Blog Post – 4 – Creation Exists Inside of God

How are an American rock band and an 18^th century hymnwriter linked?  More specifically, what does Rare Earth have to do with Edward Perronet?  How do two songs sung by these two diverse artists come together? What do they have in common? Nothing! Until now, as I combine a couple snippets from 1784 and 1971 to create a lyrical declaration. Join with me and…”celebrate another day of living, I just want to celebrate another day of life on this terrestrial ball” there you have it. “What is a terrestrial ball?” some may ask. It is an archaic way of referring to “the third rock from the sun” or good ol’ planet earth. Assuming you believe God is the creator, let’s do some rethinking. I was raised with the idea that God, from one place, created in another place, outside of Himself.  Therefore, He is a distant observer of His handiwork, creation existing in one place, and Creator elsewhere observing and resting.  So, we have a spiritual God there, and material world here with a gap in between.  Do you see the assumed separation in this view?  Things do not come from nowhere, they have a source.  If the Triune God is all that exists before creation, everything that is, came out of Him, it came out pronounced good, and He alone is good.  Add to all of this, the fact God is ever-present.  Re-think with me.  If God is everywhere, where is creation?  It is not outside of Him. It must be inside of Him.

A “we are here and God is there” mindset taken to its extreme is seen in Deism which believed the creator is distant, impersonal, uninvolved and uninterested in this world.  He created the clock wound it up and sat down at a distance.  Such a concept may have been good enough for Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Leonardo Di Vinci, but it does not measure up to the fullness of the revelation of the New Covenant we live under. Father, Son, and Spirit are intimately involved in everything happening on this terrestrial ball.  The earth is the Lord’s hook, line, and sinker. The Cosmos is God’s by right of creation, by right of redemption, and by right of location.  Paradoxically, God is as distant as infinitely beyond the expansion of creation, and simultaneously, as close as the cells that make up our bodies. I can hear the insecure, fearful thought panicking, “That sounds like Pantheism, be careful”.  In Pantheism, there is no distinction between God and creation.  God is the stuff of creation and the stuff of creation is God.  Let me introduce you to Panentheism, if you have not yet met. In Panentheism, all of creation exists within God, but He exists beyond it.  The cosmos exists within Him but He is immeasurably more than creation.  Do not let the fear of Pantheism send you back toward Deism.  We must stop putting more faith in the devil’s ability to deceive us than our Father’s ability to guide us into all truth by the Spirit. When we walk in such fear of deception we are already deceived. Many teach us to fear a great apostasy to come.  What if the falling away happened 1700 years ago, and we are currently resisting restoration of truth for fear it is deception?  Welcome to the Rethink Tank. Yes, God is in heaven, but He is here, too. You do not have to get his attention by screaming, pleading, performing, or getting it right to be noticed.  In Him, we live, and move, and have our being.  Mankind left God in the Garden to hide, God did not leave them. God is here, now. Let every heartbeat remind you of who you exist in.  Let every breath you take remind you He has not forgotten you.