GOD IS OMNIPRESENT
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD, therefore,
becomes the first of these attributes for consideration.
1. The expression in
the Scripture of the doctrine of God's omnipresence in His creation is so
clearly taught that any intelligent person can discover this truth for himself.
But this does not mean that he will comprehend, even in any large way, its
essential significance. The classic passage on this point is in the 139th
Psalm:
"Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I
ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou
art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth
as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee" (Psa. 139:7-12).
Jacob was introduced to the omnipresence of
God on his journey from his homeland to Haran. He slept on a stone one night
and dreamed of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and
descending upon it. Then God spoke to him:
"And,
behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I
have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his
sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he
was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the
house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:15-17).
Jonah had to learn the hard way that God is
omnipresent and there is no possibility of fleeing from His presence (Jonah 1:3-4). Jeremiah cried out in
warning to the people of Judah concerning the omnipresent God whom they were
deliberately ignoring (Jer. 23:23-24).
Our Lord taught His disciples to pray to the Father who is in the heavens (the
word is plural), the aerial, stellar, and the heaven where God makes special
manifestation of Himself (Matt. 6:9).
Paul addressed the philosophers on Mars Hill, informing them of that unknown
God whom they ignorantly worshipped, the God who is
"not
far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our
being"
(Acts 17:23, 27-28).
2. The explanation
of this attribute must be brief, but its importance is by no means measured by
its brevity. Underlying and intimately associated with omnipresence is another
attribute of God as cited by many theologians, namely that of immensity, that
is, that God's nature is spiritual and is therefore without material extension
and is not confined to the limits of space. He is vast, enormous, and gigantic.
"Heaven and the heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee"
(1
Kings 8:27). God is not contained in creation, but creation is contained in
God. "For in him we live, and move,
and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
On the basis of God's immensity, by way of general explanation, it may be
affirmed that omnipresence is the presence of the totality of the essence of
God in the whole and in every part of the universe, without expansion,
diffusion, multiplication, or division. He fills all things. "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith
the Lord" (Jer. 23:24).
To
be even more specific, God's omnipresence is not that of mere power, but that
of nature and essence, which also includes power. One of the errors of human
thinking has been to hold that God is present in His creation only in power,
and that the person or essence of God is in heaven. But the facts are that men
do not need to go up to heaven to call Him down, or into the abyss to call Him
up (Rom. 10:6-7). God in person is
everywhere present in His creation and it is this fact that makes it possible
for His power to be operative in every place. Apart from person or essence
there could be no power, for power is inherent and resident in person.
In further
explanation it needs to be pointed out that God's omnipresence is not the
presence of a portion of God, but the whole person of God in every place. God
is spirit and therefore incorporeal and all materialistic conceptions must be
abandoned. God is one, simple, un-composed, undivided, indivisible. With God
there can be no multiplication, diffusion, or separation of substance. So it
follows that the whole of the essence of God is present at the same time in
every part of His creation. As one poet put it, "Though God extends beyond creation's rim; Each smallest atom
holds the whole of Him." "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord,
and not a God afar off?" (Jer.
23:23). "In mathematics the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
But we know of the Spirit that every part is equal to the whole."
One further note on
omnipresence is important to full understanding. In no sense is God's
omnipresence by compulsion, but rather proceeds from the freedom of His own
will. This means that, contrary to the pantheistic notion, God is not bound to
the universe, nor is the universe bound to God. By the free act of God He brought
creation into existence, so that it exists in Him (Col. 1:16), and by a free act He could also withdraw, so that it
would cease to exist (Col. 1:17).
This means that God's immanence in creation is qualified by His transcendence
outside and above creation. He is therefore a God who can introduce a miracle
at any point or time; He can answer the prayer of the most humble suppliant; He
is free to introduce change into the present order and arrangement of things.
There are problems
that arise from texts that seem to conflict with the doctrine of the
omnipresence of God. These texts seem to localize God in heaven or present Him
as moving from place to place within the universe. Christ taught His disciples
to pray, "Our Father which art in
heaven" (Matt. 6:9). When
it is known that the word heaven is in the plural, there seems to be clear
recognition on the part of Christ that God is omnipresent. In other texts it is
intimated that God dwells only in heaven (1
Kings 8:27, 30). Most likely these are to be understood in the sense that
only an omnipresent God can manifest Himself in different places in a special
way. In heaven God manifests Himself permanently and most gloriously to the
spirits of heaven. At Babel and Sodom (Gen.
11:5; 18:20-21), God is described as going down to witness the activities
in progress. While these accounts may be couched in anthropomorphic terms, it
is still true that only an omnipresent God who is free from all limitations of
matter could move from one place to another.
3. The practical values
growing out of the attribute of God's omnipresence are numerous. Almost every
detail of life and experience may be related to the omnipresence of God. How
encouraging to know that wherever the believer may be, God is there exercising
intimate and loving concern for him (Matt.
28:20; John 14:23; Gen. 16:13; 28:16; Psa. 73:23-25). There is no hindrance
to immediate access to the omnipresent God (Rom. 10:6-8). No creation can separate from the love of God in
Christ (Rom. 8:39). If there is need
to lift the heart in prayer, this can
be done anywhere (Matt. 6:9). If
there is need for healing, God does need to make a journey to the sick, for He
is already there (John 4:46-54).
Worship and communion is not restricted to place, for where two or three are
gathered together in His name, He is in the midst (Matt. 18:20; John 4:21).
This attribute of God comes as a warning to the
wicked. It is characteristic of them to pursue their way as though there were
no God (Psa. 10:4, 11). God is not
in all his thoughts. He imagines that God does not know or see, or take
cognizance of what goes on. But if the wicked were to consider carefully the
truth of His omnipresence, it would deter or turn him aside from his course of
sin (Amos 9:1-4). There is no way to
escape from God, no matter to what portion of the universe one might flee (Psa. 139:7-12). Jonah thought to escape
from the task to which God had appointed him (Jonah 1:1-3), only to discover that God was also present in the sea
(Jonah 1:4). To the unbeliever this
great truth should turn him aside from his wickedness, but even more, it should
turn him aside from any false worship, for only a God who is omnipresent is a
real God. How tragic that Hindu worshipper should be tapping on trees and
stones whispering "Are you there?
Are you there?"
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