01/15/2023 – “God is Everywhere” – Psalm 139: 7 -12. (but not everything…)
https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/god-everywhere/
as Alistair notes within this sermon: “God is everywhere, but He is not everything.” I encourage y’all to listen to this sermon in its entirety , but for this post, let’s set out some definitions and key distinctions from those definitions between disparate worldviews: Deism ; Pantheism; and Christianity.
Definitions:
Transcendence of God: “Being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge.”
Immanence of God (*): From Theopedia: ” ‘to be within’ or ‘near’ in relation to God’s creation.
(*) – Note: Not to confuse “immanence” with imminence”. The later refers to the “quality or condition of being that something that could occur at any time without anything else needing to occur”. For example: We would speak of the imminent 2nd coming of Christ.
Ok, let’s use these two definitions to draw a clear distinction between the three worldviews:
Deism: God is transcendent to creation but not immanent to creation.
Pantheism: God is immanent to creation (without perhaps the ‘near’, just ‘within’), but not transcendent.
Christianity: God is both transcendent and immanent. Without both, where is the love of God? God is love.
So, God is not everything refutes pantheism , a trending worldview of our day.
So, let me illustrate a problem with pantheism:
God is within nature. If so, both God and nature become a god? I once had a christian brother ask me if he could believe in God and evolution at the same time? We now have the heretical notion that God is subject to evolution himself. As Christians, we of course believe that God is immutable, He does not change, for He “transcends” His own creation. Also, God is the “first cause”, that which causes everything else, the ultimate creative force or being behind the universe, as noted by Thomas Aquinas.
Soli Deo Gloria!