The Godhead - God
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God is all, and all is God (Pantheism) |
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Pantheism
(from Greek pan ‘all’ + theos ‘god’) is a belief which
identifies God with the universe (and all that comprises it: laws, motion,
matter, energy, consciousness, life, etc.) or regards the universe as a
manifestation of God. This belief is accepted by the adherents of the New Age
Movement, who view God as an impersonal life force, consciousness or energy,
rather than a Person. Here is what some New Agers have stated. |
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Marilyn
Ferguson wrote in her book The Aquarian
Conspiracy: “In the emergent spiritual tradition God is not the personage
of our Sunday-school mentality but more nearly the dimension described by
William James: The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into
an altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and merely
‘understandable’ world …. We belong to it in a more intimate sense than that
in which we belong to the visible world, for we belong in the most intimate
sense wherever our ideals belong …. I will call the higher part of the
universe by the name of God. God is experienced as flow, wholeness, the
infinite kaleidoscope of life and death, Ultimate Cause, the ground of being,
what Alan Watts called ‘the silence out of which all sound comes’. God is the
consciousness that manifests as lila,
the play of the universe. God is the organizing matrix we can experience but
not tell, that which enlivens matter. In J. D. Salinger’s short story, Teddy, a spiritually precocious
youngster recalls his experience of immanent God while watching his little
sister drink her milk. ‘… All of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was
doing was pouring God into God….’ (Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, Paladin Grafton Books, London 1986, page
420). |
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Benjamin
Crème says: ‘Everything is God. There is nothing else in fact but God.’
(Creme Benjamin, The Reappearance of
the Christ and Masters of Wisdom, Los Angeles: Tara Center, 1980, page
103). |
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Neale
Donald Walsch says: ‘For God is the All, and the Goddess is everything, and
there is nothing else that is’ (Walsch, Neale Donald, Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 2,
Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 1997, page 92) |
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Helen
Schucman says: ‘God is in everything I see’ (Helen Schucman, A Course in Miracles; Vol. 2, Workbook
for Students, Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975. page 45) and
also: ‘God is still everywhere and in everything forever. And we are a part
of Him’ (Ibid., page 92), again: ‘There is no separation of God and His
creation’ (Vol. 1, Text, Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975, page
136) |
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Confutation |
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According
to the Scripture, which is the Word of God, there is one God, the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:6), as it is written in Isaiah: “I
am the First and I am the Last; Besides me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6 –
NKJV) and in the first epistle to the Corinthians: “For us there is one God,
the Father …” (1 Corinthians 8:6 – NKJV); He is also called “the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” (Exodus 3:16 – NKJV). |
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He is a
spiritual being, as it is written: “God is Spirit” (John 4:24 – NKJV); He is
mighty in power and His understanding has no limit, as it is written: “Great
is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5
– NKJV); He knows everything, as it is written: “The Lord is the God of
knowledge” (1 Samuel 2:3 – NKJV – The Italian Bible Riveduta Version, reads “L’Eterno
è un Dio che sa tutto”, that is, “the Eternal is a God who knows everything”);
He is everywhere, as it is written: “If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
if I make my bed in hell [Sheol], behold, you are there” (Psalm 139:8 –
NKJV). He sees, as it is written: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3 - NKJV); He hears, as
it is written: “He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29 - NKJV);
He speaks, as it is written: “When He utters His voice, there is a multitude
of waters in the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:13 – NKJV). He remembers, as it is
written: “He remembers His covenant forever” (Psalm 105:8 – NKJV); He is full
of mercy and gracious, as it is written: “The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8 – NKJV); He is righteous
and thus He rewards those who do what is right in His sight, as it is
written: “He will fulfil the desire of those who fear Him” (Psalm 145:19 –
NKJV), and He punishes those who deserve to be punished for their evil deeds
as it is written: “He repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy
them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his
face” (Deuteronomy |
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This God,
by the Word, created out of nothing all the things that are in heaven and
that are on earth, visible and invisible, as it is written: “By faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3 –
NKJV), and they continue this day according to His ordinances, as it is
written: “Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you” (Psalm
119:91 – NIV). |
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Therefore,
the universe is not God but the work of His hands; He fills it, for God says
through Jeremiah: “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah |
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Jesus
Christ, the Son of God who came down from heaven to reveal God to us, never hinted
at pantheism in all His teachings. Before He came into this world He was with
God in heaven from all eternity, and He knew God, but He never identified God
with the universe or the earth. When He commanded His disciples not to swear,
He said: “Do not swear at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor
by the earth, for it is His footstool” (Matthew |
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Therefore,
to sum up, the universe is not God but the work of God, and through it the
invisible attributes of God, that is, His eternal power and Godhead, are
clearly seen, being understood from what He made, as Paul says: “Since the
creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead”
(Romans 1:20 - NKJV). And in addition to this, God is not an energy nor an
impersonal force but a Person who sees, hears, speaks, remembers, etc. |
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Beware of
pantheism, for it is a lie through which the devil causes many people all
over the world to worship the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and also
some animals and trees, and even some human beings, who are considered God.
We can say that pantheism leads people to worship and serve the creature
rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. In other words, pantheism leads
people to idolatry, and as you know the Scripture says that idolaters will
not inherit the |