Bible -- Theology; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
This does not mean that God is everywhere present in the same sense.
For we are told that He is in heaven, His dwelling-place (1 Kings
8:30); that Christ is at His right hand in heaven (Eph. 1:20);
that God's throne is in heaven (Rev. 21:2; Isa. 66:1).
We may summarize the doctrine of the Trinity thus: God the Father
is specially manifested in heaven; God the Son has been specially
manifested on the earth; God the Spirit is manifested everywhere.
Just as the soul is present in every part of the body so God is
present in every part of the world.
(2) Some practical inferences from this doctrine.
First, _of Comfort:_ The nearness of God to the believer.
"Speak to Him then for He listens. And spirit with spirit can meet;
Closer is He than breathing, And nearer than hands or feet."
"God is never so far off, As even to be near; He is within. Our
spirit is the home He holds most dear. To think of Him as by our
side is almost as untrue, As to remove His shrine beyond those
skies of starry blue."--_Faber._ The omnipresence is not only
a detective truth--it is protective also. After dwelling on this
great and awful attribute in Psalm 139, the psalmist, in vv. 17,
18, exclaims: "How precious are thy thoughts to me..... When I
awake I am still with thee." By this is meant that God stands by
our side to help, and as One who loves and understands us (Matt.
28:20).
Second, _of Warning:_ "As in the Roman empire the whole world
was one great prison to a malefactor, and in his flight to the most
distant lands the emperor could track him, so under the government
of God no sinner can escape the eye of the judge." Thus the
omnipresence of God is detective as well as protective. "Thou God
seest me," should serve as warning to keep us from sin.
d) The Eternity and Immutability of God.
The word _eternal_ is used in two senses in the Bible:
figuratively, as denoting existence which may have a beginning,
but will have no end, e. g., angels, the human soul; literally,
denoting an existence which has neither beginning nor ending,
like that of God. Time has past, present, future; eternity has
not. Eternity is infinite duration without any beginning, end, or
limit--an ever abiding present. We can conceive of it only as duration
indefinitely extended from the present moment in two directions--as
to the past and as to the future. "One of the deaf and dumb pupils
in the institution of Paris, being desired to express his idea
of the eternity of the Deity, replied: 'It is duration, without
beginning or end; existence, without bounds or dimension; present,
without past or future. His eternity is youth, without infancy or
old age; life, without birth or death; today, without yesterday or
tomorrow.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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