Is My View of God Too Small?

A few summers back I had the joy of spending a weekend at this place called Malibu along the sunshine coast. This camp, nestled in a little cove along the coastline of the ocean, is to this day the most scenic, picturesque, poetry in motion kind of place I have ever visited. I recall a night there, sitting on a bench on the dock, staring at the expanse of the stars in the heavens which captured a sense of awe and wonder in my heart that has yet to be paralleled by anything else.

I can still remember a thought which crossed my mind while sitting on that dock, gazing out into all the beauty and complexity of the creation around me.

“Do I really believe that Jesus made all this? That He is in control over all this?”

While my theology would say yes, my heart was saying no. I was convicted in that moment that my understanding of Jesus, and the Triune God, was much too small.

A.W Tozer communicates how this diminution of God is idolatry.

This little cheap god we’ve made up is one you can pal around with – ‘the Man upstairs,’ the fellow who helps you win baseball games. That god isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He isn’t the God who laid the foundations of the heaven and earth; he’s some other god. We educated North Americans can create gods just the same as the heathen can. You can make a god out of silver or wood or stone – or you can make it out of your own imagination. And the god that’s being worshiped in many places is simply a god of imagination. He’s not the true God. He’s not the infinite, perfect, all-knowing, all-wise, all-loving, infinitely boundless, perfect God.[1]

I think my response to reading this quote is summed up well by this iconic movie line delivered by Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

“Like, Zoinks Scoob!”

In many ways, I have been guilty of condensing God into a box that is more finite than infinite. While my theology would say that God is infinite, my heart and actions often reflect a belief that would say otherwise. How can I grasp in my heart the infinity of God in such a way that I live out of that reality?

This is a BIG question, far too big for my finite mind. Perhaps it is wise to begin by repeating Tozer’s thoughts about writing on this topic, which also includes a theological definition (in bold) of “infinite”.

God is infinite! That’s the hardest thought I will ask you to grasp. You cannot understand what infinite means. ‘Infinite’ means so much that nobody can grasp it, but reason nevertheless kneels and acknowledges that God is infinite. We mean by infinite that God knows no limits, no bounds, and no end. What God is, He is without boundaries. All that God is, He is without bounds or limits. [2]

Obviously, it is impossible to communicate in a finite amount of paper and ink, the infinity of God. However, I will write with the objective of making my perception of God bigger than my current perception of God. If I can make my perception of God a little bigger every day for the rest of my life, perhaps on my death bed one day I will have scratched the surface of His infinity. Although I suppose that would be logically impossible because for something to have a surface would imply that thing had a boundary, and God is boundless.

While my brain is in a blender, this paper now has an objective. To move toward this objective, I will consider Genesis 1, God’s creation ex nihilio, and how grasping this truth can further my understanding of God’s infinitude.

Adhering to the Christian worldview, I believe that God created ex nihilio (out of nothing). This is contrasted by the worldview of finite godism, which views god as being finite. Philosophers who adhered to this view, such as Plato, believed that god created ex materia (out of matter) because he was not powerful enough, or infinite enough to create from nothing.^[3] This is a critical discussion on the infinity of God, and it is important to establish from Scripture how God can create ex nihilio to affirm His infinitude. Evidence of this truth can be found in Genesis 1:1-2.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.[4]

In the original Hebrew, the word “without form” is tôû and some of the alternative glosses for this word are “formlessness, place of chaos and unreality.”^[5] The word in Hebrew for “void” is bôû and an alternative gloss for this word is “emptiness.”^[6] I think it is helpful to understand some of the different ways these words could be translated in order to understand how the phrase “without form and void” conveys that God truly creates out of nothing, out of chaos, and out of emptiness which concomitantly communicates God’s infinitude. Only the infinite God brings about reality out of unreality. Only the infinite God brings about order out of chaos. Only an infinite God can bring about something out of nothing.

The God of the Bible is infinite.

The infinity of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, may also be observed when the last part of Genesis 1:2, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” is read in conjunction with the account of Jesus walking on water in the Gospel of Mark.  

