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 spirituality 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. 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. Atoms, however, go on practically forever.What Does Omnipresent Mean? - Latin OriginĪs a young girl, visiting a little street-corner church in Chicago, I heard a preacher quote Matthew 18:20: “ Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” It was a great promise, but it stirred up confusion and wonder in my heart: Is God with “two or three” in Chicago and “two or three” over in China-at the same time? When we die our atoms will disassemble and move off to find new uses elsewhere-as part of a leaf or other human being or drop of dew. (The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it takes the atoms some decades to become thoroughly redistributed however much you may wish it, you are not yet one with Elvis Presley.) So we are all reincarnations-though short-lived ones. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms-up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested-probably once belonged to Shakespeare. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. “Because they are so long-lived, atoms really get around.
0 kommentar(er)
