The God/Math Connection

The other day I was reading a book about homeschooling. It started connecting each subject to God, i.e. how is God in Math, Science, English etc… At first, I was like “really ~ do we have to connect God to each subject?” But then I let down my guard and thought about it. If God is the Creator of everything His fingerprint will be in everything so we should be able to look at a subject like Math and see God in it.

When I sat back and thought about it I did see a significant connection between God and Math. The verse “God is the same yesterday, today and forever” jumped to the forefront of my mind. Now I’ve always known this verse and I have liked it but honestly I have always viewed it in a simplistic manner. God is always going to love me. He was good since the beginning, is good now and will always be good. It was for me a safe, simplistic way to view God. Viewing this verse though through the eyes of “Math” blew the lid off this verse for me and off of who God is too! Math is the same, yesterday, today and forver. 2+2=4 will always be the same. Math in its simplicity can be understood by even the smallest child (counting 1,2,3…), however, even the smartest mathmeticians do not have a grasp on mathmatics and all its complexity. The same is true with God. Like Math He is the same, yesterday, today and forver. The youngest child can understand the basics of who He is: always loving and kind but to the greatest theologians who grasp much yet there is still great mystery that goes beyond their own understanding.

The other wondes to me with the God/math connection was the idea of combinations. That the same numbers mixed together in different combinations results in different answers. Math is also universal, cross-cultural and generational. So it is with God. His principles and truths surpass time, ethnicity and culture. That is why the truths of the Bible can and do still apply today. Yet like mathematical combinations it can be used and applied in many different ways. Hebrews says “The word of God is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword.” God’s word/truth is still alive and because of the complexity and simplicity of it all it can still be applied to our lives today.

I have been part of a debate on tradition versus the changes we see in Christianity today. Some Christians are threatened by the “new ideas” or “new themes” that get emphasized in today’s Christianity because it didn’t come out of tradition. However, my question back is “Do we really want to serve a God who was all figured out 2000 years ago and now doesn’t change?” Or do we want to serve a God who is like mathematics ~ there are eternal truths but by combining them together we see a new picture but nothing has changed because that possibility was always there it just wasn’t being viewed that way.

My favorite author is John Eldredge. He receives a hard time from some Christian circles because his teaching is a “new concept.” His “new concepts” however aren’t new but are an application of God’s eternal principles in a modern society. His latest book is called “Walking with God.” In this book he discusses that God does want to talk to us on a daily basis and how to do it. Is this really new? Read the first eleven chapters of Genesis and you will see this is not new: God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, Enoch was taken from earth because he walked with God, Noah was chosen to build the ark because he walked with God. These are not new principles but rather an application of God’s eternal principles in today’s society. Just like in math you can get the same answer through different methods: 2+2=4, 1+3=4 and 1+1+1+1=4. The answer is walking with God, but how you do it and what it looks like might change over time. To me this is the beauty and the awe of who God is. There is still more to discover about God but this newness really isn’t “new” because it has always been there we just haven’t always seen it.

Isaiah 45:3 says “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” Our God is a great mystery to us. My challenge to you and myself is to continue to search every day to discover this God who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.