The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year: Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost — John Shaqi
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year: Divine Immanence and the Holy GhostRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year: Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Immanence means that, too; but it means more than that. It means
_presence accompanied by power_; or presence plus power; presence
accompanied by doing, or act, leading to manifestations of God's
power. In modern philosophy the word is applied to the operations of a
Creator conceived of as in organic connection with the creation;[A]
and we shall see presently that this is as true in theology as it is in
philosophy.
[Footnote A: Century Dictionary. Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geology
and Natural History in the University of California, discussing what
belief in God would be for rational philosophy, says: "It is the belief
in a God not far away beyond our reach, who once long ago enacted laws
and created forces which continue of themselves to run the machine
we call nature, but a God immanent, a God resident in Nature, at all
times and in all places directing every event and determining every
phenomenon; a God in whom in the most literal sense not only we but all
things have their being, in whom all things consist, through whom all
things exist, and without whom there would be and could be nothing.
According to this view the phenomena of Nature are naught else than
objectified modes of divine thought, the forces of Nature naught else
than different forms of one omnipresent, divine energy or will; the
laws of Nature naught else than the regular modes of operation of
that divine will, invariable because he is unchangeable. According
to this view the law of gravitation is naught else than the mode of
operation of the divine energy in sustaining the cosmos--the divine
method of sustentation." ("Evolution and Its Relation to Religious
Thought"--1902--pp. 300, 301.)]
_3. Does Revelation Teach Immanence of God:_ Here we may as well
consider the question whether or not the scriptures teach the doctrine
of immanence as defined above. Of the doctrine of God's omnipresence
there can be no question at all. David states it beautifully:
"Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make my bed
in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the
darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea
the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day:
the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms cxxxix:7-12.]
Jeremiah is equally as clear in a statement of the same truth, even if
less poetical:
"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith
the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord."[A]
[Footnote A: Jeremiah xxiii:24.]
Solomon said of God:
"The heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less
this house that I have builded?"[A]
[Footnote A: I Kings viii:27.]
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