Question about the How Big is God presentation
01/10/10 10:27 Filed in: Question
We recently received the following email from someone who saw the How Big is God presentation at a private Christian school here in California. I took this email as the occasion to explain the purpose of the presentation in more detail:
“I am the superintendent of [name] Christian School in [city] and attended the presentation at [name] Christian School yesterday. Great show, well presented, impressive video,statistics and illustrations. My hesitation or question is this: Does describing the size of the galaxy/universe necessarily lead to the conclusion that God is bigger, or even has a "size" as we currently understand. Perhaps to emphasize that God is powerful enough to create all of this would be more appropriate that to indicate that he is "bigger" than the universe?? Middle school and most high school students are likely to take the size issue literally, and we do not know if we even know how big God is, if He actually has size as we generally understand the word. What do you think? Is this a hair-splitting point? Has this been discussed by your staff? Not trying to make trouble, just be intellectually (educationally) accurate.”
We responded as follows:
Hello [name],
Thank you for your thoughtful inquiry. In response to your concern, I would simply state that I don't think you're necessarily "splitting hairs" though it definitely appears as though you're missing the point. We definitely do not know how big God is, nor can we even consider God in terms of size or "bigness." Additionally, we can't consider God in terms of: strength, power, might, intellect or any other attribute that is natural. Perhaps you missed it, but the very first slide in the presentation clearly states that it is impossible to know how big God is.
However, let's consider the fact that God uses natural references concerning Himself, and more specifically—anthropomorphisms, all the time in the Bible. For example—the Bible speaks of God's hand, His arm, His finger, etc. Does God actually have these human body parts? Does God have actual feet that actually rest upon the planet Earth or does God need a house to sleep or rest in (e.g. Isaiah 66:1)? Of course not. God is simply relating to man in terms that we can understand.
The reality is that we don't have words to explain nor the mental faculties to understand God's essence outside of His spoken Word (the Bible). Even to say that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent is insufficient. He's still beyond that! So, the point here is that if we are trying to express God in wooden literal terms—we can't! It's just impossible to do so we have to use points of reference like God himself does in the Bible. And this is the whole point of the How Big is God presentation. We are evidently not trying to teach anybody what God's size is (we emphasize that fact in the presentation more than once). Rather, we are trying to make two very simple, yet profound points:
1. We want people to get a revelation/understanding of how powerful, mighty, awesome, and majestic God is. In terms of human points-of-reference, this can easily be attributed to "bigness" which is a relative human perspective. Furthermore, the science of Astronomy lends itself well to the concept of size more than it does other attributes. We take people on a journey through the universe and simply explain the fact that God made all of it just by speaking! Now how powerful of a God is that? Again, if the universe is that big (even bigger than we can imagine), then how much bigger (or powerful, mighty, awesome, etc.) is the God who spoke it all into existence? That's the point of the presentation.
2. Secondarily, the next and more important point we are trying to make is simply the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the universe is THAT BIG and God is so far above and beyond it (we use the term "big"), then how much love is truly displayed in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? The reality of the size of the universe should (and I've found typically does) magnify the measure of God's love for this world (John 3:16), which is seen by taking upon Himself the form of a servant and entering into this world in the form of a man (Philippians 2:7-8) to suffer and die for our sins. This is the point of the presentation.
I completely understand your concern over the term "big" in reference to God. In short, I would simply respond by saying that any attribute lacks the ability to accurately represent God. All we really know about Him in regards to His essence is that He is Spirit (John 4:24). Even if we changed the emphasis and stated that God is "powerful enough to create all of this," as you suggested, we still end up with the same problem—meaning that God doesn't actually have a measure of "power" as we generally understand that word. All attributes fall short in terms of properly describing our Creator.
Finally, I would simply say that God's size is not even the point of the presentation. We are simply using the vehicle of astronomy and the size of the universe to highlight God's magnificence and to magnify the awesome reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us. I hope you enjoyed the presentation. Lord bless...
