God's Omnipresence

Nov 11, 2020

God is Everywhere

When speaking of God’s Omnipresence, it’s helpful to break down the word. It’s made of two parts: Omni and Presence. The word “Omni” means “All” and the word “Presence” means what you would naturally guess—“Present.” So, when we say that God is Omnipresent, we are saying that God is All-Present. Or, to say it another way, we are saying that God is everywhere.

Looking At Scripture

The Bible regularly speaks this way about God. The Psalm I quoted at the beginning of this post says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit?” (Psalm 139:7). This is a rhetorical question with the assumed answer of “No where.” There is nowhere we can go to get away from the presence of God. We cannot run to the farthest corners of the earth to escape God. We cannot climb the highest mountain or dive to the deepest ravine of the ocean. God is still there.

The Psalmist even takes it further. He says, “If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (Psalm 139:8). Sheol is “the place of the dead.” So, the author is saying that he cannot even escape God through death. When he dies, he finds out that God is also there.

God also speaks of himself this way, through the prophet Jeremiah. He says, “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.” (Jeremiah 23:23–24, ESV). God is reminding his people that he is not a God that is far away. He is a God who is present with them. Always. They cannot hide their dirty deeds from him in “secret places” because there are no secret places with God. He fills heaven and earth with his presence.

A Wrong Way to Understand This

There are some who take these passages—especially Jeremiah—and abuse them. They hear God say, “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” and fill that statement with pantheistic meaning. Pantheism is a belief that God exists as the “soul” of all creation. They believe God’s spirit lives in the animals and the trees. When they hear God saying that he “FILLS” heaven and earth, they understand that to mean that he literally fills each aspect of creation. So, they assume that we should worship creation because God is present as the “soul” of creation.

However, scripture always speaks of God in separation from his creation. Genesis 1:1 gives us this truth at the beginning of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, ESV). God is not the “soul” of creation. He is the CREATOR of creation.

Over and Above Creation

In the same way that God exists over and above time, he exists over and above creation—space. He is not limited to one place at one time because He exists over and above space. Creatures are forced to live within the constraints of time and space, yet God is not a creature. He is the creator who exists above these things. Herman Bavinck says, “He is not ‘somewhere,’ yet he fills heaven and earth. He is not spread throughout space, like light and air, but is present with his whole being in all places: ‘whole and entire in every place but confined to none.’” (Reformed Dogmatics, p. 167).

One Objection

Some bring up an important objection at this point. Doesn’t Moses say to God, “And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15, ESV) and doesn’t that assume that God’s presence could possible NOT go wit them? Don’t Psalmists repeatedly cry out, “O my God, be not far from me!” (Psalm 38:21, ESV)?

Not to be mean, but this post is getting too long for me to answer these objections. So, I will answer them in my post next week. Stay tuned.

Some Application

While I need to wrap this post up, I still want to leave you with some application regarding God’s Omnipresence. Rather than stating this myself, I want to wrap up by quoting St. Augustine on this topic:

“There you have a judge in your own heart. When you want to do something bad, you withdraw from the public and hide in your house where no enemy may see you; from those parts of the house that are open and visible you remove yourself to go into your own private room. But even here in your private chamber you fear guilt from some other direction, so you withdraw into your heart and there you meditate. But he is even more deeply inward than your heart. Hence, no matter where you flee, he is there. You would flee from yourself, would you? Will you not follow yourself wherever you flee? But since there is One even more deeply inward than yourself, there is no place where you may flee from an angered God except to a God who is pacified. There is absolutely no place for you to flee to. Do you want to flee from him? Rather flee to him.” (Exposition on the Psalms, on Psalm 94).

Jason Ruis