 |
| Conwy Castle 2001 |
In the previous chronological entry, on this website, I made comments to why the infinity of God is essential for a correct biblical, theological and philosophical understanding.
God's part in human problems of evil and suffering were the focus of my European, British, MPhil and PhD theses. God's part in evil and suffering, although God remains infinite, eternal, perfect, holy and good. Being almighty implies infinity and without finity and/or faults related to finity. If God was infinite and contrary to my biblical theology, both good and evil; in my view evil would not be evil at all.
Further, it could be stated that God's infinity, eternity and other attributes are of necessity/are necessary, philosophically.
Below I compared survey findings on the question of infinity from my PhD and MPhil surveys.
God As Infinite (Survey Comparison) August 15 2013
2003 The Problem of Evil: Anglican and Baptist Perspectives: MPhil thesis, Bangor University
For my MPhil surveys, I received fifty each, completed of Anglicans and Baptists who have attended a post-secondary denominational college, University or seminary, or are members of one of those denominations who have studied religion at a post-secondary level.
Statement one: The first statement on the survey was stated as: God is infinite/limitless.
My position on this statement is that Scripture and reason demonstrate this to be the case in the affirmative. Scripture does not use the philosophical term infinite to describe God, however, Erickson stated that the idea is indicated.
Jeremiah quotes God as saying, "Am I a God at hand,...and not a God afar off? (Jer. 23:23). The implication seems to be that a God at hand does not preclude his being afar as well. He fills the whole heaven and earth (v.24). Thus, one cannot hide oneself in ‘secret places’ so that he cannot be seen. God speaks of heaven as his throne and the earth as his footstool; the idea that man can confine God by building him a dwelling place is then, sheer folly. The psalmist found that he could not flee from presence of God–wherever the psalmist went, God would be there (Ps. 139:7-12). Erickson, Millard, J. (1985), Christian Theology (p. 273).
One could argue that Scripture is not indicating God is infinite as an attribute, but is, instead, stating that he is all powerful and knowing within his creation. In other words, he is simply of greater finite nature than anything in his creation.
However, in Genesis 1, it is indicated that God made the Universe from nothing other than his will and power. Thus he must be beyond all things which he has created, so logically he is infinite in comparison to his creation, and nothing else existed before his creation.
Therefore it could be deduced that he is infinite as an attribute, as it appears nothing existed beyond him before or after the creation of the Universe.
For this first statement, 94% of Anglicans agreed, 4% were not certain, while 2% disagreed. For Baptists, 98% agreed, while 2% were not certain. There is with this point an agreement between myself and the great majority of my responders.
ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
ERICKSON, MILLARD (2003) What Does God Know and When Does He Know It?, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
