However
one might imagine the cosmic immensity, God is present at every
discrete point, from the smallest speck, the tiniest sparrow, every
niche of time and space, to the uttermost parts of the seas and
heavens, and unknown galaxies.
-Thomas C Oden, John
Wesley's Scriptural Christianity,
p.34
Viewed from the being of God as holy love, omnipresence means nothing less than the ability of divine love to maintain itself everywhere unhindered by limitations of space.
-Albert Truesdale, A Contemporary Wesleyan Theology, Vol.1, p.126
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In
my previous blog, "Awesome!", I reflected on the immensity
of space and by implication, of time. I wondered, where does God fit
in this picture? Can we even apply "where questions" to God? Can we even ask a question such as, "Where is the Universe?" Dr Albert Truesdale reminds us that, "God's omnipresence has nothing to do with how a physical entity can nevertheless be unbounded by spatial restrictions. God is Spirit..." (ibid.) Whatever, instead of negating our understanding of God, our
new cosmologies and biologies have served to enhance and enrich
theology tremendously. I agree with Kit Pedler...
I began to study the
works of people with legendary names: Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger
and Dirac. I found that here were not clinical and detached men, but
people and religious ones who imagined such unfamiliar immensities as
to make what I have referred to as the 'paranormal' almost pedestrian
by comparison. (Kit Pedler, Mind Over Matter, p.11)
In relation to the
universe three attributes of God comes to mind: Infinity, Eternity,
and Immensity. Much of my own theological understanding of God has its roots in Wesleyan theology. I agree with John Wesley where he says in his sermon, "The Imperfection of Human Knowledge"...
...our desire of
knowledge has no bounds, yet our knowledge itself has. It is, indeed,
confined within very narrow bounds; abundantly narrower than common
people imagine, or men of learning are willing to acknowledge: A
strong intimation, (since the Creator doeth nothing in vain,) that
there will be some future state of being, wherein that now insatiable
desire will be satisfied, and there will be no longer so immense a
distance between the appetite and the object of it.
...
Who is able to
comprehend how God is in this and every place how he fills the
immensity of space? If philosophers, by denying the existence of a
vacuum, only meant that there is no place empty of God, that every
point of infinite space is full of God, certainly no man could call
it in question. But still, the fact being admitted what is
omnipresence or ubiquity Man is no more able to comprehend this, than
to grasp the universe. The omnipresence or immensity of God, Sir
Isaac Newton endeavours to illustrate by a strong expression, by
terming infinite space, "the Sensorium of the Deity."
We occupy a
minuscule sliver of time (three score years and ten of 14-billion)
and a mere wedge of space (a speck in the vastness of an immeasurable universe), aware of
only a very tiny slice of the full electro-magnetic spectrum of light. We
are severely confined creatures!
Another
of John Wesley's sermons is his homily "On the Omnipresence of God", or what he terms
the "ubiquity of God."
In the homily Wesley addresses deistic tendencies, the idea that the
Creator is remote or absent from creation. Wesley argues that however
immense the universe might be, that God is all pervasive, immanent in
time and space. Contemporary theologians sometimes describes this as
“panentheism”. Wikipedia defines panentheism as “a belief
system which posits that the divine interpenetrates every part of
nature and timelessly extends beyond it.”
Church of the Nazarene/Methodist theologian Thomas Jay Oord
advocates panentheism, but he prefers the word "theocosmocentrism".
Dated 1788, I still find Wesley's sermon, despite the limited scientific knowledge of the time, refreshingly contemporary:
The Macrocosm
God is in
this, and every place. The Psalmist, you may remember, speaks
strongly and beautifully upon it in the hundred and thirty-ninth
Psalm; observing in the most exact order, First, "God is in this
place;" and Then, "God is in every place." He
observes, First, "Thou art about my bed, and about my path, and
spiest out all my ways." (Ps. 139:3.) "Thou hast fashioned
me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me." (Ps. 139:5)
Although the manner thereof he could not explain; how it was he could
not tell. "Such knowledge," says he, "is too wonderful
for me: I cannot attain unto it." (Ps. 139:6) He next observes,
in the most lively and affecting manner, that God is in every place.
"Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit, or whither shall I go
from thy presence If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I go
down to hell, thou art there also.'(Ps. 139:7, 8.) If I could ascend,
speaking after the manner of men, to the highest part of the
universe, or could I descend to the lowest point, thou art alike
present both in one and the other. "If I should take the wings
of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; even
there thy hand would lead me," -- thy power and thy presence
would be before me, -- "and thy right hand would hold me,'
seeing thou art equally in the length and breadth, and in the height
and depth of the universe.
In
a word, there is no point of space, whether within or without the
bounds of creation, where God is not. ...The
universal God dwelleth in universal space.
