this exclamation in context is the "scandal" of God's offering forgiveness to sinners (who humans might suppose
God would simply destroy). The argument moves from the particular to the general: God can forgive sinners (the
particular) because (in general) his ways and thoughts are not equal or identical to ours. So a useful principle is
being stated: God's understanding transcends ours. We are being encouraged not to assume that just because
something makes sense to us, that we necessarily have the fullest understanding. His greater understanding brings in
other considerations that may show our perspective to be deficient.
and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (gnosis), that you may
be filled up to all the fulness of God," (3.18,19). Paul prays that his readers might know that which is beyond
knowledge. It seems we can move towards greater understanding of God, even if a full understanding is not
possible.
understanding. First, there are single truths that deal with infinity in some way and so outstrip our ability to fully
grasp them. Such things would include the notion of an eternal being and an infinite being, and God's omnipresence
and omniscience (including his knowledge of all numbers and all possibilities, all possible relationships, art works,
speeches, etc., yea, all possible worlds). Second, and related to this, is an appreciation of the immensity of his
understanding and knowledge of everything about the creation, the physical laws of the universe, the functioning of
the brain and every living cell, his knowledge of every subatomic particle in the universe and every one of the
billions of stars in the billions of galaxies in the universe, as well as the inner goings-on of every human heart, etc.
Genuine mystical experience of God provides a third awareness of God that transcends our mind's rational
capacities (cf. 2 Co. 12.4). And a fourth type is the focus of this article: the existence of pairs of truths that appear
contradictory since they represent extremely different aspects of God or his relation with human beings. In each of
these ways our understanding of God experiences limits.
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1936).
Dogmatic Theology, I (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, no date), 19-20.
numbers as there are both odd and even numbers, and there are as many total integers as there are total fractions.
Similarly, there are as many points between 0 and 1 inch as there are in the universe. In geometry, an infinitely large
circle would have a circumference as large as its diameter. Such assertions seem counterintuitive since one member
of the pair being compared seems self-evidently larger than the other; nevertheless, it can be proven mathematically
that these pairs are equivalent. (Bill Eppright, personal communication). Probably the most important paradox in
modern mathematics was "the incompleteness theorem" presented by Gödel in 1931. He formally proved that it was
not possible to develop a formal system of simple arithematic without including at least one contradiction. As a
result, Gödel demonstrated that number theory was necessarily incomplete and that elementary mathematics
therefore cannot be completely formalized in one system (let alone, more complex mathematics). W.V.Quine gives
this as a prime example of a veridical paradox in The Ways of Paradox, 16-18.
whole area continues to be an area of intense activity. Western philosophy has wrestled for centuries on such
paradoxes as the One and the Many, the relation between being and change, beings and concepts, and essence and