- Jan 4, 2019
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1. Theism, is the belief in the existence of at least one divine being or essence who is actively involved in the universe and in human affairs.
2. Pantheism, is the belief that a divine being or essence is identical with the universe.
3. Panentheism, is the belief that the divine being or essence is both transcendent (existing beyond the universe) and immanent (existing and operating within the universe).
After much study, I have come to see that God is not only involved in creation, but manifests it from Himself. The Scriptures make it clear that what God manifests from His being remains distinct from His reality. However, His manifestation of the universe cannot be independent from His own nature. For the very existence of anything requires His reality, or else we attribute creation with its own reality for being present! We cannot separate God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence from the reality of the Universe itself, but we also cannot reduce Him to merely the creation itself either. Let's examine a few passages that not only teach, but implicate, that God is not only above His creation but exists within it as well:
a. Acts 17:28: "For in Him we live and move and have our being."
b. Colossians 1:17: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
c. Romans 11:36: "For from him and through him and for him are all things."
d. Ephesians 4:6: "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
e. John 1:3: "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
f. Psalm 104:30: "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground."
We must still continue to distinguish ad intra and ad extra in referring to the transcendent, yet ever immanent, nature of God. Furthermore, the conflict with God's nature with Christ's incarnation is resolved in this concept. It would be impossible for the Divine Person of the Second Person of the Trinity to unite with and assume the flesh of man without there being some real, deeper connection between the Creator and the created.
Your thoughts?
2. Pantheism, is the belief that a divine being or essence is identical with the universe.
3. Panentheism, is the belief that the divine being or essence is both transcendent (existing beyond the universe) and immanent (existing and operating within the universe).
After much study, I have come to see that God is not only involved in creation, but manifests it from Himself. The Scriptures make it clear that what God manifests from His being remains distinct from His reality. However, His manifestation of the universe cannot be independent from His own nature. For the very existence of anything requires His reality, or else we attribute creation with its own reality for being present! We cannot separate God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence from the reality of the Universe itself, but we also cannot reduce Him to merely the creation itself either. Let's examine a few passages that not only teach, but implicate, that God is not only above His creation but exists within it as well:
a. Acts 17:28: "For in Him we live and move and have our being."
b. Colossians 1:17: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
c. Romans 11:36: "For from him and through him and for him are all things."
d. Ephesians 4:6: "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
e. John 1:3: "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
f. Psalm 104:30: "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground."
We must still continue to distinguish ad intra and ad extra in referring to the transcendent, yet ever immanent, nature of God. Furthermore, the conflict with God's nature with Christ's incarnation is resolved in this concept. It would be impossible for the Divine Person of the Second Person of the Trinity to unite with and assume the flesh of man without there being some real, deeper connection between the Creator and the created.
Your thoughts?