Wesley Wednesday: Wesley on Omnipotence and Timelessness of God

 In recent years, the omnipotence of God, as well as God's standing outside of (over and above) time, have been called into question by certain theologians from within the Wesleyan tradition.  In particular, Thomas Jay Oord has denied God's omnipotence and has positioned God within time like all of creation.  -  With that in mind, as I was thumbing my way through Dave Armstrong's The Quotable
Wesley, those two topics quickly caught my eye.  So, what did John Wesley think about God's omnipotence, and how did Wesley understand God's relationship to time?  -  Let's take a look at a couple of Wesley quotes!

On the subject of God's omnipotence, from Sermon 19, "The Unity of the Divine Being," Wesley says:

And he [God] is omnipotent as well as omnipresent: there can be no more bounds to his power than to his presence.  He "hath a mighty arm: strong is his hand, and high is his right hand."  He doeth whatsoever pleaseth him in the heavens, the earth, the sea, and in all deep places.  With men, we know, many things are impossible; "but not with God: with him all things are possible."  Whensoever he willeth, to do is present with him.

Armstrong cites Wesleyana: A Selection of the Most Important Passages in the Writings of the Late Rev. John Wesley, A.M. for the following Wesley quote on God and time:

The almighty, all-wise God sees and knows, from everlasting to everlasting, all that is, that was, and that is to come, through one eternal now.  With him nothing is either past or future, but all things equally present.  He has, therefore, if we speak according to the truth of things, no foreknowledge, no after-knowledge.  This would be ill-consistent with the apostle's words, "With him is no variableness or shadow of turning," and with the account he gives of himself by the prophet, "I the Lord change not."  Yet when he speaks to us, knowing whereof we are made, knowing the scantiness of our understanding, he lets himself down to our capacity and speaks of himself after the manner of men.  Thus, in condescension to our weakness, he speaks of his own purpose, counsel, plan, foreknowledge.  Not that God has any need of counsel, of purpose, or of planning his work beforehand.  Far be it from us to impute these to the Most High, to measure him by ourselves!  It is merely in compassion to us that he speaks thus of himself as foreknowing the things in heaven or earth and as predestinating or foreordaining them.