Skip to main content

Omnipresence

             Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24)

Omnipresent: widely or constantly encountered; common or widespread (of God, everywhere all the time.)

Pantheism: a doctrine which identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God. (The Universe is God.)

Panenthism: the belief or doctrine that God is greater than the universe and includes and interpenetrates it. (The universe is part of God.)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

I’m writing this on Wednesday, and my thoughts are on words and definitions. When I read this verse, the idea that came to mind is that some people would take this as evidence of pantheism or panenthism rather than omnipresence. If He fills heaven and earth, doesn’t that mean that, in one way or another, He’s part of the universe? And, based solely on this verse, I’d have to admit that it’s a possibility. But it’s not the only possibility.

Genesis 1 and 2 describe God’s creation of the earth. If God created the universe, He is not part of it. He may inhabit it or spend time in it. His omnipresence requires that He does so, but that makes the universe closer to a house than to a part of God. If God and the universe were somehow one, and man sinned, that would make God imperfect – infected, as it were, with a disease or cancer. And maybe I’m mistaken in this, but while I am likely to claim my knee is angry with me or threatening to go on strike, I don’t really consider my knee or its constituent parts as being sentient and capable of a relationship. Perhaps that is a level of capacity reserved for purely spiritual beings, but it just doesn’t make sense. If nothing else, the fact that the physical universe is constantly changing would mean that God is constantly changing, but that’s not Scriptural. But neither, ultimately is God as part of the universe or the universe as part of God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more