From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!qubix!lab
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Comprehending an infinite God
Article-I.D.: qubix.210
Posted: Tue Apr 12 09:04:01 1983
Received: Wed Apr 13 03:57:17 1983

Do we really expect to comprehend infinity with finite minds? Can we even
BEGIN to? Can our finite 3-dimensional minds understand omniscience,
omnipotence, or omnipresence? Infinity is not scientifically measurable.
"The universe is not only queerer than we imagine - it is queerer than we
CAN imagine." That's just the universe - consider its Architect.

I don't make any claims to fully understand omni-anything. I have enough
trouble with a zillion zillion, much less infinity. Such a supreme being
could do things we can't begin to dream of. How it would choose to work
would blow our minds.  "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high,
I cannot attain unto it." (Psalm 139:6)

I will not lower myself to the sarcastic or similar tones of recent
authors. Suffice it to point out that they have deliberately chosen to
ignore the clear teachings of the Bible in favor of their own preconceived
views of God: either like man (n orders of magnitude higher), or somehow
accountable to man. They have denied the very nature of the God of the
Bible. In quoting Scripture, they have seen the branches and missed both
tree and forest. Let us see the whole picture.

Job: The greatest of all the men of the east lost ALL TEN children, ALL his
fortune, ALL his earthly comforters, ALL GONE. Job's attitude: "Blessed be
the name of the LORD." (1:21) His wife wanted him to curse God. The only
friends (?) who would visit him accused him of hidden sin. When Job wanted
an answer for his condition, God gave him some lessons about Himself, never
answering Job directly. Job's attitude: "I ABHOR myself, and REPENT in dust
and ashes." (42:6)

Isaiah: When the holy man of God saw the LORD of hosts, his first words
were "Woe is me!" (6:5) The lesson stuck with with him, for he would later
write (64:6) "All our RIGHTEOUSNESSES are as filthy rags" (much less our
normal state). This same Isaiah was God's scribe for many Messianic
prophecies, including "unto us a child is born ... and his name shall be
called ... The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (9:6)

Or in Egypt: Exodus 12:12 and Numbers 33:4 both indicate that the plagues
were JUDGMENTS by the LORD against the gods of Egypt. Check it out; each
plague specifically embarrassed an Egyptian god, whether of the Nile, of
frogs, of the sun, of the first-born, etc.

Or in Canaan: the LORD did not want His people to pick up Canaanite worship
- ergo, carry out the judgment already proclaimed. Psalm 51:5 indicates
that NONE of us are innocent before the LORD, so He can show His grace.

The LORD lays down some heavy penalties for what we might consider "light"
sins. Yet James clearly writes (2:10) "whosoever shall keep the whole law,
and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Getting anything LESS
than death is mercy from God.

Be glad God even puts up with us at all. Romans 9:22,23: "What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy ..."

God's glory - Moses asked to see it. Exodus 34:6,7: "The LORD, The LORD God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
and that will by no means clear the guilty ..." Indeed He is Merciful.

Merciful and gracious - that God would condescend even to be mindful of
man (Psalm 8). The "exceeding riches of His grace" (Eph 2:7) shine forth
in what He will do when He "shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phil. 3:21) Remember Isaiah 64:6.

So who is any of us to argue with God? Be thankful!

					Larry (4 Celsius) Bickford
					decvax!decwrl!qubix!lab