The Unavoidable God

I'd like to start my blogging with this one observation: if you accept the view that God is as nearly every Theist imagines Him to be--that He is the all-powerful Creator of all that was, is, and ever will be--then it is impossible to avoid Him.

This is really the assumption that lies behind other real big theological issues, such as the problem of evil (I'm sure I'll get to this in this blog as well).  If God is all-powerful, He invades every corner of our cosmos (and beyond, too).  As Abraham Kuyper wrote, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”  (To be really picky, Kuyper was too limited in this observation.  It's not just in the domain of human existence, but far, far beyond that as well.)

This Unavoidable God infests our view of everything.

Another issue is that there must be a reason why some people don't believe in Him, or why some people might believe in Him, but choose not to act on that belief.  (I'll get around to this question as well).

To some, this view of God is frightening.  To others, it's not only frightening, but also depressing.  Even irritating.  We can't seem to get away from this God, no matter what we do.

As David wrote some 3,000 years ago:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
 
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
 
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
 
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
 
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
 
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you. (Psalm 137:7-12, ESV)
 

 David at times was frightened by this view of God...though I don't think he was ever depressed by it, and I don't recall anything he said that would indicate his irritation with this state of affairs.  But here, he is comforted (v 10).  He may not understand God's ways perfectly (God's thoughts are a "vast sum", v 17).  He may appeal to God to use this Omnipresence to act against David's enemies (v 19), but in the end, his main focus is to be lead in "the way everlasting" (v 24).

I cannot presume to know all there is about God--nor can any mortal or angel.  But I can know that the God who formed great galaxies of billions of stars, who created great whales and tiny paramecium of incredible complexity and sophistication, cannot be avoided.