Diego Rodriguez
4th Day Alliance
“I am the superintendent of [name] Christian School in [city] and attended the presentation at [name] Christian School yesterday. Great show, well presented, impressive video,statistics and illustrations. My hesitation or question is this: Does describing the size of the galaxy/universe necessarily lead to the conclusion that God is bigger, or even has a "size" as we currently understand. Perhaps to emphasize that God is powerful enough to create all of this would be more appropriate that to indicate that he is "bigger" than the universe?? Middle school and most high school students are likely to take the size issue literally, and we do not know if we even know how big God is, if He actually has size as we generally understand the word. What do you think? Is this a hair-splitting point? Has this been discussed by your staff? Not trying to make trouble, just be intellectually (educationally) accurate.”
We responded as follows:
Hello [name],
Thank you for your thoughtful inquiry. In response to your concern, I would simply state that I don't think you're necessarily "splitting hairs" though it definitely appears as though you're missing the point. We definitely do not know how big God is, nor can we even consider God in terms of size or "bigness." Additionally, we can't consider God in terms of: strength, power, might, intellect or any other attribute that is natural. Perhaps you missed it, but the very first slide in the presentation clearly states that it is impossible to know how big God is.
However, let's consider the fact that God uses natural references concerning Himself, and more specifically—anthropomorphisms, all the time in the Bible. For example—the Bible speaks of God's hand, His arm, His finger, etc. Does God actually have these human body parts? Does God have actual feet that actually rest upon the planet Earth or does God need a house to sleep or rest in (e.g. Isaiah 66:1)? Of course not. God is simply relating to man in terms that we can understand.
The reality is that we don't have words to explain nor the mental faculties to understand God's essence outside of His spoken Word (the Bible). Even to say that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent is insufficient. He's still beyond that! So, the point here is that if we are trying to express God in wooden literal terms—we can't! It's just impossible to do so we have to use points of reference like God himself does in the Bible. And this is the whole point of the How Big is God presentation. We are evidently not trying to teach anybody what God's size is (we emphasize that fact in the presentation more than once). Rather, we are trying to make two very simple, yet profound points:
1. We want people to get a revelation/understanding of how powerful, mighty, awesome, and majestic God is. In terms of human points-of-reference, this can easily be attributed to "bigness" which is a relative human perspective. Furthermore, the science of Astronomy lends itself well to the concept of size more than it does other attributes. We take people on a journey through the universe and simply explain the fact that God made all of it just by speaking! Now how powerful of a God is that? Again, if the universe is that big (even bigger than we can imagine), then how much bigger (or powerful, mighty, awesome, etc.) is the God who spoke it all into existence? That's the point of the presentation.
2. Secondarily, the next and more important point we are trying to make is simply the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the universe is THAT BIG and God is so far above and beyond it (we use the term "big"), then how much love is truly displayed in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? The reality of the size of the universe should (and I've found typically does) magnify the measure of God's love for this world (John 3:16), which is seen by taking upon Himself the form of a servant and entering into this world in the form of a man (Philippians 2:7-8) to suffer and die for our sins. This is the point of the presentation.
I completely understand your concern over the term "big" in reference to God. In short, I would simply respond by saying that any attribute lacks the ability to accurately represent God. All we really know about Him in regards to His essence is that He is Spirit (John 4:24). Even if we changed the emphasis and stated that God is "powerful enough to create all of this," as you suggested, we still end up with the same problem—meaning that God doesn't actually have a measure of "power" as we generally understand that word. All attributes fall short in terms of properly describing our Creator.
Finally, I would simply say that God's size is not even the point of the presentation. We are simply using the vehicle of astronomy and the size of the universe to highlight God's magnificence and to magnify the awesome reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us. I hope you enjoyed the presentation. Lord bless...
Diego Rodriguez
4th Day Alliance
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