2000-3-3 11:46:00
The Question: "What is the difference in saying that God and Its creations are unlimited rather than infinite?
"It is written that we are created in the "image" or that we are reflections of God. Does unlimited make more sense than infinite in relation to God working in us?"
Samu makes a great comment on this: "Unlimited says that there is no limit to the quality of God's creations, but the quantity can still be finite. Unlimited suggests room for growth, while infinite seems to be saying that all of space has been used already."
Infinite or infinity is a strange word when you think of it. My dictionary defines it this way: "The state or quality of endlessness in space or amount."
It is sometimes used with similar meaning to limitlessness or the concept of being unlimited, but it often implies the added feature of a number of parts that would be impossible to number or count. Infinity is a number so large that it embraces all there is and such a number can never become greater because it embraces everything. Infinite is especially seen in this light in referring to God or His attributes. Infinity in this aspect is seen as so large that no number could be added to it. Thus infinity + one are still infinity because the infinite already has to include the one.
Now many believe that within a ball, for instance, there is an infinite number of particles, that we could go smaller and smaller and never find the smallest unit. So the question is this. If one ball contains an infinite number of particles and there is no number larger than infinity, then what would we call the number of particles in two balls - or even four or eight balls?
Mathematically the answer is still infinity, but it boggles the mind to consider that eight times infinity is still the same number. Obviously there is illusion here.
Now I am going to present an idea that goes against standard thinking, especially in relation to God and creation. Infinity is only a theoretical number and does not exist in reality. If there were really such a number then any type of expansion or increase would be impossible because you cannot even add the number one to infinity.
Instead, the creations, multiplications and divisions of God only give the appearance of the infinite because we never seem to be able to find the end to them. Yet if we use the law of correspondences, we discover that every known body has a specific number of particles. There is a specific number of Suns in the galaxy, there are a specific number of people on this planet, and there are a specific number of atoms in any human body and so on.
An infinite number of units in any body have never been discovered. The only hint that there could be an infinite number of something is that there are some bodies that contain an unknown number of units. The universe, for example, contains an unknown number of worlds, but does this mean that such a number is infinite? Not necessarily. Because we do not know the number of worlds in the universe and have not been able to count them we assume on faith that the number is infinite, but we assume wrongly.
The reason the universe and the creations of God are mistakenly seen as infinite is because the mind of God is unlimited. To understand the limitlessness of the mind of God, we must look at our own minds since we are reflections of Him. The foundation of our mind's creations is the imagination, and correspondingly, this would also apply to God.
Let us now see how unlimited your imagination is. Pretend for a moment that you are the One God and can create through your imagination. Imagine an infinitesimally tiny particle called an atom. Now imagine the atom multiplying millions and billions of times creating a living cell. Now imagine the cells doing the same thing multiplying into a vast number and organizing into a human body. Now visualize humans multiplying into the billions. Now visualize these billions of humans living on this large globe we call earth. Now visualize numerous planets circling around a sun so large that it could contain a million earths. Now imagine a billion such solar systems, no a hundred billion - let's increase that to four hundred billion systems forming one galaxy called the Milky Way. Now visualize a thousand billion such galaxies forming a larger body called a universe. Now imagine that there are other universes out there and that billions of such universes form a greater universe.
Now here is my point. You are unlimited in what you can imagine BUT the time will come when you will take a rest from imagining and at that point, when you take that rest, there will be a specific number of units in that creation that you have dreamed. Even though the mind of God and our own minds are unlimited, all of our creations will have a certain number and will never reach to infinity.
Question: Why would it be that even though there is a number to all things, you or I could never find the end of the real creations of God, even in our imagination?
Copyright 2000 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved