Infinity
Opening Text: Psalm 90
Exhortations
A. “Thou hast always been God, and no time can be assigned as the beginning ofthy being. The mountains are not of so long a standing as thyself; they are the effects of they power, and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration; since they are the effects, they suppose the precedency of their cause. If we would look back, we can reach no further than the beginning of creation, and account the years from the first foundation of the world; but after that we must lose ourselves in the abyss of eternity; we have no cue to guide our thoughts; we can see no bounds in thy eternity.” AND “The eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the covenant, the great comfort of a Christian” -Stephen Charnock
B. “The concept of everlastingness runs like a lofty mountain range throughout the entire Bible and looms large in orthodox Hebrew and Christian thought.” AND “Indeed I know of no tenet of the Christian creed that could retain its significance if the idea of eternity were extracted from it.” AND “Of all that can be thought or said about God, His infinitude is the most difficult to grasp...Yet we must try, for the Holy Scriptures teach that God is infinite and, if we accept His other attributes, we must of necessity accept this one too.” AND “The Christian witness through the centuries has been that ‘God so loved the world...’; it remains for us to see that love in the light of God’s infinitude. His love is measureless. It is more: it is boundless. It has no bounds because it is not a thing but a facet of the essential nature of God. His love is something He is, and because He is infinite that love can enfold the whole created world in itself and have room for ten thousand times ten thousand worlds beside.” -A.W. Tozer
C. “Study God’s eternity, it will make us adore where we cannot fathom. Think of the soul’s eternity. As God is eternal, so he has made us eternal. We are never-dying creatures; we are shortly entering upon an eternal state, either of happiness or misery. Have serious thoughts of this.” -Thomas Watson
D. “Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.” -Isaac Watts (Hymn based on Psalm 90)
II. Defining our terms
A. God’s infinity refers to Him being boundless; measureless; free from all limitations
1. Time and space are created and dependent on God
2. God is exalted above the limitations of time and space
B. Time cf. Eternity
1. With us everything is past, present, and future. We are bound by time
2. With God nothing is past, present, and future. He isn’t bound, affected, or limited by time. All is “now” for God
C. Space cf. Immensity or Omnipresence (the focus of our next study)
D. “As his essence comprehends all beings, and exceeds them, and his immensity surmounts all places; so his eternity comprehends all times, all durations, and infinitely excels them.” -Stephen Charnock
E. “...in the name Jehovah is revealed God’s infinity in comparison to both time and space.” -Herman Hoeksema
F. Infinity = “That attribute of God according to which He is without any limitation in all His virtues.” -Notes from Dogmatics 213: Theology with Prof. David J. Engelsma
G. “His eternity may be defined as that perfection of God whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, and possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present.” -Louis Berkhof
H. “Infinitude...indicates that the limitations of finite creatures do not apply to him... it may also be used to indicate the fact that God is unlimited in his attributes, that in him every virtue is present in an absolute degree; in that case infinitude amount to perfection.” AND “Infinity applied to time is eternity.” -Herman Bavinck
I. “The infinity of God follows his simplicity and is equally diffused through the other attributes of God, and by it the divine nature is conceived as free from all limit in imperfection: as to essence (by incomprehensibility) and as to duration (by eternity) and as to circumscription, in reference to place (by immensity).” -Francis Turretin
J. “Although that immutable and ineffable nature does not admit of he was or will be, but only of he is, yet on account of the mutability of time, with which our mortality and mutability is concerned, we may say without error, he is, was, and will be. He was in the past ages, he is in the present, he will be in the future. He was because he never was not; he will be because he will never cease to be; he is because he always is.” -Augustine
III. Defending our terms
A. The Infinity of God: Gen 1:1; 21:33; Deut 32:39-40; Job 36:26; Ps 93:1-2; Is 9:6; Dan 7:9-10; Micah 5:2; Jn 8:48-59; 17:5; Rom 1:18-23; 1Tim 1:17; Heb 13:8
B. The Eternity of Angels and Men (we had a beginning but will have no end): Gen 1:26-27; Ecc 3:11; Mt 25:31-46; Romans 2:1-11
1. Heaven: Ps 16:11; 2Cor 4:7-18; 2Tim 1:8-14; Rev 21:1-7
2. Hell: Mark 9:42-48; Rev 14:9-11; 20:11-15; 21:8
[Additional Scripture References: Deut 32:34-43; Job 11:7-9; 42:1-6; Ps 9:7-10; 98:1-9; 102:25-28; 145:1-21; Prov 5:1-14; 6:20-35; 7:1–27; 8:22-23; Is 26:4; 40:12-26; 41:4; 57:15; Lam 5:19; Hab 1:12; Mt 5:27-30; 10:28; 11:20-24; 23:13-33; Lk 16:19-31; Jn 1:1-3; Eph 1:3-14; Col 1:13-20; 1Tim 6:13-16; Heb 1:10-12; 6:17-7:3; James 1:17; 2Pet 3:8; Rev 1:8, 17-18; 4:5-11; 10:6; 21:9-22:21]
Questions to Consider and Discuss:
Is it possible for us to avoid time language (consider the quote from Augustine)?
If God’s infinity is denied, what else must necessarily be denied?
If there was ever a time when nothing existed, what would exist now?
What are the sufferings of the righteous now compared to the eternal blessings to come?
What are the pleasures of the wicked now compared to the eternal torment to
come?
How do we understand God’s greatness and our smallness?
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