Theological Term of the Week

infinitude
That perfection of God whereby he is not subject to limitation or defect and is unmeasurable and unsearchable in all that he is; God’s transcendence of the creation.

• From scripture:
  

  “Can you find out the deep things of God?
  Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
  It is higher than heaven—what can you do?
  Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
  Its measure is longer than the earth
  and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7-9 ESV)

  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 ESV)

  Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
  and hisgreatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:3 ESV)

• From The Westminster Larger Catechism:

  Q7: What is God?
  A7: God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection….

• From Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson:

  If God is infinite in his glorious essence, learn to admire—where you cannot fathom.The angels wear a veil, they cover their faces, as adoring this infinite majesty. Isa 6:6. Elijah wrapped himself in a mantle when God’s glory passed by. Admire—where you cannot fathom. “Can you by searching find out God?” Here on earth, we see some beams of his glory, we see him in the looking-glass of the creation; we see him in his picture—his image shines in the saints. But who can search out all his essential glory? What angel can measure these pyramids? “Can you by searching find out God?” He is infinite. We can no more search out his infinite perfections, than a man upon the top of the highest mountain can take a star in his hand! Oh, have God-admiring thoughts! Adore where you cannot fathom!

  There are many mysteries in nature which we cannot fathom; why the sea should be higher than the earth—yet not drown it; why the Nile should overflow in summer, when, by the course of nature, the waters are lowest. “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:5. If these things perplex us, how may the infinite mystery of the Deity transcend our most raised intellectuals! Ask the geometrician, if he can, with a ruler, measure the heavens. Just so—we are unable are we to measure the infinite perfections of God. In heaven we shall see God clearly—but not fully, for he is infinite. He will communicate himself to us, according to the capacity of our vessel—but not the immenseness of his nature. Adore then where you cannot fathom!

• From Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer:

  We poor human creatures are constantly being frustrated by limitations imposed upon us from without and within. The days of the years of our lives are few, and swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay togive. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of.

  How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternalyears lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are inChrist share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God neverhurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is toquiet our spirits and relax our nerves.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What does it mean that God is infinite?
2. Spurgeon on the Attributes of God: Infinite
3. John Gill: Of the Infinity of God
4. Charles Hodge: Infinity
5. S. Lewis Johnson: Attributes of God: The Spirituality and Infinity of God(mp3)
6. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Infinitude

Related terms:

• aseity
• eternality
• immutability
• omnipotence
• omnipresence
• omniscience
• transcendence

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Confusion, Contradiction, and Compatibilism

I received an email today from a woman who has at least seen my blog. The email contained a few questions/accusations, and I’ve decided to answer  them in a blog post because the criticisms are ones that are frequently made against compatibalism. (The email has a bit of a canned objection feel to it, so if you’re a compatibalist blogger, it may be that you have received a similar one.)

Here goes.

I’m always amused with the Calvinists determination to stay confused instead of trying to discover what makes their teachings contradictory. Compatibilism is just another way of saying….we’re still confused.

What you see as “determination to stay confused” is, for the compatibilist, a determination to not speculate about things that are not revealed in scripture. The compatibilist sees both the sovereignty of God over human choices and the responsibility of human beings for the choices they make taught in scripture. It’s because they see them both revealed to us by God that the compatibilist embraces the two.

The compatibilist, of course, does not believe that these two things are contradictory, because they are both taught to us by the God of truth—the God who never contradicts himself. The compatibilist does not, however, think that creatures will necessarily be able to explain everything about how their Creator works, because in comparison to the infinite wisdom of God, humans have pea brains.

I’ve challenged those who believe that God’s sovereignty over human choices and responsible human choice are contradictory concepts to explain how the two are contradictory—how it is impossible for both be true—and no one’s ever taken me up on that challenge. A simple intuition that they are contradictory won’t do, because our intuitions come from minds that are both created finite and distorted by the fall.

So here’s the challenge for you: If you think compatibilist are confused, then show me. Formulate things to show exactly why God’s sovereignty over human choices is incompatible with responsible human choice. Why are the statements “God is sovereign over human choices” and “human beings are responsible for their choices” actually contradictory and not just something that is intuitively contradictory to you?

As you know, the Calvinist has never been able to reconcile his definition of the ‘Sovereignty of God’ with the ‘Freedom and Responsibility of man’, where salvation and condemnation are concerned. Happiness with leaving those ideas in contradiction, paradox, confusion, and mystery is not good enough for men or a God who commands ‘full proof’ of one’s ministry. (2 Tim 4:5)

I’m not sure what 2 Timothy 4:5, has to do with it, but the full proof of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is that the text of scripture. God reveals there that He is sovereign over human choices and human beings are responsible for them. See, for instance, Isaiah 10, where God chooses to send the  nation of Assyria against the Israelites and then punish them for their actions. Do you not think what is taught in scripture is enough proof to be “full proof”?

I’d like to know your opinion about the most important question one could ask a Calvinist, which is this: Does God give a reason (‘show cause’) to man in the Scriptures for what Calvinists say was his prior determination of some to salvation and the rest to condemnation? Or did God simply decree the eternal fate of all either to salvation or condemnation without judgment or any standard of judgment?

The reason for judgment is human sin. Those who are condemned are condemned because they “fall short of the glory of God.” The reason for any sinner’s salvation is God’s grace—God’s choice to spare some already condemned sinners from the judgment they deserve on the grounds of their sin.

Down the River with a Paddle

This morning I saw one of this blog’s readers off at the start of the Yukon 1000 Canoe and Kayak Race. Kerry is the Amish looking fellow on the left and at the back of the voyageur canoe above.

Kerry and his wife are the only blog readers previously unknown to me that I’ve met in real life. This is the third year in a row that Kerry has driven from New York to race his canoe in a Yukon long-distance race. This year he’s decided to enter the brand new really long one, the one advertised as “the longest canoe and kayak race in the world.”

Kerry may look Amish—and his hat is indeed an Amish one—but he attends a small Orthodox Presbyterian Church back in his hometown.