Embraced  by  Truth . . .
                                    reflections on theology and life

THEOLOGY > God > God's Essence > God is Omnipresent  


GOD IS OMNIPRESENT

God is omnipresent (Deut. 10:14; I Ki. 8:27; II Chron. 6:18; Job 11:8; Ps. 139:7-12; Isa. 66:1-2; Jer. 23:23-24; Acts 17:27). Omnipresence speaks of God’s immensity or His ubiquity, and also His infinity (infinity is also a general term that can be applied to other attributes; for example, His omnipotence is infinite and His omniscience is infinite). These terms state the fact that God is unlimited in relationship to space; He transcends it. God is everywhere; there isn’t a place where God is not. He is in a particular place with each person, and at the same moment He is in all points of the vast universe.

It is not a part of God that is in each place but all of God that is in each place. “In whatever manner his essence is present anywhere, it is present everywhere” (Dagg, M of T, 61). The Lord asks: “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jer. 23:24). The fullness of God fills the entire universe. Everywhere God is there is all of God, and all of God is everywhere.

Though God is everyplace and with everything, He is independent of everyplace and everything. No place limits or contains Him. His presence is with His creation, but His presence is not a part of His creation. Omnipresence means that God is with all that He has made, but He is not a part of anything that He has made. Though God is in every place, He is not identified with any place. God is above space and yet in all space, without being localized at any specific point. To be everywhere does not mean that he is to be equated with anything that exist. Pantheism is a contradiction of the Biblical teaching, because God is distinct from His creation even while being with all of the creation.

His essence is not impacted by His presence being at any point or all points of the cosmos. It is possible for God to be in hell and not be affected by hell, for God is “a heaven to himself in the midst of hell” (Charnock, E and A, I, 39). Though God is everywhere, He is not affected by whatever there is where He is. He is independent of and unconditioned by any part of His creation.

All of this discussion speaks of God in spatial terminology. But God was omnipresent before there was space; before there was a point, a place, or anywhere, God’s essence existed as Being. To speak of and to attempt to comprehend God using spatial language when His omnipresence is non-spatial is to cause the thought process to lose itself. It is to realize that God is greater than man, and we are in awe at the measure of that difference.

"Do I not fill heaven and earth?"
says YHWH.
Jer. 23:24


Return to God's Essence; Next Article: God is Eternal

For overview of THEOLOGY, see: Site Map - Theology
Copyright © Embraced by Truth
All rights reserved.
Materials may be freely copied for personal and academic use;
appropriate reference must be made to this site.
Links are invited.