Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Right now, we’re going through the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas which can be read at Newadvent.org if you do not own a copy. If you don’t in fact, I’d say you could not really be hurt by ordering one. We’re going through in an attempt to study the doctrine of God. I do ask that you remember me in prayer however. First, for my Christlikeness as I am noticing many things that need to be changed in me. Second, I ask for your prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for prayers for a third related area in my life. For now, let’s get to the question.
Is God omnipresent? After all, that would mean that God is in every place. However, how can an incorporeal being be in a place? Note that word “place.” It describes an area of location. The ancients did not speak of “space.” When they spoke of the world beyond the Earth, they spoke of the heavens. What we call space is an area filled with several places.
The reality is that God is in every place as the cause of the existence of that place. It does not mean however that the place that he is in contains him. Rather, if God was not, then we could say that that place was not. How could it be that a place exists, that is, participates in being, but was totally unconnected from the source of all being?
Also, God is in every place in that if something is in that place, God is the source of that being’s existence. If I am in one place, it keeps me from being in many other places. I cannot be here and be in a separate city on the opposite side of the planet. I can move from place to place which means that I can be contained by place.
So another question we could ask then is how much of God is in every place? Once again, we can be thankful we started with divine simplicity. Since we have that, we know the answer ultimately to the question. The answer is that the question itself is a nonsense question.
Since God is simple, it cannot be the case that part of him is in any place. After all, he has no parts. Thus, the conclusion must be that all of God is in every place that exists. Where I am sitting right now, all of God is here right now. Where you are sitting, rather it be just down the street, in the same city, or on the other side of the world, all of God is present there as well.
The applications of this are enormous. That means that when you pray, you can be sure that God is an ever-present audience to your prayers. It also means that when you are thinking of sinning, God is also an ever-present audience to that. You cannot escape his eye. The old saying has been “Wherever you go, there you are.” Pertinent to us is “Wherever you go, there he is.”
We shall continue tomorrow.
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