiting for God to come through on matters such as climate change, war, nuclear proliferation, and the like is a recipe for disaster and will likely lead to the end of life as we know it. Waiting on the God with the unknowable will to work his magic condemns our planet and its inhabitants to death. We mustn’t wait around to see what is possible with God. Instead, we should work furiously to see what is possible through human will, effort, and ingenuity. It is through the humanistic ideal, not faith and theological prescriptions, that the problems now vexing us will be solved. Perhaps it is time for Ohio to change its motto to With Science and Human Ingenuity, All Things Are Possible.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
My husband is a mathematician, and he likes to talk about what is possible vs. what is probable. He says technically it is possible for me to put my hand on the wall and for my hand to go through the wall, but it is not probable due to laws of physics.
Most Christians I know are desperate to cling to the safety net of possibilities rather than living life based on probabilities.
This ‘probable’ vs ‘possible’ is a concept being pounced on by apologists in their desperate struggle to maintain any sense of reason. I think Alvin Platinga is one who uses the argument that if there is a possibility that god exists then he must exist in all possible worlds (this differs from physics and the multiverse theory). It’s along the lines of giving god a percentage probability of existing, and then saying in an infinite number of possible worlds he must exist at least once, and if he exists in one then he must exist in all, being the creator. Voila! God.
The problem is that philosophical and mathematical ‘possibilities’ don’t mix. You can’t assign a probability to something until you know it exists, which rather confounds people, apologists especially, who can’t get their head round it. It works better with ghosts than with god. If I hear a strange noise then I can assign a number of possibilities based on all sorts of factors, but all are within my knowledge. If somebody claims it’s a ghost then, before we can assign a probability level to that claim, we need evidence that ghosts actually exist and can make noises. If they can’t demonstrate that ghosts exist then the mathematical possibility of the noise being due to a ghost is nil, though of course ‘unexplained’ is always a factor until the source is found.
One thing you’ll have to agree where Michigan beats Ohio, is that the Michigan motto “circumspice” translates to “look around”, whereas Ohio’s motto roughly translates to “stick your head in the sand”.
I remember the shock and anger when I first read Romans 9. But for God, it’s a total lose- lose for other sentient beings. He’s the only winner here. Other scriptures come to mind. I think this is why sanity and kindness is most often absent from the typical Christian. I was able to accept this fact and stop attending church, to just stop trying to make it work. I no longer believe that Jesus is inclined to help his own or others, just because they need it. Agenda is all. Figuring this out, I simply shut down. My mistake was not doing it decades ago. I’m also familiar with the fact that people the world over have ancient worship structures. I had my own, Tengerism. I have no problem with the idea of an atheist becoming a Christian, giving it a second look. No one can be nagged into it though, as I see Fundies try to do when dropping shade on the blog here.
Christians like to think their magic wish-granter will fix things for them, to control the things they can’t or won’t control. Sometimes we have to put in the work to make things happen, and sometimes we have to admit some things are beyond our control. Neither option is easy.
“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
— Psa 37:25
Perhaps the psalmist should have been more observant. There are needy people out there.
I despise Romans 9:20-21. As soon as God (assuming he’s there) placed a curious, inquiring mind in his creation he absolutely granted it the right to ask “why”. Paul’s use of this argument is the tired “because I said so, that’s why” reasoning. The very consideration of this response to honest query negates the whole point of faith in God. It reduces humanity to a collection of action figures God plays with for his amusement.
Back to that slogan – With God All Things Are Possible. It’s a logical failure from the start. If the evangelical God can’t act against his own nature and won’t act against his will a lot of “all things” are ruled out from the beginning. Evidence shows that prayer doesn’t effect any more change than chance. The conservative evangelical faithful are railing against sinful liberal woke-ness destroying the fabric of America, so it seems that even those things in line with God’s “will” are thwarted.
Did I ever believe this? I think so, but God (if he’s there) showed me he doesn’t care about the things I pleaded with him to accomplish. I guess they weren’t in line with his will. I selfishly wanted relief from suffering (particularly the suffering of those close to me), faith, and a personal relationship with God himself.
i’ve taken to saying “if you say ‘with “god” all things are possible,’ have “god” say ‘hi’.” 😏
I guess Ohio doesn’t buy into the whole separation of church and state thing. Can you imagine a state motto-There is No Proof God Exists?
Everyone believes what they “know” to be true, Christians and non-Christians alike. You don’t believe in the existence of the God of the Christian Bible because you “know” there has been no evidence in your life. That “knowing” doesn’t equate to truth or fact or even Science. It’s simply your belief manifested by your actions (This blog as one example). Does that make you right? Maybe. Does that make you wrong? Maybe.
I “know” gravity exists but it could just as easily be God or some other cosmic force willing things to stay where they are from. All I know is that when I let go of that glass, it falls towards the ground.
Cognitive dissonance – the basis of ALL belief.
Facts are facts, Peter. Are facts infallible? Of course not, and that’s why probabilities should play a a major part in our thinking. The facts tell me a God probably doesn’t exist.
Cognitive dissonance is defined this way:
“Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs. It can also occur when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time.”
This seems to be very different from how you are using it in your comment. Of course, this definition is just an “opinion,” right?
Indeed.
Cognitive – relating to thinking.
Dissonance – relating to disharmony.
When we can’t be 100% certain of what we are thinking then we move into the realm of belief. How do we overcome that “feeling” in the definition you offered? We believe what we think is right, until we don’t.
That’s really my only point, nothing too profound in that, I’m afraid.