Thankful Thursday

Join me in thanking God for this past week’s blessings.

This week, I’ve been thankful 

• that my son has a laptop to lend me during the 7-10 days I’ll be without my own. 
• for the work my other son has done restoring the rotting sections of my fence. 
• for this summer, even with its mediocre weather; for time spent outdoors gardening, hiking, and playing with the grandchildren. 
• for joy.
• for a few problems solved and a few new opportunities.
• for health and energy and joy. The older I get the more I appreciate these gifts from God.
• for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; for one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

Also thankful today:

• Persis
• Kim Shay

What are you thankful for? Leave a comment with your thanksgiving, post your thanksgiving on your blog, or tweet it. Give me the link by email or in a comment and I’ll add your thanksgiving to the list in the post.

Theological Term of the Week

panentheism
“[T]he view that God encompasses everything that exists, including the universe we inhabit, yet there is more to God than just the universe,” so that “the universe is part of God.”1

• Scriptural evidence against panentheism:

… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God … (Romans 3:23 ESV) (If God encompasses everything that exists including all of us, then he encompasses evil, since we have all sinned.)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17 ESV) (This verse says God doesn’t change, but a panentheistic god would change as the universe changes.)

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Section 2. (A biblical Christian view of the relationship between God and the universe.)

  God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth. In his sight all things are open and manifest; his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature; so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain.

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Heidelberg Catechism

Question 48. But if Christ’s human nature is not present wherever his divinity is, are not the two natures in Christ separated from one another? (See previous question and answer for the context of this question.)

Answer: Not at all, for since his divinity has no limits and is omnipresent, (a) it must follow that his divinity is beyond the limits of the human nature he assumed, (b) but nevertheless is within human nature, and remains personally united to it.

(Scriptural proofs after the fold.)

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