(the picture in the video is from Tim Challies)
G.
Omnipresence and Immensity
1. Definition
a.
Immensity: space does not contain God
b. Omnipresence: God does not have size or spatial
dimensions and is present at every point of space with His whole being
2. Scriptural Data
a. Psalm 139:7-12: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or
where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If
I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and
your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and
the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night
is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
b. Jeremiah 23:23-24: “Am I a God at hand, declares
the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a
man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord.
Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”
c. 1 Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less
this house that I have built!”
d. Acts 17:24: The God who made the world and
everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made
by man
3. Consideration and
Reflection
a. Error #1:
God is localized in one, earthly spot
i. A major point of Stephen’s in Acts 7 is that God
works everywhere, not just the temple
-v. 2-4: Mesopotamia
-v. 9-10: Egypt
-v. 30-34: Sinai
-v. 44-45: Tabernacle in and out of the promised land
-v. 47-50: Temple not needed
b. Error #2:
God is localized in heaven
i.
God’s everywhere presentness is only possible if He is…
-part of space itself and thus, diffused everywhere
physically
-not possible, God is spirit (John 4:24) and spirit
does not have flesh and bone (i.e. physicality; Luke 24:39)
-made of some kind of other-worldly material that
allows Him to be materially present everywhere
-no biblical warrant for thinking God is of an
other-worldly (i.e. another universe) material
-good reason to think God is not material, since He
created the material universe
-a non-material being that is not constrained by
physical limitations
c. 3
implications (Augustus Strong, Systematic
Theology, pg. 278)
i.
God is without extension (no height, length, width)
ii.
God is not subjected to limitations of space
iii. God contains within Himself the cause of space
-Hebrews 11:3: By faith we understand that the
universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out
of things that are visible.
d. Is God everywhere in space or does God transcend
space altogether?
i.
God not an ether diffused in space
-makes
Him finite
-makes
some of Him more in one place than another
ii.
Traditionally, God is thought to transcend space
-Certainly
the Bible speaks as though God is everywhere in space. Think of Psalm 139 again
– that God is everywhere in space. But traditionally Christian theology hasn’t
understood God to be diffused throughout space, but rather to transcend space
altogether. Since God is spirit (that is to say, he is incorporeal – God does
not have a body) so obviously he is not in space in the sense of having
extension or being a three-dimensional object. But neither should we think of
God as some sort of invisible ether or vapor that is spread throughout space so
that we are, so to speak, moving through God as we move about in the world.
This would have, I think, a number of mistaken consequences. It would mean, for
example, that if the universe is finite then God is finite because God would
only fill the finite universe – the finite space that there is. And it
certainly is possible that the universe and space is finite in which case God
would be finite, not infinite. Also, this conception of God as spread out like
an invisible ether would mean that God is not entirely present at every point
in space. It would mean there is sort of like a portion of God inside my cup of
tea and then the rest of him is outside. Or there is a certain cubic amount of
God in this room but then the rest of him is outside of the room. That surely
isn’t correct. What one would want to say is that God is entirely present
everywhere in space. If God exists in space, he would have to be somehow
related to the physical universe in such a way that he would be wholly present
at every point in space rather than just partially present at every point in
space…Since God is the creator of the universe there is a state of affairs of
the actual world of God existing alone without time or space. Since God is not
a physical object his existence doesn’t require space. If we think of God
“prior to” creation or “without” the world, God would exist without space. He
would be spaceless. There would be no space. Space would come into being when
God creates the physical world. Perhaps, as I’ve suggested, time as well comes
into existence at that point. At the moment of creation both time and space
come to exist…In that case, what omnipresence amounts to is that God is
cognizant of and causally active at every point in space. That is what
omnipresence means. It doesn’t mean that God is literally in space. God
transcends space. But he knows what is happening at every point in space, and
he is causally active at every point in space, causing things to happen there
and causally sustaining them in existence. So God, on this conception, is a
non-spatial, transcendent, infinite mind who is conscious of and active at
every point in space. (William Lane Craig, Defenders, part 8, www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders)
4.
Practical Application
a. We can contact God at every location
i. John 4:16-24: Jesus said to her, “Go, call your
husband, and come here.” The woman
answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying,
‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have
is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that
you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped
on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought
to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem
will you worship the Father. You worship
what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the
Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now
here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.”
b. We should
be constantly practicing the presence of God
i.
He is there when we sin
-Psalm 32:1-4: Blessed is the one whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I
kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and
night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of
summer.
ii.
He is there in times of trouble
-Psalm 23:4: Even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and
your staff, they comfort me.
iii.
He is there in times of plenty
-Acts 14:17: Yet he did not leave himself without
witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
iv.
He is there for guidance
-James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask
God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
v.
He is there to lovingly discipline His own
-Hebrews 12:5-7: And have you forgotten the
exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline
of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the
one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline
that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there
whom his father does not discipline?
c. When you wish to do something evil, you retire from
the public into your house where no enemy may see you; from those places of your
house which are open and visible to the eyes of men you remove yourself into
your room; even in your room you fear some witness from another quarter; you
retire into your heart, there you meditate: he is more inward than your heart.
Wherever, therefore, you shall have fled, there he is. From yourself, whither
will you flee? Will you not follow yourself wherever you shall flee? But since
there is One more inward even than yourself, there is no place where you may
flee from God angry but to God reconciled. There is no place at all whither you
may flee. Will you flee from him? Flee unto him. (Quote from unknown source in
Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God,
pg. 164 in Wayne Grudem, Systematic
Theology, pg. 177)
d. Everywhere in the Old and in the New Testament, God
is represented as a spiritual Being, without form, invisible, whom no man hath
seen or can see; dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, and full
of glory; as not only the creator, and preserver, but as the governor of all
things; as everywhere present, and everywhere imparting life, and securing
order; present in every blade of grass, yet guiding Arcturus in his course,
marshalling the stars as a host, calling them by their names; present also in
every human soul, giving it understanding, endowing it with gifts, working in
it both to will and to do. The human heart is in his hands; and He turneth it
even as the rivers of water are turned. Wherever, throughout the universe,
there is evidence of mind in material causes, there, according to the
Scriptures, is God, controlling and guiding those causes to the accomplishment
of his wise designs. He is in all, and over all things; yet essentially
different from all, being over all, independent, and infinitely exalted. This
immensity and omnipresence of God, therefore, is the ubiquity of the divine
essence, and consequently of the divine power, wisdom, and goodness. As the
birds in the air and the fish in the sea, so also are we always surrounded and
sustained by God. It is thus that He is infinite in his being, without
absorbing all created beings into his own essence, but sustaining all in their individual
subsistence, and in the exercise of their own powers. (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:384–385)
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