Tag: infinity

What an Awesome God

Some evenings I go into the backyard of my house before heading to bed. Out there under the star-studded Arizona sky, I often feel the presence of God. “Thank You” is all I can say to Him, but it seems to be enough. The God of all that I see and more has loved me enough to not just notice me but to join me. What an awesome God He is.

In a couple of previous posts, I’ve covered a little about God being infinite, and I thought I’d expand on that a little today.  Forgive me if my math is wrong.  I wasn’t a math major but a philosophy major, although some philosophers were great mathematicians like Pascal and DesCartes, it isn’t true of me. 

This post stems from an interesting discussion I’ve been having with a Jehovah’s Witness about the Trinity and how God can be three Persons but one God.  During this discussion, I have been trying to explain as best I can God’s infinity.

In past blogs, I’ve defined infinity as a number so great it cannot be counted.  There are a lot of atomic particles in the universe, but there is not an infinite number of particles.  They could be counted if we only had the time.  It is estimated that the number is 10^80.  That’s a lot.  Not a weekend project, counting those.  But infinity is even greater, and it comes with seeming contradictions.  Infinity cannot be divided, added to, or multiplied with the result being a greater or lesser number.  It can be subtracted from, but only infinity from itself, resulting in zero.

So, if God is infinite and He has three “parts” (I’ll use that word since there isn’t a word I know that describes a part of infinity), then each of the three parts is the same number as the combination of the parts.  Each of the three parts/Persons is exactly equal to the other two.

To add to the issue, God is neither limited temporal nor is He limited spatially.  On top of all that, God is equally and fully present at any spot in the universe.  God is actually infinite, meaning He is infinite by nature, has always been infinite, and will always be infinite.  You and I are potentially temporally infinite.  We had a beginning, but we will potentially live an infinite amount of time going forward.

To get back to the contradictions involved, if the Son is infinite, then He is fully equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and with God as a whole.  He is not equal to the Trinity since He is distinct from the other two Persons of the Trinity.

They are all equal in essence, equal in nature, equally infinite.

The reason this is so difficult to understand, besides my still thinking it through and not fully understanding it myself, is because we have no infinity to experience or observe ourselves to place it up against. 

Time past is not infinite because infinity is a number that is beyond counting; we would have to cross an uncountable number of events to reach today.  There could not even be a starting point for an infinite series of events.

It appears we don’t have an infinite in space either.  Space is measured as the distance between two points.  Once we run out of things (points), we might run out of space and enter a void. Some cosmologists believe there is a void outside of our universe.  No matter the theory, the universe is still pretty big.  According to the NASA/WMAP, the current estimate of the observable universe is about 93 billion light-years across.  That still isn’t infinity. 

Why is this important?

Our God is an awesome God.  He is located in every inch of that 93 billion light-years spatially and was there when the universe began (Gen. 1:1; John 1:3).

As you can see from the confusion I’ve laid out, and probably added to, anything our finite minds might create in an attempt to understand an infinite God ends up approaching babble.  I don’t think we should stop trying to understand Who and What God is, though.  He gave us a mind to use in our love and worship of Him (Matt. 22:37).  I think He sees our meager attempts as acts of love.  We’re trying to draw nearer to the great and awesome God of all.

How Omni is God?

When we talk about God’s infinite nature, we usually talk about the three “omnis”: His omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (infinite power), and His omnipresence (infinite presence).  But other attributes of God are infinite as well: holiness, love, grace/mercy, and eternity, for instance.

Before we get into those, though, I’d like to look again at what infinity is.  There are two types of infinity related to duration: actual and potential infinity.  God is actually infinite.  That is, God has always existed from eternity past and will always exist to eternity future.  You and I are potentially infinite.  We had a beginning, but we will live forever.  There is no end to our existence. 

Where God cannot number His days, we can.  Though there will be no end to our existence, the number of days we exist, assuming time will always be measured in days, will always have a number.  There are about ten to the eightieth power electrons in the universe (ten octodecillion).  While that is a very large number, it is still an actual number that can be divided, added to, subtracted from, and multiplied. 

Infinity is larger than that.  Infinity is a number so large that it cannot change value when you add, multiply, divide, or subtract from it (except to divide or subtract infinity from itself).  It’s really so large, we can’t wrap our heads around it.  Let’s look at an old description of infinity just to add to the confusion:

Imagine a library with an infinite number of books.  In that library, there is an infinite number of red books and an infinite number of black books.  Each book has an infinite number of pages.  With this example, there is the same total number of books as there are red books.  There is the same number of pages in one book as there are pages in all the books combined, and the same total number of books.

It doesn’t make sense to our finite minds, but this is the concept of infinity.

Now, how infinite is God? God is infinite in His power (God doesn’t make logical contradictions such as square circles, but all His purposes are irresistible):

Luke 1:37 (ESV)  For with God nothing will be impossible.

                Job 42:2 (ESV)  “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”

God is infinite in His knowledge (all things actual, possible, past present and future):

                Psalm 147:5 (ESV)  Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

God is infinitely present (His being is not spread out but the entirety of His being is everywhere):

        Jer. 23:24 (ESV)  Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the Lord; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

God is infinitely Holy (absolute moral perfection and separation from sin)

Isa. 6:3 (ESV)  And one cried to another and said:  “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

God’s love is infinite (immeasurable and eternal)

        Eph. 3:19 (ESV)  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

God’s grace and mercy are infinite (it is eternal)

Psalm 136:1 (ESV)  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

God’s duration is infinite (past, present, and future)

       Psalm 90:2 (ESV)  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Why is this important?

Our God is infinite beyond all human understanding, but don’t feel inadequate.  We’re not alone in our ignorance. No one understands God except He Himself:

                1 Cor. 2:11 (ESV)  So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Hopefully, we see from this how truly great and grand the God we serve is.  There is none greater.  He is the one true God and the only God with whom we have to do.