Tag: transcendence

Posted in Uncategorized, word of the week

Sunday Word of the Week: Immanence

Posted on by elizabethprata

Previously, the word was Transcendence. God is apart from His creation, different from it. This week the word is Immanent or Immanence,

God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation. (It is not to be confused with imminence, which refers to the timing of Jesus’ return to earth.) A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not. His sovereign control extends everywhere simultaneously. Source GotQuestions

Immanence: God’s presence and activity within the creation and human history. Source: Biblical Doctrine, MacArthur/Mayhue, p 931

God is so majestic! Mysterious! How can He be both apart from His creation, and present within it?! At the same time? It shows who our God is. It’s why I chose these two words one after the other to demonstrate His essential otherness.

One additional notion that is important to emphasize.

Pantheism and deism twist many people’s view of how God relates to His creation. Pantheists believe that everything is God or is a part of God, making Him equal with His creation and unable to act upon it. Deists hold that God is distinct from His creation but deny that He plays an active role in it. Contrary to these and other false views of God, the Bible says that God is both different from His creation and actively upholding it.

We must not stress His immanence at the expense of His transcendence, and vice versa.

That they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, (Acts 17:27).

Note: Modern pantheism is seen in William P. Young’s The Shack, Oprah Winfrey’s promotion of Eckart Tolle, and in Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts as an offshoot of pantheism, panentheism. It is easy to twist both immanence and transcendence, either by direct twisting or omitting one in favor of the other. It is why it is important to learn these terms so we retain a balanced view of God.

 

Posted in theology

Transcendence and Praise!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

God on His throne knows the thoughts and intentions of everyone- that is 8 BILLION People! And He knows this at every moment of every day.

He is also sustaining the universe, managing millions of angels, knitting new humans in the womb, receiving worship, answering prayer, justifying new saints…

Every moment of every day from eternity past to this very second.

Our God is transcendent. Transcendence is the concept of “the aspect of God’s nature that is wholly independent of and beyond the physical universe, emphasizing divine otherness.”

GotQuestions says, The “LORD God Almighty (in Hebrew, El Shaddai) created all things on the earth, beneath the earth and in the heavens above, yet He exists above and independent from them. All things are upheld by His mighty power (Hebrews 1:3), yet He is upheld by Himself alone. The whole universe exists in Him and for Him that He may receive glory, honor and praise.

One way satan likes to chip away at the Transcendence of God is to drag Jesus down to levels equal with humans. He makes people think Jesus is our Butler, answering named and claimed fleshly things. Or by making Him a romantic partner as in a boyfriend, delivering satisfying emotions women seek in a partner. Or simply by making Him seem just like us.

But Yahweh is not a partner. He is transcendent! Jesus said,

And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” (John 8:23)

“He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (John 3:31)

It is worthwhile, I think, to ponder God’s transcendence, one of his incommunicable qualities. He is very ‘other’. And that is a good thing! We love and resect Him for his other-worldiness. Would we admire Him as much if we could ‘figure Him out?’ No. Isaiah 55:9 says

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Love our God, and love Him for who He is, not who we want Him to be. Praise Him for all His goodness and transcendence!

Posted in Uncategorized, word of the week

Word of the Week: Transcendence

Posted on by elizabethprata

transcendence

A theological term referring to the relation of God to creation. God is “other,” “different” from His creation. He is independent and different from His creatures (Isaiah 55:8-9). He transcends His creation. He is beyond it and not limited by it or to it.

Source unknown, found at Bible.org

Transcendence: God’s separateness or otherness from the creation and the human race.

Source Biblical Doctrine, MacArthur & Mayhue Eds

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36).

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? (Job 11:7).

 

word of the week word cloud

Posted in Uncategorized, word of the week

Sunday Word of the Week 2: Transcendence

Posted on by elizabethprata

transcendence

A theological term referring to the relation of God to creation. God is “other,” “different” from His creation. He is independent and different from His creatures (Isaiah 55:8-9). He transcends His creation. He is beyond it and not limited by it or to it.

Source unknown, found at Bible.org

Transcendence: God’s separateness or otherness from the creation and the human race.

Source Biblical Doctrine, MacArthur & Mayhue Eds

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36).

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? (Job 11:7).

 

word of the week word cloud