Is God In All Things?

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God right now and our guide for this has been the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. If you are wanting to view the questions being discussed, go to Newadvent.org. Right now, what we’re talking about tonight is under the topic of omnipresence, which I find interesting and that’s for a later comment. Before we begin tonight’s entry, I have my prayer requests. First, I ask for prayers for my Christlikeness and in this case I think a strong point would be to realize the forgiveness of God and the transforming power he gives, but then to ask to be like Christ is already a realization of that power to a degree. Second, for my financial situation. Third, I ask for prayers for the third related area of my life. For now, let’s go to the text.

To begin with, let’s consider that this is under the topic of omnipresence. I had said yesterday that we would be writing about the existence of God in things. Since I do not have my book with me tonight, I had to go to newadvent.org and lo and behold, I find that this is referred to as omnipresence there. I noted yesterday that omniscience was not based so much on God knowing all things, which he does, but how God knows all things. The same could apply to omnipresence.

God is in all things however according to Aquinas. This does not mean that he is in them however as part of them either essentially or accidentally. Because we as Christians have Christ in us, that does not mean Christ is a part of us. In this case, he is relationally in us and he is the cause of all righteousness that takes place within us.

Readers by now should know that Aquinas stresses much on the being of God and this is the way that God is in all things. There can be no being that God is not the cause of. If something exists, then God is the cause of that which exists. Note that we are referring to the beings themselves and not their actions.

This also does not mean that God is contained by the beings that he is in neither more than Aquinas believes that the soul is contained in the body. Quite the reverse in fact. The body is contained in the soul as the essence of the soul limits the matter that the body is tied to.

What about demons? Aquinas answers this as well. God is in demons as the cause of their being, but he is not the cause of their deformity or their fall, although there is no doubt he allows it. The reason the demons exist is that God allows it. Inasmuch as they are beings, God is in them. While this may sound strange to us, the same applies to us as well, for we are not always acting the way we ought, yet inasmuch as we are what we are meant to be, God is in us and the more he is in us, the more we will become what we are meant to be.

Which brings us to application. God is in us and all that is good in us is that which comes from him. Are we as Christians going to take the time to look at our fellow man and see the good in him? Note that for the medievals, this would also include seeing truth and beauty in that person as well.

We shall continue tomorrow.