Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
3 Ways God is Like Numbers
The concept of the God of the Bible is so unfathomable that we struggle to comprehend. “Saint John of Damascus” said, “God is infinite and incomprehensible, and all that is comprehensible about Him is His infinity and incomprehensibility.” In simple terms what you understand is you don’t understand! Since all our knowledge is experience-based, is there anything we know and accept that can help our comprehension? I ask this in hope of helping skeptics who doubt His reality. Although limited (as everything is compared to God), there is something deniers and questioners accept as true that is surprisingly familiar to God – numbers (and math).
1. Numbers have no beginning or end. There is no last number or first, considering math includes negative and positive numbers going backwards and forwards. Like numbers, God has no beginning or end, the Alpha and the Omega, and therefore is eternal. God identified Himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM;” thus identifying Himself as the Eternal One (Exodus 3:14)
2. Numbers have no inventor, they just exist. It is said the Mayans invented zero in mathematics and that may be so, but that is “nothing”. Math is not invented, but rather discovered. Like numbers and math, God is not an invention of mankind. God is self-existent. 1Tim 6:15-16: “God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.” (CSB)
3. Numbers (and math) are absolute. There are right and wrong answers to even the simplest equations: 1+1=2 in a base 10 system. Truth can and does exist outside of the mind of man. God is absolute truth. Jesus, God incarnate, is described as “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). The correct question is, “Who is truth?”. If we can accept the reality of numbers and math, then we can accept the reality of an eternal, self-existent, and absolute God. And that’s the truth!
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