Theological Term of the Week

omnipresence
That perfection of God whereby he is infinite with respect to space, with his whole being present everywhere all the time, yet he cannot be contained by space. (See immanence.)

• From scripture:
  

  Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 2Can 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)

  Where shall I go from your Spirit?
  Or where shall I flee from your presence?
  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
  If I take the wings of the morning
  and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
  even there your hand shall lead me,
  and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:7-10 ESV)

• From Omnipresence by Isaac Watts:

  In all my vast concerns with Thee,
  In vain my soul would try
  To shun Thy presence, Lord, or flee
  The notice of Thine eye.
  
  Thy all-surrounding sight surveys
  My rising and my rest;
  My public walks, my private ways,
  And secrets of my breast.
  
  My thoughts lie open to the Lord,
  Before they’re form’d within;
  And ere my lips pronounce the word
  He knows the sense! mean.
  
  Oh wondrous knowledge, deep, and high;
  Where can a creature hide?
  Within Thy circling arms I lie,
  Beset on every side.
  
  So let Thy grace surround me still,
  And like a bulwark prove,
  To guard my soul from every ill,
  Secured by sovereign love.
  
  Lord, where shall guilty souls retire,
  Forgotten and unknown?
  In hell they meet Thy dreadful fire,
  In heaven Thy glorious throne.
  
  Should I suppress my vital breath
  To ‘scape Thy wrath divine;
  Thy voice would break the bars of death,
  And make the grave resign.
  
  If wing’d with beams of morning light,
  I fly beyond the west;
  Thy hand, which must support my flight,
  Would soon betray my rest.
  
  If o’er my sins I think to draw
  The curtains of the night;
  Those flaming eyes that guard Thy law
  Would turn the shades to light.
  
  The beams of noon, the midnight hour,
  Are both alike to Thee:
  Oh, may I ne’er provoke that power
  From which I cannot flee!

• From Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson:

  If God is everywhere present, then for a Christian to walk with God is not impossible.God is not only in heaven—but he is in earth too. Heaven is his throne, there he sits; the earth is his footstool, there he stands. He is everywhere present, therefore we may come to walk with God. “Enoch walked with God.” If God was confined to heaven, a trembling soul might think, “How can I converse with God, how can I walk with him who lives above the upper region?” But God is not confined to heaven; he is omnipresent; he is above us—yet he is about us, he is near to us. “He is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:27. He is not far from the assembly of the saints, “God has taken His place in the divine assembly,” Psalm 82:1. He is present with us, God is in everyone of us; so that here on earth we may walk with God.

  In heaven the saints rest with him, on earth they walk with him. To walk with God is to walk by faith. We are said to “draw near to God,” Heb 10:22, and to see him, Heb 11:27, “As seeing him who is invisible,” and to have fellowship with him. 1 John 1:3, “Our fellowship is with the Father.” Thus we may take a turn with him every day by faith. It is slighting God not to walk with him. If a king was in our presence, it would be slighting him to neglect him, and play with the pet. There is no walk in the world so sweet as to walk with God. “They shall walk in the light of your countenance.” “Yes, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.” It is like walking among beds of spices, which send forth a fragrant perfume.

Learn more:

1. Blue Letter Bible, Don Stewart: Is God Everywhere at Once?
2. Notes on Attributes of God: Omnipresent
3. David Legge: The Omnipresence Of God (mp3)
4. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Omnipresence

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Theological Term of the Week

infinitude
That perfection of God whereby he is not subject to limitation or defect and is unmeasurable and unsearchable in all that he is; God’s transcendence of the creation.

• From scripture:
  

  “Can you find out the deep things of God?
  Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
  It is higher than heaven—what can you do?
  Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
  Its measure is longer than the earth
  and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7-9 ESV)

  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 ESV)

  Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
  and hisgreatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:3 ESV)

• From The Westminster Larger Catechism:

  Q7: What is God?
  A7: God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection….

• From Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson:

  If God is infinite in his glorious essence, learn to admire—where you cannot fathom.The angels wear a veil, they cover their faces, as adoring this infinite majesty. Isa 6:6. Elijah wrapped himself in a mantle when God’s glory passed by. Admire—where you cannot fathom. “Can you by searching find out God?” Here on earth, we see some beams of his glory, we see him in the looking-glass of the creation; we see him in his picture—his image shines in the saints. But who can search out all his essential glory? What angel can measure these pyramids? “Can you by searching find out God?” He is infinite. We can no more search out his infinite perfections, than a man upon the top of the highest mountain can take a star in his hand! Oh, have God-admiring thoughts! Adore where you cannot fathom!

  There are many mysteries in nature which we cannot fathom; why the sea should be higher than the earth—yet not drown it; why the Nile should overflow in summer, when, by the course of nature, the waters are lowest. “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:5. If these things perplex us, how may the infinite mystery of the Deity transcend our most raised intellectuals! Ask the geometrician, if he can, with a ruler, measure the heavens. Just so—we are unable are we to measure the infinite perfections of God. In heaven we shall see God clearly—but not fully, for he is infinite. He will communicate himself to us, according to the capacity of our vessel—but not the immenseness of his nature. Adore then where you cannot fathom!

• From Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer:

  We poor human creatures are constantly being frustrated by limitations imposed upon us from without and within. The days of the years of our lives are few, and swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay togive. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down. There is simply not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of.

  How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternalyears lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are inChrist share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God neverhurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is toquiet our spirits and relax our nerves.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What does it mean that God is infinite?
2. Spurgeon on the Attributes of God: Infinite
3. John Gill: Of the Infinity of God
4. Charles Hodge: Infinity
5. S. Lewis Johnson: Attributes of God: The Spirituality and Infinity of God(mp3)
6. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Infinitude

Related terms:

• aseity
• eternality
• immutability
• omnipotence
• omnipresence
• omniscience
• transcendence

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Theological Term of the Week

eternality
That perfection of God whereby he transcends “all temporal limits and all successions of moments”;1 the infinity of God in relation to time; also called God’s eternity.

• From scripture:
  

  Lord, you have been our dwelling place
  in all generations.
  Before the mountains were brought forth,
  or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
  from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:1-2 ESV)
  

  But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Timothy 3:8 ESV)

  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8 ESV)

• From The London Baptist Confession 1689, Chapter 2:

  The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; … who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite….

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

  We generally think of God’s eternity … as duration infinitely prolonged both backwards and forwards. But this is only a popular and symbolical way of representing that which in reality transcends time and differs from it essentially. Eternity in the strict sense of the word is ascribed to that which transcends all temporal limitations. That it applies to God in that sense is at least intimated in II Peter 3:8. … Our existence is marked off by days and weeks and months and years; not so the existence of God. Our life is divided into a past, present and future, but there is no such division in the life of God. He is the eternal “I am.”

Learn more:

1. Rev. D. H. Kuiper: The Eternity of God
2. Notes on the Attributes of God: Eternal
3. R. L. Dabney: God’s Eternity
4. A. W. Tozer: The Eternity of God
5. S. Lewis Johnson: Attributes of God: How Old Is God?, or the Eternity of God (mp3)
6. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Eternality

Related terms:

• aseity
• immutability
• infinity

Filed Under God’s Nature and His Work.

1 Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking.I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.