The Microcosm
If
we may dare attempt the illustrating this a little farther, what is
the space occupied by a grain of sand, compared to that space which
is occupied by the starry heavens? It is as a cipher; it is nothing;
it vanishes away in the comparison. What is it, then, to the whole
expanse of space, to which the whole creation is infinitely less than
a grain of sand? And yet this space, to which the whole creation
bears no proportion at all, is infinitely less in comparison of the
great God than a grain of sand, yea, a millionth part of it, bears to
that whole space.
God acts in heaven,
in earth, and under the earth, throughout the whole compass of his
creation; by sustaining all things, without which everything would in
an instant sink into its primitive nothing; by governing all.....
having a regard to the least things as well as the greatest; of his
presiding over all that he has made, and governing atoms as well as
worlds. This we could not have known unless it had pleased God to
reveal it unto us himself. Had he not himself told us so, we should
not have dared to think that "not a sparrow falleth to the
ground, without the will of our Father which is in heaven;" and
much less affirm, that "even the very hairs of our head are all
numbered!"
....
Omnipresent
If I remove to any
distance whatever....to any conceivable or inconceivable distance;
above, beneath, or on any side;, it makes no difference; thou art
still equally there: In thee I still "live, and move, and have
my being."
Empty Space
Wikimedia Commons
And
where no creature is, still God is there. The presence or absence of
any or all creatures makes no difference with regard to him. He is
equally in all, or without all. Many have been the disputes among
philosophers whether there be any such thing as empty space in the
universe; and it is now generally supposed that all space is full.
Perhaps it cannot be proved that all space is filled with matter. But
the Heathen himself will bear us witness, Jovis omnia plena: "All
things are full of God." Yea, and space exists beyond the bounds
of creation (for creation must have bounds, seeing nothing is
boundless, nothing can be, but the great Creator), even that space
cannot exclude Him who fills the heaven and the earth....for
it is well known, the Hebrew phrase "heaven and earth,"
includes the whole universe; the whole extent of space, created or
uncreated, and all that is therein...
In
extra-mundane space, (so to speak,) where we suppose God not to be
present, we must, of course, suppose him to have no duration; but as
it is supposed to be beyond the bounds of the creation, so it is
beyond the bounds of the Creator's power. Such is the blasphemous
absurdity which is implied in this supposition.
Of
course this is a sermon and not a scientific treatise. Elsewhere
Wesley reflects on the mysterious immensity of creation:
The Copernican System
That
[God] who dispenses existence at his will, should multiply, extend,
enlarge, and add a kind of immensity to his works, is not properly
what surprises me; at least my amazement is chiefly founded on my own
extreme littleness. But what astonishes me most, is to see, that
notwithstanding this my extreme littleness, he has vouchsafed to
regulate his immense works, by the advantages I was to receive from
them! Thus he has placed the sun just at such a distance from the
earth on which I was lodged, that it might be near enough to warm me,
yet not so near as to set it on fire.
-John
Wesley, A Compendium of Natural Philosophy, VOL. III.p.253
Great Chain of Being. Retorica Christiana, written by
Didacus Valdes in 1579
A thick cloud
conceals from our sight the noblest parts of this immense chain, and
admits us only to a slight view of some ill-connected links, which
are broken,and greatly differing from the natural order.
We behold its
winding course on the surface of our globe, see it pierce into its
entrails, penetrate into the abyss of the sea, dart itself into the
atmosphere, sink far into the celestial spaces, where we are only
able to descry it by the flashes of fire it emits hither and thither.
But notwithstanding
our knowledge of the chain of beings is so very imperfect, it is
sufficient at least to inspire us with the most exalted ideas of that
amazing and noble progression and variety which reign in the
universe.
-John Wesley, A
Compendium of Natural Philosophy, Vol IV, p.60
Since Wesley there
has been an eruption of knowledge. Our knowledge is still severely
imperfect.
Wesley concluded his sermon of 1788 with this mindful
application which is as applicable today as it was in the 18th
Century:
If you believe that
God is about your bed, and about your path, and spieth out all your
ways, then take care not to do the least thing, not to speak the
least word, not to indulge the least thought, which you have reason
to think would offend him. Suppose that a messenger of God, an angel,
be now standing at your right hand, and fixing his eyes upon you,
would you not take care to abstain from every word or action that you
knew would offend him Yea, suppose one of your mortal
fellow-servants, suppose only a holy man stood by you, would not you
be extremely cautious how you conducted yourself, both in word and
action How much more cautious ought you to be when you know that not
a holy man, not an angel of God, but God himself, the Holy One "that
inhabiteth eternity," is inspecting your heart, your tongue,
your hand, every moment; and that he himself will surely bring you
into judgement for all you think, and speak, and act under the sun!
Acknowledgements:
John
Wesley Sermon Project General Editors: Ryan N. Danker and George
Lyons, Copyright 1999-2011 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology.
http://wesley.nnu.edu/?id=787
Charles Carter Ed., A Contemporary Wesleyan Theology
Thomas C Oden, John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity
H
Orton Wiley and Paul T Culbertson, Introduction
to Christian Theology.Thomas C Oden, John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity
©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za
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