The Infinite Nature of God: His All-Encompassing Presence

Greetings friends! I know it's been a little while since I've been on here, but it's been a busy past few months. As some of you reading might know, my family and I are very involved in the bowling community. And in October, we hosted a huge youth scholarship bowling tournament and fall festival at our small-town bowling center, PINZ. This took months of planning and working together; it was an amazing event. We awarded over $24,000 in scholarships and raised thousands more for next year! After the event, I had a lot of catching up to do with some other responsibilities, including getting busy in the woodworking shop for the Christmas season. After the new year, I had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in my left shoulder, which had me in a brace for about 2 months. Now that I'm out of the brace, I'm at least able to get back to the computer and do some study and writing, so I hope to get back to doing this more regularly again! In the meantime, we've been making plans for this year, and we are in the process of designing and building a "studio/office" of sorts in my grandparents' basement, where I will have a quiet space to focus on this ministry. I've also been thinking of some directions I want to go as far as what I'd like to study with you all, and I'm excited to get started with that!

In this post, however, I'd like to kind of wrap up our study of God's divine attributes. So, I want to finish up with what are probably the most well-known of God's divine attributes. Most recognize these core attributes as God's omnis. The 3 omnis would include God's omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.

God's Omnipotence

Let's start with God's omnipotence. It's a big theological word that comes from the fusion of two Latin words, Omnis, which means all-encompassing, and potens, signifying power. This fusion encapsulates the essence of the triune God of the Bible as the epitome of all-encompassing power. This attribute underscores God's boundless authority and capability, transcending all human comprehension. The omnipotence of Yahweh serves as a cornerstone of faith for believers, illustrating God's ability to create, sustain, and govern the universe with unparalleled power and wisdom.

I think the most practical place to go to if we want to see Yahweh God's omnipotence on full display is the beginning pages of our Bibles. On the very first pages of Genesis, we see the Creator God form the universe— and all that is within it, simply by speaking. Nowhere in scripture is the almighty power of God displayed more clearly than in the phrase found in Genesis 1, "And God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light." The creature has to start a fire, light a lamp, or turn on a lightbulb to "create" light. We must use tools and build mechanisms if we want to create something. God simply speaks!

By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. ~ Psalm 33:6

God's Omniscience

Now let's move our attention to God's omniscience. So, omniscience can be defined as "the state of having total knowledge". This means that God does not need to learn anything new. There are no gaps in His knowledge: no new thoughts, no new ideas. If there is anything to be known, God already knows it. Past, present, and future! You and I are constantly growing in knowledge, and despite how highly some of us may think of ourselves, we will never know it all. We have to continually search out wisdom and understanding if we want to grow mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. Yahweh has no needs and no reason to search out wisdom as we do. He is as wise as he will ever be and knows all that he will ever know. There is no more knowledge or wisdom in the universe for Him to obtain because he is the source of it all!

Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limits. ~ Psalm 147:5

Having a keen understanding of Yahweh's omniscience is important for believers to fully comprehend His nature and His relationship with creation. For believers, God's omniscience is a great source of assurance and comfort. God's knowledge extends from the most complex problems in the cosmos to the most minute details of creation, just read Matt. 10:29-30. God is sovereign over all things, and He knows the beginning from the end. Because of this intimate connection with our Heavenly Father, believers can know that they are fully loved and known by Him! He is active in creation, and through His omniscience, He is orchestrating His divine plan, guiding and sustaining His people with perfect wisdom.

God's Omnipresence

Finally, let's move on to God's omnipresence. Now this attribute of Yahweh's needs to be handled with some care. This is because of the potential to fall into the heretical error of pantheism. Pantheism is the belief that all that exists in creation is a single, unified, divine substance rather than a distinct personal creator. This tends to lead to the worship of creation itself rather than the creator. Wayne Grudem defines omnipresence like this: "God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places." (Systematic Theology, pg. 206)

Simple logic alone would lead us to the conclusion that, since Yahweh created the cosmos, they couldn't possibly contain Him. Creation cannot control its Creator. See how Moses reminded the people of Yahweh's power over creation in Deut. 10:14.

Look! For to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is within it. ~ LEB

There is nowhere in all of creation where God is not present. Mind you, because God is God, this does not mean a piece of Him is present at one place, and another piece of Him is present at a different place. No, we must remember His other attributes and characteristics. They compound and add to His being, NEVER take away. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and limitless, among other things, so ALL of Him is present everywhere, all at once. To see this in full effect, I want to take us to David's writing in Psalm 139.

Where can I go from Your Spirit, or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, there You are, and if I make my bed in Sheol, look! There you are. If I lift my wings of the dawn, and I alight on the far side of the sea, even your hand would lead me, and your right hand would hold me fast. And if I should say, "Surely the darkness will overcome me, and the light around me will be as night," even the darkness is not too dark for you, and the night shines as the day alike for you. ~ Psalm 139: 7-12, LEB

I don't think I could do any better than that, and I would encourage you to go read all of Psalm 139, because it is truly beautiful.

Conclusion

Now, as we close this chapter on God's Divine Attributes, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what we've studied and talk about a couple of mistakes to avoid when thinking about God's Being and characteristics. Firstly, I'd like to point out that there are certainly additional attributes we could have spent time looking into. And that in no way means that the ones I chose to highlight are more important to God's being than any others. ALL of God's attributes and characteristics are of equal importance to His character and being. In the Scriptures, God is never described as being partially this or partially that. No, He IS love, or He IS light, etc. Secondly, God's attributes are not to be thought of as additions to His "real being." We must remember that God's whole being includes the entirety of all His attributes: He is entirely loving, entirely just, entirely holy, entirely merciful, etc. Because every attribute of God found in Scripture is entirely true of God's being, we can conclude that every attribute also qualifies every other attribute.

I hope coming along on this study with me has helped you gain a greater knowledge of your Heavenly Father and has deepened your relationship with Yahweh God, as it did for me. There is so much more to learn about our creator by opening up the scriptures and exploring how He has revealed Himself to us. If you're looking for an easy place to start your journey, two great places in scripture to see God's character revealed are the Psalms and the Gospel of John. Start there and read with the intention of seeking out God's character, His attributes revealed, and take your time. Enjoy your time with your Heavenly Father!

God Bless, and see ya back here next time when we start a verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of Matthew, where I'll be discussing some interesting Old Testament parallels.

And be on the lookout for a Bold & Unashamed Podcast and YouTube channel coming soon!!!