Attribute of God: Infinity (Infinitas) in Scripture
Scripture does not employ the abstract Latin term infinitas, but it testifies repeatedly to God's boundlessness in being, knowledge, and power. The psalmist declares, "Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite" [2]. This affirmation anchors the doctrine: God's attributes admit no limit, no boundary, no measure imposed from without.
Biblical Witness
The biblical authors assume rather than argue for God's infinity. When Jeremiah records God's foreknowledge of hypothetical futures (Jer. 38:17–23; 42:9–22), and when Jesus speaks of what would have happened in Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 11:21, 23), Scripture presents divine knowledge as "infinite" in "the most absolute sense" [1]. God's understanding encompasses not only all actualities but all possibilities, a scope that defies creaturely comprehension. The doxology of Revelation 4:8—"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come"—praises God's eternity, a dimension of his infinity that spans all time without succession [5, 8].
Confessional Articulation
The Westminster Confession opens its doctrine of God by affirming that he is "infinite in being and perfection," a phrase that gathers into one word the cluster of divine attributes that know no boundary: immutability, immensity, eternity, incomprehensibility, omnipotence [9]. The Thirty-Nine Articles similarly describe God as "of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness" [11]. These confessions do not treat infinity as one attribute among others but as the mode in which all God's perfections exist—without limit, without potentiality, without dependence on anything outside himself.
Scholastic Development
Aquinas argued that God is infinite because his existence is not received into any limiting principle: "His existence is infinite, inasmuch as it is not limited by anything that receives it" [6]. Where creatures are finite because their essence is actualized in a particular form, God's essence is existence itself, unbounded by matter or potentiality [3]. Augustine defended God's knowledge of infinite things—even infinite numbers—against those who thought infinity incomprehensible: God knows all numbers because his knowledge is not discursive but immediate and eternal [7]. Patristic writers connected God's infinity to his role as the unbegotten, unchangeable source of all that exists, "without beginning" and "infinite in height, boundless in depth" [4, 10].
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Foreknowledge of God — Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2), one of those high attributes essentially appertaining to him the full import of which we cannot comprehend. In the most absolute sense his knowledge is infinite (1 Sam. 23:9-13; Jer. 38:17-23; 42:9-22, Matt. 11:21, 23; Acts 15:18).”
- Psalms “Psalms 147:5 (NASB) — Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), The Infinity of God, Art. 1: Article: Whether God is infinite? I answer that, All the ancient philosophers attribute infinitude to the first principle, as is said (Phys. iii), and with reason; for they considered that things flow forth infinitely from the first principle. But because some erred concerning the nature of the first principle, as a consequence they erred also concerning its infinity; forasmuch as they asserted that matter was the first principle; consequently they attributed to the first principle a material infinity to the effec”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. IV.--ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.: And He is without beginning, because He is unbegotten; and He is unchangeable, because He is immortal. And he is called God [<greek>Qeos</greek>] on account of His having placed [<greek>teqeikenai</greek>] all things on security afforded by Himself; and on account of [<greek>qeein</greek>], for <greek>qeein</greek> means running, and moving, and being active, and nourishing, and foreseeing, and governing, and making all things alive. But he is Lord, because He rules over the universe; Fat”
- Revelation (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Revelation 4:8: 4:8 day and night: The four beings ceaselessly praised God’s basic characteristics: his holiness, his power (the Almighty), and his eternity (see study note on 1:4). • Holy, holy, holy comes from Isa 6:3 and is the highest worship affirmation in Scripture. To double something makes it emphatic; to triple it makes it ultimate.”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), The Power of God, Art. 2: Article: Whether the power of God is infinite? I answer that, As stated above (Article [1]), active power exists in God according to the measure in which He is actual. Now His existence is infinite, inasmuch as it is not limited by anything that receives it, as is clear from what has been said, when we discussed the infinity of the divine essence (Question [7], Article [1]). Wherefore, it is necessary that the active power in God should be infinite. For in every agent is it found that the more perfectly an agent has ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 18. AGAINST THOSE WHO ASSERT THAT THINGS THAT ARE INFINITE(1) CANNOT BE COMPREHENDED BY THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. (part 1): As for their other assertion, that God's knowledge cannot comprehend things infinite, it only remains for them to affirm, in order that they may sound the depths of their impiety, that God does not know all numbers. For it is very certain that they are infinite; since, no matter of what number you suppose an end to be made, this number can be, I will not say, increased by the addition of one more, but however gr”
- Revelation (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Revelation 11:17: O Lord God Almighty, which art - This gives a proper view of God in his eternity; all times are here comprehended, the present, the past, and the future. This is the infinitude of God. Hast taken to thee - Thou hast exercised that power which thou ever hast; and thou hast broken the power of thy enemies, and exalted thy Church.”
- Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed) “Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed, 1646), CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 2 Of God, and of the Holy Trinity 1. There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 8: Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts, Epistles, Apocrypha, Decretals — CHAP. IX.--GOD THE CENTRE OR HEART OF THE UNIVERSE.: "One, then, is the God who truly exists, who presides in a superior shape, being the heart of that which is above and that which is below twice,(2) which sends forth from Him as from a centre the life-giving and incorporeal power; the whole universe with the stars and regions(3) of the heaven, the air, the fire, and if anything else exists, is proved to be a substance infinite in height, boundless in depth, immeasurable in breadth, extending the life-giving and wise nat”
- Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Anglican) “Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Anglican, 1571), Section 168: There is but one living and true God, ever- lasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”