The infinity of God

Normally my insomniac thoughts are like a beautifully painted square wheel — pretty to look at but functionally useless. The other night, though, they took a turn for the better. Somehow I started thinking of my old school days, and some of the things I learned back then. I remembered learning about logarithms in math class, but for the life of me couldn't remember either the theory behind them or how they worked. All I could remember is that with log tables in hand you could carry out long division and multiplication easily — just look up log and antilog, and you would have the answer in a jiffy. Then I remembered that some people can supposedly work out division and multiplication in their heads very quickly because they have learned the log tables off by heart.

Then my thoughts jumped to the mind of God. How does He carry out the almost infinite number of calculations that I assume He must be doing in order to sustain the universe (Heb. 1:3)? Finally, I played around with the concept of infinity — infinite power and infinite capacity for thought and floating point calculations. Are the cerebral and “physical” attributes of the One True God truly infinite, as the theological terms “omnipotent” and “omniscient” imply, and as Jeremiah 32:17 asserts?

Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.

Jesus, who was God in the flesh, said, “With God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26). Many Christians profess belief in the infinite power and capacity of God — and I certainly number among them — but do we ever ponder what that actually means?

I marvel at the thought that our heavenly Father is, right now, aware of every thought of every human being.

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off (Ps. 139:2).

On the day of judgment, God will hold people accountable for their very thoughts — the contemplation of murder (secretly, in one's heart) is as guiltworthy as the act, and is known to God and the resurrected Jesus Christ (Rom. 2:16). That's a lot of thoughts to monitor simultaneously and remember for up to thousands of years! However, even this amazing feat falls far short of “infinite”.

Let's think of something that comes closer to requiring infinite processing power. Infinite means no limits whatsoever. Now, if God created absolutely every thing that is, and is constantly upholding “all things”, it follows that He would be aware, constantly, of every one of those “things”. Stars are churning out untold trillions of tiny particles called “neutrinos”. Right now, billions of them are flying right through you as if you weren't there. An infinite mind is capable of tracking each and every one. Further, an infinite mind could tell you the history of every neutrino since the moment of its creation possibly billions of years ago when a couple of hydrogen atoms fused in a star's interior and kicked it off into eternity. An infinite mind could tell you its precise location at any moment in its history. Of course, it would take billions of years to tell you and me. I don't know about you, but my mind starts to go into overload meltdown contemplating such possibilities.

When I really feel like taxing my imagination, I contemplate a distinct possibility that utterly blows my mind. Have you ever wondered just how and why the laws of the universe work? Why is everything so utterly predictable, once understood? What makes atoms spin with perfect precision? What makes the law of gravity work all the time — perfectly, precisely, predictably? Hidden laws govern the path taken by a leaf as it falls to the ground. A beetle walking on sand sets up tiny vibrations in the sand in conformity with laws that scientists can quantify and describe. On and on it goes, almost infinitely. If we accept the proposition that God is infinite in power, then we cannot reject the possibility that the laws of the universe work with absolute precision — right down to the noise made by a drop of rain when it hits the ground and the bouncing of a photon of light off a mirror — because God is actually immanently “intervening” in every nano-compartment of the universe every nanosecond. Intellectually, I accept that if the premise of divine omnipotence is true, then the laws may work because God is everywhere at all times making them work. Yet my finite mind simply cannot grasp such a possibility. I hate it when I cannot “accept” what I believe to be true.

But thoughts such as these make the ultimate promise for believers — to see “God's face”, that is, His glory — just too fantastic for words. The trials of this life cannot compare with the joy set before us.