What Does Christianity Say about Where God Is?
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It is the question that has been asked throughout the ages and what most religions try to answer. Where is God? Sometimes, this question is asked in frustration, grief, or doubt. It is an important question everyone must face when it comes to defining our faith. Is he in one place, many places, near or far? Where is God pivotal to all religions, but where is God according to Christianity?
Does the Bible Say Where God Is?
The Bible doesn’t give us a precise GPS location of where God is, but it does communicate much about who he is and how he operates.
Christianity.com contributor Britt Mooney states that The primary “place” where the Bible places God’s presence is in heaven. Isaiah 66:1 poetically says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (NIV). This imagery emphasizes God’s majesty and transcendence.
In several instances, the Bible states that God was among his people, like in the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 40:34-40), in Solomon’s temple (2 Chronicles 7:1), or even in the mountains as stated in Psalm 68 and Joel 3:17. But these instances are considered the Shekinah Glory of God, not God himself. The passages show God’s visible presence, which appears through a natural occurrence, but do not show his complete form or presence.
In Psalm 139:7-10 it says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” This concept highlights God as omnipresent and that he is everywhere simultaneously.
Even in this mysterious quality of God’s omnipresence, a big change happens when you get to the New Testament. God is not only everywhere, but he is in Jesus, “the visible image of the invisible God . . . For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15, 1:19-20)
As in the Old Testament, God dwelt in the temple for a time. In the New Testament, God came to the earth as the man Jesus and fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. Because of his omnipresence, God’s location wasn’t limited to a single place or form.
But God is not this distant presence but actively and presently working in the lives of his creation. Even more specifically, those who have accepted Christ as their savior can answer that God is within them through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
How Is It Possible for God to Be Everywhere?
Then comes the question, “How can God be everywhere?” We live in a very tangible world. We can understand the concept of God in a physical form—the Shekinah Glory, Jesus, the “Angel of the Lord.” The statement in Genesis 1:27 that we are made in the image of God often causes us to think that God is a physical being, just like we are. But he isn’t.
As Isaiah 55:8-9 says:
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,’ says 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.’”
So, God is an intangible being without physical form.
Don Steward of Blue Letter Bible puts it this way: “God is present everywhere. This is not to say that God’s form is spread out so that parts of Him exist in every location. Indeed, He should not be thought of in terms of space. God is spirit, He has no physical form.” Because of his infinite and eternal nature outside of space and time, created in Genesis 1, God is present in the farthest reaches of our universe, with the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18), and is always with us (Matthew 28:20b).
Does God Being Everywhere Mean that God Is in Everything?
The idea that God is omnipresent, everywhere all at once, can often cause people to think that God isn’t just everywhere but is in everything. But that is not supported by scripture.
Pantheism reports that the universe is God manifested, so all matter (including humans, trees, animals, and insects) has God in it. The lines between creator and creation are blurred; in some cases, pantheists may argue that God is in the cockroach, and by squishing the bug, you are hurting the God of all creation.
Scripture agrees that God is sovereign but portrays how creator and creation fit together differently. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” This verse says that we can see who God is through his creation, not that he is within all of creation.
God’s attention to detail in the delicate balance of nature shows how God knows the needs of all creation and provides for creatures big and small. A quote from one of Billy Graham’s sermons (famously used in the dcTalk song “Mind’s Eye”) helps me conceptualize the idea that God is everywhere but not in everything.
“Can you see God? You haven't seen him? I've never seen the wind. I see the effects of the wind, but I've never seen the wind. There's a mystery to it.”
How Does Knowing Where God Is Encourage Us in Dark Times?
When life gets hard, and the world becomes overwhelming, this idea that God is everywhere can encourage us in the hard and dark times. Because in hard situations in our lives or on the news, we often ask, “Where is God?” Because we can’t always understand how God can allow hurt and suffering in our world. I love a quote by Joni Erikson Tada (in her book The God I Love) that says, “Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.”
In the hurt and hard of our broken world, it can be hard to ‘see’ God working. But scripture is clear that God is:
- “With the brokenhearted.” (Psalm 34:18)
- “A father to the fatherless, defender of widows…” (Psalm 68:5)
- “He works all things together for good.” (Romans 8:28)
- “Faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
This is because Christianity ultimately tells us that the answer to where God is . . . is that God is with us. He is not distant and uncaring, like a kid with ants and a magnifying glass. Instead, he is present and pursues a relationship with you.
He created us to have a relationship with him like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2). Since sin separated us from him, he has been working through creation and history to draw us back into a relationship with him. The desire and care God has for us in making a way to have a relationship with him through Jesus’ death and resurrection can be a comfort to us in hard times.
Though our human minds may never fully understand how big or where God is exactly located, we can know through his actions and the scripture that God is present with us in the dark times and celebrating with us in the good.
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You can find out more about Valerie, her books, and her blog at www.valeriefentress.com.
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