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.[7]

Water might be considered an archetype of chaos. The movement of water is often sporadic, unpredictable, and chaotic. When I watch movie scenes of ships being sunk in a violent storm at sea, I often think it is as though they are being swallowed by the bowels of chaos itself. Perhaps it is no coincidence that when God is described as creating out of chaos, he is hovering over the face of the waters. The ocean is entirely untameable and uncontrollable for anyone but God. To read about Jesus “walking on the sea” (v. 48), is therefore, a visual of how Jesus can walk over and above that which is unknown, uncontrollable, and utterly chaotic. This action seems to parallel God’s work at creation when the Spirit of God was “hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2 ESV). Not only does Jesus walk over the waters, but He is able to cause the winds to cease and the storm to subside (v. 51) which shows how Jesus is able to bring order to the chaos, just as God did within creation.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is infinite.

Within my own life, I often find myself within the shoes of the disciples on the boat, who “did not understand about the loaves” (v. 52). Directly before Jesus walks on the water, He feeds five thousand people with only five loaves and two fish (Mk. 6:30-44). His disciples had witnessed this miracle and should have understood nothing was impossible for Jesus, because He is the infinite and omnipotent God wrapped in flesh. In the same way, I have read about all these accounts of the power of Jesus, and I know that He is with me always, “to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20 ESV) and that I am a “temple of the living God” (1 Cor. 7:16 ESV) which means that the transcendent God dwells immanently within me in the person of the Holy Spirit. However, just like the disciples, despite having this knowledge, I am often so guilty of limiting the power of Jesus within my own life. I am guilty of being “utterly astounded” when God does something miraculous in my life, because I do not fully understand His capabilities, or His infinity, or His omnipotence. I am guilty of having a “hardened heart” (v. 52) that does not understand the limitlessness and boundlessness of the one whom I serve, and that lack of understanding permeates my everyday life and causes me to fear storms and challenges which are “like dust on the scales” (Isa. 40:15 ESV) to God.

I recognize that God does not always intervene in our lives in miraculous ways. However, this is no reason to disbelieve in His capability to intervene miraculously in our immanent circumstances. Our posture towards God’s capability to intervene in our immanent life situations should reflect the convictions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who before entering the fiery furnace said to king Nebuchadnezzar,

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.[9]

These three men fully believed in God’s ability to deliver them without difficulty from the fiery furnace. But they confessed that even if God should choose not to, He was still worthy of their absolute service and worship; worship which only an infinite and all-powerful God is worthy of receiving… for a finite God is not worthy of worship.^[10] Therefore, while God may choose to not intervene in certain situations, this should not change my faith in His ability to miraculously intervene in that situation.

I recognize that in many ways I fall short of the ideal which I have just written about. My recognition of my own diminution of God leads me to conclude with a prayer of confession and petition.

Lord, I confess that I have a view of you which is far too limited. I ask that you expand my mind and soften my heart to understand and believe more fully in your infinity, to trust in your power to be Lord over the chaos in my life. Give me the confidence to walk through bigger storms and greater challenges with You as my confidence. Give me the ability to believe in your capability to intervene in every circumstance, and to continue to trust in that capability even when you choose not to intervene in the ways I hoped you would. In Jesus name, Amen.

 Notes

^[1]           Tozer, A.W. The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart. (Chicago, Illinois: Wingspread Publishers, 2007) 7.

^[2]           Tozer, A.W. The Attributes of God, 4.

^[3]           Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013) 160.

^[4]           Genesis 1:1-2, ESV.

^[5]           "H8414 - tôû - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)." Blue Letter Bible.

^[6]           "H922 - bôû - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)." Blue Letter Bible.

^[7]           Mark 6:45-52, ESV.

^[9]          Daniel 3:16-18 ESV.

^[10]         Geisler, Christian Apologetics, 175. 

References 

1.     Geisler, Norman. Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013.

2.     "H8414 - tôû - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)." Blue Letter Bible.

3.     "H922 - bôû - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)." Blue Letter Bible.

4.    Tozer, A.W. The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart. Chicago, Illinois: Wingspread Publishers, 2007.