So, this Being may be somehow “present” in deism, yet not intervene or interact directly with humankind. “Deism” comes from the Latin for “deus,” meaning “god.” Deists believe there is a Supreme Being or Creator who is distinct from His creation, but they also deny He plays an active role in His creation, including the lives of people. That would be idolatry!Īnother twisted view of God’s presence is in deism. For example, we might say God lives inside a person, but that indwelling does not make that person God. In passages like Psalm 139:7-8, we understand God is everywhere, but God is not everything. But this is not what the Bible refers to in scriptures describing Jehovah God’s omnipresence. Hinduism, Buddhism, some cults like “mother nature” worshipers and others-at least to some extent-include elements of pantheism. Theologians continue to discuss the “pantheism controversy” today. Such “pantheistic thought” influenced early Gnostic groups and was popularized in the 17 thcentury by philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Pantheism is sometimes described this way: “God is everything and everyone and everyone and everything is God.” Others simply claim “divinity” and “reality” in the universe are identical.
#Omnipresence of god definition plus
In the Greek, “pantheism” is the word “all” plus the word for “god” or “divine.” For some, pantheism means everything is part of an all-encompassing “God,” identified so closely with the universe as to be totally immersed in the fabric of it. God’s omnipresence isn’t always understood or represented. God's Omnipresence is Biblical - but Often Misunderstood That doesn’t mean omnipresence is a simple concept. “Omnipresent” is easy to define: all-present or present everywhere. “Omnipotent” means all-powerful, and “omniscient” means all-knowing. Years later, when I became a Christ-follower and examined biblical concepts for myself, God opened my “eyes of understanding.” Though the word, “omnipresence,” doesn’t appear in the Bible, the concept is clear in Matthew 18:20 and many other scriptures.Īt college I discovered the prefix in the word “omnipresent” comes from Latin-“omni” means “all.” A couple of other words in biblical studies refer to God with that same prefix. 23).I had my first doubts about God based on my belief system of what I could see, feel and understand, rather than on what God tells us about Himself in scripture. But even if God "feels" more present here than He does over there, He is equally present in both places. Of course, God reserves the right to make us feel His presence more strongly at certain times and in particular places than at others (see, for example, Ex. We often forget that the Lord is right at hand wherever we are, but our forgetfulness does not indicate His absence. God and His attributes, including His holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, knowledge, power, and so on, are fully present in His creation at every point. "More" of God is not found at point A than at point B. Everything that God is is fully present at each point in a given room, at every point in the building outside the room, and at every point outside the building. Omnipresence is altogether different because it means that the fullness of God is present everywhere. Instead, there are gas molecules throughout the room.
#Omnipresence of god definition full
When we think about oxygen in a room, the full quantity of oxygen is not gathered at one point in the corner. Moreover, when a gas is diffused throughout a particular area, no one space contains every gas molecule. In the first place, gases have material form even if they are often invisible to us, and God is immaterial. It would be a mistake, for example, to conceive of omnipresence as God's being like a gas that is diffused throughout the entire universe. Like divine infinity, however, divine omnipresence is a difficult concept to grasp. He transcends spatial limitations, and He is able to be in many places-indeed, everywhere-all at once. He is not limited to only one place, so we cannot erect a barrier between ourselves and His presence. No matter where we go, there our God will be. There is no place that we can hide in all creation because God fills all creation. Today's passage is one of many texts in Scripture that reveal to us our Creator's omnipresence. If God cannot be confined in any finite space, it makes sense that He would be omnipresent, that is, present everywhere in creation. The fact that our Lord has no spatial limitations has certain consequences for how we understand His other attributes, with omnipresence being a logical counterpart to His infinity. As a being who is beyond measure, God cannot be contained in any finite space (Ps.
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